Electric Fishwrap

Back in July I asked for advice on how to make my commute more productive. I didn’t get many posts here, but I asked Wired Journalists and on other message boards where I am a member of the community.

I got a lot of great suggestions. Here are the results in a Wordle cloud.

Many people realize that commutes are boring, and nobody really wants to be there. But as much as the commuter wants to be elsewhere, safety is a factor.

Since my radio reception is less than optimal, others suggested satellite radio, learning a new language, buying an iPod and books on tape. When thinking about this during a commute recently, I realized my commute is not great for learning a new language. The road noise is terrible. If anyone calls me during my commute (don’t worry, I have an ear piece) they can’t hear me very well. It only stands to reason I might miss a key phrase if learning a new language (my language of choice would be Spanish).

There were a number of people who suggested to pay attention to the road (with varying levels of annoyance). Jason Molinet on Wired Journalists suggested carpooling and starting a commuter blog with a dash cam. Not a bad idea, but I don’t know if I have the personality to pull that off.

With few options left, I’ve decided to just think about my upcoming day and write stories in my head. If I come across a particularly good line, I’ll dictate it into my audio recorder. I’ve been practicing this for a week and I feel more focused. Anything helps.

Two weeks ago, Skagit Valley Herald editor in chief Don Nelson sat down with the reporting staff and told us about some upcoming changes in the newsroom. (For the curious, I asked Don permission if I could blog about this and he gave me the green light.)

Reporters were handed a four-page outline of how we can incorporate the Web into our daily reporting.

Here’s a brief outline of the new Web strategy. If you want to read the entire four-page handout (culled to three pages with my excellent paper-folding-and-taping skills), read the PDF here (includes bonus doodles).

• Editors will select which stories have the best potential for multimedia during their weekly editors meeting. At least two stories per week will be assigned for “multi-platform” presentation.
• Editors are responsible for coordinating the production and editing of the multimedia.
• Photographers must “think video” for breaking news.
• Photographers are a “first priority” to train in video production and editing. Editors and interested reporters come after the photogs are trained. Training will come from in-house or online sources.
• Reporters are responsible for audio recording and editing, including narration and interviews with subjects.

Reporters seemed skeptical and skittish because of the layoffs around the country. Even our own newsroom is not immune from this recent trend. Our business reporter position is frozen. Someone mumbled “do more with less,” which earned a funny statement from Don Nelson:

“I hate the phrase ‘More with less.’ It’s a despicable lie,” Don said. “I prefer ‘Different and better.’”

(For the record, I hate “more with less” with a passion, and Don’s comment has to be the most awesome comeback to it that I’ve ever heard. Cynical journalists are free to disagree, but I still love my job.)
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I waste 100 minutes a day and I need your help to be more productive.

Everyone has this problem to some degree. My daily commute is roughly 45-50 minutes one way each day. Granted I am driving so I really can’t do much in my car. I just feel like I’m wasting time every day.

For the record, the reason I have such a long commute is because my husband attends the University of Washington and is studying graduate-level physics. I drive in the opposite direction to get to work. Moving closer to my work is not an option because it makes his commute longer (and he already spends roughly 60 hours a week on his studies and research). If anything we are considering moving closer to Seattle because he would have a better bus ride to school.

So let the suggestions flow. No idea is too silly or difficult for me to consider. Currently I listen to two NPR stations on the way to and from work (my commute straddles two station boundaries). Sometimes I call relatives or friends during my commute. It should be obvious that I should be able to retain my driving ability while doing whatever it is you suggest.

Cross posting to Wired Journalists, so you can comment either here or there. I’ll post a follow up with suggestions sometime next week.

Who thinks a.m. cops calls, minor car accident or fire reports and routine meeting coverage are a waste of time? Who can think of a dozen other things they would rather do with that time?

Journalism is having a rough time with the transition to online content. As a result, Matt King argues that reporters are becoming less specialized and have less time to create quality content. King makes a compelling argument why we should cut back mundane tasks in newsrooms everywhere:

Overwork and unreasonable expectations = stenography. Stenography of some sorts (the sentencing of the principal child molester, the city council vote, etc.) is very important, but we need to stop doing so much of it. It’s important but it’s also about the easiest thing a reporter does, and there are people willing to do it for us for free.

King gives us a three-step program to cut the mundane work out of our day to give us more time to innovate and create (highly condensed, my emphasis):

1. It’s past time to understand 99 percent of car accidents, fires and arrests are the mundane details of life and people really don’t care, despite what page views say. In almost every instance these stories are cupcakes, eaten because they’re there, but wouldn’t be missed if they were not. Ever hear anyone crave a cupcake? This applies especially in non-competitive markets. …

It’s tantamount to flushing 10 hours of reporter time that could be spent talking to sources in cafes, or editing a cool video project, or writing a really strong narrative piece, or, in my case, playing with a spreadsheet.

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