The NYT’s Cronkite mistakes and the paper’s ‘top 20′ error rate list

The New York Times’ public editor’s column (August 1) is quite extraordinary in the way it details the mistakes in New York Times’ coverage following Walter Cronkite’s death, a point Steven A. Smith makes here in a blog post.

Not least as it gives quite an insight into NYTimes’ newroom process, including reference to this list: ‘the top 20 among reporters and editors most responsible for corrections this year’.

“For all her skills as a critic, [Alessandra] Stanley was the cause of so many corrections in 2005 that she was assigned a single copy editor responsible for checking her facts. Her error rate dropped precipitously and stayed down after the editor was promoted and the arrangement was discontinued. Until the Cronkite errors, she was not even in the top 20 among reporters and editors most responsible for corrections this year. Now, she has jumped to No. 4 and will again get special editing attention.”

The Guardian (one of the two few UK newspapers to have its own ombudsman, or readers’ editor) picks up the corrections here on its MediaMonkey blog:  “If there is a record for the most number of corrections to a single newspaper article, then it may just have changed hands.”

We wonder what Walter Cronkite, renowned for his careful reporting, would have made of all this… Last month in a Q&A with users on WashingtonPost.com, his former chief of staff, Marlene Adler said:

“As a newspaper man and a TV reporter, speed and accuracy were what it was all about. Getting the facts, getting them right and getting the story out first, whenever possible. He didn’t like to be scooped by another network or print reporter. However, he would not release a story, even if it meant being second, if he could not authenticate his sources.”

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NYMag.com: ‘Columbia J-School’s existential crisis’

A provocatively titled article on NYMag.com, looking at Columbia Journalism School’s future. Following the news that the NYTimes’ ‘The Local’ project will be assisted by CUNY students, Erica Orden writes:

“CUNY? Since when does CUNY trump Columbia? Well, since digital journalism became the single ray of hope on an otherwise dark media horizon, and Columbia’s vaunted ability to train students as print reporters began to appear obsolete. And so the school is trying to change. Fast.

Full story at this link…

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Guardian.co.uk: Handling reader responses in a ‘digital age’

In her weekly column, the Guardian readers’ editor, Siobhain Butterworth, takes a look at newspapers’ handling of reader complaints and responses in the age of digital publishing.

She picks out a New York Times case: following the settlement of a libel action brought against it by a Washington lobbyist, the paper published a joint statement, an article from the lobbyist’s lawyers, a note to readers and a report about the settlement.

“What’s interesting and unusual about the Iseman case is that the negotiated resolution of her complaint included space on the paper’s website for her lawyers’ views about the lawsuit,” Butterworth comments.

Full story at this link…

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NYTimes.com: Rupert Murdoch’s fondness for newspapers ‘has become a significant drag’ for News Corp

Rupert Murdoch has his own office at the Wall Street Journal, built within days of buying it, comments the New York Times. He is ‘as much old-fashioned press baron as 21st century multimedia mogul,’ the piece continues. “But, he faces a depressing reality: his lifelong fondness for newspapers has become a significant drag on the fortunes of his company, the News Corporation.”

Full story at this link…

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NYTimes.com: Five major newspapers to share content

“Five major newspapers in New Jersey and New York announced on Wednesday that they would share articles and photographs, adding to a growing movement in an industry that is seeking new ways to cope with shrinking resources,” reports the New York Times.

The agreement is between The Daily News of New York, The Star-Ledger, The Buffalo News, The Record, and The Times Union of Albany.

Full story at this link…

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NYTimes.com: A vision for media survival

Two selections from the NYTimes, and maybe to send in @mediaisthriving’s direction: a ‘resilient strategy for [NY] Times despite toll of a recession,’ and this, ‘a site chronicles ways to adapt in the downturn’: “Two editors who were laid off from Condé Nast Portfolio could rage against the recession, but instead they hitched their wagon to the downturn by starting up a Web site, Recessionwire.com,” NYTimes.com reports.

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NYTimes.com: Exec editor takes NYTimes reader questions

Got a large cup of tea and several biscuits for this one? Good. Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times is answering, impressively comprehensively, NYTimes readers’ questions. First up, the ‘existential question’: just what is the future of print?

Full story at this link…

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NYTimes.com: Iraqi PM pledges plots of land to thousands of journalists

“At a recent meeting with the Iraqi journalists’ union, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a pledge that would have scandalised the Iraqis’ American counterparts: the government would give plots of land to thousands of journalists, for a nominal price or possibly even free,” the New York Times reports. Full story…

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Nielsen Online release: Web traffic to top 10 US newspapers grew 16 per cent last year

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, today reported a 16 per cent year-on-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper Web sites, growing from 34.6 million unique visitors in December 2007 to 40.1 million in December 2008.

NYTimes.com was the number one online newspaper destination in December 2008, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the second and third spots, with 11.4 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectively. Download PDF release

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NYTimes.com – Bono’s first column starts with ‘Gaelic revelry’ in a Dublin pub

The New York Times has announced that U2 lead singer Bono is now writing a column for The New York Times and NYTimes.com. A release said:

“Beginning this Sunday, his columns will appear occasionally on The New York Times Op-Ed page and online at nytimes.com/opinion and will cover a broad range of subjects.  He will also do a podcast of his first column.”

Bono’s first column here. It starts ‘in a crush in a Dublin pub around New Year’s’. Not everyone is a fan – the Pheonix’s Adam Reilly is not too impressed by the ‘Frank Sinatra homage’:

“Lame topic, overly florid writing, a journalistic conflict of interest….” Reilly writes.

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