Tag Archives: editor

Ronkayela.com: This is not the end of your daily newspaper…

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Following the news that the Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy, ‘journalist turned activist’ and former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, Ron Kaye, writes on his blog that this is not the end of your daily newspaper.

“It’s just the beginning of the end for hundreds of newspapers and the collapsing of many others into single regional franchises that can survive as the only source of printed news and advertising on a daily basis.”

Kaye, who was fired by the Daily News seven months ago, says ‘Let the conversation begin.’

US-based Tribune files for bankruptcy but continues operating

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More on this tomorrow, but just to link today’s (Monday) news that the Tribune Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as reported here by the group’s own newspaper the LA Times, as well as numerous other news sources. The group also owns KTLA Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun as well as nine other newspapers and 22 other television and radio stations across the country. 

The group’s chief executive Sam Zell said in a statement (via CNNmoney.co.uk):

“Factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm – a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt.” 

“We believe that this restructuring will bring the level of our debt in line with current economic realities, and will take pressure off our operations.” 

The groups says it is able to sustain operations while it restructures. Here, Editor & Publisher looks at concerns inside the newsroom.

Excerpts from Sam Zell’s memo can be read here.

MediaGuardian: The media’s role in financial crisis

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Peter Wilby reflects on the media’s effect on financial crisis. He writes that something like what’s happening now did happen 30 years ago, when NatWest was in ‘dire straits’, but it went largely unreported. A drama ‘behind closed doors’, he says, attributing his account to former Financial Times editor Richard Lambert.

NCTJ Journalism skills conference: Is shorthand ‘vital’ as a journalism skill?

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The full results of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) convergence skills survey are in under the fairly predictable headline of ‘you need old and new skills’ to survive in this journalism age.

But the study, which questioned 217 employers and 50 NCTJ-accredited institutions, did flag up some interesting skills gaps – cited by employers – between new recruits and employer expectations:

Here’s Paul Bradshaw’s video of the presentation of the results from the Society of Editor’s conference last month:


A combination of new and ‘traditional’ skills (finding own stories, use of language, writing, media law, shorthand, newsgathering, video, SEO) were all areas of particular concern for the 71 per cent of those employers surveyed who reported skills gaps among new entrants.

But it was the gaps in traditional skills that employers and educators saw as most important. As the NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher says in his intro to the results, a worrying gap in recruits’ ability to write shorthand was reported, a skill which is ‘as vital as ever’.

The above claim has already been causing some debate amongst twittering journos:

Is shorthand a ‘vital skill’ or just a handy one? It was part of my training and I find it useful for quick transcriptions, but there are growing calls for reporters to tape everything – something which has the added benefit of allowing you to post audio clips.

Excerpts from interviews conducted as part of the skills survey raise sound ideas on the whole – but are they really referring to shorthand when they mention important traditional skills? For example:

“It is a difficult task, but teaching the traditional skills must be maintained while cultivating multimedia talent as well – and both to a high standard. The traditional should not be  downgraded to accommodate the ‘sexy’. The basics are needed for whatever medium is being used.”

(For me there’s still a slight hangover from the print (solid, traditional, credible) vs online (sexy, irreverent and all front) in the above…)

Educators reading this – what emphasis do you place on different skills and why?

New recruits and journos – in what proportion are you using the new and traditional skills you’ve learnt?

Mumbai and Twitter: how the BBC dealt with Tweets and accuracy

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Some interesting lessons learnt by the BBC News website from last week’s coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, according to a blog post by editor Steve Herrmann.

The site used Tweets which seemed to be reports from Mumbai as part of its live updates page, which also featured news updates and excerpts from correspondents and blogs.

This page has a specific role, explains Herrmann in the post, to provide ‘a running account, where we are making quick judgments on and selecting what look like the most relevant and informative bits of information as they come in’, prior to making more considered reports for the main news items and bulletins.

“These accounts move more quickly and include a wider array of perspectives and sources, not all verified by us, but all attributed, so that in effect we leave some of the weighing up of each bit of information and context to you.”

Referring to one particular tweet about the Indian government attempting to clamp down on Twitter, which many tried to verify at the time, Herrmann asks whether this – and other potentially unverified items – should have been included in the coverage.

Not if it’s not attributed and not if it’s going to appear in a main news item, he says:

“In one sense, the very fact that this report was circulating online was one small detail of the story that day. But should we have tried to check it and then reported back later, if only to say that we hadn’t found any confirmation? I think in this case we should have, and we’ve learned a lesson. The truth is, we’re still finding out how best to process and relay such information in a fast-moving account like this.”

There is an argument for including such reports, whether they come in by Twitter, email or photograph, as means of passing on the information to readers as quickly as possible ‘on the basis that many people will want to know what we know and what we are still finding out, as soon as we can tell them’.

It is clear that with every major news event the site is experimenting and developing its newsgathering and reporting strategy, showing just how flexible and online news organisation needs to be to serve its users at times of breaking news.

Editor&Publisher: Politico content-sharing network attracts 67 newspapers

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Politico’s content-sharing network, launched only three months ago, has signed up more than 100 partners, including 67 newspapers.

The agreement will make Politico’s online political news content available in return for ad placement on partners’ sites.

Roger Alton, blogger: More female-friendly content, closer integration of multimedia

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Roger Alton, editor of the Independent since July this year, has posted his first blog entry on the paper’s site (hat tip to Adrian Monck). In it he asks readers what they want the paper to report on – whether it’s ‘Strictly or the Large Hadron Collider or Britain on the Booze, or Damian Green or all of the above’.

In his post, Alton adds that the paper’s multi-platform operations should be closely related before moving on to the BBC and Sunday night programming:

“What about Sunday night’s telly? Personally, I can’t stand the BBC – I think it is bloated, bureaucratic, ripe for partial privatisation, and astonishingly inept at handling its own problems. But crikey, it does show fantastic TV.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on Alton’s blogging progress, but in the mean time, what do you want him to write about? Cover prices, front page designs or even *Saturday* night telly…

BBC in mobile news push

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The BBC is running a new campaign advertising its mobile news website. Videos of the ads can be viewed on the BBC The Editors blog, where editor of BBC News website, Steve Herrmann, explains there’s research being done into BBC News users’ news consumption habits.

According to the study, BBC News consumers have a ‘news ecosystem’ constructed from a range of different media. Mobile is a growing part of this ecosystem and is currently predominantly used to access news headlines, major news stories and areas of specific interest.

The BBC’s mobile services overall currently have 3.2 million users a month, according to M:Metrics – a 26 per cent rise between September 2007 and September 2008.

Editor&Publisher: Carole Feldman to lead convergence at AP’s Washington bureau

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The assistant chief of bureau for the AP in Washington will be responsible for ‘the convergence of text, broadcast and online formats’ in the bureau.

Prior to her current post, which she has held for five years, Feldman was the AP’s Washington news editor.