Former LA Times interactive technology editor, Eric Ulken, looks at lessons learnt from building the newspaper’s ‘data desk: ‘a cross-functional team of journalists responsible for collecting, analyzing and presenting data online and in print’.
LA Times employee entrance, Dec 21 2007:
via Eric Ulken (former interactive technology editor at the LA Times).
‘Those signs seemed a bit disingenuous even then, given the structure of the deal to take the Tribune Company private. Now they seem, well, ridiculous’, he writes.
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.
Founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, visited The Times for a discussion with editors and members of the paper’s editorial board for a discussion about journalism in the digital age: here’s the transcript. Newmark still reads the print edition of the New York Times over coffee each day.
The LA Times interactive technology editor Eric Ulken is off to trot the globe, after ten years working in newspapers.
“Now I hope to effect change from the outside”, he writes.
“Earlier this month, I left my job as interactive technology editor at the Los Angeles Times to travel and learn and share stories about the great work taking place in online journalism around the world. I love the Times, my work and my colleagues, but I’ve decided it’s time to try something new: reporting.”
Read about his plans on his blog.
Come visit Journalism.co.uk in Brighton, Eric!
A body of current and former LA Times journalists have launched legal action against the paper’s owner Sam Zell.
The group have accused Zell of ‘recklessness in the takeover and management’ of the Times’ parent company Tribune, which Zell bought in December last year.
The not-for-profit news site ProPublica has appointed three more journalists to its ranks, completing its initial round of staffing.
Former LA Times staff writer T. Christian Miller joins the organisation as reporter, while Dan Nguyen, a reporter/web developer for the Sacramento Bee, becomes web producer.
Lisa Schwartz, previously an ABC News staffer and freelance researcher, has been named research director and completes the site’s aim to have 24 full-time reporters and editors.
Interns with the site Benjamin Protess and Sharona Coutts have also be named as fellows, a release from ProPublica said.
The LA Times recorded 127 million page views last month – breaking its previous record of 120 million.
The site attracted 19 million unique users in July, a memo from the paper’s Meredith Artley, executive editor for interactive, said.
While the recent Californian earthquake was a contributing factor to the traffic surge, new SEO techniques and growing popularity on social bookmarking sites have had a significant impact, Artley said.
Blog traffic also grew last month rising to 12 million page views. The most popular blog, in terms of traffic, was Top of the Ticket, which recorded 1,800,770 views, according to the paper’s figures.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has retracted a photo of Iranian missile tests published this morning, stating the image had been ‘apparently digitally altered’ by Iran’s state media, the New York Times’ Lede section reports.
It was too late for the print editions of the LA Times, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune and others, who ran the pic on the front page, and for the BBC, New York Times and Yahoo News websites.
Below – spot the difference between 1) the AFP’s image…
…and 2) an image later obtained by the Associated Press:
According to the Lede’s report, the agency said the fourth missile may have been added to mask a grounded missile that failed to launch during the test.
Analysis of the LA Times’ most-read stories and most-viewed multimedia on its website shows a correlation between platforms and the topic of content.
For example, blogs on the site attract politically interested readers while the news channel is increasingly focused on ‘soft’ and entertainment news.