Comments on: When the going gets tough, newspapers clam up

By: Bill Densmore

Bill Densmore — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:40:32 +0000

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute is kicking off The Information Valet Project with a convening Dec. 3-5 in Columbia, Mo. It’s just the sort of blow-up-the-industry solution that’s need — a complete change of perspective away from a focus on a product — the newspaper — and to a new relationship with users. For more information see: http://www.ivpblueprint.org

By: Robert MacMillan

Robert MacMillan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:24:24 +0000

Steve, those are some interesting ideas that you present here. They loosely fall under Jeff Jarvis’s idea that you do what you do best and link to the rest.

That seems fair enough to me, but I’ll submit a humble plea and then a thought:

- Please let’s find another way to say “monetize,” one that is already in standard English. That smacks of PR talk.

- You suggest connecting visitors-cum-citizen-journalists with informed sources. I’m all for exploring new ways of practicing journalism, but if I shared my best sources with folks off the street, let alone my colleagues, I doubt they’d stay my sources for very long. My sources are like Charlton Heston’s guns — cold, dead hands.

Two other thoughts:

- It’s exceedingly difficult to read, rate and fact check the crowd. Copy editing ranks are on the wane, even for staff writers. A tough request. “Offshoring” that isn’t always the answer either. Often, copy-editing is best done by folks familiar with the vernacular in which the news is published. There’s the germ of a solution here, but we need to grow it into a tree.

- What are the sponsorship deals you refer to? Sounds interesting.

By: beijing classifieds

beijing classifieds — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:41:08 +0000

The features of news are timely, ture and accuracy. when editors write something, they should be objective without combining their own feeling and affection. So if they rely on publisher or excutives too much, they may not write good and objective articles and this will blind our readers’ eyes

By: Steve Ocean

Steve Ocean — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:31:14 +0000

Perhaps newspapers CEO’s will finally come to the realization that they have lost their stranglehold on the public’s attention forever. Like it or not, they have to compete for eyeballs with every lowly blogger.

So…If you can’t lick ‘em, join em! Take the lead in encouraging citizen journalism and add value by contributing editorial resources, provide access to multiple distribution channels and act as brokers of sponsorship deals. Help independent journalists make a living by monetizing their audiences.

Blow past cable news and go live, 24/7 with 10,000 stringers covering every story from every angle. Make it possible for every voice to be heard. Review, rate, edit, and fact check reportage from all sources constantly.

Engage with people. Most papers have active web sites; welcome each visitor with a live host, talk to them about the news, connect them to informed sources, and help people interesting in related stories connect to each other in real time.

The old business models have to die, but newspapers don’t.