Daily Archives: March 28, 2007

Fischer Communications is claiming that it will become the first company to allow citizen journalism video on an established news site.

Anybody care to dispute that? Continue reading →

Tweet

McClatchy and Yahoo! are going to partner on a new content initiative called “Trusted Voices.” It will feature the foreign correspondents of the McClatchy news service using their original reporting and blogs running on the Yahoo! platform.

In an era when foreign news has largely become a commodity, this seems like a great way to extend the value of McClatchy’s investment in foreign coverage and differentiate it from the pack.

Rather than scale back, McClatchy is finding a way to breath new life into its efforts.

Until we actually see the package online, it’s hard to pass judgment on its true value. I’m not a fan of the name, which sounds a bit too “we’re the journalists and we know better.” That’s not a great value proposition in the era of distributed media where truth is often sussed out among a multitude of voices, but there is value in placing all that content under a single platform. Continue reading →

Tweet

Paul Conley has three tips for employers and potential employees — what employers should look for, and what people entering the work force should prepare for.

I especially like point number two: Be self-taught.

On resumes and interviews, for every position I’ve tried to fill over the past three or so years I’ve looked for this attribute consistently. In this day and age, you need to be a person who is always learning and knows how to learn without teachers or guidance. Teachers and guidance are great, and I am happy to mentor people, but if you have to be able to do it on your own, too. Continue reading →

Tweet

Yet one more reason to believe Packaged Goods Media is doomed: We can now pass judgment on bad decisions by our network exec overlords. And the don’t like it.

Eventually, all series will start on the web first. The question is, well they stay on the web or “graduate” to broadcast. I mean, if you have AppleTV, who needs networks anyway? Continue reading →

Tweet

The book Tim Porter co-authored and worked so hard on for months that he didn’t blog (much to my dismay) is out.

News, Improved (check the site — looks like some good companion resources to the book — I’ll have to circle back later and dig in).

Poynter piece here.

As Porter sees it, learning to embrace change — to work as a team, to take risks, to innovate — should be every journalist’s top priority.

“You have to be ready for anything,” he says. “You have to be out there playing and trying [new things]. … You set some goals. You work on them. Some of them are going to work, and some aren’t.”

Like Porter, McLellan concedes uncertainty about what the future will bring.

“Underlying this is that the industry needs a new business model,” McLellan says. “[The industry needs] to figure out how to make enough money to support all the reporting that’s being done. We don’t have a solution to that problem.”

Continue reading →

Tweet

A few bloggers do “Quote of the Day,” and it’s usually something insightful or inspiring.

Maybe somebody should do “Dumb Quote of the Day.” I have a nominee:

After a bit of silence, Lemann then offered this: “This might not be what you want to hear, but I guess getting more content from the community could ‘help’ a newspaper’s bottom line by allowing them to get rid of news staff.”

The “publishers just want free citizen journalism to save money” meme is a little played. It’s uninformed. It doesn’t match reality. It’s a red herring. Kill it already. Continue reading →

Tweet