Michael Rosenberg’s 9 ‘Rules’ of Journalism

The Detroit Free Press‘s Michael Rosenberg writes searingly and hilariously about his nine simple rules of journalism. Among his “rules:”

“Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted; then, after the afflicted become comfortable, afflict them again. This should provide an endless supply of news stories.”

Check it out for a good laugh.

[Via Mallory Colliflower]

AJR: Pessimistic on hyperlocal journalism

American Journalism Review takes a hard look in its June/July issue at whether hyperlocal journalism is a financially sustainable practice. Paul Farhi writes:

Is there a real business in this kind of business? So far–and admittedly it’s still very early –the answer is no. A few of the estimated 500 or so “local-local” news sites claim to show a profit, but the overwhelming majority lose money, according to the first comprehensive survey of the field. The survey, conducted by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism (affiliated with the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, as is AJR), documents a journalism movement that is simultaneously thriving and highly tenuous.

While national sites will have a difficult time pursuing a Backfence-style model, I still believe newspapers should be aggressively catering their content to smaller geographic niches. By categorizing your content into narrowly tailored categories, you’re going to be better serving a greater number of people by making your site’s content more relevant to them. Whether this will translate into big ad dollars is anybody’s guess. But can you afford to ignore catering to your local audience, where many of your advertisers reside?

[Via Romenesko]

Under the hood of Observer.com

New York Observer tag cloud headsThe New York Observer underwent a redesign using Drupal as its content-management system. The project leaders have posted an article on Drupal.org about how they redesigned the site, shoveled over 22,000 old articles and overcame the challenges they faced while doing it.

They also include details on how they built the interesting variation of a tag cloud, which uses illustrations of subjects’ faces instead of text (XML file here).

[Via Steve Yelvington]

Online journalism to-do list

Bryan Murley over at Innovation in College Media has a great checklist of online-related tasks that college publications should be doing. But the list is also a good guide of tasks for those who want to get started in online media.

Every web editor and producer should at least be familiar with how each of these tasks are accomplished. The act of learning how to produce a Soundslide or contribute effectively to a blog will make you that much more useful in producing a great site.

So here’s Bryan’s list:

    • Have you got your news org. online?
    • Do you have a content management system?
    • Have you posted any videos online?
    • Have you included any audio soundbites in a story?
    • Have you done a photo slideshow?
    • Have you put up an audio slideshow (perhaps using Soundslides)?
    • Have you done a map?
    • Have you used weblogs on your site?
    • Have you uploaded source documents (PDFs, excel spreadsheets, etc.) to accompany a big story?
    • Have you used social media (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube) to market your stories?
    • Have you tracked what others are saying about you via Technorati or Google Blogsearch?
    • Have you used the web site to post breaking news online FIRST?
    • Have you moved the online editor out of the back office and into a position of authority?
    • Have you allowed comments on your stories?
    • Have you encouraged writers to write for the Web and include hyperlinks in their stories?
    • Have you tried something experimental?

See more of Bryan’s work at Innovation in College Media.

Ouch. Newspaper circulation dips again

Editor & Publisher reports on big circulation declines at metro papers, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations:

As in the past, the losses are steep while gains are minimal. This is the fifth consecutive reporting period that overall newspaper circulation experienced big drops, despite easing comparisons. For all papers reporting daily circulation, the Newspaper Association of America said that daily circ fell 2.1% while Sunday tumbled 3.1%.”

Specifics on several metro dailies are in the article.

WSJ: McClatchy to abandon Tribune-Gannett deal, join with Yahoo

The McClatchy newspaper group is backing out of an online ad partnership with Tribune and Gannett to join a rival group of companies partnering with Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the WSJ:

“McClatchy’s decision means Tribune and Gannett could be isolated from what appears to be a growing industry coalition aimed at creating an online national ad platform with Yahoo. Led by Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc., the rival group already includes 12 publishers that represent more than 250 newspapers across the country.”

An official announcement could come as early as Monday, according to an LA Times report.

[Via PaidContent]

USAToday site traffic jumps 21% after redesign

Traffic at Gannett’s redesigned USAToday site has spiked by 21%, according to data from Nielsen and this report from Editor & Publisher.

From the article:

USA Today said the number of registrations jumped 380% over February, and that readers are spending more time per visit. Nearly 40,000 user comments were posted in March, the paper said.

Check out the Editors Weblog for more background on the March relaunch, which included an emphasis on the OnDeadline Blog and a community journalism initiative.

Nielsen’s top newspaper Web site ratings

In case any of you missed it, Editor & Publisher recently released Nielsen/NetRatings data on the top newspaper sites. The list is a great snapshot of who is rocking the page views, unique visitors and time spent on the site.

As expected, the New York Times, USAToday, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post all did well on page views. But check out the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which manages to retain its readers for an average of 31 minutes a month (No. 2 under the New York Times). The AJC has 54 million page views to the Times456 million page views.

So what’s Atlanta’s secret? Clean living? Britney Spears photo galleries?

Poynter Eyetrack 2007 study says online readers read deep

poynter.jpgThe non-profit Poynter Institute has just released the preliminary results of its Eyetrack 2007 study, and some of the findings may be surprising to those who think online readers merely speed through news sites.

From the Poynter article, titled ‘The Myth of Short Attention Spans’:

Readers select stories of particular interest and then read them thoroughly.

And there’s a twist: The reading-deep phenomenon is even stronger online than in print.

At a time when readers are assumed to have short attention spans, especially those who read online, this qualifies as news.

That was the predominant behavior of roughly 600 test subjects — 70 percent of whom said they read the news in print or online four times a week. Their eye movements were tracked in 15-minute reading sessions of broadsheet, tabloid and online publications.

The study’s overview found that:

1) The largest percentage of story text read was higher online (77%) than in broadsheet (62%) or tabloid (57%) formats.

2) Print readers are more methodical, while online readers scan more by a margin of about 25%.

3) Sidebars, lists and QandAs boost reader understanding.

4) Online readers are drawn to navigational elements and teasers. Print readers are drawn to large headlines and photos.

5) Documentary-style photos get lots of attention. Staged photos, not so much.

Poynter will be releasing a book in June with more details about the study, including the materials used. They’re also organizing a workshop for August regarding the 2007 Eyetrack study.

Herald-Tribune database tracks bad Florida teachers

 

Broken Trust - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has published ‘Broken Trust,’ a triumph of an investigation in which the staff revealed widespread problems with the way Florida handles complaints alleging abuse by teachers.

Backing up the comprehensive graphic is an enormous database the Herald-Tribune constructed, where one can find information specific to a school, county or even a particular teacher if a complaint has been filed. The database had previously been withheld from the public and was meticulously cleaned up by the newspaper’s staff.

For more about the project, visit this post by Sarasota Herald-Tribune online editor Lucas Grindley.

Here are details straight from the story:

“The analysis — the first of its kind — shows that more than 300 teachers have been punished in recent years for sexual misconduct — molesting students, seducing them, having them pose nude or lavishing them with unwanted attention. Nearly 450 more physically attacked or verbally terrorized their students.”

“More than half of those teachers kept their license to teach. At least 150 teach in a Florida classroom today.”

*****

“It took the Herald-Tribune 14 months and repeated threats of legal action to obtain the database to read more about under Florida’s public records law.”

“Even then, some information turned out to be so inaccurate that the Herald-Tribune decided to create its own version, reviewing 30,000 pages of administrative documents to build a database […]”

The Herald-Tribune staff did a fine job providing various ways to interpret and search the data, including pie charts, bar graphs and a searchable Google Map. Fortunately, none of my former teachers appear to be psychos, at least according to the database. Also, Melissa Worden built a neat graphic showing the winding bureaucracy a complaint must navigate before action is taken. Finally, one can read the stories inside the graphic.

My only –albeit minor– gripe with the package is that the searchable database is relegated to a secondary tab. Having the database front and center would answer the first question I think a reader would have: “Are one of these whackos inside my child’s school?” It would be a shame if someone missed out on the database for not clicking on the tab tucked away up there. And, how nifty would it be to have a cool embeddable little widget for that database?

But let’s put my whining about tabs aside. This is really a fantastic project. Congratulations to the Herald-Tribune for a tremendous achievement.

Another Florida college paper bought by Gannett

Reports emerged today about Gannett purchasing the Central Florida Future, the newspaper of the University of Central Florida, which is the sixth largest university in the nation.

This comes on the heels of Gannett purchasing the Florida State University paper, the FSView and Florida Flambeau.

I can only imagine that Gannett is circling over my alma mater’s paper, the Independent Florida Alligator, after the general manager of the Alligator retired. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I was formerly the metro editor there.)

On the one hand, this is great for the financial stability of the paper and for potentially providing an advertising network and professional contacts for the students. It could mean the survival of a struggling college publication.

On the other, it bodes ill for the independent voice of these publications. For better or worse, Gannett will have to rubber stamp the content of these papers, which means some of the more daring (or inappropriate) content could be quashed.

And do we really need more of a corporate presence on college campuses than what already exists? I remain cautious and skeptical.

[UPDATE 02-15-07]: Bryan Murley also appears to be concerned.

Al’s Morning Multimedia in your inbox

I’ve been a longtime subscriber now to Al’s Morning Meeting, a daily e-mail newsletter (or RSS feed) providing excellent story ideas by Poynter’s Al Tompkins. But aside from his thoroughly researched ideas, Al has recently begun providing a daily dose of multimedia, which makes the list even more worth subscribing to for all us Web heads.

Today, Al highlights a slideshow from the Boston Globe about a Marine who took his own life after being refused a hospital bed for post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a great example of an audio slideshow and of how the audio truly drives these pieces.

Sign up, and see if you enjoy. I know I do!

And for more audio slideshows, Flash graphics and other regular multimedia goodness, check out Mindy McAdams’ Teaching Online Journalism, Angela Grant’s In The Circle, MultimediaShooter and Interactive Narratives (which hasn’t been updated in a while but has a great archive of this sort of stuff).