Newspaper reporting was once a great job

A study puts newspaper reporter near the very bottom of the list of jobs.

Two views on the same problem

Gannett and MLive have differing views on the future of how to save media outlets.

Newspaper April Fool's jokes are always a mistake

Why real newspapers should never play with April Fool's jokes.

Gene Weingarten strikes back for all the "old-timers"

This column from Gene Weingarten pretty well sums up my feelings about what is going on in journalism today.

Another 'great' file photo use

This MLive story was pretty good about a person who walked into a lake while texting. The file photo selected almost made me laugh out loud. I guess David Copperfield is in charge of the photo desk as the new company wants to have the illusion of news photography without actually having it.

(Note: As of today (3/23) the photo has been replaced by a "courtesy photo" of the heroine. It appears that the news organization simply had the heroine send in their own photo. Better, but not great.)

Here's an idea from an old cop reporter: If you missed the event, you could at least take a photo of the hero in the story. Just a little suggestion.

(Thanks to an FFE reader for forwarding me the link).

Some of us knew the "free" Internet thing was a problem from the start

Financial Times has put together an article (thanks to reader Jeff for the link - also a free registration is required to read the whole article) about the future of newspapers. Among other research the article confirms a suspicion that many of the "dinosaurs" like me had from the beginning. That giving away the product for free online was a huge mistake when you were trying to sell the print product.

Here's an excerpt  from the article:

"Even the business magnate Warren Buffett, a long-time investor in the Washington Post – which does not charge online – has backed digital payments. Sitting in front of the printing presses at the Omaha World-Herald, a local paper he bought last year, he told CNBC last month: “You shouldn’t be giving away a product that you’re trying to sell.”

By putting the same content online for free that they were charging for in print, Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman said newspapers had been competing against themselves. Now, he added, “you’re seeing throughout the industry a reaction to that problem and an answer to it”.

At the time (as I have reported several times before) we were brushed off about our concerns, me personally by the genius that helps run AnnArbor.com, who told me that a free presence online was necessary and that we would see its benefit in the long run. Yes, I guess we have all seen the benefit in the long run.

The funny thing, not in a ha-ha way, is that the same people who totally screwed up the business by giving the product away for free are still there and those of us who questioned the free model are now mostly gone. The Peter Principle is alive and well.

MLive group honored for juvenile series

The MLive group was recently honored for a November series on juvenile justice. Although, I'm not a big journalism award guy, this is a good example of what newspapers should do.

File photos, the new rule of the day

My Kalamazoo reader sent me another link to a breaking news story with a really silly file photo choice.

Come on, hire a photographer or two.

A note from an FFE reader

A member of the Kalamazoo public - and a faithful reader of this blog - sent along a recent link to coverage of a Kalamazoo City Commission meeting with this question: "Was the reporter even at the meeting?" Well, I don't know, but there are certainly a lot of unanswered questions, one that a good reporter, dogged by a good editor would have certainly answered before this story would have seen the light of a laptop.

Also notable is that to illustrate the story, the online version anyway, the Gazette used a file photo of the City Commission saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Hope all the same City Commissioners were there.

One of the commenters on the story asked a great question, one that could have been fleshed out by a reporter at the scene.

Another blog chimes in on the Pew Study

If the only thing that newspapers are trying to do is survive as profit making businesses (and who can blame them) then maybe the Hail Mary to "digital first" is the way to go, but in the end journalism and its role as the watchdog is over.

The new model is only aimed at driving people to stop by and view the website, so news is generated that will bring the eyes there. That's understandable, but when "citizen journalists" and bloggers replace good old shoe leather government reporting the game is really over as far as journalism is concerned.

I'm a dinosaur, and I recognize I'm a dinosaur, but when the day-to-day (and expensive) business of watching over government is gone I think the Republic is in peril. Too dramatic, maybe, but the future doesn't look good.

Dirty little secret

And here is that "dirty little secret" explained.

A reader chimes in about changes

This is an interesting letter to the editor about the changes at the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Paul Keep chimes in on sports coverage, readers chime right back

Paul Keep recently wrote a column touting the new sports line up at the MLive Group. Now that Paul doesn't have to worry so much about what cartoons the company buys for the printed product he has moved on to big time sports.

Actually I liked Paul Keep as a boss. He pretty much stayed out of the way and news reporters still were able to cover a beat in his days at the Flint Journal. He's a personable guy too. But as a corporate guy he has learned how to spin.

Sports reporters love covering big time sports and it looks like MLive has a good line up of people to cover the local big teams. But with the tremendous downsizing of the sports departments what you have now is that local high school sports are essentially being 'covered' by the coaches of the various teams who directly submit stories into the website.

For Hiner to say that they are covering local sports more now is to be charitable, a joke. But it does not appear that the readers are laughing. But they are calling them on it.

I am told that a recent print Thursday sports section had an AP feature on the front page, five AP stories inside and a full NASCAR page produced elsewhere. The scoreboard page was all wire as well. And it was basically cloned for all regions.

All this while MLive had two reporters in Florida with the Tigers, the Pistons are improving, the Red Wings are making noise in the NHL active and the NFL combine was just held. Where was all that vaunted big time sports coverage in the print product?

What's the big deal about that? It is still the print customers who are bringing in the lions's share of the money for the company (that's the dirty little secret) and yet they are getting screwed on the coverage while those free Internet lurkers are getting the best the company has to offer.

In the meantime, local readers of both print and online will have to be satisfied with a high school coach's take on what happened in the big game Friday night. I've read some of those accounts and they are pathetic.

In my opinion, and to be honest it's probably not worth a lot in the area of sports, readers can go a lot of places to get big time sports news.  What they can't find elsewhere is extensive coverage of their local high school, minor league and college teams (except for MSU and U-M which are well covered by MLive). The company, again in my humble opinion, is doing exactly the opposite of what it should to attract local readers.

Or maybe they don't care about local readers, just hits? If that's the name of the game, then maybe they are doing the right thing.

A file photo for a recent windstorm?

A friend sent me this link to a story of recent wind damage in Flint. The photo (which is given as a "file photo") appears to be out-of-date because the officer and police car in the picture are dated.

Can't imagine using a file photo for an on-going news event. If someone has more info, please advise.

I learned early in my journalism career that file photos of current events are dangerous. If you want more information on my own experience in file photos, let me know.

In the story comments the reporter chimed in that a "real" photo will be used when one is obtained. So you use an old unrelated storm photo? Sheesh.

Another reporter fired for copying information

At least there is some "aggregation" that is still not allowed.

A couple interesting newspaper links

This chart will give any newspaper junkie some pause.

Someone was kind enough to send me a link to a new Booth venture to shore up some state coverage.

Some more (non-Booth) newspaper buildings for sale

Apparently newspaper buildings are worth a lot when they are no longer producing news.

Here's a better "Journalist" chart

I especially like the "editor" panel.

Funny, but true

Poynter chimes in on recent sports correction in the Flint Journal

An anonymous commenter asked me if I thought MLive.com would aggregate a link to this Poynter story about a recent Flint Journal article. I don't think so, I said.

I do know this, I am well acquainted with Gary Oyster, head of the Flint Metro League, and although I have not spoken to him, I'll bet he had a busy day when the initial story was published.