DC Bureaus on the rocks

In the last few years, Washington, D.C. bureaus have taken a hit. Tribune newspapers have gone through several rounds of layoffs. Friends of mine who worked at smaller D.C. bureaus saw their staffs getting smaller and smaller...

...and now this.

Cox, which owns the Atlanta Journal-Counsitution and other smaller papers, is getting rid of its Washington Bureau. From what I understand, this was probably in the works for a while. The AJC and the Dayton Daily News will continue to have their own individual bureaus. Hopefully one of them will retain their really nice office two blocks from Union Station.

Washington bureaus are such an important part of American journalism. And they employ some of a paper's best journalists. It's so sad this is happening. Not only because it hurts the quality of local newspapers, but it's tough on people who have families to support.

Also, it's probably becoming more and more difficult to get a PR job in The District.

Resource for political editors

I just wanted to highlight a great site created by the organization I interned for. It's called Politifact, and it evaluates the "truthiness" of what certain candidates say.

This resource is off line for now, but it will start up again in January to fact check the White House and various Washington politicos. You can still access their content indirectly on their site. Check it out. Particularly of note is the "Flip-O-Meter," which evaluates whether candidates changed their minds on certain issues.

Too often, I heard people spewing inaccurate information about the presidential candidates. I usually try to direct them to this great site.

Obama-Rama

The Newseum in Washington, D.C., posts the front of newspapers from all over the world on its Web site. I browsed through some of them, and here's what I decided:

• I love the front page of this paper out of Spain. The picture is so stark and iconic. It sort of reminds me of Obama's Rolling Stone cover, but this image is trying to convey a much different message. Here, Obama is looking up, toward the future. What a beautiful cover.
• The St. Petersburg Times is well known to be a great, high-quality newspaper. They, of course, went with a really nice cover. It's daring and bold.
• This cover, however, I'm not sure how I feel about. I would like to know if this cover is an actually photo or if it is a photo illustration.

What do you think?

A fire escape from ivory towers

I got an interview at a major news organization fairly recently. One of the first questions the recruiter asked after looking at my resume was, "Why are you majoring in journalism? Why didn't you major in something else that interested you?"

That pretty much says it all. Some journalism schools need to figure out a way to stay relevant. There are four ways I think they can do that:

1. Make multimedia a mandatory part of their curricula.
Students are graduating from j-schools across the nation without knowing html. At a time when it seems like the only jobs posted on journalismjobs.com are multimedia producers, that's a sorry statement.

2. Require that students intern somewhere journalistic
Too many students simply don't know that no internships equals no jobs prospects. Providing students with internship opportunities is one of the most important things a journalism school can do. At the same time, schools need to make it easy for students to take off a semester to intern off campus.

3. Nix the electroninc, magazine, news-ed and broadcast journalism specializations
Everyone should be able to write in inverted pyramid, cut audio and post packages online. Period. With all this talk about convergence, why do journalism schools separate their students into stringent tracks right out of the gate?

4. Offer specialties
A j-school student's specialty shouldn't be "magazines" or "broadcast." It should be "health" or "business." Amy Gahran talks about this in the Poynter column E-Media Tidbits. J-schools should force students to choose a practical specialty--a topic that students can report on. Top departments to consider? Business, biology/chemistry, community health and political science. In exchange, journalism schools could offer courses on writing for non-journalism majors.

Law school anyone?

An insane number of people who work for Tribune newspapers in Washington are steps away from losing their jobs. This is really sad.

J-students need not apply

Just curious: Has anyone interviewed with an organization that produces journalism that has specifically said it was hiring? If so, let me know. (You don't have to tell me which one, although I would love it if you would.)

Trib Endorsement

The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama. Some of you younger readers might think something like what one of my friends said when he heard the news: "Wow, shocker." But it actually is. The Trib has never endorsed a Democrat (for president).

Funniest Web post

One thing you may not know about me is that I have an intense love for journalism and media gossip Web sites. An intense love. Gawker.com, one of my favorites, has a wonderful piece advising aspiring journalists. I literally laughed out loud. Check it out.

To run or not to run

Hi-
The assignment for our journalism class was to decide whether or not to run a series of very graphic photos. Here are the questions I need to answer:

Would you run these photos?

Only the first one.

What criteria did you you use to make a decision?

Most of the photos were simply too horrifying to consider.

Under what circumstances would you run the photos?

I probably wouldn't run the photo at a small local paper.

Would your decision be different if the events were local?

I still wouldn't run any of the rest of them.

Does where or how you play the photo have any bearing on your decision?

I think it could have some bearing on my decision in certain instances, but
not in any of these pictures.

With which photo did you struggle the most? Why

I thought about the final picture because the victim's face was obscured,
but I tried to picture it in a respectable newspaper and couldn't do
it.

Love Journalism Blogs

This summer, I discovered a wonderful blog called Regret the Error. It's a site that highlights errors made by magazines and newspapers.  Some of the errors are funny; some are pathetic.  I thought I'd just highlight a number-related mistake:  The Reason, for some reason, used outdated census data for a story in the August/September issue ranking of 35 largest cities in terms of personal freedoms.  Apparently,  Oklahoma City, Tucson, Albuquerque and Fresno should have replaced Miami, Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland.  Ooops.

LA Times Staffers Sue Sam Zell

Current and former Los Angeles Times workers are suing the Tribune Company and various head honchos like owner Sam Zell, for allegedly creating a business plan that wrecked the company. The suit, which is available here, said:

Zell and his accessories threaten to destroy the Tribune Company and its assets, which include some of the nation's oldest and best daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun, along with several other great daily newspapers.

Is Zell just doing what needs to be done? Is malice involved? Or is it just good business?


Go.

Outsourcing Editing

On its face, it may not seem like a terrible idea:

Outsourcing editing might put some of our more under-appreciated newspaper employees out of work, but it may stave of what many predict to be impending doom for newspapers.

But according to an E&P article from nearly three weeks ago, there is nothing that would indicate that this drastic move would do much to make a dent into this major problem. E&P reports:

Steven S. Duke, an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism who works with newspapers as managing director for training at the Readership Institute, isn't so sure the industry has gotten the message, even now. "I haven't seen anything I would call radical, despite all the talk," he asserts. At Institute training sessions, he has noticed a change in demands that tells him newspapers are still not ready for fundamental change: "They used to say, 'Tell me who's doing this, and if it's working to increase readership.' Now what they say is, 'Tell me who's doing this — and making money at it.' Everyone wants promises that risks they take will bring in dollars — and, of course, nobody can do that."

Plus, I have to say there's nothing quite like having that seasoned night editor looking over your copy right in front of you--almost daring you to get something wrong. The intimidation makes the journalists better. It makes the newspaper better.

Blogging as an occupation

This is what my friend said to me after I jokingly listed my occupation as "blogger" on a reference form I filled out on his behalf:

I guess not all of us can be bloggers--oh wait, we can.

Campus papers feel the pinch

Independent student newspapers, those idyllic institutions that offer a somewhat controlled environment where aspiring journalists learn the trade and sharpen their skills, are cutting back on the number of editions they publish. Inside Higher Ed is reporting that The Daily Californian at the University of California at Berkeley and The Daily Orange of Syracuse University will move from five editions each week to printing four. The papers cite dwindling advertising as the cause.

When campus papers with comparatively low costs and a relatively captive audience can't even make it, what does it say about the future of the industry?

SPJ, hey hey

I'm just wrapping up a stint working at The Working Press, the newspaper of the Society of Professional Journalist's annual convention. I covered a variety of different issues and seminars at the event. Check out our publication.

One thing that concerned me when I attended what the attitude of most of the newspaper reporters. Nearly every person I talked to who worked for a paper was overworked, underpaid and afraid they'll lose their jobs. One of the most popular sessions at the convention was about freelancing. I bet people signed up for it because they were looking for ways to supplement their incomes.

The president and CEO of Scripps said in a session that the next five years will be an exciting time in journalism--for some people. While he said that it was the young people in journalism now who would benefit from our field being turned upside down, it is sad that some of the people who would have been great mentors will be pushed into other fields.

The Office: metaphor for American journalism

The state of the newspaper industry remind me an episode of The Office, a prime time “mockumentary” on NBC that follows the lives of office workers toiling away at a failing Scranton, Penn.-based paper supply company.

In the episode, the bumbling and inept head of the office Michael guest lectures at a business school, where he struggles to explain why regional paper companies are still relevant in "an increasingly paperless world."

"Real business is done on paper--OK? Write that down," he says, as the camera pans to the class clicking away, taking notes on their computers.

Too many newspapers act as Michael does. They suffer from such tunnel vision that they can’t seem to accurately assess and react to their abysmal situations. Journalism is rapidly changing, and these newspapers try to cope by resorting to outdated technologies and belief systems.

Vin Crosbie discusses this in his media industry consulting company’s blog: Digital Deliverance. In the first two parts of a three-part series (the third part has yet to be posted), he explores why newspapers are struggling. He said that many strategies associated with buzzwords like multimedia or convergence are just Band-Aids. It isn’t enough to simply throw in-print stories onto outdated and confusing Web sites. Media organizations don’t understand that people don’t access journalism in the same way they did 50 years ago.

Fewer people have an allegiance to a specific publication. In Chicago, there were “Tribune families” or “Sun-Times families.” People identified with their newspapers. Now, more people simply Google the news they want to know about and are directed to a Web site with that information.

In addition, there’s the Drudge Report, which does all the searching for you. Matt Drudge links to news stories from all over the world that he finds to be the most salient. The Drudge Report rarely does its own reporting.

The Internet gives people the opportunity to get information from sites that focus on certain interests. For example, people craving news related to the environment can subscribe to the Web-only publication: Greenwire. People into Washington politics can check out the sites of publications at which I used to work: Congressional Quarterly’s free site or the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau’s blog The Swamp. There are even media gossip sites like Fishbowl LA.

But I would disagree with Crosbie's suggestion that people like Sam Zell are “infatuated” with the business so they are buying media conglomerates to stave off the impending doom of newspapers. If there's one thing I know from listening to Zell speak while I interned at the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau during the 2008 spring semester, it's that he has no interest in maintaining the status quo.

There will always be a place for journalism. But where that place is will change drastically in the next ten years. And those who cling to broadsheets like security blankets will have trouble waking up to the reality of the industry.