The brave little paper that could

Execs at the Christian Science Monitor are heading in a direction that so many other newspapers just can't seem to comprehend yet.

Starting Saturday, this 100-year-old publication will be online only ---- with the exception of a printed "weekly edition for subscribers and a printable three-page daily news digest by e-mail."

The CSM is hoping to eventually drive all of its readership to CSMonitor.com, the publication's Web site.

A lot of news outlets have been dabbling with the idea of online only products, with some newspapers cutting down their publications to several days a week. It seems, however, that most newspapers just can't make that leap. 

I know the argument: "The Web is making any money." Hey, the CSM seems to admit that times are going to be rough at first, but at least they're taking the leap.

If more newspapers - or news outlets in general - followed suit, major advertisers may not have a choice but to pay for ads online. That may, in turn, make web advertising costs more competitive. But we won't know unless we try.

Hence, the CSM gets my brave Little Engine award of the week. 

If plants could Tweet

My last post was depressing. 

This one is just plain disturbing. 

I mean really, using Twitter to tell when to nourish your plants? I mean, isn't a little H20 twice a day and some plant food good enough?

2008-09 Newspaper Homicide Report

Wow, now this is depressing....

Tales from a furloughed reporter

I got this classic tale of a day in the life of furloughed journalists from Kirstin.

Perfect timing considering I also just ended a 5-day furlough that did wonders for my mental sanity, but will ultimately make me crazy all over again once I get my next paycheck. 

Funny thing is, if Dean Singleton and his corporate cronies were hoping that in addition to decreased expenses, these forced furloughs would also provide some much-needed inspiration in their workforce, they may have been on the right track. Going back to work this week, I felt fresh and motivated - which essentially means ready to work 12-hour shifts again without paid overtime. 

And there is talk that these first-quarter furloughs could return in the next three quarters of the fiscal year. I mean that seems to be the trend at Gannett. We employees at Media News stand to lose 8 percent of our salaries if we were furloughed five days each quarter - that's a big chunk, especially if you're a hot shot manager making upwards of $100,000 a year. 

I guess the joke's on us.

And by the way, that bit about the furlough beard ---- one of my editors sorely beaten by the fact that he's pretty much been at half staff for the last month and a half is threatening to bring back a morale booster that tried earlier this year: The Moralestache. Yup, a morale mustache. 

I-News

I love how there are new, innovative strategies being implemented by my own corporate company in my own newspaper division, in the area I work in, and I don't even know about them!

Talk about corporate communication.

Anyway, Reporter G reports that Dean Singleton is rolling out a pilot program at the Los Angeles Daily News that will allow subscribers to pick what stories they want to read "via a stand-alone printer hooked to a phone line or through a web-enabled device." The service is called I-News and is supposed to unfold this summer.

My first beef: As referenced above, is that fact that we employees in Media News Group haven't even heard about this. What, no input? Especially since - if all goes well - this may or may not be implemented at some point in other papers.

My second beef: Great idea --- maybe if it were 20 years ago. I thought the whole idea of coming up with innovative plans to save the newspaper industry dealt with less printing and more targeted, or online endeavors? I mean, if it were me, and I'm already tired of getting a print newspaper everyday, why would I just then print it from home? Would I have to re-stock my own paper? Re-stock my own ink? Pay for those supplies? Might as well find articles I like online, and if I chose to, just print them from my home computer. No need for a little device I likely have to pay for to print a nice, newspaper-ie version. Or give me a Kindle-like device where I can see some sort of digital, PDF version of the newspaper, and just reload the daily paper each day.

My third beef: Reporter G goes on to highlight Media News Group's idea to possibly cut the number of daily editions to three if the LADN I-News service is success. Would have been nice to hear this straight from the horse's mouth.

A fond farewel

No, I'm not saying goodbye to newspapers ... not yet at least. 

I finally got a chance to read the LA Times'  obit on legendary editor Jim Bellows today. It was refreshing and moving to ingest the piece, which recalled fond memories of Bellows' dedication to journalism - like when the KKK, in response to a story he was working on, poured so much liquor down his throat he passed out. 

You rarely see those kinds of characters in newsrooms today, mostly because staffs have shrunk, salaries have decreased and workloads have doubled. My own editor - who worked under Bellows for a while at the Herald Examiner - even admitted that the kind of journalism Bellows encouraged way back when just doesn't work today.

Why?  Long, literary journalism is just too long for today's readers, it doesn't include enough 'keywords' to make your articles more easily searched online and you can't take a week off anymore to work on one story. With about a quarter the number of reporters in the newsroom, we're making more with less. 

But does it really have to be this way? I have to say I was a little irritated when my editor made those comments, just because that's EXACTLY the mentality that has most of us reporters down in the dumps in the first place. There doesn't seem to be the same kind of passion, the same kind of drive and the same kind of push from hard-ass (pardon my French), but motivating editors who really mentor and lead in their newsrooms.

Who says that kind of storytelling can't work today? Maybe not in the print product - but nothing in the print product seems to be working, so why not take those longer pieces online? I've long suggested special projects on the internet that give readers what they want, and allow reporters to do the kind of good journalism we're taught to do. 

But I guess hit-based journalism has really taken over. Gosh, Bellows would be disapointed. 

Run!!!!!!!!

I had a very interesting conversation the other day with a longtime newspaper guru...

This person - who shall remain anonymous - was talking to me about an intern he was thinking of hiring. She was young, bright, in college and very ambitious - essentially, she had a rough, undeveloped but promising nose for news and a look in her eyes that showed she was fired up about civic journalism.

Now, under normal circumstances, this person I know would have hired her in a heartbeat, then brag to his mutual circle of professional friends about what a great intern he's got. 

But we in the newspaper industry - and the news business at that - are certainly not under any normal set of circumstances. Our business is changing, dying ... whatever you want to call it, and of all us in it are struggling to survive.

So what did this anonymous person I know do with this intern? He hesitated. He thought twice about hiring this free, willing- and ready-to-work pseudo-employee out of fear she would get sucked in to the cyclone that is the news business.

"I just wanted to tell her to turn around and run. Run!" he told me, in so many words. "I kept asking her why do you want to get into newspapers? Why?? Don't you know what's happening to us?"

It's a typical reaction among a lot of newspaper editors now. But It's just sad to think that the same people who spent years of their life devoted to journalism, would now be advising the future of the industry to "Run! Run and never look back!"