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Public TV, Radio Stations to Increase Local Investigative Coverage

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LA Times Cutting Again, Merging Web/Print: Too Little, Too Late?
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Exactly
Posted by Rob Bignell 7/11/2008 12:42:03 PM

Amy, you've shown exactly why the word "outdated" is the wrong word. If the traditional skills of reporting are still necessary, then what's "outdated"? A new skill set of technical and delivery needs to be added to the set good reporting skills.

When newspapers switched form paste-up to pagination, design skills didn't cease to be important; instead, they became more important. As we transform to multimedia news operations, good reporting skills aren't unimportant but even more vital. Unlike the paste-up to pagination transformation, however, newspapers aren't eliminating the positions that are outmoded (the paste-up guy) but instead getting rid of those staffers who possess core reporting skills (or to continue the analogy, the copy editor).

We can tweet and twit and blog to our hearts' content, but without solid reporting skills, it's just garbage in-garbage out. That will bring our profession to an end just as quickly as maintaining the status quo. So why aren't we investing in training and showing leadership by guiding newsrooms through this necessary changes rather than cutting our most experienced employees?

The answer: Because lower payrolls mean higher profits in the short run. The reality is that while some of the cuts are legitimatley being made for this transformation, most of them are simply being done to maintain profit margins. Too often, however, "outdated" skills is being used as the rationale to make these cuts. Sorry, but as a journalist I've got to question the spin.

Rob, you missed my point...
Posted by Amy Gahran 7/9/2008 1:23:17 PM

I didn't say that knowing how to do interviews and research, check facts, compose an eloquent narrative, cultivate sources, and follow a beat aren't important skills. In fact, I think they're crucial.

My point was that however important those skills are, I don't think that, by themselves, they're sufficient to justify an ongoing paycheck in the news business. Not anymore. Especially since professional journalists are far from the only folks around who possess those skills.

- Amy Gahran

Missing the point
Posted by Rob Bignell 7/8/2008 12:47:00 PM

Amy, I don't disagree with that there are new skills to be mastered, no matter what your experience in the newsroom. I've been an advocate of newsroom change and reorgnization for a long time. But when we sacrifice "knowing how to do interviews and research, check facts, compose an eloquent narrative, cultivate sources, and follow a beat" for the skills of making "your work more findable and relevant through social media, tagging, and other tools", journalism as a profession is in big trouble. If we're "merging" skills, than how how can one set of those skills be "outdated"?

Yes, outdated skills
Posted by Amy Gahran 7/7/2008 11:59:44 PM

Actually, I agree with Alan's word choice here, however hard it is for many people to hear.

If your job's primary focus is on creating packaged "stories" with a conventional "news peg," -- but engaging in transparent exploration and public discussion are low priorities or burdens for you...

If you don't know how to make your work more findable and relevant through social media, tagging, and other tools...

If you don't understand the value of having a "posse" and giving as well as getting online...

If you don't understand how crucial mobile media (especially anything that ties in with SMS messaging) is becoming to all kinds of communities (especially many on the "wrong side" of the digital divide)...

If you think simply knowing how to do interviews and research, check facts, compose an eloquent narrative, cultivate sources, and follow a beat should be enough to keep you in a paycheck indefinitely...

If you don't know how to (or simply don't want to know how to) adapt and thrive within any kind of professional environment besides a traditional news organization...

Then many of your skills are indeed outdated for the media business.

That situation is always fixable -- but only if you're willing to change your mindset and REALLY try something new and unfamiliar, with an open mind.

- Amy Gahran

Hardly "outdated"
Posted by Rob Bignell 7/5/2008 3:33:30 PM

There's no doubt that journalism is undergoing a transformation in the platform that it uses to present news, and because of that in how its newsrooms are organized. But veteran reporters and editors didn't lose their jobs because of "outdated skills" - they lost them to a few owners' desires to meet the bottom line and a misguided view among them and other management that "good journalism" and "dialogue" means a profusion of loudmouthed rantings that are typical of cable "news" shows and Web postings (such as "James Johnson"'s "Entertainment" entry below). There's nothing "outdated" about in-depth, accurate, objective reporting other than it doesn't make a few investors' high profit margins. Our great nation one day will bemoan the loss of the Fifth Estate - unless some brave editors and entrepreneurs step forward.

Where to go?
Posted by Stephen Neary 7/4/2008 6:44:31 PM

Amy Gahran, who has posted to this article, also posted on Poynter a very useful point of view a few weeks back about the challenges of being a journalist in changing times. She basically recommended to quit moaning and wailing and try keeping your eyes and minds open and work on changing and sharpening your skills to deal with a different market. There is a whole world around you that needs your skills.

ENTERTAINMENT
Posted by JAMES JOHNSON 7/4/2008 2:59:40 PM

Amy!

When I went thru graduate school the Federal Government classified journalists as entertainers NOT educators or parsons.

Being a kissing cousin of clowns and lap dancers maybe wont raise your self esteem, but traditional journalists chased stories. The very best journalists told great stories and were rascals. They had fun.

Today's journalists look like pouty 9 year old children refused McFlurry's by mom & dad, and they sermonize.

Forgive me for being blunt, but...
Posted by Amy Gahran 7/4/2008 1:40:38 PM

It seems to me the comments to this post so far mainly give voice to cynicism and resistance to change.

I've just posted my thoughts on where journalists can go from here -- and adapt and thrive -- on the PBS Idealab blog. I've done that because I needed to be more blunt than Poynter would probably be comfortable with.

See: Swimming Lessons for Journalists

A couple of highlights:

"Content creation has become a commodity. That won't change -- so journos need to stop expecting to get paid mainly to write stories. ...Quality writing/storytelling is only a facet of how journos have worked. Ultimately, producing stories or prose is not the core of what we do. Rather, our mission is to help people learn what's happening (or might happen) in their world and how it's relevant, so people can make better (or at least more informed) decisions individually and collectively. This can happen in lots of ways."

"...Today's journalists can -- and probably should -- consciously shift away from jobs that revolve around content creation (producing packaged "stories") and toward providing layers of journalistic insight and context on top of content created by others (including public information). Finding ways to help people sort through info overload is far more valuable than providing more information."

And on the value of "quality professional writing":

" ... [Several people in this Tidbits thread have] protested that the quality writing produced by professional journalists will always be in demand, and there will always be jobs for that skill. That's a nice romantic idea, but honestly I don't think it's a realistic basis for a media career strategy. Ongoing journalism job cuts prove that point."

I also discuss more specifically what kinds of jobs today's journalists can find, what they involve, and where to look for them.

- Amy Gahran

NO MORE PREACHING FROM THE PULPIT
Posted by JAMES JOHNSON 7/4/2008 12:00:10 PM

Ms. Blantron is correct.

Good writing isnt going away. It's a tranferrable skill with many applications...unlike, say, ferriers or cigar rollers or womens' studies majors.

I expect that, once the decks are cleared of mossbacks and crusaders and 3rd rate preachers, entrepreneurs will create platforms for people with writing, investigative, and story telling skills.

That is, news and opinion and features will be informative and entertaining once again. And the old evangelists of journalism will preach to the choir from tents in obscure neighborhoods.

Outdated? Not.
Posted by Becky Blanton 7/4/2008 8:53:20 AM

A good journalist's skills are never outdated. Core skills - investigating, asking questions, skepticism - are all skills used in many arenas. As the web explodes so is the need for good writing - the kind journalists do. The demand for writing, reporting and communication hasn't diminished - the vehicle for it has simply changed.

I predict that the "news" model will evolve into what is already a successful revenue model on the internet - article marketing, affiliates and information and data mining. Google is on the bandwagon and so are hundreds of marketers. The news model is still picking its nose and saying..."duh." In essence - someone has moved journalism's cheese. The rest of the world is getting it and moving on. Journalists are still bitching about the cheese being gone and about what's left being moldy. (Read the book - Who Moved My Cheese).

Where is journalism headed? Simple. Instead of being newsroom managers GOOD EDITORS will become news content managers. Only the best will survive and good writers, researchers and news people will carve out a niche in this new world. If you want an example of a working model - go to About.com. Imagine each "about" editor as a beat reporter. They are paid based on their ability to mine the news and information on their "beat." Some will recruit local "reporters" in larger cities. Some will focus on national aspects. Our "newsrooms" will become international rather than local. Convergence will mean you have a sports beat reporter that encompasses all college sports. Local will mean regional as well as city or town. Advertising revenues will be decided by content demand - and we won't be filling news holes so we can sell ads. Content - and the demand for it will drive ad sales. It's about to flip-flop and already has for those smart enough to spot it.

Quit thinking of the old news model. It's gone. Your audience is not just your town. It's how your town is impacted by "your world."

Outdated? Not.
Posted by Becky Blanton 7/4/2008 8:53:18 AM

Real skills not outdated
Posted by Martha Page 7/3/2008 10:24:51 PM

Newspaper sites have been slow to adapt all the latest interactive tools because it would break them to jump on everything coming at them all at once. In fact, they have been spending money on what all those resources (like YouTube) don't - real journalism. Yes, YouTube works fast, and sometimes it is accurate, and sometimes it even provides important news. but mostly, those times are buried under tons of pre-teen bathroom humor, self-absorbed "me" videos, and dubious event postings.

Journalists do, in fact, have the necessary skills to work in an electronic world. Critical skills like the ability to find things out, know whether what they found is important, and tell it. The popularity of newspaper and television coverage of the election tells us all how important all these skills still are.

The previous comment hit the heart of the issue. How do we pay people? Without paid journalists, are we just left, on the web, with that old truism, "You get what you pay for?"

Reader Response / Talkback
Posted by Peter Martinez 7/3/2008 7:27:41 PM

Reader feedback is a valuable (and relatively easy) way for websites to allow interaction.

LATimes.com is an excellent website, many times video or slideshows accompany their print stories. That is today's standard ... something the print version doesn't allow.

In terms of video content, I hope LAT invests heavily in that area or strengthens their relationship with KTLA to provide more clips/content.

PM

For the record
Posted by William Seberger 7/3/2008 11:59:02 AM

What do you mean by "job" in "new media."

I'm really interested to hear, as there are about as many interpretations as to the meaning of those words as there are colors in the rainbow.

Personally, I take it as 'blogging' without 'salary/pay.'

But I'm sure I'm missing something.

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