Category Archives: Journalism

AP news on Google

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“After a couple years of spirited negotiations, Google has signed agreements with the Associated Press and AFP that will reduce the amount of traffic Google News refers to news sites. First, Google News will start hosting full versions of AP stories instead of linking off to them. And second, Google will begin to filter out duplicates of the same AP story. So you won’t see multiple versions of an AP story from various newspapers, listed with the most recent at the top. Google said the end result is less duplication and a better variety of stories.” — Lost Remote

Do radio stations still subscribe to the AP? It’s been years since I was in radio stations, talking with managers about news and where/how they get it. But even back then, a lot of stations really only relied on AP for state news and high school football scores. Our company offers a “poor man’s wire service” that still has an amazing number of subscribers. [Yo, David. Can you give us an update on this?]

Perhaps the bigger question is… how much do listeners rely on their local radio station for news. I would think a lot. But what’s the order of importance? Local…state…national…world? What can/do I get from my local radio station (on air or online)… and what do I get from a Google search (perhaps on my mobile phone)?

These are interesting times.

Kay reviews debate with Ron Livingston (and some other guys)

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ABC NewsKay Henderson was back in the digital Green Room following ABC News’ debate this morning in Des Moines. The “other guys” in the headline were: Actor Ron Livingston; the LA Times’ Mark Barabak; ABC News Political Director David Chalian and ABC News senior political reporter and author of “The Note” Rick Klein.”

Livingston is an Iowa native who gained international stardom with his leading role in the movie “Office Space.”  He was also one of Carrie’s boyfriends in “Sex & the City” plus he did a fine job in “Band of Brothers.”

At no time during the 9 minute video was Kay and Ron in the same frame.

Transparent journalism

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Sausage
If you’re in the news business, you should read this blog post by Radio Iowa (a Learfield network) News Director O. Kay Henderson. It’s a good example of a reporter allowing her readers/listeners to see how the sausage is made.

The post (and the story to which it refers) is about the network’s coverage of remarks made by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday. Kay appropriately headlines her post "Splitting hairs with the Biden camp." (Read the post)

In the old (pre-blog) days, if the subject of a news story thought it inaccurate or unfair, the reporter could respond, "I stand by my story" and that would be the end of it.

In this instance, Kay has used her blog to add context to the story and I think everyone is better off for it. Here’s what we reported. Here’s what people thought about our report. And here’s some background we didn’t include in the story.

This is why I think every news organization should be blogging. We rely on journalists to cover important news. It’s important that we trust them to do it fairly and accurately. Letting us see how they do the job makes it easier.

A new media model?

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“The business of news is changing in ways that reduce traditional newsroom career opportunities, while opening more options for journalists who are willing and able to do more than simply report for someone else’s venue. I suspect we’ll start seeing some major news brands morph into alliances between scaled-back in-house newsrooms and independent, online-focused news and content operations – including more hyper-local and niche news.”

[E-Media Tidbits/Poynteronline]

How important is local news on the radio?

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Mark Ramsey says (Hear 2.0) his research repeatedly shows that once you get beyond traffic and local sports headlines and weather, "local news" per se is one of the things (radio) listeners – even information listeners – want least.   

And that’s fundamentally because information fans tend to be interested in one of two things: What fascinates or entertains them and what impacts them personally. And neither of these things are explicitly "local."

Is this true? Hmm. I’ve lived in Jefferson City for more than 20 years and I don’t know the name of the mayor and have very little interest in what’s going on "locally." Until, of course, something doesn’t work.

I listen to our state news reports on our local affiliate but can’t remember the last time I listened to the "local" newscast. But I’ve always suspected –and hoped– I was the exception.

Life after MSM

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Former Missourinet (one of the news networks operated by the company I work for) anchor/reporter Laura McNamara left us recently to pursue other interests. That’s often a cliche but not in this instance. Laura is young and wants to travel and do about a hundred things and decided to take some time to figure it all out.

In the meantime, she has hooked up with Chuck and Cindy at AgWired. Chuck’s business has grown to the point he can’t keep up and he’s been on the prowl for people who know what to do with a camera and microphone.

I think we’ll see a lot of MSM reporters migrating into New Media gigs like this.

Journalists: How to feed the blog beast

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Amy Gahran (The Right Conversation) offers some useful tips for reporters who are asked or required to blog. The first one is the best one: Don’t use your blog to post stories. Instead, use it to post complementary content around your stories.

Other nuggets from Ms. Gahran:

  • Blog as notepad. If you’re following an issue (maybe a local Superfund site) and you come across an interesting angle or tidbit that is relevant but doesn’t warrant its own story, instead of just jotting yourself a note about it, blog it. If possible, create a category or tag in your blog so interested community members can easily track that issue through your blog. That also makes it easy for you to find that note when you are ready to do a followup story.
  • Distributed reporting. So many meetings, so little time. Let’s say you can’t get to a public meeting about that Superfund site. So you post a blog item to let the community know the meeting’s happening and why you think it might matter. Toss out a couple of questions you’d ask if you were going. Invite your readers to attend the meeting, and maybe pose those questions. Ask them to post their notes — and the answers they received — in the comments. More fodder for you.
  • Community outreach. Pose open questions to your blog audience: What are their top concerns about that Superfund site? Agenda-setting works best when it works both ways.
  • Buzz builder. You’re working on a big investigative feature about that Superfund site. It’ll take you months to pull it together. You can drop hints about how that project is progressing — without giving away the farm or totally blowing it with your competition or sources.
  • Cutting room floor. Did your editor cut a particularly poignant anecdote or pithy observation from your latest story simply for space? Blog it! It’s already written, so why not make it work for you? Make sure you always link to the published story, of course.

How to Write for the Web

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From Cory Bergman’s (Lost Remote) Guide for TV Newsrooms. He offers 11 tips that apply equally well to radio newsrooms. My favorite was the one on writing headlines:

“The trick is writing headlines that not only compel people to click, but also show up in search results. It should be simple, straightforward and active. It should emphasize a twist or compelling fact in a story, such as “buried alive” or “gasping for air.” It should contain search keywords. And it should attribute when necessary.”

Does radio still “own” breaking news?

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We radio guys (back when I was a radio guy) used to pooh-pooh the daily newspaper as “yesterday’s news,” for their inability to cover breaking stories. The folks at The Providence Journal are changing that and they’re using a blog (among other tools, I’m sure) to do it.

They call their news blog “7to7” and it is “…is projo.com’s first reporting channel for breaking news. The news gets to the blog staff in a variety of ways: posting, e-mail, or dictation — whatever works well in a given circumstance. We’ve even set up a dedicated blog phone line and an e-mail address.” Publisher Howard G. Sutton takes this view:

“Decades ago, the newspaper business abdicated the franchise for breaking news to broadcast media. With the strength of projo.com, and a newsroom at least 10 times the size of any local competitor, we are poised to take back the leadership position for breaking news. When people in our market need to find out what it is happening right now, they will turn to projo.com and The Providence Journal. We are taking back the franchise.”

Editor Joel P. Rawson recently reinforced the initiative in his memo to the staff: “It is our goal to be the source for breaking news in Rhode Island, to dominate it, to own it.”

More on how “7to7” works at Poynteronline.

Case in point: I was cruising Digg yesterday and came across a story about a shooting at a mall in Kansas City. Full story with pix, only 18 minutes old. Of course, the local radio guys might have been all over this. But the point is, the radio guys have to work hard to be first with breaking news. It’s no longer theirs by default.

“How did the mainstream press get it so wrong?”

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Bill Moyers'That’s the question Bill Moyers attempts to answer in “Buying the War” (Bill Moyer’s Journal on PBS). A damning indictment of the coverage of the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Tim Russert looked silly and Dan Rather was pathetic. I kept flashing on the old pre-WWII Nazi propaganda footage.

I always thought a good, strong, free press would be our last line of defense against the crooks and thieves we keep electing. (“Gooks in the wire!”)

After watching Buying the War on Tivo, we watched Moyer’s Conversation with Jon Stewart. An insightful look at The Daily Show. What it is and what it is not.

Following that, Moyers did a great segment with Josh Marshall, the political blogger from talkingpointsmemo.com. Blogging for Truth looked at Marshall’s perspective on the role of politics in the recent firings of federal prosecutors.

Watching these back-to-back was interesting. And somewhat reassuring (if you watch them in the right order). You’ll find video and transcripts on the PBS website. Good stuff.