Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Day 1,095
So where do we go from here?Simply put, we don't know. (As if you couldn't tell that from our retrospectives.)
We've wrestled with what to do with the blog as we approached our deadline. It's our baby, so we'd love to see it continue, but we're different people now than we were when we first started this journey and we'd have to account for that. For sure, Ten95 as you know it will be taking a hiatus - likely brief, but potentially permanent - while we decide where we want to go with this. And when, or if, we decide to restart Ten95, it will likely be in a very different form than you've come to know it.
Know this: the "Ten95 Experience" has been a great one and that's thanks to you. From day one we got great, insightful and encouraging comments regarding our work and our lives. We had a community to vent our feelings to, and people who looked to our experiences as affirmation that they weren't alone in their struggles. We met young journalists who came to us for advice (which was humbling) and readers - seasoned veterans and rookies - who congratulated us on a project with such a unique perspective.
This experience has been one that we can safely say, made our first three years as journalists good ones and shaped our identities in the industry.
And for that, we thank you.
Sincerely,
The Ten95 Crew
The Ten95 Crew
P.S. -- For those of you who may need a Ten95 fix and will be in the Tampa area for the NABJ convention, 1/2 of the crew will be on a panel entitled "Reinvent Yourself, Not the Wheel"on August 4. And the rest of the crew will likely be hanging out in the audience, if you'd like to say hello.
Labels: convention, for journalism's sake, fun, growing pains, heart, inspiration, journalism, love, milestones, musings, NABJ, the industry, unity
continue...Thursday, May 07, 2009
Lamentations on the Future of our Business
A column from the WP's Dana Milbank about the Senate hearing on the future of Newspapers:And later:They came as if to their own funeral.
Reporters from Hearst, USA Today, McClatchy, the Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, the Washington Times and the Boston Globe -- their employers in varying stages of decline or death -- took their places at the press table for a Senate subcommittee hearing yesterday titled "The Future of Journalism."
"I hope I get laid off," one of the reporters could be heard telling a Senate staffer, "so I can get the severance."
But it was (David) Simon, once a Baltimore Sun reporter, who struck the strongest blow for newspapers. Though scolding publishers for their "martyrology" and mismanagement, he spoke of how "aggregating Web sites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth" and added: "The parasite is slowly killing the host."
Go read it.
So, I'm procrastinating on writing a story (that got held anyway) and I stumble across this column in the Boston Globe by Kevin Cullen.
As a journalist, I got pulled in by his lede (even if it is a rehash of what was drilled into us in j-school) because really, don't we all think our jobs are more noble than that of those we cover?
If you ask anybody why they got into this business and they say it was for the money, they are either certifiably insane or no longer in the business.
Few in journalism call it a business. We like to think we forfeited bigger paychecks to pursue something that is essential: speaking truth to power, comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable.
I'm here in New England watching as the Globe struggles with wage cuts and other concessions in an effort to stay afloat. I have to say as a newspaper snob myself, I always thought the Times was better than this. I had this notion that if any paper would understand the value of journalists, it would be the Times. And they would do what it took to make sure they continued supporting great journalism. But as Cullen said, the Globe relationship with the Times wasn't a marriage, it was a business deal. And, really, I think we all knew that if it came down to the Times and anything else, the Times was going to take care of home first. Shoot, I was told by Times employees not to go to a Times regional paper expecting the same treatment as I would in New York. Only The New York Times is The New York Times. Cullen continues:
It would be easier to get worked up if there were shining examples of an enlightened newspaper company figuring all this out. The Times has made lots of mistakes. I wish they didn't build the Taj Mahal on Eighth Avenue. I wish they'd close the International Herald Tribune before they gut the Globe. And, at the very least, the bigshots at the Times should have climbed aboard the Acela and come up here to explain to us, and to you, their threat to close the Globe. When an essential element of your business is demanding transparency of others, it looks pretty shoddy when you expect none from yourself.
But hating The New York Times is like hating the Yankees: It might make you feel better, but it means nothing in the standings.
Labels: dismay, dying newsroom, fear, frustration, industry analysis, media ownership, the industry, union, Washington
continue...Wednesday, April 08, 2009
It's been a long time...
...and I've really only got two (uh, three) words for you:I am scared...
...for real this time.
(Okay, maybe seven words.)
Next month I turn 24. I'll be completely out of school. And, most importantly, I'll be moving to Baltimore, MD for a three month internship with the Associated Press.
From there I'd like to eventually move to New York City...live the rest of my 20s and some of my 30s in the Big Apple.
With the economy in shingles (not to mention the news business), I feel I'm taking a rather large gamble by making such a drastic move. I'm a California-boy, through and through. I've never lived anywhere but here. Adjusting to a new environment won't be a problem for me, but the thought of leaving this all behind both excites and scares me.
I'm thinking the nerves are normal. But my gut tells me that moving out of state with little in savings, no functioning vehicle and no "home base" (yet), and especially right now, is more than a little bit risky.
I happened to be on the bus today talking to a colleague about my concerns. A stranger, who admitted she'd been ear hustling our conversation the entire time, offered this advice*:
(*paraphrased) "Move to New York. If that's your dream, just do it. Things will work themselves out, especially if you have the drive. You don't want to look back on life and wonder what could have been."
Amen, sister.
I'm confident that I'll do well almost anywhere I go. There is, however, a part of me that feels like I'd be letting myself down if I didn't charge full steam ahead with a plan that I've had since my junior year in high school. That plan? Move to NYC, get a journalism job, write and produce my little heart out, go wild (date), and eventually pen a few books.
I'm ready. (I've got to be.) But is that enough?
Labels: growing pains, inspiration, the industry
continue...Monday, April 06, 2009
It’s getting kinda hectic around here.
All around us, we’re seeing the ruins of papers gone. Bye Bye
At my paper, the company is proposing to guild members to take a 2.5 percent pay cut. The Guild put out a newsletter detailing the cut and asking for our feedback. On the back, lists a few options of things we could ask for in exchange for the cut.
As my coworkers looked at the paper, they all but exploded with outrage that they were being asked to make yet another cut (the company has laid off at least 100 guild members in the last 6 months, stopped our 401k match and delayed a contribution for the pension phase out plan already). They indignantly marked “there are no circumstances under which I would accept a pay cut.”
I stared at the paper and twirled my pen in my hand. I didn’t know what option to choose.
Here’s my problem: I have a job. And I’m grateful for it. Especially as I see friends up the road dealing with the prospect of being unemployed very soon. Do I want to take a pay cut? Hell no. Do I want to keep my job? Hell yes.
I was talking to a friend in
Labels: business practices, dismay, dying newsroom, fear, layoffs, media ownership, the industry, union
continue...Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Not to temper Aaron's enthusiasm because I, too, admire the work Bob and others have accomplished, but things here in my newsroom are a little somber.
For weeks, there's been talk of impending layoffs. Every day we'd get messages like this one from the guild regarding the rampant rumors circulating around the newsroom.
The Guild has been informed by the company that there will be no announcement regarding layoffs today. At this point we do not expect to hear anything until Monday or Tuesday.I hated those e-mails. And the constant chatter near the printer about how it would all be handled, and when, if ever we would get any details. Today, we finally got word.
Company wide 100 people are being laid off. I still have my job, but 18 of my colleagues don't. No reporters were laid off, but 1 section editor, a copy editor, and pairs of artists, photo editors, visual technicians, photographers and editorial assistants were. In addition, 5 state staff office assistants, including my two favorite people in the world, D and B, were laid off.
This is the second round of layoffs we've had in the last six months. Everyone keeps speculating that another round - which the execs say is always contingent upon the economy - isn't too far behind.
Labels: heart, layoffs, the industry, writer's guild
continue...Finding inspiration
I'm so tired of hearing my peers talk pessimistically about journalism. And especially when I see journalists, much older than we are, continuing to do big things in our uncertain industry.Inspiration is not hard to find. One of my mentors, Bob Butler, is a laid off journalist. Yes, that's right. He was laid off from a regular staff position at KCBS San Francisco news radio in 2006. But I see Bob as an example of a journalist who keeps it moving — he's not publically wallowing in negativity or depression over the state of the industry.
Not only has he continued contributing for KCBS, he's been a mainstay for the Chauncey Bailey Project. The project was recently written about in the New York Times.
In addition, he's the president of the Bay Area Black Journalist Association and regional director at the national level.
He's keeping busy. And for me, that's inspiring. Raise a glass to people who triumph over adversity and do damn good work in the process.
Bob Butler (right), with Thomas Peele and Mary Fricker.Photo: New York Times
Labels: inspiration, investigative journalism, layoffs, mentorship, the industry
continue...Wednesday, December 17, 2008
J-School students are masochists
"Despite less-than-lucrative job prospects for graduates, journalism is an increasingly popular major at colleges ..." making journalism school students candidates for case studies in masochism.A Times Union article shows why those of us really interested in where our struggling industry are not put off by rapid decline in the paid journalism work force.
Why masochism, you ask?
A 2007 survey of journalism & mass communication graduates compiled the average starting salaries for students who earned degrees, comparing them with other disciplines.
Here's a breakdown:
Computer science graduates: $60,416
Information sciences graduates: $52,418
Finance graduates: $48,547
Business admin. graduates: $45,915
Liberal arts graduates (teachers): $35,419
Journalism and mass communication graduates: $30,000
(Realizing you should have double majored in college: priceless)
Ouch. Stings a little bit.
A hint for those entering college and interested in journalism ... information sciences graduates are in high demand, as news Web sites expand on their utility.
Is Aaron going back to school? Hmmm ...
Labels: journalism school, pay, the industry
continue...MediaNews execs speak out, stating the obvious
"MediaNews Sees Bad Timing on Newspapers, Not Bad Bet..." reads a NY Times headline.Really? Bad timing? Hmmm ... That's an interesting way to put it.
MediaNews has not had a good year. But then again, neither has Tribune, McClatchy, Gannett ... the list goes on ...
And like this country's president, newspaper execs seem to be allowing sobered introspective reflections to slip from their usually mum lips.
Exhibit A:
Many current and former Mercury News executives say that a lack of investment by Knight Ridder and MediaNews have given the paper a fairly ordinary Web site that has been slow to adopt practices that keep readers coming back many times a day, like publishing articles online well before they appear in print, updating them frequently, blogging and posting videos.For real? Really? Hmmm ... so how long have executives held that opinion? Is this a recent epiphany?
... I'll go out on a limb and assume that said executives are preparing to invest in these "ordinary Web sites that have been slow to adopt practices that keeps readers coming back" ... right? Right.
(Sighs.)
Labels: frustration, layoffs, the industry, Web sites
continue...Monday, December 15, 2008
Gov't paying for young reporters' internships?
Here's an interesting concept.A radio segment in last week's On The Media featured New Republic writer Mark Pinsky, who suggested -- in so many words -- that the U.S. government could (should?) pay writers (i.e. journalists) to writer the nation's history.
A short history lesson:
During the roll-out of FDR's New Deal in the 1930s, the Works Projects Administration created the Federal Writer's Project, which employed out-of-work writers to "(compile) local histories, oral histories, ethnographies, children's books and other works."
Project workers famously collected narratives from former slaves in the South and created the American Guide Series. They were paid about $80 a month, which is $1264 today.
Pinksy suggested media workers could push for the Obama administration to resurrect the project as part of his economic stimulus plan. For example, that could mean a government agency could hire journalists right out of school to record current events for the nation's archives...or subsidising student internships for the nation's struggling (failing...dying...imploding) print media industry.
Here's a podcast of the show segment. Listen for yourself. Then leave a comment.
Labels: internships, NPR, the industry, US goverment
continue...Monday, December 01, 2008
CNN joining the wire 'game'
Move over, says CNN executives to the Associated Press.Looks like the largely oligopolic news wire industry will soon have a new purveyor. It's not news that newspapers all over the country are letting go of their AP memberships, as they cut spending (staff). But with CNN pitching to offer a wire service for cheaper than AP, struggling newspapers could bite the bait.
Does this mean there will be more CNN bureaus and jobs created in the near future? Who knows.
Is the honeymoon over for the AP, which recently announced some troubles of its own. Again, who knows. The AP says it services 5,000 broadcast outlets, which is far more than its 1,700 newspaper subscribers. Heck, CNN uses AP wire services.
By the way, AP CEO Tom Curley says: "Breaking news is very, very expensive and if they (CNN) have the resources to spend on it, we welcome them to the game."
So I guess they aren't worried. And it doesn't seem like they'd need to be.
Labels: Associated Press, CNN, the industry, wire services
continue...Interesting take on community journalism
More than a few newspaper journalists were excited by the all-out-scramble to score print editions the day after the election. I'm sad to announce, if you hadn't already figured, that Nov. 5th and 6th did not save newspapers from trouble.But there's hope...
Laidoff journalists, freelancers and community watchdogs are quickly (and, perhaps, have always been) turning to the Web and to non-profit organizations to fund the more costly (and often meaningful) journalistic endeavors. (When your paper won't...or can't.)
Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change, where-by "the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories."
Donors get tax breaks. And if the MSM picks up your work, donors are reimbursed. It's an awesome way to collaborate on on stories.
Now if I only had a story I need funding for...wait...I think I do.
Labels: community journalism, freelance, main stream media, the industry
continue...Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Keep going until you reach the other side
This was about as close to marching orders as we'd get. At least in the near future.My coworkers and I filed slowly into the small conference room in our office, the managing editor of our paper seated on one side of the oval table. For the next hour, she'd tell us what she knew, which wasn't much, but it was something.
All of the bureaus were closing, she said. And the two remote offices would be housed temporarily downtown in our office and another down the hall. The first reporter from South County arrived today.
In essence, the days of hyperlocal coverage writing about the minutae of Town Council and School Committee meetings -- were over, she said. The boss wanted us all to write A1 stories. On our beats, some of the bigger stories would survive, while some of our smaller communities may not even see the light of day in the new paper. We probably won't tell the readers that we're doing away with the zoned editions she said. We should be prepared for the deluge of calls we'll recieve next week.
"We are reinventing the paper and it could be exciting," she told us. "But to get to exciting, we're gonna have to go through a whole lot of hell."
That was one thing we all knew.
In the days since the restructuring began, they've switched beats on some reporters, pulling a municipal reporter onto the blog, and moving the Providence reporter to a national sports beat.
Right. My thoughts exactly.
How we'll cover news in the future is largely unsettled, she said. We may do it by town, but more feasibly, we'll do topical coverage. We should get our dibs in now with beat preferance, so when the New World Order comes, at least our desires have been made known.
I just sent my e-mail to her, telling her that in a perfect world, I'd like to cover either legal affairs, education or news features, in that order.
As I watched my coworkers pepper her with questions, I tried not to be mad. I knew I had no room to be afraid -- everyone else was chalky with fear. I empathized with the M.E., having to go into rooms full of reporters with few, if any, answers. Not a job I'd envy. At least not now.
I tried to analyze what this new world would mean for me, an average reporter. I'd be competing against all of my coworkers for the same amount of space that's in a Monday paper. Ideally, it means I can write what I want, when I want, taking the time to craft stories and delve deeply into subjects. Realistically, it means that I've got to find better stories to tell or find myself squeezed out of the paper.
I sure hope I'll find them by the time we get to the other side.
Labels: fear, for journalism's sake, I-ain't-never-scared, industry analysis, Job survival, layoffs, the industry
continue...Friday, September 26, 2008
Layoff Blues
I just got really scared.I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot outside my job with the car running and Raphael Saadiq playing on the stereo and I feel like I’m about to hyperventilate.
I just left one coworker in my office while she was printing out her resume to potentially shop around at a job fair this weekend. My boss skipped out early. She was laid off yesterday and has been mentally checked out since. The guy in our office who got laid off kept plugging away at stories today, just like always, except that his flow was constantly interrupted with phone calls he’d take in the hallway. My guess is job offers and financial matters.
This is what it feels like to be in a dying industry, I suppose.
At first, I was angry. Angry that all 30 of our cuts had to be borne by the news department. Angry at management for refusing to acknowledge the value we add. That without us, the paper will be nothing but a multi-page advertisement. But they don’t listen to me.
In two weeks, my job will change. They told us that the bureau system as we know it will be gone as of Oct. 10. I turn 25 two days later and return to work that Monday to a newsroom full of uncertainty and trepidation. Happy Birthday to me.
I was talking to a photographer when the first layoffs were announced. He asked me if I’d been shopping my resume around. I had, I told him, but there was a problem. The places I’d been shopping it to were having hiring freezes or worse – the people I’d been cultivating relationships with for years had taken buyouts. He told me I’d be fine. I told him I have no marketable skills. He laughed and tried to reassure me that I did.
I don’t.
I’m a newspaper reporter in a world that increasingly is telling us that they don’t want to read newspapers. I’m a newspaper reporter in a business where management feels it’s more prudent to cut news staff than advertising or production. I’m an average news reporter in an economy where I’m competing for the few available jobs with people much more experienced and way more talented than I.
Thank God that for now, at least, I’m safe. I know that when the next round of layoffs comes, I’ll be in the class that gets cut. And I have no idea where I’d go. What do you do when the industry you fell in love with as a kid doesn’t want you anymore?
I have some management experience, filling in as bureau chief when my boss was out. Maybe I can manage a coffee shop. I call in updates and write breaking news for the blog sometimes. Maybe I can be a telemarketer. I have years of practice taking things that people say and do and rehashing them for a new audience. Maybe I can be a history teacher.
I was talking to one of my old competitors the other day. She left the local paper and went to go work for the local theatre company in the marketing department. She gave me comp tickets to a show the other night. Says she loves her job. Maybe she has the right idea.
What scared me most as I packed up my things and walked to my car, what has me writing this blog on my laptop in my Cavalier, is that it’s not so much that I can’t do anything else. It’s that I don’t want to. But I’m coming to realize increasingly that wanting something doesn’t make it so.
Labels: dismay, dying newsroom, layoffs, the industry
continue...Friday, September 12, 2008
It took a lot not to cry today
It was as quiet as one can expect any newsroom to be.Phones went unanswered and for about an hour today, all of our attention was focused.
Today, we said good luck to some of our colleagues who took the buyout my paper offered last month. As editors read the departing reporters bios and shared anecdotes of their time here, I realized most of them had been here longer than I'd been alive.
There was cake. There were speeches. There were lots and lots of jokes and funny stories. And there were tears. And lots and lots of hugs.
Everyone seemed happy to go. They'll spend their time writing books. Or at Red Sox games. Or just living their lives greatly. They said so. But for us who will show up to work on Monday without them, there's a void.
I went downstairs earlier to say goodbye to a few of my favorite reporters who are taking the buyout. Someone asked what the mood was in the bureaus. My paper announced buyouts in August, and come October, we will have layoffs. No one knows how many, nor the method that will be used to make the cuts. I told them that right now, we weren't uneasy just because there were too many variables to worry about. We'll be concerned when we have more information.
But when I went upstairs, I couldn't help looking at the classified ads that show up on the various listserves I belong to. I wanted to at least know what was out there. Because if I go, it won't be by choice, like these guys.
Labels: buyouts, dying newsroom, layoffs, quitting time, the industry
continue...Saturday, September 06, 2008
Election Reporters share tips, opinions
As I mentioned, I'm blogging live from the conference here.Here's a post I wrote earlier about a panel on election coverage. I thought the Q&A part would be helpful for our readers.
Election Roundtable: Q&A
A few questions and answers from the session....
Is who makes the most money really the best way to choose how you'll spread coverage around?
Sweet: Obama is a hometown guy; some candidates got more coverage than they deserved because they were interesting, etc.
There's not enough decoding of what is actually meant (should be done by reporters). There are not enough voices of color giving analysis or commenting (to give context like this).
The majority of top reporters covering politics at news outlets are white men over 50, says Jodi.
What do you read, watch, listen to, or not?
Felice: Loves Maureen Dowd, the Politico
Lynn: Mike Allen's Playbook at Politico, The Page (an aggregated site that looks at what moves the day), CBS/ABC aggregates, NYT, Wash Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and the links on her blog. She doesn't pay attention to one on one interviews. She needs places giving lots of information synthesized.
Beth: Mike Allen's Playbook, CNN, NYT for general coverage and Slate's XX Factor
Ann: Michele Cotta from the Republic, Rebecca Traister at Salon
Can the Obama campaign sustain the interest and energy?
Yes, they can sustain the energy, but will the young people who have mobilized for him really vote?? That's the question, said Beth.
Lynn Sweet: Term Obama uses is "intensity gap" -- they say they're ahead of McCain. Palin revs up Repubs the way Obama has done for the Dems.
Places like the Politico don't have the same resource base as the old media institutions -- are there going to be journos covering political campaigns in a new media world? What's our strategy to keep the journalism in the campaign?
Beth said they're doing partnerships with papers like St. Paul Pioneer Press and Denver Post. Also launching Politico network -- content and ad revenue sharing program that will launch on Tuesday. It all has to do with marketing and advertising. Can't see advertising is our enemy.
Labels: convention, election, journalism, McCain, Obama, organization, political coverage, primary, seminars/workshops, the industry, tips and tricks
continue...Friday, September 05, 2008
JAWS in the mountains
I'm here.
Are you jealous?
So, this weekend, I'll be blogging live (semi-live) from the Attitash Resort in New Hampshire where I am attending the Journalism and Women's Symposium annual camp.
The whole purpose of the camp -- and it seems the organization -- is to empower women and give us a safe and secure place to learn about our industry and, of course, vent our frustrations.
I found out about this organization from Veronica, who attended the 2006 camp as a scholarship winner. And just for fun, I figured I'd post a pic from her Facebook album about the camp, in case you can't click on the link above. So, the camp is a weekend long and you go to sessions and hang out and just bond. At Veronica's camp, they rode horses. I just thought this picture was cool.
Anyway.
Some of the sessions we'll be talking about this weekend include international stories, a multimedia training session (I'm so amped about that one), reinventing yourself, elections, science/environment/technology, and the disconnect between the middle class and Congress.
Did I mention there are cocktails every night AND there's a talent show tomorrow????? And yoga in the morning.
*Swoon*
I may just have to stay forever.
Well, maybe not.
Dinner is in 20 minutes.
Labels: convention, JAWS, seminars/workshops, the industry
continue...Thursday, August 21, 2008
Say that, say that! Part Duex
(*queues the church organist)Somebody find the person who wrote this comment, get them together with a venture capitalist -- and fast!
(*does a "Halleluah" stomp)
GO!
Labels: dying newsroom, frustration, rebirth, the industry
continue...It's always darkest before dawn
For some reason, I thought I was safe.My paper had gone through buyouts in the years before I came to call it home. Our staff was already so thin, I knew that really, there was no fat to trim.
At Unity, as I went booth to booth hearing tales of recruiters who wanted to hire, but couldn't, I had a little bit of satisfaction in the fact that I had a job and for the moment, my newsroom was remaining in tact.
Not so much anymore.
Midnight was the deadline for employees willing to take the buyout that the company offered days after I left UNITY. I got the call that we'd be trimming some lean while I was at a court reporting conference in Reno.
I stepped out of the session to have my boss read me details on my buyout offer. I don't remember the details, but I think it was something like $4,000 and maybe another $4,000 in medical coverage.
Peanuts, even by industry standards.
So I chalked it up and readied myself for whatever would come. I had good clips and contacts, so I'd milk them dry if I got laid off. Until then, I was going to go back to my job and work like nothing had changed.
But things are changing.
Come Sept. 12 or so, the 22 people who took the buyout across the company (here, Dallas and Riverside, Calif.) will be gone. Among them will be my friends, Scotty and Mark. And I almost think I'm more sad about seeing them go than anything. I would barely make it past the cubicle pod they shared when I went down to visit the newsroom because I'd be wrapped up in conversations with them, laughing and joking and somehow learning at the same time. I'm going to miss that.
The 22 people who took the buyout may not be enough, as the company hoped for 10 more to take the offer. We'll find out in the coming days if we'll resort to layoffs. If so, part-timers will go first, and then jobs will be taken by seniority.
Mark spoke with The Providence Phoenix and offered these thoughts on the buyout. Says The Phoenix: He described how a previous buyout opened fresh paths for him, including the chance to cover the State House, and in terms of younger staffers, he says, "Now it's going to be their opportunity."
My God, I hope he's right.
Labels: buyouts, dismay, dying newsroom, layoffs, the industry, union, writer's guild
continue...Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Getting it First, but getting it wrong
This is where news goes wrong.A number of media outlets are reporting that Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African American woman to represent Ohio in Congress died today.
And these aren't podunk papers or TV stations who may not know better.
I'm talking CNN. Bloomberg. Shoot, I heard it on NPR.
Here's what Associated Content said: The Associated Press reported that she was discovered slumped over the wheel of her car, apparently after having suffered an aneurysm. As late as 12:30 PM ET, Market Watch quotes her office as reporting that Ms. Tubbs Jones was stable and receiving the best of care. Yet it was The Hill that speculated Stephanie Tubbs Jones would be taken off life support this afternoon. At 2:07 PM ET Politico reported that Tubbs Jones was indeed taken off life support and deceased. Nevertheless, MSNBC now suggest that the news is a bit ahead of life, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones is still very much among the living as of 2:41 PM ET.
In our effort to get it first, we're getting to wrong.
I heard the news in my car (said NPR news update I mentioned earlier) and when I got back to my desk, saw a flurry of e-mails from other journalists looking to confirm the news. So I did what any person of my generation would do -- I googled Tubbs Jones.
My first indication reports of her death had been exaggerated: Wikipedia. I didn't click on the link, but I could clearly see that there was not a date of death in the entry. Hmmm. I searched further.
Google News.
I found maybe 3 stories that said she'd died, right next to stories that (rightly) said she had an aneurysm and was in critical condition with limited brain function. To their credit, I did another search and found that many of the news outlets had taken down the report of Tubbs Jones' death in the scant 15 minutes I spent searching. I did still find one article from CBS News that confirmed her death.
So in my final act to confirm, I went to the only source I know I can trust: the local paper. I figured if anybody got it right, or would be willing to correct the error, it would be the paper that Tubbs Jones reads every day herself.
From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, is in critical condition after suffering a burst aneurysm last night, officials said this afternoon.
Officials updated her condition this afternoon after conflicting reports that the congresswoman was dead. Numerous media outlets - including The Plain Dealer on its Web site cleveland.com, CNN and the Associated Press - reported that Tubbs Jones had died.
But that was as of 3:30 p.m.
Send up a few prayers for Tubbs Jones. And let's pray we get the story right next time.
Labels: controversy, journalism, the industry
continue...Thursday, July 03, 2008
Did the Wire Service kill the Newspaper Star?
I have nothing against wire services.You know, Reuters. Associated Press. All those news services.
I respect them immensely. The reporters who work there are some of the best in the business and I've been scooped by them at least once (I know you all have, too). Shoot, some of my best friends work for wire services. I was thisclose to applying for a job at one of them myself.
I'm trying really hard not to hate on them because they don't deserve it. It's just, lately, everywhere I look, I see another collegue leaving a newspaper to go to a wire service. If the trend continues, there may not be much of a newspaper for wire services to put their copy into.
Maybe it's the money (I hear they do pay well). Maybe it's the exposure (you get run in papers across the country and online and broadcast!). Maybe it's the fast pace of the deadlines and the ability to make everything a national story and get out of the hyper-local crack newspapers have been on for the last decade.
But as I see some of the best and brightest move to wire services I can't help but think: who's going to be left to write for the newspaper?
Yes, I know the industry is "dying." Many people greater than me have eulogized my dear industry more times than I care to count. Yes, I know everything is going online and people want news now, now now. I got that. But am I the only one saddened even a bit by this trend?
I was talking to a friend of mine who has applied for a job at the AP. The wire service, she says, is the only way to get her out of the small market she's in and into the NYC metro area. The paper she's at, she says, is not longer challenging and the internal politics are wearing on her.
For her, the wire represents a way out.
Here's what I wish would happen:
I wish that all of the great writers everywhere would go to their local newspaper and write the hell out of a beat. When they do that, I wish they would be paid for what they're worth. I wish that everyone -- old newsroom curmudgeons, jaded journos and everyone in between -- would take ownership of the dead trees that land on their doorstep every morning and commit to making it better. I wish that companies would invest more money into the newsroom so the journalists there could have the money to tell the stories they need to tell, the ones they are more than capable of doing.
This is not to knock the hustle of anyone who goes to a wire service because it's a good fit for them, because it's a great opportunity covering something you love, or just because you work there. That's not what this is about.
I want great papers to go to from Providence, and great reporters to learn from while I'm there. And I just wish I didn't feel that the only way to survive in the newspaper business is to jump ship.
Labels: dying newsroom, frustration, inspiration, the industry
continue...