"He was trying to teach his two young daughters not to be afraid to buy a newspaper in America." – Peter Katz, Vietnam veteran and small business owner in Little Saigon, Orange County, Calif. We forget – some of us – that while we lament the decline of news readership or embrace technology and prepareContinue reading “Intolerance, Not Technology, is Small Newspaper’s Greatest Threat to Survival”
Category Archives: News Media
The State of the News Media: True or False?
So here’s where we stand in the world of journalism: A fake news organization sends a fake reporter to cover a real war A real local television station in Texas hires a fake anchorwoman as part of a reality TV show A real American newspaper is bought by an Australian media magnate, who also ownsContinue reading “The State of the News Media: True or False?”
Media Must Learn to Think Beyond the Medium
Newspaper reporter – those two words, inexorably linked in my consciousness, once formed the basis for my identity. TV reporters stared into cameras, radio reporters spoke into microphones. I communicated with a keyboard, producing stories that lived in words and only in words. Nothing more was expected of me. Nothing more was possible. That’s allContinue reading “Media Must Learn to Think Beyond the Medium”
Beware the Flying Cars of Progress
"If you invest more in the newsroom, do you make more money? The answer is yes. If you lower the amount of money spent in the newsroom, then pretty soon the news product becomes so bad that you begin to lose money." — Esther Thorson, Director of Research, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute It’s beenContinue reading “Beware the Flying Cars of Progress”
Journalism’s Sleeping Giant Wakes Up to the Web – Finally
"As a news organization, we are not Web-savvy. If anything, we are Web-stupid." – excerpt from L.A. Times internal committee report. DRIVING IN LOS ANGELES is as much an exercise in patience as it is a windshield-eye view on a Third World. Every turn brings a dichotomy of culture, every street a display of economicContinue reading “Journalism’s Sleeping Giant Wakes Up to the Web – Finally”
Every Journalist Should Try Blogging — That Goes for PR, Too
Via Leonard Witt, read the following passage from an interview with Howard Owens, the Director of Digital Publishing at Gatehouse Media, owner of more than 400 community newspapers (empahsis added): Every student journalist should spend at least six months totally immersed in blogging. Start a blog and try to draw an audience. Do the thingsContinue reading “Every Journalist Should Try Blogging — That Goes for PR, Too”
Newspapers Need New Role Models
Newspapers – online as well as in print – look too much toward television as their savior. Many papers today embrace technology instead of story, catering to the national short-attention pandemic through videos, flashy graphics and slide shows. Newspapers are in a sprint when they should be running a marathon, a race in which enduranceContinue reading “Newspapers Need New Role Models”
Social Media Tools and Modern Technology Only Tell Part of the Story
The Riverside Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., requires its entry-level reporters to shoot video of their stories in addition to the written versions. The directive is optional for older or more established reporters, but the message is clear: Get with the future or get out. There is some truth and I’m sure even noble purpose toContinue reading “Social Media Tools and Modern Technology Only Tell Part of the Story”
Newspapers’ Civil Wars
Newspapers in Los Angeles, like newspapers in most other large U.S. cities, once measured themselves against their competition. Getting a “scoop” was the journalistic equivalent of a knockout in boxing. And news – at least within the newsroom – was sport as much as anything else. Being first mattered as much as being right, andContinue reading “Newspapers’ Civil Wars”
Plenty of Shame to Go Around in Latest O.J. Simpson Drama
(Note: see update below about Fox’s decision to pull the O.J. program.) In 1994, I wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in which I said O.J. Simpson would not get the death penalty because he was rich – and rich people, especially rich celebrities, don’t get executed. Turns out I was right. Nevertheless,Continue reading “Plenty of Shame to Go Around in Latest O.J. Simpson Drama”
Gary Goldhammer -- Strategic storytelling for brands, organizations and executives 