Power and eagerness should guide reporters’ confidentiality decisions

Power and eagerness should be huge factors in deciding whether and when to grant confidentiality to sources. My blog post yesterday about confidential sources represents my views on dealing with whistleblowers and prominent people such as government and military officials. But those aren’t the only people journalists write about. While my starting point remains on-the-record-spell-your-name-please, [...]

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Reporters need to stop trading silence for access

While news organizations are reassessing our business model, perhaps journalists need to reassess the journalism model. As the media reaction to the Rolling Stone story on Gen. Stanley McChrystal has shown, journalists have become too cozy with the people they are supposed to cover. The prowlers have taught the watchdogs to roll over.

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Newspapers’ paywall announcements are misleading

I’ve written plenty about how foolish newspapers are to think that paywalls are any solution to their problems. I won’t repeat that argument (much) here, but I do want to note how disingenuous the recent announcements of paywalls have been. For much of my career, one of the most consistent complaints of newspaper editors has [...]

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Mobile-first strategy questions and answers

I like it when a training program stimulates questions that continue after the program ended. Wednesday’s Leading a Mobile-First Newsroom webinar for the American Society of News Editors was such a program. So I’ll continue the discussion with a few questions (which came as we were running out of time or in follow-up emails) and [...]

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Ethics outrage at the Washington Post

I have to weigh in on yesterday’s ethics outrage at the Washington Post. No, I’m not talking about Dave Weigel. I don’t have much to say about his “resignation” from the Post. The real ethical outrage was that this respected news organization allowed itself to be used by gutless, unprincipled military officials to smear the [...]

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Check out what the TBD Community Network posted this week

Today’s blog post is not here but on TBD. I looked at this week’s coverage by the TBD Community Network, nearly 40 member blogs and sites, producing more than 300 posts this week.

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Methinks newspapers protest too much about bloggers

I traveled to lots of newspapers and press association conferences in the three years I worked for the American Press Institute. I heard lots of editors, publishers, journalists and newspaper leaders talk about blogging and other aspects of digital journalism and innovation. So I say with great confidence that disdain for bloggers is widespread (though [...]

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4 ways to measure the local mobile advertising opportunity

A common lament about efforts to develop new business models for news is that digital journalism can’t generate the revenue that newspapers used to. Let’s set aside that digital journalism doesn’t have the production and distribution costs of newspapers. Let’s set aside that news media companies have barely started to explore the revenue possibilities of [...]

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Experts’ views on mobile: the opportunity of our lifetime

I’ve written a lot about my views on mobile opportunities for news organizations. Today I want to share some other people’s thoughts on the topic. Google CEO Eric Schmidt declared in February that “mobile first” would be the new mantra of his company (I wrote in November that news organizations should pursue a mobile-first strategy). [...]

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More Twitter discussion about New York Times and tweets

Phil Corbett, the Standards Editor of the New York Times, has acknowledged in his After Deadline blog the attention his criticism of Times staffers’ use of the word tweet has received. (I blogged about it over the weekend, and he linked to my recent post as an example of the negative response.) Interestingly, Corbett doesn’t [...]

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FTC discussing public policy toward journalism today

The Federal Trade Commission meets today to discuss whether and how the federal government should subsidize and otherwise support journalism. I’ve already blogged (critically) about the FTC’s involvement in this issue and about two specific proposals for government subsidies, and I won’t repeat those arguments here. But I do want to call attention to some [...]

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To change an organization, focus on action, not the org chart

In pursuing innovation, organization can distract from action. Changing your org chart makes executives think they are making big changes. Changing what you do shows your staff and your community that you are truly making meaningful change. I am pleased to see that John Paton is leading innovation at Journal Register Co. by changing what [...]

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