5 big problems with ‘Navigating News Online’ study

You might find some valid research in the Navigating News Online study published Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a project of the Pew Foundation. But the study needed lots of context that an organization committed to excellence in journalism should provide. For instance:

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Pew doesn’t understand news ecosystem well enough to study it

Note: I have added an update, in bold below, since originally posting this. A study of Baltimore news sources was more deeply flawed than I initially realized. I blogged Monday about weaknesses in the How News Happens study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and about the misinterpretation of the report [...]

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Old media find comfort in study of Baltimore media (they didn’t look very close)

I followed this up with a subsequent post on Saturday, Jan. 16. The reaction to How News Happens may tell us more about the news industry than the study itself does. The study of the news ecosystem in Baltimore  was published today by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, and news of [...]

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Publishers optimistic for 2010 (but they missed 2009 by a mile)

Whew! Publishers are expecting the plunge in newspaper advertising revenues to level off next year. Maybe now we can stop the bleeding and not feel so much pressure to change. Or can we? Alan Mutter wrote yesterday of the publishers’ projections in his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, asking, What the heck are publishers thinking? [...]

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Time for journalists to update views on Wikipedia

Journalists pride ourselves in being accurate and on being current with the latest news. So let’s update our inaccurate views of Wikipedia. A 10,000 Words post by Mark S. Luckie today offers lots of good advice for reporters on pleasing their editors, including this piece: Fact-check your stories. Any editor worth their salt will inevitably ask [...]

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Newspapers blow a huge opportunity to use data to provide answers

Journalists love stories. Give us a good anecdote and we know what our lead is going to be. We’re not as comfortable with data. We know a good story is hiding in there somewhere, but most of us don’t know how to find it. And too many of us — reporters and executives alike — [...]

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Video: Social Media Revolution

I used to get regular comments on this blog from people taking me to task for my embrace of social media, particularly Twitter. I haven’t heard from that crowd much lately. Don’t know if that means I’ve won them over. Probably means they’ve given up on reading me. But if anyone reading this blog isn’t [...]

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AP contradiction: Move forward but restore

When I read the Associated Press “Protect, Point, Pay” plan, I think of the Hummer. General Motors thought it was moving forward when it trotted out the massive sport-utility version of a military vehicle. The Hummer represented a lot of smart work by a lot of engineers and GM sold a lot of Hummers. It [...]

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Does AP plan “protect” its members?

The Associated Press is giving me an uneasy feeling again. I want to read the full AP “Plan for Reclaiming Content Online” for myself before I draw firm conclusions. I first read of it at the Eastern Iowa Airport this afternoon on the Nieman Journalism Lab blog entry by Zach Seward. Zach acknowledges that he’s [...]

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Accuracy is more important than ever for journalists

Accuracy has always been right at the top of the list of journalism values and priorities. Except when I saw friends lose their jobs (and sometimes, had to deliver that news myself) or had to write about horrible tragedies, the sickest feelings I have had in this business were when I got my facts wrong. [...]

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Online news sources abound in most communities

Newspapers can be replaced. Don’t get me wrong. I love newspapers. I have spent my adult life (and the later years of my youth) working in the newspaper industry, starting as a carrier. Old newspapers hang on my office walls and fill my cabinets and file drawers. I believe that pretty much any mediocre newspaper is still the [...]

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Seven reasons charging for content won’t work

I hope the newspaper tycoons meeting secretly in Chicago this week come up with a clap-your-hands plan. Because clapping our hands to save the newspaper industry, like we saved Tinkerbell at the movies when we were children, has more chance of succeeding than the paid-content-cartel approach that newspaper executives are dreaming and talking about but [...]

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