My same old thoughts about newspaper orgs - April 2014

(My Apr 13, 2014 comment to a ToledoTalk.com thread.)

A commenter said:

"One other thing to add is that newspaper space is also a major issue. Example: One column story that is edited down to six inches in order to fit the newspaper ... So, not only do you have to have a great command of the English language, but you also have to write and edit to space - that includes headlines."

It baffles me that print-to-paper is controlling this in 2014. Even today, some old newspaper orgs are too focused on printing, which, in my opinion, hampers their innovation and hastens their demise. Inches of space do not apply to digital publishing, which should be a first, second, and a third priority.

Excerpts from an Apr 6, 2014 NY Times story :

“We were badly held back not just by the technology, but by the culture of [print] journalism,” Klein said of daily newspapers.

... the conventions of newspaper print journalism in general were reflected in publishing systems, which need first and foremost to meet the needs of printing a daily paper.

... young talent began demanding superior technology as the key to producing superior journalism.

“Most journalists hate their content management systems,” ...

Many all-digital organizations have built their content management systems from the ground up with the Internet in mind.

Jan 2014 NY Times story

Vox is a digitally native business, a technology company that produces media, as opposed to a media company that uses technology.

Obviously, new technology still requires good writers, but maybe the digital-only media startups contain fewer layers of bureaucracy.

If an old newspaper company feels the need to produce a printed product to "serve" the public, then that company should spin-off a small group of writers, editors, designers, and other tech people, and give the group its own company name and budget and maybe its own building location and allow them to operate like a startup, creating new products for producing and sharing journalism. If successful, then eventually, the old wing of the company transitions completely to the new. If it fails, well, at least they tried, and they went down swinging.

A news biz is headed toward irrelevancy when it must consider inches of space for publishing a story. Bloggers in the 1990s did not have that constraint. Why does it exist at a for-profit media org 15 years later?

#media - #startup - #blog_jr