Should we get rid of the White House press corps?

Ana Marie Cox in today's Washington Post suggests we get rid of the White House press corps. A problem faced by those people, of course, is that their jobs depend on access, and access depends upon not offending a White House media czar. That leads to weak coverage.

A good friend years ago suggested that newspaper credibility was hurt by unsigned editorials, and suggested getting rid of the editorial page. I think it's a good time to look at both suggestions.

JS touted for Pulitzer

Editor & Publisher today touts the Journal Sentinel's series "Chemical Fallout" for a possible Pulitzer Prize, which is scheduled to be announced today. It's a good possibility, and a richly deserving honor for a piece of excellent journalism.

Wisdom from comic strips

Today's imaginative Pearls Before Swine comic by Stephan Pastis takes on newspaper business models with a lot more intelligence than most media companies. It's worth looking at.

Living in interesting times

Journalism schools are rapidly revamping their curricula to address the reality of modern journalism. As the old Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times." Today we're living in interesting times.

Old media looking to build payment system for their sites

An impressive group of media executives are forming a new company to build a system for online payments. It's yet another sign that the old media are moving beyond the panic stage and beginning to look at ways to make the new media work for them. A New York Times story described the new system this way: "As the company envisions the system, a nonpaying reader on a magazine or newspaper site would reach a certain point and see a page asking for payment — the Journalism Online system, operating within the publication’s Web site. But a reader who wanted a subscription to multiple sites would go directly to the new company’s own site." The system would be built around credit cards. My prediction is that the era of free content is rapidly coming to a halt.

Time CEO believes magazines will be "strong" in the future

Time CEO Ann S. Moore expressed her belief that magazines will recover from the current problems and prosper in the future. "I'm absolutely sure that the Time Inc. brands I'm working on will be strong long after we're gone," she told an industry group. Among the things she said was something that directly applies to college journalism students: "The need for trusted editing skills is not going to go away." There was a lot of interesting observations in her talk, among them the toll on productivity of email. I'd add Twitter, Facebook and other social media to that. The industry used to talk about time pressures. Now everyone seems to want to suggest moving into new platforms. Some of these new social media, I suggest, will be the 8 tracks and digital audio recordings of the future.

Blogger criticizes police; police seize computers

For those who think the world will be just fine without big media companies, I point to this story about a blogger in Phoenix whose house was raided and computers and other files seized by Phoenix police. He runs a blog criticizing the police. Without forming judgements on the merits of either his blog or the police actions, I note that the blogger, while receiving some publicity (especially on the Internet; little in established media), is carrying on his fight by himself at quite some legal costs. It offers a chilling prospect for any individual who faces the prospect of running afoul of local authorities. I remember when I once was served papers threatening a million-dollar lawsuit, I felt very confident because I had a corporation and its attorneys backing me me. I'm not sure I'd have written the story if I didn't.

Another possible future

Hyperlocal sites hope to fill gap if newspapers die. They aggregate news, blogs, government information, etc. at an extreme local level. Seems like all it would need is someone to cull through all the chaff to find the grains of wheat. Amazing that the industry seems to accept that people want quick reads but then gropes at solutions that involve anything but.

Sports blogger looks at the death of newspapers

A Michigan sports blog, Maize n Blue, opins about changes in sports when (it's term) newspapers die, and blogs are the only thing left. It's much more thoughtful than most of the new media, pointing out some of the problems of relying only on institutions for information (it uses quotes as an example; pointing out that universities aren't going to report bad quotes or bad stories and that bloggers don't have access to press conferences). It's worth reading even though it's not new.

Michael Kinsley says journalism will live on

Michael Kinsley adds his voice to the people saying that newspapers may die but journalism won't. He also, correctly, criticizes newspaper management for its failing to move ahead (I loved this description: "the typical newspaper executive is a bear of little brain"), but he believes journalism is changing but will continue.

Nichols, McChesney write about media ills

The Seattle Times, itself a casualty of media problems, reprints an essay from The Nation by John Nichols and Robert McChesney that lays the blame for newspaper problems not just on the Internet, but even more on media corporations themselves. Here's the nut graph: "In a nutshell, media corporations, after running journalism into the ground, have determined that news gathering and reporting are not profit-making propositions. So they're jumping ship."  They offer some solutions to the present situation, including government help, but see corporate changes as vital.

Of chaos theory, post-advertising and media

Bob Garfield muses about the death of old media in an interview filled with so many concepts that I can't begin to sum them up.  Read it.