What'll replace metro dailies?

Business Week columnist Jon Fine offers his view, and it's depressing. By the way, he's predicting the demise of "big city dailies," not national or local ones. Among winners? Local TV, glossy free monthly pubs, and online sites (lots of them).  

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch took a statesmanlike stand and rejected the anti-Arab DVD advertisement, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," saying it exercised its right not to distribute the film, which has been attacked by various Muslim groups in the past two years. The News and Record in Greensboro, N.C., a community that has seen hate in action, also refused to distribute the film. It was distributed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, publisher Elizabeth Brenner saying it was a free speech decision.

The JS also published a column by its local conservative columnist Patrick McIlheran defending the film, saying that it clearly labels the anti-West attacks by Muslims as fringe, and that we should "take a look" at the film." I have a friend who is an expert on right-wing hate groups' web presentations (think American Nazi party, KKK, and skinheads). He has a wonderful site on Christian music that is used to lure people into the skinhead movement. On the surface, it just nice, Christian rock. Then the discussion groups draw people into private chats and the topic of how this music is good because it doesn't have any of those "Afro-Carribean" influences that mess up regular rock. Then, if the person is receptive, the discussion shifts to "good, white-oriented" music. You can guess where it goes next. As, I guess McIlheran would say, we should "take a look at it." I did both at the DVD and the web site. Hate is hate, and anyone distributing that DVD should take a long look in the mirror, then go wash their hands again.

A pet peeve about the new media

I've long promoted the excellent content that Jim Romenesko puts together each day reporting on media for the PoynterOnline web site. I go there first thing each morning, and check again throughout the day. I advise my students to do the same, and, frankly, I would hope anyone interested in journalism would do the same. It's the place to find out what's happening in the media world. I highly recommend the site.

Nevertheless, the site was recently redesigned, and its designers fell into the trap of "because we can, we do" with a window that opens as you roll over the "bookmarks" area at the end of each item. It opens a window with 11 choices plus a "more" option button. Because Jim's posts are generally quite short, since he operates a linking blog that serves as a portal to the nation's reporting, the rollover windows obscure the items. Interesting enough, ad agencies have found these rollover popups are not only intrusive but very annoying, and some are warning their customers to ignore this capability.

I wish Jim's designers had done the same since I tend to scroll rapidly through his list with my cursor apparently on the very spot needed for these "blog spam" inserts to annoy me. The more cluttered media gets, the harder it is to easily read, and the easier it becomes to ignore it in favor of leaner, more user-friendly media.

Shape of things to come?

The New York Times is reporting that politico.com, the online politics site, plans to expand after the presidential election, adding reporters, content and boosting its advertising. Watching the old media seemingly in freefall while observing that the new media relies mostly on old media reporting for the facts that it comments on, I've long waited for signs the new media is maturing into something more responsible. Responsible reporting by new media sites becomes more and more important as the old media cuts back. Seems to me that this is a maturing media response to changes in the landscape.

Facts aren't always believed, study finds

A Duke University study found that even if the media corrects misstatements, the public isn't likely to believe. So much for all the factcheck.org- like groups.

Minnesota drops charges against media

Following the pattern established the past few years of mass arrests, including media, at political events followed by dropping charges, Minnesota has decided it's not going to charge any of the media people (including Democracy Now's Amy Goodman) who were arrested at the Republican National Convention.

As I mention every once and a while in class, the anti-press ploy in the 1960s was merely to tear gas we media types who were covering events. It's moved now to arresting anyone attempting to cover demonstrations. Then, they get released later when the charges are dropped. So far the City of New York has paid more than $2 million to settle lawsuits arising from the 2004 convention (media arrests were only a few among the thousands arrested there). I'm sure we'll read tiny stories about taxpayers settling lawsuits from this year's conventions and phony arrests during the campaign, and four years from now will see more arrests, then dropped charges, etc.

How to sink a newspaper

Arkansas publisher tells editorial writers that newspapers are following a failed business model in giving all their content away free on the Internet. His newspaper, which puts only news on the net, has gained subscribers the past decade.

Crain's says Tribune redesign ready for next week

Crain's Chicago Business reports the redesign for the new Chicago Tribune will be next week with the newspaper consolidating from five daily sections to three. The redesigned front page, Crain's reports, will be heavy on photos (or, at least, one very large dominant photo) with fewer stories. Also gone is the Sunday Perspective section, which didn't draw much advertising, only readers and they apparently don't count any more to clueless newspaper executives.

Does print media matter in this election?

That's the intriguing title used by the New York Observer for an exploration of the topic. The answer, like so much else in this fast-changing media world, is . . . it depends. As Frank Rich of the New York Times says, there is no one reporter setting the agenda. But it's clear that the print media retains much of its influence. Still, as Newsweek's Jonathan Alter says, the stories are burning out much quicker now. This sometimes is a bad thing, according to Jim VanderHei of politico.com, in that some stories that deserve more consideration get moved ahead as the news cycle moves on. He says his political website now thinks in terms of winning the hour, not winning the day. So the pressure to move on becomes almost irresistible for both websites and cable television networks.

The other side of student newspaper economics

Hey, they're niche publications, and that area is doing reasonably OK in this miserable economy. A report in the Chronicle of Higher Education responds to this week's news from the West Coast about financial problems by surveying others, and discovering that college publications, in general, are doing well.

A key seems to be that college newspapers are serving their audience in ways that are unmatched by other publications. That seems to be the goal of those publications attempting to remold themselves these days, from metro dailies to neighborhood monthlies to how-to magazines.

Is the media pulling its punches?

That's the conclusion of a group of Denver journalists at a panel at the National Press Club. The panel believed that declining revenues has cut into the courage of old media and that new media won't spend much on reporting, especially to press government arms that are bolder and bolder in denying access.

More data on our segmenting news audience

A new Pew Research report offers new data showing that the news audience is segmenting by types of media to a degree not anticipated. While a group it terms "traditionalists," who get their news the old fashioned way (heavy reliance on TV, especially), is the largest with 46 percent of news consumers falling into this grouping, of note is the growing group called "integrators (23 percent)," who get their news from both old and new media.