Suddenly, e-books are hot items

Newspapers have been incredibly slow in adapting to the digital age, but we're beginning to see progress. One application that shows potential is for newspapers and other media publications to adapt their content into virtually instantaneous (and inexpensive) e-books.

It clearly makes sense for news organizations that are generating a lot of content to compile them into e-books, which are generally shorter, cheaper and quicker to produce. Recent e-books have been produced by Huffington Post, The New Yorker, ABC News, The Boston Globe, Politico and Vanity Fair.

Let's see if the Journal Sentinel produces one celebrating the Brewers' climb toward a pennant.

PolitiFact franchises growing

Let's give the Journal Sentinel its due: it was ahead of the curve with its adopting the controversial PolitiFact ratings. The system was created by the St. Petersburg Times, which franchised it to the Milwaukee newspaper and four others.

Although its ratings have been attacked by virtually everyone (it's too easy on Republicans was one charge; now some Republicans say it's too hard on them with Democrats criticizing claiming that now that the recall elections are over, it tells the truth -- once again proving that the media can't win), it's been so popular that the system is now expanding its franchisees nationwide. It's a good idea, and I'm glad to see it growing.

Media companies -- but not advertisers -- embrace mobile technology

Several years ago I was at a conference where one of the new media types dominating the speaking roles was extolling his newest toy -- an early version of the smart phone. "This is the future," I remember him saying, holding up a phone with a tiny stream of text. I don't want to read my news on that tiny screen; it'll take all day to read a story, I remember thinking.

Flash forward and here I was sitting in a doctor's office reading the Guardian newspaper's lead story on a tiny screen. It still was slow and inefficient, but mobile has made it's place in the new media world in which we live.

A new report by Online Media Daily indicates that publishers are quickly adapting with more than a quarter of them offering mobile applications -- a doubling in the last year. The problem, as it is with all digital media, is advertising presence.

Online Media says that ad presence remains very low, which makes sense giving the small screen. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel offers tiny ads at the bottom of the screen, but tiny is the operative word. They barely show up, and still are offensive giving the small amount of real estate available.

It's an evolving technology (and the smart phone is vastly inferior to the tablet as a vehicle for media), but where I once disdained the very thought of trying to make sense of such limited text options, I now use it. So who knows what the future might bring.

Newspaper industry shrinkage expected to continue

Continued consolidation. Fewer reporters. Fewer papers. Fewer owners. More money. That's a forecast for the newspaper industry from Dean Singleton, NewsMedia executive chairman who has long predicted extreme industry consolidation.

In an interview with the Nieman Journalism Lab, Singleton said he had that vision 15 years ago when his company wasn't in the top 10 nationally in circulation. Today, it's number two.

Singleton said he didn't expect the industry to die -- just continue consolidation.

This media merger has broad implications

Should we care about a merger of sorts between newspaper chains that don't have outlets in our hometown? The answer, of course, is yes when it's a merger between two of the nation's largest remaining chains, Journal Register Co. and MediaNews Group. As widely reported, especially in this context-setting piece by Nieman Journalism Labs, where two independent companies are forming a third company to manage the two others. It's a vastly different business model that's worth watching.

Speaking of business models, the new company's CEO, John Paton, also CEO of the Journal Register, is an outspoken opponent of paywalls and MediaNews Group has more than two-dozen paywalls already erected. Paton says it's too early for him to decide what to do with the existing paywalls.

Social media editors take on another task -- debunking

Social media editors and reporters are all the rage these days with good reason. They expand a medium's reporting ability infinitely as well as engaging the readers. However, they are serving more and more as debunking editors, this Poynter Institute report says, with a new charge of not only separating the true from the false, but an obligation to let the world know about the false.

As we have moved from a slow and careful analysis of reporting before publishing to rapid posting of information, often without review of even a second person, inaccuracies are swarming the media universe. They post a particular problem for media attempting to be among the first to publish information.

Journalism on the go more than ever

As this essay by Alex Salkever on Streetfight, a blog devoted to reporting all things hyperlocal, says, the move by the Washington Post to close all but a couple of its bureaus shouldn't be surprising given the changes in the industry. It's a fundamentally sound decision aimed at cutting unnecessary costs, which (hopefully) will be spent increasing reporting. Unfortunately American businesses have a poor track record on this strategy. For example the insurance industry started these moves years ago with the result seeing declining numbers of agents along with declining service and declining profits.

Still, today's reporters can do their work in the field using basic backpack journalism equipment, which does cut costs dramatically. I look for more of this.

A question of priorities -- and losing readers

Don't take this as a criticism of Duane Dudak, the very hard-working TV and movie critic for the Journal Sentinel. Instead, it's a commentary on the times and, in my view, one huge reason the JS is losing subscribers.

While a new TV season isn't quite as big as it was when the four networks ruled, it is still a time when people change their habits, building their lives around new, interesting-looking television shows. It was a huge time of year two decades ago with the old Milwaukee Journal devoting not only more than a page in the Sunday paper, but huge stories daily giving readers not only a good overview of the new season but show by show reviews. Back then, the Journal alone had two full-time television writers along with one full-time movie critic. Duane carried the load alone for the Sentinel, but his season preview was pretty comprehensive.

These days, it's back to Duane handling the job single-handedly and the result showed up in today's JS -- a listing of show premiers with only a sentence or two for new shows. Can I plan my fall's viewing from this? Not really since I don't know if any of the new shows interest me. (For example, " 'Up All Night,' sitcom about new parents with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett; "Free Agents," romantic comedy about mismatched co-workers, with Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn (NBC)" tells me almost nothing.)

As I said, it's not Duane's fault, but the money-pinching management moves to cut staff and paper use have eliminated so much content that it invites readers to go elsewhere. And I have to question their judgement. A new television season deserves at least as much space and effort as one story in the never-ending series of Asian carp invasion stories.

7 JS newsroom staffers reportedly take buyout

The latest word is that the Journal Sentinel has had seven takers from the newsroom in its current attempt to slash people in the newsroom. Supposedly two more are being sought and, should they not voluntarily agree, involuntary cuts (read "firings") will be made.

I have a suggestion: Get rid of company CEO Steven Smith who has totally destroyed the company (stock is worth less than a quarter of it's value when he took the company public and began cutting) and use his multi-million-dollar pay package to increase staffing in the newsroom. That would directly improve the product.

A real news cafe

The Winnipeg Free Press offers an interesting way to engage readers -- by actually seeing them in person. Read about the newspapers' News Cafe, where readers engage reporters and editors in person. They use it to host online events as well as a base for reporters. Great idea

I remember when the Journal and Sentinel had a lively crossroads of the community in the lobby of the Journal Building (it's public service department went back decades). Of course the far-sighted (note sarcasm here) management killed the budding operation in the first of its many ill-considered cutbacks that have led directly to today's newspaper which is neither hefty in bulk nor in content.

If I were attempting to stabilize a newspaper, I'd look hard at what they are doing in Winnipeg. It seems to be working.

Journalism and transparency

OK, journalists' talking about journalism isn't rare. But sometimes it's worth listening to. Yesterday, on Poynter's blog, Matt Thompson urged journalism to follow the "scientific method" of transparency in reporting. That means reporters should make it very clear how they conducted the reporting they did, not only what a quote said but the context in which it was gathered -- that along would end some of the worst offenses of national reporters -- and how a reader/viewer could replicate the story.

Of course, that's the underlying argument in Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel's Elements of Journalism from nearly two decades ago, and the reason I still use the class in Journalism 1964, when we talk about what makes a journalist different from a non-journalist.

The point is that it's the way journalism must work for credibility today, and the more discussion the better.

Overwhelmed by friends

Nina Khosla, who describes herself as a 22-year-old designer who founded a social media startup, offers an interesting look at community, friendship and social media. Her premise is that we can become so friendly that we lose connections. In other words, we have too many friends on Facebook or Twitter just because of the volume.

This is a point I've made to several social media "experts," many of whom don't really understand. For example, I have so many connections on Twitter that my feed this morning goes back only two hours -- and it's morning. By midday when traffic rises, it'll go back about a half hour. And I don't have time to check it every half hour.

Anyway, Khosla's essay should be looked at by everyone attempting to get their mind around how social media fits into the larger mass media world.