Results matching “lessons learned”

A recent article by Russell Adams in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) attempts to identify the failures of the Washington Post's hyperlocal experiment, LoudounExtra.com, namely the failure to engage the community and the writers inability to cater to different audiences.

Loudounextra.com is one of the local sites that the WP offers, providing news, blogs, information about local events, a local guide and various deals. The site is also available for downloading onto mobile phones and iPods.

"LoudonExtra.com remains little more than a skeleton of the site its architects pledged to build," wrote Adams.

Adams discusses that the site deems local events like "high school proms" and "Little League" games as more newsworthy than events such as "where to build a hospital."

Tim Richardson, LoudounExtra.com's editor argued that they did immerse themselves in the community, but that more could have been done to promote the site and to link it to the Post.

Rob Curley, the site's architect, said that the "biggest problems with LoudounExtra.com were poor integration of the site with washingtonpost.com and not enough outreach into the community" and that both were his "fault".

See also: US: Poynter: Lessons to be learnt from Loudounextra.com

Source: robcurley.com through David Black

In a posting Friday on Poynter Online, Michelle Ferrier writes about the Washington Post's floundering hyperlocal community site, LoudounExtra.com, pinning its struggles on a lack of "high-touch" activity.

Ferrier says that a hyperlocal site is "not about technology, but rather about what technology enables: community building."

Community building, according to Ferrier, constitutes personal, face-to-face interaction between site moderators and their users. She claims that Rob Curley, designer of LoudonExra.com, failed to do enough to build rapport with his users.  

"I think perhaps [Curley] lost track of the value of being in the community while focusing on building widgets and messaging technology.

"Building on my rural experience, at MyTopiaCafe.com, I regularly do what I consider to be the online equivalent of waving to my neighbors...I publicly acknowledge their participation," Ferrier writes.

She insists that hyperlocal editors must connect with their users "in the real world - at field trips, photographing school dance troupes...in K-12 classrooms and higher education lectures."

A successful hyperlocal website, in other words, is an engaged one.

"Ventures like this need a 'community weaver' - a local native who is passionate both about the community and about fostering community relationships online - and face to face," Ferrier writes.

Source: Poynter Online

An article yesterday from AdAge.com reflects on USA Today's evolution from outcast startup to mainstream success, and explores the paper's divisiveness among readers. The author, Nat Ives, attributes USA Today's success to its aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly design, and an increasing quality of journalism.

"Twenty-five years after USA Today zigged while everyone else zagged...the industry has learned to imitate its earliest editorial priorities - color, brevity, sports, pop and dialogue with readers," writes Ives.

USA Today's critics complain that the paper has cheapened journalism by pulling in readers through snappy visuals - a television-style format, extensive pop culture and entertainment coverage, brazen front-page advertisements - rather than content.

Ives, however, argues that USA Today - dubbed "McPaper" by its critics - has improved the quality of its journalism, citing the paper's reporting on the war in Iraq as an example of its "serious journalism."

Alex Jones agrees. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, says USA Today's balance between its entertainment news and its serious journalism is the key to its success.

"The lesson of USA Today is that style and trying to cater to people's interest in distraction will only take you so far. The thing that has made USA Today a success is making it a serious news organization but in a form and a style that is appealing," Jones said.

Can USA Today maintain a serious level of journalism in an entertainment-friendly medium? Editor Ken Paulson articulates the paper's ongoing balancing act.

"As committed as we are to covering American foreign policy," Paulson said, "We're also deeply committed to covering 'American Idol.'"

Source: AdAge.com through I Want Media

The Los Angeles Times has removed the March 17 article and related materials on Sean "P. Diddy" Comb's alleged involvement in rapper Tupac Shakur's death.

The Times has concluded that the FBI sources on which the story was based were fabricated. The paper is retracting all statements in the article that suggest that James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, a talent manager, Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant, and James Sabatino, supposedly one of Combs' associates and the provider of the false FBI documents, had arranged the assault on Shakur.

Some journalists have listed some lessons that could be learned from this misstep here.

Source: The LA Times

The Project for Excellence in Journalism report on newspapers in 2007 stated, "Newspapers are still far from dead, but the language of obituaries is creeping in." Although there is a problem with declining revenues, there is also a crisis of morale in newsrooms, according to Peter Osnos, Senior Fellow for Media at The Century Foundation. He senses that reporters feel that no matter how good, thoroughly reported, and influential their work is, it isn't going protect the paper.

Osnos believes that reporters are unique in turning what they write about into news and determining how people are informed, a power that bloggers do not have.

According to PEJ, in 2007, the industry had its sharpest drop in advertising revenue since 195 -- 9.4%. On the other hand, on-line revenues are up: representing 7.5% of newspaper ad revenue.

If newspapers do not receive support from advertisers or circulation, they should find other ways. For example, the radio no longer is dependent on the federal government because of underwriting and individual contributors.

PEJ reports that there are a variety of locally based startups emphasizing community news, for example ProPublica and Global News Enterprises, a Boston based Web start-up.

Read more about PEJ's reports:
- Robert Niles' key lessons learned from State of the Media Report
- Journalists cite financial problems as top concern
- Internet is changing journalism

Source: The Century Foundation

In light of the recent LA Times' publication of an article on Tupac Shakur's death from now-discredited FBI documents, Slate writer Jack Shafer offers precautions for newsrooms to avoid similar situations:

- "Avoid confirmation bias" Though finding evidence that confirms your existing views is obviously better than finding ones that contradict, don't let that blind you. LA Times's journalist Chuck Philips "said in an interview that he had believed the documents were legitimate because, in the reporting he had already done on the story, he had heard many of the same details."

- Know your document's origins. "Until proved otherwise, every document should be assumed to be fake."  In the Times case, though the documents had been filed in court, they were filed by James Sabatino, who is currently doing time on fraud charges.

- "Don't trust documents, trust evidence. A document is only a piece of paper with writing on it" and is not necessarily true.

- "Enlist outside experts."  Newspapers shouldn't allow the leakage of information overshadow larger investigations. "The less a stake an outside source has in a story, the better his critique will likely be."

- Always question why evidence appears "now" and why it hasn't appeared before. "Is it because the source of the evidence stands to gain financially by its publication?" or is the source a "notorious liar"?

Bob Steele of Poynter Online also offers some questions that might be asked in Times's internal investigation.
- "What process was used by the reporter and editor to scrutinize the source of the documents as well as the source(s) for other key pieces of information in the story?
- How did they verify and cross-check the documents?
- Were other editors brought into the process to judge
 He also believes that journalists at other news organizations should ask questions about the "quality control process in their newsrooms."

For a list of all of Shafer's questions, click here and Steele's questions, click here.

Sources: Slate and Poynter Online 

In a Q&A with the Online Journalism Review, USC Annenberg professor Marc Cooper reviews his experience with Off The Bus so far. One of the main lessons “is that both sides of the debate over old and new media have been right, and you have to find the right hybrid.”

Steve Outing, a columnist for Editor & Publisher decided to talk about his failed company, the Enthusiast Group, which was an experiment in grassroots media and social networking, to teach the lessons he learned and to save others from the same failure he experienced.

The Economist’s ten-month web R&D project to “create an innovative and web-based product, service, or business model by July 2007” ended without success and didn’t bring any output to the market. However, the publisher is now taking what is left from that project to possibly create an online-only publishing venture.

Khoi Vinh, design director of nytimes.com, wrote a posting about how print designers can adapt to web design, with both some practical tips and general lessons.

In an excellent article, Editor & Publisher’s (E&P) Joe Strupp gathers 12 important lessons learned from online flops and failures, such as… 

The hottest debate at this year's World Editor Forum was about -- you guessed it -- the lessons learned from the Danish cartoon crisis...

Tuesday’s World Editors Forum meeting ended with an intense debate about the infamous Danish cartoon controversy, and the lessons that might be learned from it. 

The Editors Weblog and Visual Editors are joining forces to bring a new feature to the world's gathering for newspaper editors. Robb Montgomery, CEO of VizEds, and I will be getting crazy with citizen journalism tools to show editors how they can integrate them into the newsroom in order to enrich their reporting.  

Ever hear of Bluffton, South Carolina?  If you are a newspaper professional, you should know about this small US community of 15,000 people, where a new model for newspapers and newspaper web sites is succeeding.

Backed by the American Press Institute, a new project titled Newspaper Next has selected six newspapers to aid and use as “living laboratories to demonstrate the innovation potential that exists among newspaper companies,” said Stephen Gray, managing director of Newspaper Next.

Google announced this week that it will launch Google Finance, a financial news service that will compete with other pure Internet players like Yahoo and MSN which already have their own financial sites. Included in the sites launch are deals with a few financial content providers including Reuters and Morningstar.

For newspapers, two lessons can be learned.