Newspaper ombudsman's time may be up
Posted by Carolyn Lo on March 26, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Simon Dumenco, journalist for Advertising Age, believes the newspaper ombudsman is now an obsolete position.
He gives five reasons:
- Readers can now effectively do the job for themselves, especially with the popularity of blogs. Many bloggers can influence how controversial newspaper reports are "received and spun."
- Jim Romenesko's Poynter Institute media blog has probably already covered the news with in-depth commentary and links to other sources. According to Dumenco, Romenesko "effectively makes any newspaper's public-editor column seem both parochial and anemic."
- More people now directly engage in conversation with journalists and editors through email and website comments.
- Ombudsmen are "boring as hell", a personality that opposes how newspapers should be engaging with their readers
- Money can be saved or spent on something else.
Nowadays, readers are willing to second-guess news coverage and to contribute. Instead of paying for an ombudsman, papers should focus on expanding space online and in print for readers' thoughts. However, the Internet is a separate domain that can be argued to need an ombudsman.
Source: Advertising Age through Media Bistro
He gives five reasons:
- Readers can now effectively do the job for themselves, especially with the popularity of blogs. Many bloggers can influence how controversial newspaper reports are "received and spun."
- Jim Romenesko's Poynter Institute media blog has probably already covered the news with in-depth commentary and links to other sources. According to Dumenco, Romenesko "effectively makes any newspaper's public-editor column seem both parochial and anemic."
- More people now directly engage in conversation with journalists and editors through email and website comments.
- Ombudsmen are "boring as hell", a personality that opposes how newspapers should be engaging with their readers
- Money can be saved or spent on something else.
Nowadays, readers are willing to second-guess news coverage and to contribute. Instead of paying for an ombudsman, papers should focus on expanding space online and in print for readers' thoughts. However, the Internet is a separate domain that can be argued to need an ombudsman.
Source: Advertising Age through Media Bistro
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