Talkin’ newspapers and journalism

A couple of articles worth your while regarding the financial troubles  of newspaper industry and what has brought them (in part) to this point:

The Fed shouldn’t save newspapers because they “are not too big to be allowed to fail.” (Newsosaur)

American journalism is in trouble because of “editors and reporters focused more on winning prizes or making television appearances.” (Walter Pincus, Columbia Journalism Review)

The physical attraction of newspapers

Alan Mutter explains why newspapers have it all over Amazon’s recently  released Kindle DX, a larger version of the electronic tablet.

Nothing beats the convenience and portability of a well-organized newspaper.

A newspaper requires no batteries or AC current, can be read anyplace in all-but-blackout conditions, can be folded (unlike a jumbo Kindle) for convenient transport, can be clipped for coupons, can catch canary poop and can be responsibly recycled into cute flower pots (see below) in a way that electronic detritus cannot.

Plus, you can’t smash a bug with Kindle.

Google News Timeline

Mathew Ingram looks at the brand new Google News Timeline and wonders: Why can’t newspapers exhibit this kind of creativity?

Google News Timeline is very impressive, offering users the abililty to look at news by days, weeks, months, years and even decades in a visually appealing column format. You can also refine your search according to a particular news source.

Alec Baldwin hearts the New York Times

In a cab or on a train, Alec Baldwin needs his New York Times.

Reinventing the newspaper

I know what you’re thinking (cause I”m clairvoyant like that): “Not again. Not another post on how to save newspapers.” Ah, but this one is pretty darn good, tapping into the wisdom of 10 experts who offer advice on how to keep the presses rolling. Here are a few of the highlights:

On reinventing the core product:

Leonsis: [Develop] a core competency in ad sales so that the organization can represent other local media companies to build scale and create mini advertising.com-like businesses in each market.

On the audience for newspapers:

Mutter: Editors and publishers need to adopt a zero-based, market-driven approach to what they do. They need to learn to ask their readers and nonreaders what they want—and then respond creatively to the answers.

On the role of the print product:

Hall: Print is good at the things the Web is not good at—watchdog, explanatory, enterprise, narrative storytelling. The two media complement one another. One is the flowing river, changing constantly; the other is the rock on the shore, fixed and solid.

On reinventing the newspaper to work in concert with online offerings:

If Facebook can do it, so can newspapers

In late January, Tim Windsor blogged about ways media companies can increase their local ad revenue through partnerships with local businesses. Included among his ideas were proposals to help businesses develop their social media and location-aware strategies, and customized ad aggregation for consumers.

In recent days, I’ve stumbled upon a few ideas that reminded me of Windsor’s post:

Newspapers have ways of making you pay, aggregators

Enjoy the hard work of professional journalists while you can, online aggregators. Take one last bath in the million of dollars you’ve reaped from advertisements around content you didn’t create. Because if the folks behind Newspaper Project have their way, it’s likely your free ride will be over.

Publisher Randy Siegel talks to Columbia Journalism Review about the recently launched Newspaper Project, a coalition of newspaper executives endeavoring to share ideas about their industry vital.

Siegel, described by interviewer Megan Barber as the leader of the project, talks about the purpose of the organization, touts the value of professional journalism, and then throws down the gauntlet before the “information wants to be free” champions:

Scan the Web, read the paper

As I sat down a little while ago to read the St. Pete Times sports section (yes, the print version), I glanced at the story about Michael Phelps and instantly realized something about my recent Web-surfing routine.

I’d already heard chatter about Phelps and “the photo,” both on the radio and through headlines on the Web. Last night, I found one local news site that had a linked headline to the Phelps story prominently displayed on its home page.

Never clicked on it. Didn’t care to.

Why? I wondered the same thing myself. And here’s what I’ve concluded:

Layoffs at the Macon Telegraph

I usually don’t post stories about which newspapers are laying off employees or shutting down operations — I leave that happy news to popular media-related sites like Romenesko and Newspaper Death Watch.

But I’ll read them, alright. And it was hard not to wince at today’s story that the Macon Telegraph is  moving its print operations and laying off 58 employees.

Particularly tough was this passage:

The death of newspapers is not the issue

Is the newspaper on its death bed? Perhaps. But  for Jill Lepore in The New Yorker, the more pertinent question is “Will freedom of the press live?”

To make her point, Lepore offers an engrossing history of the American newspaper during Colonial times, beginning with what she calls “the birth of the American newspaper” through the end of the Sedition Act. It’s a compelling article that all those interested in the future of journalism would do well to read.