New Haven Independent

Posted by: Rick Hancock | July 29, 2008 8:56 AM

Steve
I'm one of the Kool-Aid drinkers you spoke of, but it's corporate journalists who should stop what they are drinking and immediately check into new media rehab. You raised a lot of important points. I disagreed with most of them. Is corporate journalism on life-support? Yes. But the craft of journalism will live forever. You've made the same mistake other corporate journalists make when you tried to equate quality journalism with corporate bottom lines. You also make the common corporate journalists mistake of trying to make the Internet fit the myopic needs of most corporate newspapers, radio and television outlets. I'll argue it's corporate journalists who should be adapting to the Internet, not the other way around.
I didn't know if I should have laughed or cried when you wrote: "Mind you, "the Internet" creates nothing. It is simply a delivery vehicle." Yes, the Internet is a "delivery vehicle," but so are newspapers, radios and televisions. It's journalists that make all of those "delivery vehicle"s come alive. I'm of the belief that the web and other digital platforms can elevate journalism to greater heights. The Internet as we know it today is essentially less than 20 years old. But what we've seen so far is nothing short of amazing and revolutionary. The various models of how online journalism will take shape are still being refined. And, it's important that old school journalism warriors raise their voices to help define, not discredit, this new media landscape. Watching a highly produced, non-interactive, newscast on an expensive flat screen TV is no guarantee that the information you are watching is of any quality or substance. I can provide you web link after web link after web link of great original online journalism being practiced right now. So, this idea that the Internet only takes and doesn't produce anything of quality is very naïve and poorly researched on your part. It appears that even online, you're locked into old viewing habits of watching and reading the same old corporate news slop that you've always consumed. There's a lot more quality journalism on the web being produced then can be found at mainstreamcorporatemedia.com. Is everything on the web presented as news credible? Of course not, but you outlined better than I ever could what really sucks with many corporate media outlets in Connecticut and elsewhere. But the web does something corporate journalism is only slowly waking up to; and that is allowing the public to participate in the process, production and distribution of news like never before. That fact has intimated a bunch of corporate journalists. It was so much easier when corporate journalists were the lone gatekeepers of news when we (yes, I said we since I still work in that medium occasionally) had the mega phone to ourselves. Thank God, those days are dwindling.
I had to chuckle when I read your article. The irony of your story blasting online journalism made me laugh. If you hadn't noticed you wrote your blog-style post for The New Haven Independent, an online only news operation. On most days the Independent does a better job of covering New Haven then the corporate owned, and nearly bankrupt, newspaper New Haven Register. And, if I understand correctly, the Hartford Courant will still have close to 200 editorial people on the payroll when the latest layoffs go into effect on July 31. With 200 people I think the Courant will still be able to cover news in one of the smallest states in the country. Ask Paul Bass or Christine Stuart from CT News Junkie what they could do with 200 editorial personal at their disposal to produce local news for their respective online communities. So, let's get to the real bottom line of your article: and that's money! Corporate journalism is running out of cash; and corporate journalists are pretty upset about it. I get that. However that doesn't mean it's the end of journalism as we know it. If all of the journalists who have been laid off, bought out or just plain left the corporate media business in the past three or four years in Connecticut decided to join together and create a new news venture - I would suggest minus the newspaper product - I bet it would be quite successful in both information and financial terms. If that were to happen, all of us who say we love the practice of journalism could collectively lift our glasses filled with the beverage of choice and offer a toast to the continued bright future of news.

Posted by: MisterJones | July 29, 2008 1:10 PM

Sorry Rick, I think Steve's got it right. For journalism to thrive, whether old or new media, in print, broadcast or online, people need to make money. Journalists need good paying jobs, and the media companies need profit. Ask Paul Bass if NHI makes any money. It's subsidized by "sponsors" -- Paul compares it to NPR -- which is fine but that's a different business model than most media companies.

I do think NHI does a great job, but it's still niche. And on the biggest recent story, the Quinell Payne dirt bike accident/driver beating story, lets give credit where credit is due: the Register's William Kaempffer had far and away the best coverage. Sometimes the old media guys get it right. His report today on the father's press conference includes video which really adds to the story.

Posted by: Jack Kramer | July 29, 2008 1:40 PM

While you accuse Steve Kalb of taking unfair shots, you take your own at the New Haven Register. Want to guess, Rick, who continues to break the most news in the Greater New Haven area (from Milford to Old Saybrook).

Jack Kramer
editor, New Haven Register

Posted by: Rick Hancock | July 29, 2008 3:52 PM

I'm not the one who made the comparison that one form of journalism is better than the other. Steve did. I've worked in print, radio, television and online. If done properly, journalism is journalism no matter the platform. It's the need to make money, or more specifically corporate profits that's gotten us in the media mess we are in now. I've been laid off before, so I know that pain. I also figured out ways to make a decent living practicing the craft of journalism without being dependent on only one source of corporate media income, the Internet has certainly made that easier for me to do. If journalists aren't smart enough to figure out a way to turn this new media model into higher salaries for journalists, shame on them, but don't blame the Internet or online journalism for what's happening. You guys can continue to sit around and pray for the "good old days" of corporate journalism to return, and you can try and defend the continued importance of the newspaper version of the Register, but you do so at your own risk. Finally, niche is a good thing on the web. While Jack brags how great the NEW HAVEN Register is in Milford to Oxford, when I want to know what's going on in New Haven, I'l stick with the niche Independent. This has been fun! Thanks to the Internet we've been able to have this wonderfully engaging and hopefully informative conversation. Hope to see you guys more often on the web!

Posted by: mindoflen | July 29, 2008 7:25 PM

First of all, Steve, let's be accurate.
It's Debbie Does Dallas.
Second, I have to disagree with you on your statement:
"So here we are, probably about one-third of the way into the "internet revolution," with what appears to be no real clue of how we will collect and distribute news to you the reader/viewer..."
We will collect news the same way we do now. A reporter will go out or get on the phone and gather the news. Photographers will still rush to fires and crashes and crimes. Editors will make sure the report is accurate and fair.
How the consumer gets it is what's at issue. Decades ago, people like Don Fry at the Pointer Institute were saying news would be delivered on portable slates or viewed through special eyeglasses. That's the Internet.

The only good thing about the pullback in what you call corporate journalism, including the announcement today that the Newhouse News Service is closing, is that the papers are more and more focusing on local news. That's good. Lots of things are local. Real estate is local, as is politics. It's more important to know with whom your mayor or councilman is in bed than that Ted Stevens of Alaska has gotten indicted. We still need good rewriters to meld the local with the national. Put a local spin or lede or angle on a national story by the Associated Press.

So fear not, my friend. Some television stations will still broadcast one-source stories, as will some newspapers print them on paper and on line. The good ones will have multisource stories with context and the human factor. Gannett, the corporation from which I retired, years ago figured out that if you print a story on the Web before it's in the paper, you haven't scooped yourself. You've just gotten the news to the reader a little earlier.

Newspaper are starting to figure out that you can put classified ads, one of their biggest sources of local revenue, on the Web. The New York Times allows free access to its entire Web site to subscribers -- you can read the news online at your leisure while still providing a top-notch liner for the birdcage -- the best of both worlds both for you and the bird.

Steve, I'm sorry to say that your medium, radio, probably will be the loser here. Why listen to an earthquake when you can see it on your i-phone?

The medium is no longer the message. It's just the medium.

Posted by: Kyle | July 29, 2008 9:02 PM

New Haven is between Milford and Old Saybrook, Rick. Hancock, political reporter.

Posted by: Rick Hancock | July 29, 2008 11:31 PM

Kyle,
You're right. My bad!

Rick

Posted by: MisterJones | July 30, 2008 12:47 PM

Forgive me for sticking up for old media when I get almost all my news online, and while I have no idea who has the most scoops, I will say that the Register's weekly Orange Bulletin does a nice job on local Bethany/Orange/Woodbridge news, in healthy competition with the Amity Observer.

And has anyone else noticed the fine work done by Erik Campano on radio? He doesn't have much time to work with on WSHU's local news spots on NPR, but he makes the most of them. For example, he confronted Chris Shays with tape of him praising Blackwater's "perfect record" at a congressional hearing, right after they massacred a bunch of civilians in Iraq. Nice job.