The kiss of death

Remember how I told you plagiarism was the kiss of death for journalists and other media writers? Well, another plagiarist just bit the dust.

Blogger Ben Domenech was hired by the Washington Post to debut a new right-right political blog, Red America. He started Tuesday; by Friday, he was gone. Obviously, it doesn't take other bloggers long to suss out a plagiarist.

Here's Post Executive Editor Jim Brady's letter to the public about the Domenech's resignation, and here's an interesting salon.com interview with Brady about why the Post didn't figure it out first.

Given how easy it is these days to fact-check things online, it's a bad time to be a plagiarist.

P.S. You might also want to check out Poynter Online blogger Romenesko's take on this and other hot media topics.

UNH Journalism Program Links

The journalism program at the University of New Hampshire, where I got my BS degree way back in the old day, has a "no-frills" page of journalism links and resources for students, with tips on interviewing, finding story ideas, storytelling, and much more. Check it out. It also has a good resources page for journalists.

It's a small world...

As I headed down the escalator toward the baggage claim area in Manchester Airport Saturday evening, a man walking behind me asked, "Do you do a lot of editing?"

Apparently he and his seatmate had seen me grading papers on the plane. I told them I teach journalism and PR writing classes at San Jose State, and, yes, I do a lot of editing.

"Well, you're talking to a couple of ex-newsmen," he said, adding that he'd been an editor at a newspaper in San Diego. The other man, Jerry Ackerman, said he'd been an editor at the Boston Globe.

Hmm, my journalism professor when I attended UNH was a former Boston Globe reporter. Did he happen to know Andrew Merton? He did. In fact, Merton used to work for him.

I hope to catch up with Merton while I'm in New Hampshire this week (I'll need a break from helping clean out my parent's house) and if I do, I'll pass on a hello from Jerry Ackerman.

Out of the frying pan?

What's worse than being put on the auction block in the first place? How about being told you don't make the grade, and you're going to resold to pay the bills.

That's the situation the folks at the San Jose Mercury News found themselves in today. After perhaps feeling some initial relief that McClatchy, the well-regarded owner of the Sacramento Bee and 11 other U.S. dailies, had submitted the winning $6.5 billion bid for the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, they found out that their new owner plans to reduce his debt load by selling off some of the less promising papers in the K-R chain...and that his list of losers includes the Mercury News.

That leaves them still hanging fire, and more likely to end up with an owner who will "slash and burn" the newsroom in an attempt to cut costs and pull more profits out of the paper.

In a briefing last week to JMC faculty on the impending sale of the K-R chain, Editor-in-Residence Jerry Ceppos voiced some of those kinds of concerns and listed what he considered to be the three most likely outcomes for San Jose and the Mercury News. He didn't envision this one.

But Ceppos did offer one suggestion that now seems prescient. No matter who buys K-R, he said, we should watch for two things: whether journalists end up near the seat of power, and how much debt the buyer must take on to complete the buyout. That's what will determine whether or not the K-R buyout turns out to be good for journalism, he said.

From that perspective, things aren't looking so good for San Jose and the Mercury News.

In an article in today's WSJ, K-R Chairman and CEO Tony Ridder acknowledges that the "uncertainty is not over" for the 12 K-R newspapers that will be resold, "and I regret that very much."

In the same article, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said he did not anticipate having trouble selling those K-R newspapers, and that the proceeds would be used to pay down debt.

At the end of the tunnel?

While we worry about how new owners could affect the quality of journalism at the Mercury News and other Knight Ridder newspapers, Michael Shapiro offers food for thought in the current cover article of CJR. In it, he tells how one of the top newspapers in the KR chain, the Philadelphia Enquirer, has fared under what KR's managment.

The upshot: it ain't pretty. Here's an excerpt from his article, Looking for Light:

The Inquirer, it was said in a tone used to describe a handsome friend who has not aged well, was not what it was.... No one was suggesting that the Inquirer had become a bad newspaper, far from it. But it had become duller — yet another newspaper whose occasional highs seemed to come at ever longer intervals. That judgment was rendered both from afar and from within the paper’s white tower of a home on North Broad Street.

The Inquirer had gone through three editors in the last six years, had by last summer seen its newsroom staff already reduced since 1999 from 600 to 500, and perhaps saddest of all, had gone from being perhaps the most alluring and electric place in the business to work to yet another newsroom where some young reporters wondered whether they would have been wiser to have gone to law school.

Shapiro, a writer and media critic, teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

New student journalism blog

Here's an interesting new blog/website hybrid, the Blue Plate Special, produced by NYU Journalism Prof. Jay Rosen and his Blogging 101 students. Each "edition" mixes blog posts, interviews and informational features on a single subject. They plan to publish this cross between an online magazine and a blog monthly.

Blue Plate Special No. 1 focuses on Newspaper Blogging: State of the Art and asks: "What happens when the people in the newspaper wing of the legacy media start blogging?" It includes a chart the Blue Plate Special team created on the state of blogging at America's 100 biggest newspapers, and a list of the best blogging newspapers in the United States.

I like this concept. What do you think of it?

More on Blogging

I've gotten some mixed feedback from journalism students (some posted, some in class) on my previous post on blogging, where I quoted newspaper executives at the recent Rethinking Journalism Education summit who said they'd give bloggers an edge when it came to hiring.

Some students view blogs as online personal diaries that are of little value to news audiences. Sure, there are lots of "online journals" out there, but many savvy media writers and media organizations are also experimenting with blogs in interesting (and, I would argue, valuable) ways. Here are a few examples:

• The Editors Weblog, published by the World Editors Forum, offers "editorial solutions for the newspaper renaissance." It covers trends in news reporting, editing and news coverage worldwide.
• NewMediaMusings, a blog by J.D. Lasica, former editor of the Sacramento Bee and now a writer, blogger, media consultant and director of Ourmedia.org, a grassroots citizen media project.
• VisualEditors blog, the news editing and design network, offers comments and links to news on the media.

Public relations practioners and marketers are also figuring out the value of blogging. Here are some examples:

• AdRants, a blog/website that combines commentary on advertising, marketing and media trends with "a pinch of attitude."
• Church of the Customer blog, an informative (and self-promoting) blog by two marketers, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, on the effects of word of mouth on customer loyalty and "customer evangelism."
• Micropersuasion, a blog by Edelman Senior VP Steve Rubel that "explores how new technologies are transforming marketing, media and public relations."
• PR meets the WWW, a blog on public relations, communication, and the World Wide Web of new technologies, by Constantin Basturea, founder of NewPR Wiki and co-organizer of Global PR Blog Week.

You might also want to check out this recent PR Week article, Blogging becoming an asset in agency eye, by Keith O'Brien, who notes that PR agencies are hiring top bloggers. Here's an excerpt:

Has blogging changed from a liability to an asset in the PR job market?

During the nascent days of blogging, when both emerging and large corporations were firing staffers for blogging-related offenses, the jury was out on whether blogging was a nefarious habit, to be hidden when applying for jobs, or a positive career move.

The recent ascension of two high-profile bloggers - Steve Rubel, formerly of CooperKatz, and Jeremy Pepper, formerly of his own firm Pop PR, who were hired by Edelman and Weber Shandwick, respectively - suggests the negative valence of blogging has turned positive. Indeed, today's more pressing question isn't whether you can get a job if you blog, but, rather, whether you can get a job without a blog.

Well, the short answer is yes, but it's more complicated than that.... (direct link to the rest of this story)

It's still possible to argue that blogging is just the "fad du jour," but I think it's getting harder. I think blogging is a significant emerging medium. In fact, you could say blogs are to the World Wide Web what cable TV is to television. (Of course, you might argue that blogs are like HGTV and the Oxygen channel, not ESPN, HBO and MTV...and I'd probably agree.)

Let me be clear: this doesn't mean I think everyone should run out and become a blogger. That wouldn't work. My point is that we ignore emerging technologies (and new mediums) at our own peril.

The media world is changing and we've got to change with it...or be left behind.

Blogging, anyone?

More missives from the Rethinking Journalism Education conference...

If he had two candidates who were equally well qualified, and one of them blogged, Howard Owens said he'd hire the blogger. Why?

"It indicates a passion about the web," said Owens, who is VP/Interactive for The Bakersfield Californian.

Bill Gannon, editorial director and managing editor of Yahoo! News said, "The great thing about blogging is that is reveals talent and passion."

Here are the kinds of candidates Chris Jennewein says he doesn't hire: "It's as if they have a vision of the way things were, not the way they can be."

What he wants is people who are risk-takers, says Jennewein, director of internet operations at the Union-Tribune Publishing Co., San Diego. He reminded educators at the Morro Bay conference that new types of media mean new opportunities for their students.

"Your students have got a great future," Gannon said. "I want you to be as encouraged about the future as we are. I think that the future is indeed incredibly bright."

What Media Employers Want

The Rethinking Journalism Education conference opened with a panel of media executives who told us what they look for in new hires. Here are the panelists and what they had to say:

• Sandra Duerr, executive editor, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo
• Bill Gannon, editorial director and managing editor, Yahoo! News
• Chris Jennewein, director of internet operations, Union-Tribune Publishing Co., San Diego.
• Howard Owens, VP/Interactive, The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, Calif.

Jennewein said he's looking for a "converged student" with demonstrated skills in the web medium, with strong writing and video skills, who knows how to tell stories, knows AP style.

Sandra Duerr wants entry-level reporters who can think visually and graphically, who understand how to deliver information, and understand business/economics.

Bill Gannon says critical thinking ability is most important. He notes all applicants to Yahoo's news division must take a copy editing test and a writing test, and be prepared to work in a time-shifting world.

Howard Owens says new journalists need to know how to interview people, gather documents, and structure a story. They need to be smart, honest, resourceful, and have good judgment. They also need to respect citizen journalism and see journalism as a conversation. He emphasizes they also need to respect ethics, because there's no room for dishonesty.

All agreed students need more than one internship to get the experience they need to hit the ground running at their first real media job.

When Dona Nichols of JMC asked what we're not teaching, what qualifications are missing for many entry-level media job candidates. Jennewein said he's looking for candidates who are versatile, risk-taking, and open to the possibilities out there in the media environment.

Owens added, "If students don't have the passion, the qualifications for journalism, encourage them to find another profession."

Salaries for entry-level reporters

Jennewein: multimedia specialists start from upper $20s to low $40s
Duerr: entry-level reporters start at $34,000-35,000
Gannon: news hires start in $40s to $50s..."depends on how bad I want them." Yahoo also offers stock options.
Owens: entry-level programmers and content producers (advertorial) start at $35-40,000 (that's more than entry-level reporters get in the newsroom)

Major Irony Factor

Here we are at Morro Bay for the "Rethinking Journalism Education" conference, focusing on how to prepare journalism students for a world of new media and new technology…and we can't access the web.

I'm told they're going to "turn it on" later in the conference. Apparently there is no free lunch…or free web access.

(Okay, now we're live)

Saving newspapers...or the news?

You've heard it before…continuing declines in newspaper readership and big drops in advertising revenues are prompting questions about the future of journalism and mass media.

Former Knight Ridder news executive Jerry Ceppos opened a series of discussion forums with JMC students this week by reciting some of those sorry stats. Then he asked students for their ideas on how best to save the nation's newspapers.

Halfway through the session, one JMC student got to the crux of the problem:

Is our goal here to save the newspaper, or news in general?

"Let's…say we want to save the news, and make good journalism available to people," said Ceppos, who is on campus this week as JMC's editor in residence, speaking in classes and holding discussion sessions on the future of newspapers and the mass media.

A worthy goal. Here are some ideas from the Tuesday morning session:

• Move 50 percent of news staff to the web, and reorient the newsroom culture to the web
• Make it more convenient to get the news
  
• Ask subscribers about their interests, and give them ways to tailor news content to their interests
• Add "cheese" to the spinach, to make "good for you" news more palatable to readers
  

A Note of Optimism

If you're tired of hearing doom and gloom reports about the future of journalism in the digital age, take heart. Maybe it's not as bad as the some of the old fogeys fear.

That's the message of a recent Hartford Courant article (sorry, it's archived and pay per view) which noted that, in spite of recent newspaper cutbacks and layoffs, j-school applications are up. Indeed, most journalism students seem undaunted by the worries besetting their news industry elders.

In the story, reporter Joann Klimkiewicz wrote:

Whereas some news folks see the Internet as a foe, the emerging group of journalists see it as a friend. It means they can get the news out quicker than a printing press allows, that their stories will reach wider audiences and, hopefully, have greater impact.

Although the job market can be tough, there are always openings for talented people and there will always be a demand for news stories. What may change, Klimkiewicz said, is how people prefer to get that information. She continued:

And so the tack many [j-school] programs are taking is to get their students proficient across all media. Good journalism is good journalism, no matter the vehicle.

"The most important thing we can teach our students is to be platform-agnostic," says Rich Hanley, graduate program director for Quinnipiac's school of communications. "The more you can learn, the more you can market yourself.

"A story is a story. At heart, you're still a reporter," Hanley says. "Despite the changes in distribution mechanisms, the skills of a reporter are timeless: Report the facts, report the information objectively, and write clearly."

Sounds like good advice.

Controversial Images

In my newswriting class this week, we talked about the international uproar over the publication of some controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Some students questioned why a newspaper would publish images that so many people would find offensive, comparing it to crying "fire" in a crowded theater. Others defended their publication on the grounds of freedom of speech.

I find it hard to imagine how cartoons, no matter how crude or offensive, could provoke riots and death threats. But then, I never understood how anyone could call for Salman Rushdie's death for writing the Satanic Verses either. Then again, I'm a Unitarian -- even Garrison Keiller makes jokes about us. But can you imagine me putting out a fatwa on him?

When I try to think of similar situations here in the States, the only thing that comes close is the anger over Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ." A recent Frontpagemagazine.com article, "Piss Christ vs. Cartoon Jihad," compares the Christian response to Serrano's photograph to the Muslim response to the cartoons published in the Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper. And in Peaktalk, blogger Pieter Dorsman also compares the two situations. He writes:

...The ability to apply criticism and ridicule are the basic rights of anyone living in a western democracy. As a society we should expect citizens and artists alike to apply a measure of good taste. It is very hard to argue that the Jyllands-Posten's cartoons were offensive, but a case could be made that Serrano's "Piss Christ" was testing the limits of that somewhat arbitrary 'taste measure'. But we didn't kill Serrano, we didn't destroy his career, we didn't ask him for damages and a rectification, no, we debated it and we are still debating it today, twenty years on. That's freedom, that's democracy.

If you'd like to see more of the cartoons for yourself, follow this link or this one.

Photoshop Follies?

I love it when my students get creative about spotting errors for the "Copy Edit the World" assignment. For example, take a close look at this graphic sent to me by photojournalist and fellow blogger Daniel Sato from my 61A class.

As a writer, I tend to think in terms of typos and AP style errors for this assignment, but, as Sato notes, "designers must also keep a sharp eye out for errors as well!" As evidence, he sent this graphic which seems to show Windows 98 running on a (pre-Intel) Mac.

Looks like somebody went a little Photoshop-happy on this one...and nobody caught it before it went out the door.

Reminds me of a livestock insurance ad I once worked on. The illustration showed a rider on a hunter-jumper (that's a type of horse, for you non-equine-oriented folks) clearing a fence...but the saddle had no girth. Any horse-savvy potential client would have noticed that omission right away, and our client would have lost all credibility. Good thing I caught it first.

Copy Edit the World

Accuracy and attention to detail are important for all kinds of writing, so budding media writers need to hone their proofreading and editing skills. That's why I assign students to "Copy Edit the World," an exercise which offers credit for finding and correcting errors (typos, AP style errors, etc.) in newspapers, magazines, web pages, and other published materials. (Thanks to Frank E. Fee Jr. of UNC-Chapel Hill for this exercise.)

Every semester, I award bonus points to the students who find the most egregious and embarrassing errors. Last fall, Charlene Crooks won my "worst of show" award for a JMC convocation committee fundraising letter, sent to JMC alumni and friends, in which she found not one but two sentence fragments. Ouch!

Fall '05 Copy Edit the World honorable mentions included:

• a billboard outside a drug store saying "See are new store!" submitted by Kyle Hansen.
• a postcard advertising "hot imported European beds" (we figured maybe they were stolen), submitted by Victoria Gothot.
• a tag on a container of lime juice saying it was "natural strenght," submitted by Seychelle Martinez.

For a more recent example, here's a Mercury News article that shows what can happen when when errors go uncaught. Yes, it's called public humiliation.

Fun at MacWorld '06

Going to MacWorld is just plain fun. Hordes of Mac afficionnados gathered in the bowels of Moscone Center to ooh and ahh over new computers, software, iPod accessories and other swell gadgets.

Here's what I came home with:

• Cable yoyo, a handy little device for corralling power cords (wish I'd got several)
• Belkin TuneTies, a silicon figure "8" for stashing iPod earbuds and cables
• Visual QuickProject books from PeachPit Press on Adobe InDesign (which I use) and Dreamweaver 8 (which I plan to get). Feel free to ask me for a loan.
• Robin Williams' guide to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and Scott Kelby's book on Tiger Killer Tips (I plan to upgrade soon)
• A green Chums flip case for my iPod (I like my pink one, but I want better access to the scroll wheel), and a lime green aluminum iPod carrying case (I know, it's overkill...but it was really cute and only $11).
• Drive Genius, software for maintaining your hard drive
• A software three-fer: Intego's Net Barrier, VirusBarrier and Personal Back-up (can you tell this is the year I've decided to get serious about computer security and maintenance?)
• A big pile of handouts on more interesting software, equipment and gadgets

Here's what I coveted:

• The new MacBook Pro laptop...faster, thinner, lighter...what's not to like?
• iLife '06...iPhoto has more oomph and Garageband now supports podcasting.
• SavetheiPods, a clear protective covering for iPods (they ran out...I plan to order it)
• Browseback, software for saving and searching your browser history, and saving web pages as PDFs for future reference
• Delicious Library, software for easily cataloging music, software, movie and book collections

Remembering

Requiem
By Wendell Berry

We will see no more
the mown grass fallen behind him...

In the day of his work
when the grace of the world
was upon him, he made his way,
not turning back or looking aside,
light in his stride.

Now may the grace of death
be upon him, his spirit blessed
in deep song of the world
and the stars turning, the seasons
returning, and long rest.

In loving memory of my father, Thomas E. Fernald, who died December 21, during the longest night of the year. He was 86.

What were they thinking?

Remember the big stink when it came out that the Bush administration had been paying supposedly independent news commentators like Armstrong Williams to talk nice about their education plan? (Need a refresher? See these articles in USA Today, Washington Post and Fox News.)

And remember how the shit hit the fan when it came out that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was putting out VNRs that looked like real news to promote one of his reform programs? (See related article in SF Chronicle and discussion on KPBS.)

Well, apparently the U.S. military has not been paying attention. Otherwise, they would have anticipated the blowback they're now getting about the fake news stories they've been planting in the Iraqi news media.

It seems this "secret" operation, conducted by the military's "information operations task force" with the help of a DC-based consulting firm known as the Lincoln Group, has been going on since early this year. (See the LA Times article that broke this story, and a follow-up by Reuters.)

Many are not pleased. Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, quoted in the Washington Post, had this to say:

"I am concerned about any actions that may undermine the credibility of the United States as we help the Iraqi people stand up a democracy," said the committee's chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., adding that he has no information to confirm or deny the reports. "A free and independent press is critical to the functioning of a democracy, and I am concerned about any actions which may erode the independence of the Iraqi media."

Is Warner right to be worried? Judge for yourself. Check out the coverage this story is getting worldwide in news outlets such as Arab News, KurdMedia, News24 (South Africa), and the New Zealand Herald.

Of course, not everyone thinks it's a problem. Take a look at this alternative view by a retired Air Force brigadier general and professor of defense studies, which appeared as an editorial in the LA Times.

Then check out this angry response on Richard Edelman's blog. (Yes, that Edelman...the president and CEO of the big public relations firm.)

This is utterly unacceptable behavior. In no way does this describe public relations. It is pay for play and a PR firm based in the US is doing it. Advertising and public relations are not the same thing. We don't do storyboards. We don't buy space. We don't pay journalists to be on our side. We don't fake out media by pretending that we don't know much about our client, working under cover of night. We don't say that there is only one side to a story. If a free media is a central aspect of a democratic society, then we cannot allow our PR industry to impede its development. It is a perversion of our business, an intentional blurring of a clear demarcation between paid and earned media. We should advise our clients, private sector and governmental, that trust is earned through transparency, continuous communication and dialogue.

You might also want to read Falling for Fake News, a good Poynter Online article about the "fake news" trend.

Fun with headlines

I always like it when incongruous headlines show up together. Here are some that tickled me today:

Bush's theme on Iraq: victory, not pullout
U.S. military secretly placing favorable stories in Iraq papers

Think one has anything to do with the other? Well then, how about:

Traumatic stress is taking root along Gulf Coast
House budget-cut bill exempts drug makers
(okay, so you need to read the fine print on this one: turns out the exemptions are for mental health drugs, keeping their prices high)

Then, my favorite headline of the day:

Sharp objects might be allowed on planes again

You can play this game too. The only rules are: the headlines have to appear in the same issue of a publication (preferably on the same or facing pages), otherwise the entertaining irony factor is lost. Post your finds here!

P.S. When I read these headlines to my husband: 1) he didn't see the irony, and 2) he didn't think they were at all funny. Maybe you had to be there (in my warped brain, perhaps?) If you agree with Tom, you can tell me that too.

A call to action

If you're worried about the future of newspapers and journalism -- or the future of our democracy without them -- you might want to click over to a recent commentary and call to action by John McManus of gradethenews.org.

In his commentary, McManus writes about the recent threat to San Jose and 32 other cities across America posed by a wealthy Knight Ridder investor's move to force the newspaper chain's sale to increase profits.

Double digit returns apparently aren't good enough for Bruce S. Sherman, CEO and chief investment officer of Private Capital Management (PCM), who stands to reap a personal payout of up to $300 million by selling out the Merc and other papers in the Knight Ridder chain. And since, as McManus notes, PCM is also the largest shareholder in six other U.S. newspaper companies...well, you can see the writing on the wall if this goes through.

Does it make you angry that one greedy profiteer is in a position to ruin the daily news for newspaper readers nationwide? (And that's not counting the audiences of the radio/ TV/cable broadcasters who rip 'n read, or base their stories on what appears in print.)

Wish you could do something about it? Well, here's a letter of protest (and a promise of boycott), drafted by McManus, that you can send to Mr. Sherman. Or, in case you'd rather e-mail him, his address is BSherman@Private-cap.com.

You might also consider sending a letter to the editor at the Mercury News...while you still can.