News

A long-running soap opera legal case here in Boulder involves the Midyettes, a couple whose 10-week-old baby died. Molly Midyette is serving a jail term for not preventing the death of her son, while Alex Midyette is set to stand trial for child abuse resulting in death.

This week, Alex Midyette was granted a change of venue for his trial, due to the intense publicity surrounding the case. Just as with the fabled Jonbenet Ramsey case (Boulder’s most notorious criminal mystery), it’s just about impossible to find anyone in Boulder without knowledge of the Midyette case — and probably an opinion about Alex’s guilt, given his wife’s conviction.

Daily Camera commenters haven’t been reticent in expressing their opinions

What’s interesting about this change of venue is that the court cited Internet comments on local news websites (mostly the Boulder Daily Camera) and blogs as a primary reason for moving proceedings out of Boulder County, along with traditional media coverage. This may be the first time a court has relied so heavily on online comments to news stories in such a decision; it certainly won’t be the last.

The Camera’s Zak Brown covered the issue in this story, which includes a short quote from me.

How to save newspapers … NOT!
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/socialstudies.php

Why does this idea persist? I realize that the “free content” model is not paying out as quickly as the newspaper industry wants it to — thus necessitating drastic cutbacks in response to the downward revenue spiral — but this author’s suggestion of newspaper publishers banding together and withholding news content unless consumers pay will just ACCELERATE the industry’s decline.

Fortunately, I don’t think the idea will ever get a serious try-out. (Past attempts over the last decade-plus have failed, other than for niche publishers with high-value, not easily found elsewhere content. Why beat a dead horse?)

I think the iPhone 3G is gonna be big. … D’uh! That’s a pretty safe statement. After today’s announcement, and after drooling over its new features on the Apple website, I tried to check my AT&T account to see when my 2-year contract is up, so I can upgrade to the new iPhone without paying an exorbitant price to do so, and check on data plan pricing. wireless.att.com was so overloaded I couldn’t log in even with repeated attempts.

Assuming Apple can produce enough of these things to satisfy demand, I’ve got to believe that there will be enough iPhones out there (1st-gen and 3G) to support development by news and media companies of services specifically for the iPhone platform. In fact, I’d say any publisher not getting ready to serve an onslaught of iPhone users should have his/her head examined.

I also think that the state of the new iPhone is such that it will cause a lot of its users to abandon reading print newspapers, if they haven’t stopped that already. Traditionalists can pooh-pooh the idea of a tiny phone replacing a print newspaper, but I have no doubt that for many people, it will.

My May column for Editor & Publisher Online is up: “Serving Those Who Don’t Read the Print Edition.”

It’s a riff on how newspapers need to figure out how to serve the increasing number of people who are dumping their print habit and halting subscriptions to the paper edition (and serve those for whom printed newspapers have never been a media choice).

There’s still plenty of old-media thinking among newspaper editors. I caught an example this week with this story from DailyCamera.com: “Larimer sheriff slams Boulder cyclists,” which is about some inflammatory comments made by the sheriff of Larimer County, suggesting that when his deputies encounter cyclists from Boulder, the Boulderites often have an “attitude.”

The article was classic reporting, summarizing the sheriff’s remarks as published in a column on the sheriff’s website. What was missing: a link to the column.

Of course, DailyCamera.com does allow readers to post comments, and one reader noticed the omission and provided the link to the actual column.

While I’m picking on one newspaper, I continue to see this problem on many other newspaper websites. Linking out is good! It pays dividends as the linked-to’s notice and link back. Linking is not your enemy. Sigh.

My April 1 Editor & Publisher Online column (not an April Fools joke) about ending my long-held subscription to my local newspaper’s print edition generated a fair bit of controversy in the form of letters to E&P. I apologize for not responding more promptly, but it’s been a crazy period for me. Belatedly, here are some of the letters received (previously published on Editorandpublisher.com), and my responses to them.

Continued

Well, it took me a lot longer than many of my new-media colleagues, but I finally gave up the print habit and stopped the driveway deliveries of the Boulder Daily Camera. I used this life milestone — and it is, since I’ve been getting a printed newspaper delivered for my entire adult life, and as a kid my parents subscribed to the local paper — to suggest some lessons for the newspaper industry.

Here’s my Editor & Publisher Online column about it: Life Without the Print Edition.

This is the cover of the weekly TV guide insert in the Boulder Daily Camera that showed up in Sunday’s paper. (Click on the image to see the larger view.) Like many papers, the Camera has continued to cut back on elements of the print edition. At the same time, it recently raised the home-delivery price significantly. It’s the get-less, pay-more marketing strategy.

Actually, I applaud this move. Camera subscribers who still want the weekly printed TV guide can get it mailed to them, while the rest of us who couldn’t care less about it can feel better that our choice to abstain will save a few trees.

My latest Editor & Publisher Online column is up: “When Journalists Aren’t Happy, the Industry Isn’t Happy.” It’s about what we can learn from the rants that are filling up the new website, AngryJournalist.com. Enjoy.

(This is actually my February column, delayed because of a weird e-mail problem where my messages to E&P editors didn’t get through for the space of a week.)

This could become addictive: AngryJournalist.com. Simple concept: Allow any journalist to anonymously air a gripe about life as a journalist. Moderate comments to keep out the trolls and spam.

So far it’s entertaining reading. But I think it also will prove useful. I hope newsroom managers will make AngryJournalist.com a regular read. It will be useful in understanding what people in the newsroom are really thinking.

Here are a few gripes I pulled out that pertain to new media:

I hate the fact that print and online can’t work together! Come on, online is the future, so please have some respect for the webeditors!”

“I spent about an hour today teaching our publisher how to add an attachment to an e-mail. I then had to teach her how to empty the trash can on her computer. How this newspaper gets published? I don’t know! They don’t pay me enough to deal with pure stupidity.”

“The reporters don’t understand the Internet department and the Internet department doesn’t understand reporters. The worst part — some of them aren’t even trying. These debates are important; no one has the answers yet. Let’s recognize that. Let’s be frank about that. Let’s talk honestly with our newsroom about the pressures of the online media landscape.”

“I’m sick of editors. Let the people decide what we want to read. Throw it all at the wall and let us decide. Its the greatest time in the world for journalist…if they decide to break free from the chains of standard editor driven journalist. Blogging is the future.”

“The web is constantly misused by journalists. The managers think it’s a dumping ground (”oh, let’s just put it on the web”). The reporters don’t care about it. The photographers don’t know what to do with it. Promotions doesn’t know how to promote it. And when a few people try to do the right thing the right way (ie: my news manager, two of my reporters), it gets buried under the ignorance of everyone else (EP of News, EP of Morning Shows, I’m looking at you).”

“joe citizen is not a goddamn journalist.”

“I used to be a journalist and actually inform and tell interesting stories. Now I work for a lame TV web site.”

“i’m angry cuz i hear people talk shit about our industry all the time and i can’t defend it cuz most of the time they’re fucking right.”

“I hate citizen journalism.”

“I don’t like seeing young journalists scoff at the Internet. I never knew there were Luddites under 30 until I started working in the news business. I hate you people.”

“There is a major disconnect between the old-timers (even the middle-timers) who are so used to doing the same things for so, so long. They “don’t get it” (sorry-already a tired expression) when it comes to new media. It’s very frustrating working with these dinosaurs (vainly) fighting change.”

Priceless!