Peter Carlson, “The Magazine Reader,” writes in his last Washington Post column:
“I’m taking The Post’s early retirement buyout and heading off to pursue other interests, such as sloth and gin.”
Click here to watch on YouTube the four INNOVATION video case studies presented this year at the World Newspaper Congress from our 2008 INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS Global Report.
The four cases are:
Elefthereos Typos (Athens, Greece), winner of the European Newspaper Award for the best concept and design of the year.
The Economist (London, UK), the most successful global “weekly newspaper” in the world.
La Vanguardia (Barcelona, Spain), and ES, the new and innovative Saturday magazine of the leading Catalan quality paper.
The Sopkesman-Review (Spokane, Washington, USA), and its Transparent Newsroom Project.
We will update this INNOVATION YouTube channel with new video case studies.
Our first screen in the INNOVATION presentation at the WAN Congress.
We need more than cosmetics.
More than decorators.
Much more than face-lifts.
The newspaper industry needs WILD IDEAS.
Serious INNOVATIONS.
Real CHANGES.
Dramatic (RE)EVOLUTIONS.
Tons of CREATIVITY.
And JOURNALISM at its best.
So, we’ll repeat it again and again, “don’t put lipstick on a pig when our newspapers need heart surgery.”
Dave Butler, the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, sends a memo to the newsroom and says that “journalism caviar” is a must:
It is CRITICAL that we all work together to reduce the length of stories so we can get in as much information as possible for our readers.
It has never been more important than it is today for all reporters and editors to demonstrate their outstanding writing and reporting skills by cramming the same information – or what’s essential for the story — in less space.
This is hard. It does not work on every story, but please, please, work harder at making stories – particularly the more “routine” ones — shorter.
We want to continue having in-depth work and we will – but we have to be much more disciplined in what merits 25 inches and what merits 5.
Well, this is editing, editing, editing.
Journalism 101.
So, back to the basics.
Less garbage.
More substance.
Less pottage.
More caviar.
Roldo Bartimole reports about how The Plain Dealer in Cleveland (Ohio, USA) follows the destructive path to killing a newspaper:
The newspaper business, as readers here probably know, isn’t what it used to be.
The economic crisis for newspapers now will be felt strongly in Cleveland.
Top Plain Dealer executives – Publisher Terry Egger and Editor Susan Goldberg – told worried editorial staff members yesterday that the business climate is so bad that the paper plans to cut 35 pages a week from its news pages and 20 percent of its workforce.
Egger said they were looking at “drastic changes,” according to PD reporters.
That’s 35 pages of less news every week or 1,820 pages a year for readers of Cleveland’s only daily newspaper.
A day ago the Tribune Company announced it would chop 500 pages a week from its newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant and others. The New York Times reported that it could mean 82 pages a day cut from the L. A. Times.
The plan has to be approved by Advance publications, owned by the Newhouse family, Plain Dealer owners.
A newspaper price increase is also contemplated.
The paper has already lost some 17 percent of its editorial staff after a recent buyout.
The paper will reduce its op-ed pages from two to one; stock tables will be gone. There will be no business pages on Monday and special sports sections will be eliminated.
This cannot mean anything good to those who already find the newspaper lacking in its coverage.
Well, this is the easy way to kill a newspaper.
Don’t invest.
Don’t change.
Don’t innovate.
Expect miracles.
Blame others.
Sacrifice Journalism.
This is insane.
INNOVATION
