Newspaper and Publication Systems
I wrote out the newspaper systems for an effective publication and thought it might be useful to review:
1. CONTENT
a. Story Spreadsheet/ways to solicit and brainstorm new and edgy stories
b. Publisher approval/editorial committee
c. Soliciting feedback, suggestions, ideas from people outside the group
2. ORGANIZATION
a. Recruitment of writers, managers, sales and distributors
b. Organization/Management of work
c. Revenue/budget, sales, subscriptions
d. Story boards/Layout process/software/training of people who do layout
3. DISTRIBUTION
a. Distributors, social network
b. Maps/Distribution Points
c. Electronic distribution
d. Marketing of content/stories as well as publication itself
Labels: journalism, marketing, newspapers, politics, systems
Outlining stories
Outlining StoriesWhen most people make a story outline, they make crap.
When we outline, we need to make gold.
A golden outline for a story:
1. Visual story structure
2. Major questions to answer
3. Overall theme/allusions
4. Action items/what are people supposed to do with this knowledge/what can they change about it
5. Quotes and interviews to conduct
6. Graphics and pictures relevant to the story and worth using
Labels: features, journalism, newspapers, writing
Craigslist for journalism
I had the idea a few years ago to start a website that never came about, I called it Washingtonfreelance.com -- the idea would be to find ways to pay people to write stories and link them together with the outlets who need the content. I sorely lacked the requisite industry contacts to make this idea happen, but it just occurred to me that the UPI/Reuters/AP cartels make a ton of money off a very basic model that could so easily be replicated by blogs or by really anyone. The real money should be directed towards good journalism rather than the recitation of press releases, something none of these outlets really try to do anyway. If you could find a way to deliver the main content at little to no cost, and then allowed member outlets to pick up stories you had financed, you could with one website radically revolutionize the industry. You would pay reporters better, direct the money to the ones writing the valuable content, and empower editors to cover better stories and choose to fill their content spaces in a better systemic way. It's an idea whose time has come.
Labels: ideas, journalism
Craigslist killer kills prostitutes: blame craigslist?
ABC interviewed Craig from Craigslist. Due to the recent killings nearby, their angle is trying to push for guilt to be partially transferred to the website. Are the media really proposing making policy based off of the moniker's they choose for serial killers? If the connection had occurred via the classified ads, should we call him the classifieds killer and then propose banning classified ads? There is something more troubling than dead women, and that's the continued twisting of language so as to justify any action. The newspapers hate craigslist for streamlining and removing the revenue stream of the classified ad business. The website is simple and direct, and yet no newspaper was willing to post listings for free, and easily searchable. The arrogance of print newspapers, resulting in their current decline and demise, is now exacted upon this website now that they have the smallest window of opportunity to do so. It's shameful, pathetic, and disgusting that we tolerate this kind of 'journalism.'
Labels: journalism
newspapers: mandatory subscriptions
While I was writing the last post, it occurred to me how they could 'save' the newspapers now that we're entering full-fledged socialism: mandatory newspaper subscriptions. Everyone who lives in an area will get taxed the subscription fee for the designated major paper, the tax will get collected, and then given to the newspaper of choice. It'll be done someway in which "government doesn't have control over the paper"... at first, but then morph into the local paper being the functionary arm of the state within a short period. I can already see my liberal relatives rejoicing at the paper being 'saved' and 'jobs' created, and also how great it will be that everyone in their area receives the paper! Colleges already do this, setting up huge distribution bins and taxing everyone for three copies of crappy papers no one reads. Welcome to the revolution, comrades!
Labels: journalism, obama, Pelosi, policy, politics, theory
Borat's ruinous legacy for journalists
Sascha Cohen makes a living by making fun of others. In the various comedic cousins, such as Trigger Happy TV, Jackass, Candid Camera, Michael Moore and others, none makes jokes as abrasively as does Cohen. Personally I can't even stand watching his material. And to add even more to the critique, it now comes out that
he uses front companies and elaborate ruses to dupe people into doing interviews and talking to him. Now, I understand the need to build confidence in a subject so they feel at ease, but going to this extreme makes it different than others. You can dupe someone by not directly lying to them, but many will allow their suspicious detector to key them off and refuse the interview. And though it may seem like a small distinction, it gives the subject the opportunity to say, "well, I should have known better" in the sense that they should have done their homework better. Here, by setting up these groups and fake fronts, even having done their homework most would be duped. And so when people see this, when they read it, it means they won't want to give any interviews or ever talk to the media. And while that's my most common advice to friends and organizations when it comes to unfamiliar media, it's a bad overall precedent and will lead to a walled-off section of society unwilling to be a part of the local and national discussion ostensibly happening through mass media.
Nancy Pelosi wants to bailout big media that makes all sorts of bad business decisions, but no one thinks to enforce existing laws against Cohen who is truly and irreversibly harming journalism in order to make crass unfunny jokes to line his own pockets.
Labels: comedy, journalism, theory
UMass Minuteman
Even though I spent several years working at the Leadership Institute setting up campus newspapers, I have never met or worked with more alumni than that of
the UMass Minuteman. It has a website worth checking out, and brings a much-needed dose of reality to a very left-wing campus.
Labels: campuses, journalism
It's not news, it's CNN
Sitting in my favorite sub shop, CNN is on in the background. I CANNOT BELIEVE what passes for news on CNN, and how incredibly terrible it is. The "News to Me" short is on right now, and I have seen more reliable better journalism in colleges than I do on CNN. This must be their way of being "hip" and "techno-savvy" but it is an abomination and disgusting.
Labels: CNN, content, journalism
