Bill Doskoch: Media, BPS*, Film, Minutiae

Bashing the Star's restructuring

billdoskoch — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:06:08 -0500

John Miller, before he became a Ryerson j-prof, toiled at 1 Yonge St, home of the (once mighty?) Toronto Star. He's mortified by the paper's apparent plan to outsource its editing and page production work.

Admit it: Haven't you wanted to do this to one of your boss's memos?

billdoskoch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:33:59 -0500

From the Torontoist:

Earlier this week the Toronto Star announced, among other changes, that it was planning to outsource some one hundred in-house, union editing jobs. In the press release issued by the union in the wake of the announcement, union chief Maureen Dawson explained that "Journalism is a collaborative effort, the product of a team of reporters, photographers and editors working in concert to produce the kind of activist agenda that has served Star readers and our community so well for so long...To remove a critical element of that work is to shortchange everyone who depends on it."

Now, one (apparent) editor at the Star has decided to show us all the benefits of collaboration. An extensively marked-up copy of Publisher John Cruickshank's internal memo announcing the changes was sent to Torontoist by a self-described "intermediary who was asked to send this for a friend who works at the Star" this morning; it's, allegedly, "the work of a Star editor."

Here's the whole thing:

And for your journalistic ethical edification, we present ... Jayson Blair

billdoskoch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:56:16 -0500

Jayson Blair, whose fabrications triggered the worst ethics crisis in the history of the New York Times and cost two very senior editors their jobs, will be speaking later today at a journalism ethics conference.

Centrist bias

billdoskoch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:44:23 -0500

James Poniewozik makes an argument out of a point that I've long believed; centrism can be a form of bias. It's about coverage of American politics, but ask yourself whether the same effect plays out in this country.

The inimitable Christopher Walken ...

billdoskoch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:11:59 -0500

... Reads Lady Gaga's Poker Face out loud:

And if that's not enough, here's a dose of the real thing: the Lady herself performing Love Game, which includes the following unforgettable verse:

Lets have some fun
this beat is sick
I wanna take a ride
On your disco stick

Globe and Mail corro Doug Saunders, travelling through Romania, found that cab drivers loved that tune (Saunders is doing 20th-anniversary coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall).

When I said in a tweet I could only take 10 seconds of that song, he replied: "10 seconds is all it takes."

Dead British pubs

billdoskoch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:05:52 -0500

This isn't a new story, but this is certainly a poignant photo essay at the BBC website -- a visual record of dead British pubs, as captured by Chris Etchell (seen first on Twitter).

The news consumer of tomorrow, as envisioned by Google CEO Eric Schmidt

billdoskoch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:09:21 -0500

From a posting at the Nieman Lab blog: (seen first on Twitter)

I also asked Schmidt about the concept of a “hyperpersonalized news stream,” coined by Google VP Marissa Mayer to describe a customized flow of information from a broad range of news sources. Does Google have aspirations to build on that concept?

Schmidt: We have about ten news stream ideas, of which hyperpersonalization is one. And, again, I’d rather not talk about specific products or even prioritize them, but I would make the following observation: In five or ten years, what will the primary news reader look like?

Well, that person will be probably on a tablet or a mobile phone, probably the majority of the reading will presumably be online not offline, just because of the scale of it. It’ll be highly personalized, right? So you’ll know who the person is. There’ll be a lot of integration of media — so video, voice, what have you. It’ll be advertising-supported and subscription-supported, so you’ll probably have a mixture. Think of the Kindle as an example. The Kindle is a proto of what this thing could look like. People will carry these things around.

So if you start thinking about that, it becomes pretty obvious what the products need to be: more personalized, much deeper, capable of deeper navigation into a subject. Also, show me the differential. Since you know what you told me yesterday, just tell me what changed today. Don’t repeat everything.

As an aside, I posted the following on Twitter to see what the deep thinkers would say:

Why shouldn't 'hyper-personalized' news be thought of as another form of filter failure?

Alas, no takers.

About that kind word for the CBC News relaunch

billdoskoch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:56:06 -0500

Peter McNelly, who once toiled in the Corpse's trenches (and had been a CTV News consultant), finds some good things to say about the CBC News redesign.

Toronto Star to undergo drastic restructuring

billdoskoch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:07:46 -0500

How drastic? Publisher John Cruickshank is calling it the biggest restructuring in the company's history. And if some early musings are correct, copy editors could be the big losers.

What word best describes how you feel about Year One of the Obama presidency?

billdoskoch — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:45:49 -0500

That is the premise of a nytimes.com interactive. You plug in a word, select from a menu of them and self-identify as a Republican, Democrat (or neither).

You get to view them by Republican choices (in red), Dems (in blue) or everyone's (in black). A sample image:

To jazz it up a bit more, it would be fun to be able to click on a word and be able to view short (10-15 second) testimonials of those who had entered a given word where they could say why.

If you're going to F up, do it FTW

billdoskoch — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:55:17 -0500

From YouTube:

The Telegraph story is here (seen first on Twitter).

More on the CBC News relaunch

billdoskoch — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:37:47 -0500

The Globe and Mail did a follow-up news story covered the changes at CBC News, but I gotta say that most of the commentary has not been flattering towards the Corpse.

If anyone comes across some commentary that does have a kind word about it, please send me a link, either by email or comment.

An inauspicious start for CBC TV's revamped The National

billdoskoch — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:45:16 -0400

CBC TV's The National did not finish first in its time slot on Monday night. I'll let Globe and Mail television critic John Doyle tell you about one of the shows that got higher ratings.*

* (Ding, ding, Ding! My 6,666th posting!)

There's some good news about Canadian newspapers, if you care to see it

billdoskoch — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:56:06 -0400

Kelly Toughill, a journalism professor at the University of King's College in Halifax, makes an argument why Canadian newspapers, if not looking up, at least aren't staring down into an abyss.

Grim picture for U.S. newspaper readership

billdoskoch — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:00:13 -0400

The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers for U.S. newspapers tells a grim tale. From the Newsosaur blog:

Following an average drop of 10.6% in the last six months, daily newspaper circulation has fallen to a pre-World War II low of an estimated 39.1 million, according to an analysis of industry data released today.

The first double-digit circulation decline in history means only 12.9% of the U.S. population buys a daily newspaper. The analysis is based on data provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an industry-funded group.

Newspaper circulation now is lower than the 41.1 million papers sold in 1940, the earliest date for which records are published by the Newspaper Association of America. Back in 1940, newspapers were purchased by 31.1% of the population.

'A Public Can Talk To Itself'

billdoskoch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:35:28 -0400

NYU j-student Cody Brown makes the case for direct versus trustee media in an essay entitled 'A public can talk to itself. Why the future of news is pretty clear.'

I posted the following comment to his blog last night:

'Biggest change in the history of CBC News'

billdoskoch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:29:54 -0400

Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor in chief of CBC News, on the renewal of CBC News.

I'll pull a few highlights, but read the whole thing.

Sex talk and the lash in Saudia Arabia

billdoskoch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:20:15 -0400

From the BBC: (posted Oct. 24)

A female journalist in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 60 lashes over a TV show in which a Saudi man described his extra-marital sex life.

The programme, made by Lebanese satellite network LBC, caused a huge scandal in conservative Saudi Arabia when it was shown several months ago.

The journalist is one of two female LBC employees who have been arrested.

Mazen Abdul Jawad, the Saudi man who talked about how he picked up Saudi women for sex, has already been jailed.

Update

The Huffington Post posted an AP story this morning saying Saudi Arabia's king has waived the lash punishment for Rozanna al-Yami.

Win 7 demo oopsie on Japanese national TV

billdoskoch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:29:51 -0400

I don't understand a goddamn thing being said, but the beauty of this clip is, you don't have to! (seen first on Twitter)

Addendum

A colleague who speaks some Japanese offers up a few snippets of the dialogue (thanks, Phil!)

'Embracing social media boosts traffic on news sites'

billdoskoch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:25:59 -0400

From the Oct. 21 Guardian:

The BBC is attempting to embrace social media by appointing a social media editor in its newsroom and redesigning its website. As the September traffic figures for US political blogging site Huffington Post reveal, the strategy is clearly a wise one. In short: embracing social media boosts traffic.

At Slate, they want a small but intense audience

billdoskoch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:19:40 -0400

Slate editor David Plotz told a University of Missouri j-school audience why he thinks 500,000 loyal, engaged visitors interacting with his site is better than seven million "uniques" every month.

CBC News and the Edmonton hostage-taking

billdoskoch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:57:21 -0400

Esther Enkin, the CBC's executive editor of news operations, talks about how her organization handled the ethical minefields of being contacted by both hostage-taker and hostages during an incident Wednesday at the WCB offices in Edmonton.

Our prime minister: American news junkie?

billdoskoch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:08:12 -0400

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Toronto on Wednesday at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce convention, answering questions on the economy, when the following came up:

When a giant seagull walks through your shot

billdoskoch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:18:35 -0400

This happened to newsreader Peter Hitchener in Melbourne, Australia:

From News.com.au:

Ever the professional, the news stalwart only mildly flinched on noticing the seagull but later told 3AW radio the studio cameramen hid behind ...

CBC News to relaunch on Monday

billdoskoch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:58:37 -0400

Newsworld will morph into the CBC News Network (the CNN of Canada, if you will) and the Corpse's flagship TV news show, The National, will get a makeover (faster pace, same journalism, says Peter M.).

Globe columnists on the 'balloon boy' hoax

billdoskoch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:54:46 -0400

I snipped a few thoughts from John Doyle and Lynn Crosbie on the bizarre "balloon boy" saga.

Punking the Washington press corps

billdoskoch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:32:46 -0400

The intriguing lede to Mitch Potter's story in the Toronto Star: "You attend a press conference. The newsmaker speaks. You run a DNA test to confirm they are who they claim to be. And then you publish."

What's a day without an announcement of newsroom downsizing?

billdoskoch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:24:11 -0400

From the NYT:

The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and nonunion employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday.

David Olive's stubborn faith in newspapers

billdoskoch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:15:47 -0400

Toronto Star business writer David Olive offers a prescription for what ails newspapers:

Craig sez, Trust is the new black

billdoskoch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:06:57 -0400

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark offered up some thoughts on how to improve journalism.