News Change

Post's Publisher gets it

Following up yesterday's post about Steven Pearlstein's feeling that smaller papers should cease to exist. It is nice to see that his boss at least grasps the concept that local should be the emphasis of the newspaper.
Katherine Weymouth, CEO and Publisher of the Washington Post sent a memo to the entire Post staff today.
The interesting part to me was her feeling that, "More than ever, The Washington Post must be the indispensable guide to Washington."
Referring to yesterday's gaff by Pearlstein, a colleague made the observation that maybe the Post should get out of the business so that the New York Times can increase their circulation, seeing that The Washington Post can't cover national and international news as well as The Times.

Should all of the community newspapers just shut down?

sWashington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein did a online chat yesterday on WashintonPost.com and shared this comment:

But to date, we cling to these outdated notions that every city of 25,000 people needs its own daily newspaper. Not only can't those papers be very good at delivering a full range of local, national and international news and features, but their existence makes it difficult for even the big metro papers to have enough circulation (scale) to do that. Unfortunately, consolidation takes a long time, especially when so many papers remain in family ownership.

It seems like he is suggesting that the little guys step out of the way so that large newspapers can continue to exist in their current form. He seems to have missed some recent concepts like, "Its local stupid" and "Do what you do best and link to the rest."

The idea that every news organization has a need to report on "national and international news and features" is ridiculous. Many community newspapers in this country understand that their bread and butter is local news. This is content that the nearby large metro can't and doesn't want to provide. Where I currently work is 60 miles from a city with a large paper. They make no effort to cover this community except for rare occurrences.

It is easy to sit at The Washington Post, a paper known for national and international coverage and feel like this is a necessity for a newspaper. That is flawed logic though. The number of outlets to the average person for this type of news is astounding. Between the cable news channels devoted to this and the Internet, one can find the news they are looking for rather easily.

Now, to address his comment that, "their existence makes it difficult for even the big metro papers to have enough circulation." Is it really the responsibility of one business to look out for the long-term concerns of a competitor. A comparison would be to ask a locally owned pizza place to close shop because the Domino's Pizza down the road isn't getting enough deliveries.

Quotes from a forum troll

Since I recently discussed how to deal with a forum troll, I thought that I would share some excerpts from a recent email exchange with our most bothersome troll.

Email #1 - I know what's going on..you're trying to make it as hard as possible for me to continue so I'll quit. (name removed) did the same thing when I was attacked repeatedly and I returned in kind. Religionists are all the same and this is the best you can do to vent your frustrations. You're pitiful.

Email #2 - But as I've said I've found christians are the worst liars. You feel doing what you want is ok because you've been programmed to believe that as long as you confess it's ok. You can commit the same 'sin' repeatedly and as long as you confess you're still going to heaven.

You won't respond because you're wrong and won't admit it. Again, I'm used to that after 28 years here.

Email #3 - Why do christians find it so easy to lie?

Email #4 - Just as I said..because I don't believe in your silly fairy tale you have chosen to stop me from posting. It's just what I expect from you small minded religionists. You can't handle the truth.

One would think that because of the overwhelming message of these emails that this person may actually know something about me personally. You would think that I am a Christian conservative or religious zealot of some sort. But, that would be rather incorrect. I am, if anything, extremely tolerant of all faiths and rarely discuss any matters of any religions.

This does get back to some of the common behaviors of the troll. Many seem to have a favorite subject that they beat into the ground. If you don't pick up on it, this guy is an atheist and thinks all Christians are evil. He tends to try to take every conversation this way when he can. If someone uses the statement, "Thank God for ..." he will quickly start his discussion of how most of the world doesn't believe in your god or how The Bible is a fairy tail.

Dealing wih forum trolls

Are there many things more annoying that the forum troll? Everywhere I have been there have been the trolls. It is difficult to understand the thought process of someone that wants to be hated in an online community.
I could sit around all day and espouse on what I think makes these folks tick and it would not really accomplish a thing.
Paul Graham shared my most common excuse for these people,

The third cause of trolling is incompetence.  If you disagree with somoething, it's easier to say "you suck" than to figure out and explain exactly what you disagree with.  You're also safe that way from refutation.  In this respect trolling is a lot like graffiti. Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world.

The keys to beating the troll are persistence and using your tools effectively. Many forum and comment tools have the ability to ban a user. This is the easiest way to first stop the troll. But, many times it is easy to just get a new account and start trolling all over again. Check your toolbox and see if you can ban IP addresses as well. Remember that the tech savvy troll will know how to change his IP address though. This is where persisence comes in. You have to stay vigilant and look for posts that fit the troll's begaviors. If you can kill off a troll's new account early they will get frustrated quickly.

One last tip. When you remove a troll's account. It can help to go back and remove all of their posts. If a troll sees that the moderators are serious, they will often find another place for their antics.

The online news budget meeting

Image via Wikipedia

We started something new this week at The Anniston Star. I began attending the newsroom's morning budget meeting.

In the past, this meeting has been used to plan out the print product for the day. This week we changed a great deal of the focus to planning out the day on the home page of www.annistonstar.com. We are now using this meeting every day to have a team plan out the daily direction of the site instead of winging it or having one or two people make these decisions.

These type of meetings can be very short and still be quite useful. It has helped the online staff to know what new stories we are likely to have during the day. On days when there isn't breaking news of note, we can also pick possibly overlooked content to be featured on the site.

As we move forward with a new content management system that will be easier for newsoom employees to use, these meetings will be even more important.

We had very brief early morning meetings like this when I was at al.com. They really helped everyone get on the same page with the direction of the site.

So, if the website is not part of your newsroom's morning routine, start now.