From a recent post on the Knight Digital Media Center's news leadership blog:
As local news organizations have shed a third to half of their newsroom staffs, a fundamental new reality has dawned: Local news organizations can no longer be general news sources in either print or online.
Instead they must reassess their place in the information ecology and hone their mission, according to Carolyn Washburn, the top editor at The Cincinnati Enquirer since January.
"We think all the time about what our unique role is and what we can get from the community," she says. "This has raised the bar for our journalists, because they need to provide things that are more unique. Incredible storytelling. More investigative work. More data-driven journalism."
As local news organizations have shed a third to half of their newsroom staffs, a fundamental new reality has dawned: Local news organizations can no longer be general news sources in either print or online.
"We think all the time about what our unique role is and what we can get from the community," she says. "This has raised the bar for our journalists, because they need to provide things that are more unique. Incredible storytelling. More investigative work. More data-driven journalism."
Wow.....seems like what Carolyn is preaching is a pretty basic tenet of what all current & future journalist should be self-driven by.
ReplyDelete"We're gonna leave the mishmash of crappy info, uninspiring stories and journalism that we use to do to our readers. We're raising the bar for the three of us that are left"
OK. Carolyn. That sounds great, but you aren't producing it and haven't since you assumed your new job in January. The paper is worse, more wire news, more news from Dayton, Columbus, Akron and Cleveland appearing in local news section. You put the necks of many of the people who could provide those stories etc on the chopping block and they are gone. The reason you are retrenching is that you don't have enough staff to cover a metro area of two million people. The people who read your newspaper and I'm sure the people still working there are ashamed of it. Can't wait to read your hard-hitting "Black Friday" report from your biz department.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading her list about our journalists and how Gannett wants more. "More unique." "More investigative work. More data-driven journalism." and I'm struck by how the company is offering less and less for that. Less hours worked (through furloughs), less time to do more stories, less pay, less people in the newsroom, less benefits and I see a disconnect.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody else see a disconnect here?
She's just espousing the company line. All the praise I hear in my East Coast site is about watchdog journalism. That means a lot of press releases fill the other pages.
ReplyDeleteAbandon solid, newsy and interesting daily beat reporting at your peril. The result inevitably will be too many long, boring stories on Sunday and not enough lively reporting for every day.
ReplyDelete@1:31 and 1:37 p.m. - That's definitely the scenario at the Asbury Park Press, which has abandoned much of its beat coverage while retaining a fairly large "projects" team. The stories that come out of that group are pretty good, but not enough to carry an entire daily newspaper. You'd think someone would wake up there and take a look at the awful circulation numbers.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of bull. And I'm also tired of the Knight Foundation's ham fisted dominance over journalism. When you hear people carry on about a "news ecosystem" and "information ecology" you know they're sheep.
ReplyDeleteWashburn would have gotten off to a better start had she dumped some of unqualified section editors. She's got former sports editors running both metro and business, and their inexperience is pretty glaring. Normally, a new chief builds his/her own team of direct reports. By going with the dregs that were there when she arrived, nothing is going to change.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really scary about Washburn is that she's been trying to find a 'managing editor of digital' for several months now and has come up empty (or maybe they're just waiting to make the hire after the Jan. layoffs). Most top editors have at least 1 or 2 lieutenants they bring on board with them when they move to a new site. Washburn doesn't seem to have any.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, 3:12, they have those positions, while you post here.
ReplyDeleteYou lose. Try to adjust.
6:08 Pfffft. We aren't all qualified for every job.
ReplyDeleteReaders want news in their newspaper not story telling. It's crap like that makes me feel like we are doomed.
ReplyDeleteI just read in my local paper that a K-9 "went to doggy heaven." Yes, that's the phrase the reporter used. "Went to doggy heaven," in a piece about a police dog. An adult product and the reader is now two years old. Sickening.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a fine line.....online bullying vs job critique. I think if you have an actual point or professional opinion the person should be able to take the critique.
ReplyDeleteThings like joke, moron and so on might be considered bullying.....thoughts?
This is the sort of, um, stuff that used to come from Phil Currie when he was corporate vice president/news. It was all BS, of course, but at least it was coming from the top. Where is our present vice president/news? Does Kate Marymont still have that job? If so, she must be locked in a closet because we hear nothing from her. Nothing.
ReplyDeleteJim @ 6:50: Some of you aren't qualified for any job, which is why you are where you are.
ReplyDeleteChew on that. Also, wasn't 3:12's point that those people aren't qualified for those jobs? You seem to have missed that.
Carolyn praised Phil Currie on this site when he retired. I sat with Currie and heard what he thought of Carolyn on a couple of occasions. Not reciprocal. All I can say is: Stop wishing she'd bring her people with her ... her people were a nightmare. And they've been laid off in her wake. Very quickly.
ReplyDeleteGang newspapers are losing revenue because advertisers have shifted their money to other products. You could double the number of rrporters tomorrow and advertisers will ignore it. They've gone and they've been gone for awhile and they are not coming back. Now that's what we should be talking about. Home delivery circulation revenue has never paid the rent.
ReplyDeleteWashburn could bring all the people she wants with her, but it wouldn't help. The Enquirer's newsroom death spiral begins at the top and those spots editors running business and local news bring nothing to the table.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 7:20 that readers want news. And the best beat reporters "back in the day" told great stories as they reported the news. Newspapers were vibrant and interesting every day. In-depth reporting flowed from that immersive beat reporting. This is not a nostalgia trip. It is being done on great websites today. It just isn't being done by enough newspapers or their websites.
ReplyDeleteDear 2:21: Did it ever occur to you that the stories that APP's projects team are pursuing are being generated in glass offices and not by projects team reporters who are in the trenches? There has been a bad trend on this blog of people who are or were at the other New Jersey papers blaming their misfortunes on the APP, when that anger should be blamed on McLean, where the decisions are being made. Remember that a lot of people at the APP came from the other NJ papers and are just as saddened to see what's happened to their colleagues. The APP isn't the land of milk and honey that many would have you believe. Beat reporters now have the task of producing the regional stories relied on to fill the other papers, in addition to their beats. And if you think these decisions are being made in Neptune, think again. Even Hollis Towns and Donovan are reduced to carrying out what their bosses have decreed.
ReplyDeleteThe Cincinnati Enquirer is nothing but the butt of jokes in the Greater Cincinnati/Kentucky area. The content is weak and getting worse by the day. The only columns they fill is the occassional back slapping her and Margaret do to promote their poor excuse for a newspaper. Without their creative accounting their circulation numbers would be worse than reported.
ReplyDeletePrint journalism or good quality journalism are dying everyday. Gannett is just along for the ride to milk whatever profits it can squeeze out through expense reductions. A real leader in the industry would rise to the challenge of saving/reshaping journalism instead of relying on "Citizen journalism".
ReplyDeleteLayoffs from every unit are coming soon. In 1st quarter on 2012, there will be a lot more circulation and production layoffs. Ad departments will be slightly trimmed and many Publishers will be axed. Looking for big dollars in expense savings in 2012. The budget doesn't tell the story and many of these layoffs were intentionally not included in the budget to minimize the panic.
I am not a disgruntled newsroom employee, I am a mid level manager tired of seeing the "Yes Men and Women" just managing and not leading and the end is within five years. I am looking for a better company to work for, where my dedication and skills are appreciated and rewarded.
Is there such a company anymore?
Wow, did Washburn really say this.
ReplyDelete"We think all the time about what our unique role is and what we can get from the community,"
I was under the impression that the Enquirer would find ways to get more news and information TO THE COMMUNITY through excellent journalism and marketing strategies.
3:01 has a very, very good memory. Here's Washburn praising Currie on Gannett Bog in November 2008.
ReplyDeleteWhat Washburn either doesn't know or chooses to ignore is that those "unique" stories COME from the unglamorous daily stuff. Investigative & watchdog reports don't magically appear out of thin air. They come from experienced and skilled reporters who know how to cover a beat and build sources and ferret those stories out. But those reporters are fewer and farther between.
ReplyDelete10:17 please name the leading media company you feel is leading the way. Please share which company Gannett should emulate
ReplyDelete3:55 This is very, very true: "Investigative & watchdog reports don't magically appear out of thin air."
ReplyDeleteWhile a great tip sometimes arrives in a newsroom, addressed to "Anyone," that is a very, very rare event.
We all remember the amazing Los Angeles Times stories last year about excessive government salaries in Bell, Calif. As Poynter Online's Al Tompkins observed, that series began with basic City Hall reporting.
And the Times was rewarded for it with the best of the year's Pulitzer prizes.
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ReplyDeleteCarolyn is telling Cincy reporters that she wants briefs and 5-inch stories on everything so we all have more time to work on more important stories. If she only realized that a brief alone can take three phone calls or god forbid having to actually go to a press conference or breaking news event 25 miles away. Is anyone else hearing this at their site? I figure it's probably a corporate idea because exec editors are pretty much nothing more than Stepford Wives
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ReplyDelete"More investigative work. More data-driven journalism."
ReplyDeleteThis is from the same playbook she used in Boise - twice.
11/26/2011 3:56 PM
ReplyDeleteGannett should not emulate any company.
Gannett should be fiscally sound when it comes to the profits. I am sure a good percentage of the savings related to layoffs and furloughs supported the bonuses of a handful instead of paying off debt or investing in the future.
The Board of Directors are to blame.
She should have stayed in Boise.
ReplyDeleteI could replace Cinncy with USA TODAY in every post here and the sentiment about leadership eerily similar.
ReplyDeleteBest of breed? Right.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteYou could have a standing board here on the Cincinnati Enquirer. It has truly become the dumping ground for managers whose only skill is asking, "How high?" Journalistic excellence, inspirational leadership and business savvy are not required for the top jobs here. The place has a real 1850s plantation feel the way the masters conduct themselves.