Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Pop quiz | It's digital déjà vu all over again

Corporate is once more rolling out a new digital-focused campaign for its U.S. community newsrooms. As with previous efforts, management is using memos to tell employees about the goals.

But if some of the language sounds familiar, well, that's because it is.

Following are quotes from two such memos -- one issued this morning, the other in 2006. Can you match the year to the quote?

"[We will] give readers content they want, when they want it, and on the platforms where they want to read it."

"We will deliver the content our audiences want at any time, anywhere and to any device."

4 comments:

  1. And when they send out the list each day of what content the readers are clicking on most on the website, the winner is obituaries.

    So I guess that means we can use the smartsphones to film funerals and video tributes to the deceased by their family members?

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  2. The first quote is from a memo Executive Editor Calvin Stovall sent TODAY to employees at New York's Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

    The second quote is from a memo CEO Craig Dubow sent in NOVEMBER 2006 to employees, where he outlined the new Information Center newsroom model.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've been using an iPhone for a couple of years as a news production tool. I have used it for photos, live webstreaming and direct filing to a 7-day news blog and weekly newspaper website. I use the document scanner, among other apps.

    Caution to all, useful as it is: It is cumbersome as heck for typing more than a few words; very cumbersome for direct posting to a blog or website using html and links (copy/paste is a bear); photo zoom diminishes quality substantially; for me, there's no photo interface with my blog from the field because I have no place to upload the photo file; the video streaming isn't always reliable; wireless or a good cell signal can be problematic, particularly in the boonies.

    Nice tool, but it isn't a silver bullet.

    Another thing: it's nice to have a human being on the other end to crop, edit, question and fix glitches. But then you're talking two salaries, not just one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jim: the quote from Stovall is very similar, if not word-for-word, to a quote Dickey made during the Feb. 2 webinar.

    ReplyDelete

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