ADVERSITY SPARKS CREATIVIY and that could not be truer than now in the newspaper industry.
Mary E. Junck, chair, president and CEO of Iowa-based Lee Enterprises and former E&P’s Publisher of the year, is one of the optimists who sees both newspapers and their online components as viable institutions with a future.
The former publisher of The St. Paul Pioneer Press and The Baltimore Sun, Junck says newspapers must be smart, relevant and also drive readers to online sites, increase the arena of niche products and partner with major Internet providers.
“The combination will drive us forward,” she said. “We must be focused and march on.”
Junck, recently named one of DeMarche Associates Inc.’s top CEOs, believes these creative and flexible approaches will help even in these harsh times.
Others are rethinking strategies as well and are focusing on credible, hard news.
“We are committed to expanding the power and potential of public service and watchdog work with multimedia tools and strong digital operations,’’ said Jennifer Carroll, Gannett Newspaper Division’s vice president/news media content. "We are embracing research and development to engage our communities more deeply and with more relevance than ever before through interactivity, searchable rich data, mapping and increasingly sophisticated online applications.”
Talented content providers will always be necessary, and since paper has dominated for 2,000 years, it seems rational that there is room for both newspapers and online vendors. The combo is key.
For instance, The Washington Post has just launched its washingtonpost.com LoudounExtra to bring interactive local news online.
Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times, both owned by Poynter, recently launched a fun political campaign site, Politifact.com, that breaks down political statements into database components and allows readers to make up their own minds about what’s legit and what’s not.
A nonprofit, NewsTrust, at news@newstrust.net, is also addressing the need for credibility as an online rating service to help folks identify quality journalism. It tracks news media nationwide and helps citizens make informed decisions. Led by Fabrice Florin, a former journalist with a history at Apple, NewsTrust is getting help from Google, Harvard, Poynter, Stanford and other organizations. “Reviewers” rate stories on a five-star selection and it’s all about credibility.
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism is constantly educating about citizen participation and encourages credibility through competition. Submitted projects are inspiring and run the gamut from the Orlando Sentinel.com’s My Team High School Sports Site, to the Forum, an all-volunteer Deerfield, N.H., online newspaper that is the major source of news in rural communities in the region. It can be reached at forumhome.org.
The Forum, which was a top finalist in this year’s Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations, has prompted the Concord Monitor and Manchester Union-Leader to pay more attention to the Deerfield area, according to Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism.
"Not all of that content in the future will be created by professional journalists. Perfectly good, fair, nonpartisan news — acts of journalism, if you will — are being committed by ordinary citizens, think tanks, nonprofit groups, individual bloggers and others," Schaffer said. "Smart news organizations will embrace the best of these efforts, maybe even support them, and create the online structures to house or link to them."
Competition still remains at the core of the business.
In North Carolina, a group of former newspaper employees from Mount Airy and Elkin, joined together to establish The Messenger, a competing newspaper to The Mount Airy News. Michael Milligan is the publisher of The Messenger. He resigned as publisher of the Mount Airy News in June after cuts were made to the staff. Rebel Goodv was publisher of The Elkin Tribune, and quit his job to be the Messenger’s editor.
It will be interesting, especially considering they are competing for a limited number of advertising dollars.
Perhaps editors should look for solutions in the delightful and instructive “Our Iceberg is Melting” by Harvard Business guru John Kotter. Or, perhaps they should pick up “American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media” by Neil Henry. Both apply, but the penguins in Kotter’s book will help everyone make intelligent decisions while navigating very uncertain waters.
Through it all, camaraderie still exists among the rank and file. Journalists from the Roanoke, Va., Times sent sympathy snack packs to staffers at both the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis covering the tragic bridge collapse. Kate Parry, Star Tribune ombudsman, shared the note accompanying the goodies that read:
“To Star Tribune journalists:
”A few days after the Virginia Tech shootings, a large box arrived in our newsroom. Inside was a note and lots of stress-relieving junk food like you'll find in this box. The note was from Joe Haight, managing editor of The Oklahoman of Oklahoma City. Joe wrote that similar boxes arrived in his newsroom after the McVeigh bombings. He recalled what that gesture meant to his staff, which had been worn down to a nub covering the catastrophic community event.
”We were so moved that we vowed to pass it on when we next sensed a newsroom could use a little pick-me-up. So please consider this a journalistic chain letter of sorts, one that you'll pass on when the next bulletin breaks in a newsroom somewhere in America.
”Enjoy the snacks. Sorry we couldn't send beer (company policy, ya know). And most of all, take care of yourselves.”
It was signed, “The Roanoke Times newsroom.”
Not long after the bridge collapse, the mine disaster happened in Utah, so the Star Tribune sent a box of goodies to the two newspapers closest to the mine disaster as well as to the hotel where the reporters were staying near the mine.
A couple weeks later there was a disaster-level flooding in southern Minnesota so boxes were sent to Winona. Sounds like the start of a very positive “Pay it Forward” trend to me! Food goes a long way to say: “We’re with you.”
One final note, as of Aug. 21, Brian Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings, announced he is selling the headquarters of the Inquirer and the Daily News and moving employees to an “iconic” address. Please rethink this, Mr. Tierney. Many of us think the 1920s landmark building on Broad Street is the iconic address.
Other recent developments in our industry……
Lillian A. Swanson, who spent 20-plus years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, has been appointed managing editor of the Rockford, Ill., Register Star and rrstar.com. Swanson most recently was online news editor for The Detroit News. She replaces Jeff Gauger, who is now the executive editor of The Repository in Canton, Ohio.
David Warner who has served as deputy metro editor of the Detroit News, has been named the Rockford, Ill., Register Star’s metro editor. He was formerly the editor of The Trentonian in New Jersey and city editor at The Philadelphia Daily News.
Peggy Kuhr, former Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and managing editor in Spokane, became the first woman hired to lead the venerable University of Montana’s School of Journalism.
Robert T. Collins, senior group president of Gannett’s Atlantic Group and president and publisher of the Asbury Park Press, will become chairman of the newspaper. He has announced his plans to retire in March 2008.
W. Curtis Riddle, currently president and publisher of The News Journal, Wilmington, Del., and senior group president of Gannett’s East Newspaper Group, will assume responsibility for the Atlantic Group, which includes the Gannett community newspapers in New Jersey and New England.
Thomas M. Donovan, president and publisher of The Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., will become president and publisher of the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey. He also will be a vice president of Gannett’s East Group, with responsibility for operations in New Jersey.
Laura L. Hollingsworth, general manager of The Des Moines Register, became president and publisher of the newspaper Sept. 7. She succeeds Mary Stier, who announced her resignation earlier this month to launch a national multimedia venture targeting women.
Geneva Overholser, former editor of the DesMoines Register, has been named chair of the board of directors for the Center for Public Integrity, the Washington D.C.-based investigative reporting group.
N. Christian Anderson III, this year’s E&P Publisher of the year, left his position Sept. 15. Under his leadership the Orange County Register won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Richard T. Pienciak has been appointed to the newly created position of national investigative editor at The Associated Press.
Jeffrey Dvorkin resigned as director of the Committee for Concerned Journalists.
Terry Jimenez, vice president and chief financial officer of Newsday, has also been named as publisher of the free daily, am New York.
Pauline Millard, an online editor for the Associated Press for seven years, has taken over as the new online editor for E&P.
Deanna Watson has been appointed the editor of the Times Record News of Wichita Falls, Texas.
Almar Latour has been named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal online.
Ken Tuck, managing editor of the Dothan, Ala., Eagle, has also been named regional editor of the southern tier of Media General’s Alabama Newspaper Group.
Bart Smith has been named publisher of The Greeley Tribune in Colorado. He has been an editor at the News-Review in Oregon for 14 years.
Rick Mercier has been named editor of The Clayton News-Star, succeeding Margaret Ritchie.
Sherman Williams has been named assistant managing editor of visuals at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
John H. Walker is now publisher of the Daily News in Bogalusa, La.
Charles W. Nutt, formerly president and publisher of the Courier News in Bridgewater, N.J., has been named president and publisher of The Daily Journal in Vineland, N.J. Replacing Nutt as publisher is Ketan Gandhi,
Paul C. Grzella has been named managing editor of the Courier News in Bridgewater, N.J., succeeding James Flacksenhaar, who is now executive editor of the Daily Record in Morristown, N.J.
Steve Lovejoy has been named editor of The Journal Times in Racine, Wisc.
Louise Kiernan has been named a senior editor at the Chicago Tribune. She will supervise staff writing development.
Ginger Jenkins has been named editor of the Hardin County News in Lumberton, Texas, succeeding Rachael Cox.
Nathan Orme has been named editor of The Daily Sparks Tribune in Nevada, succeeding Angela Mann.
In Massachusetts, Phil Salisbury is the new editor of The Sharon Advocate and Noah Bombard was named editor of The Arlington Advocate.
Thomas Walton, who began his journalism career 42 years ago, has retired from The Blade in Toledo, Ohio.
Fred Hamilton has been named publisher and chief executive of the San Bernardino Sun, replacing Bob Balzer. Hamilton most recently served as president and publisher of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michael Beck has been appointed president and publisher of the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald. In addition, he has been named vice president of Gannett’s Midwest Group.
Glenn Rabinowitz has been appointed executive editor of the San Mateo County (Calif.) Times. He replaces former editor John Bowman.
In sadder news, those who died recently include: Chicago Tribune Pulitzer Prize winner Peter Gorner; Jane Graves, co-publisher of the Nashville Leader; Chet Currier, AP Wall Street writer; Dennis Getto, the long time restaurant critic of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Dana Bullen, journalist and Press Freedom Advocate, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Dorsey Connors and Anthony Day, former Los Angeles Times editorial page editor.
And, of course, we lost the much beloved Richard Ramirez, the well known San Jose Mercury News editor/reporter. Every time we strive for excellence, we’ll be thinking of you, Rich. *