The Whole World is Watching the Failure of Old Media

A brief and highly interesting article about the failure of old media and the rise of the Internet as a political/media tool, The Whole World is Watching aka #oldmediafail #iranelection.

The author, Johnee99 writes:

"The revolution is not being televised in Iran, nor is it being covered very well in any “old media” format. Old media in the West has failed. The Internet is now accelerating change in geopolitics, and has officially eclipsed old media as the first source for immediate and actionable information. As our Clinical Director, Dr. Jeff Rohde emailed me yesterday about Twitter: “It's more than a fancy microblog. It's the foundation of free speech in a country that normally denies it.” Powerful."

Student Uses Wikipedia to Test Media

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

[Read more from msnbc.com, Student hoaxes world's media on Wikipedia]

Daniel Schorr Announces Birth of His Granddaughter on Twitter

Last month, I wrote about National Public Radio's 92-year-old veteran political analyst Daniel Schorr joining Twitter. Though not as big as Oprah's first tweet, Schorr's entry into the Internet-darling micro-blogging site, and his accompanying view of the changes in journalism over 70 years, are noteworthy.

I was pleased to receive this tweet on April 23 from @danielschorr:

At 92, I have become a grandfather for the first time. My daughter in Boston has given birth to most beautiful girl in the world.

Congratulations, Daniel!

CQ Researcher Discusses the Future of Journalism

Another day, another small newspaper ends its print run. This time, the Hamtramck Citizen has stopped publishing as of April 20. This joins a growing list of papers such as The Troy Eccentric, Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, and Ann Arbor News, which have all cut back on print publication or are ceasing to publish altogether.

The newspaper industry is rapidly changing. With these changes, how is this going to affect the future of journalism? CQ Researcher, a database that the Troy Public Library offers, has recently issued a report regarding this topic. It outlines the history of newspapers, where the industry stands today, and also offers pro and con opinions regarding the future of print newspapers.

To access CQ Researcher and read this report, you must have a valid Troy Library card. Click the "Information On Demand" link on our homepage, click Social Sciences from the subject listings, and then click CQ Researcher. The Future of Journalism report can be accessed along the right-hand side under the "Recent Reports" heading. Additional reports discuss wrongful convictions, business bankruptcy, extreme sports, and the future of the GOP.

Be sure to also check out CQ Researcher's Twitter feed to see when new reports are available.

Online Journalists See Reasons for Optimism in News Industry

Journalists who work online are more optimistic about the future of their profession than are news people tied to more traditional media platforms, according to a new survey of Online News Association members by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Overall, the online journalists surveyed are less likely to think journalism is headed in the “wrong direction” than are journalists from traditional media. They are also more confident that online news will find a self-sustaining revenue model.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed, who come largely from websites linked to traditional media, say the Internet is “changing the fundamental values of journalism.” Some of the biggest changes, the respondents said, were a loosening of standards and more carelessness in online news gathering, and an increased emphasis on speed.

But not all of the changes were considered worrisome. Some journalists praised the growing diversity of voices, the potential of technology, and in some cases, even the move toward more overtly ideological points of view at news sites.

Several Daily Michigan Newspapers to Consolidate or Fold

Not only are big city newspapers in trouble.

According the Detroit News website, eight Michigan daily newspapers have announced plans to cut home delivery or close for good.

In July, the Ann Arbor News will close and be replaced by AnnArbor.com, which will produce news and other content daily on the Web and twice-weekly in print.

Starting June 1, the Flint Journal, the Saginaw News and the Bay City Times will publish print editions only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, while maintaining a daily Web presence. Four other papers -- the Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, and Muskegon Chronicle -- will publish daily but consolidate some operations and reduce wages and benefits.

The local newspaper industry has mirrored the chaos in the national industry. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are reducing their print subscriptions to three days a week, and in March, the publisher of the Oakland Press, the Macomb Daily and Royal Oak's Daily Tribune, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

It will be interesting to see the state of Michigan newspapers at the end of 2009.

Ten Major Newspapers to Fold or Go Digital in 2009?

The restructuring in the traditional print media business continues.

From Time magazine, here is a list of ten major newspapers that will either fold or go digital next. Analysts expect that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- Seattle's oldest daily -- will make the choice within a few days.

On the list are some powerhouses of print: the Detroit News, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Writes Time, "It is possible that eight of the fifty largest daily newspapers in the United States could cease publication in the next eighteen months."

Times to Launch Blog Network

One thing about which we have been talking here at the Library, is the accelerating move from print to electronics in the news industry. Just yesterday -- touched off by this item about the Rocky Mountain News -- we were wondering why the traditional print media has so badly adapted to the web. It is not like they didn't receive fair warning. Like the automobile industry, the print news industry sometimes seems unaware of a new reality.

Perhaps The New York Times has finally learned a lesson: the Internet is here. Use it before you die.

This from TechCrunch.com: The New York Times Expected To Launch Local Blog Network.

Detroit News and Free Press Considering Cutting Back Home Delivery, Focus On Web

News is coming from multiple sources that the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News may be ending daily home delivery and promoting their websites instead.

Courtesy of Yahoo Finance:

[The Wall Street] Journal said home delivery would be limited to Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with an "abbreviated" print edition available at newsstands on other days. Readers would also be directed to the papers' Web sites.

The changes likely would mean major job cuts, the Journal said.

The Free Press, owned by Gannett Co., had a daily circulation of 314,554 at the end of March; 618,324 on Sunday. The News, owned by MediaNews Group Inc., had daily circulation of 178,280. It does not publish a print edition on Sunday.

Bassett said the papers recognize the "tremendous importance of digital communication and finding ways to better deliver news and information to people in ways that are most convenient to them."

Reporter M.L. Elrick, vice chairman of the Free Press unit of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, said there's anxiety in the newsroom.

"Everyone here is afraid we're going to have staff cuts," he said. "I wish I had my sources call me as often as my colleagues have called the past couple days. No one knows where this is going to end up."

This news follows the growing trend started by the Christian Science Monitor, and more recently PC Magazine, of newspapers pushing towards digital. Unfortunately, this news from the Free Press and News, show the downsides of switching to a more digitally focused medium, as workers fear for losing their jobs.

Ultimately this decision, if made, will benefit the consumer by providing more up to the minute news, and easier delivery. Though it appears that the effect on the workers may be more negative, with job cuts and layoffs in their future. According to Freep.com, the Detroit newspapers will have a major announcement at 11 am. This post will be updated with the breaking news as it happens.

Who knows, we might all be holding Kindles in our hands sooner then we thought...

All the News Fit to Tweet

The Twitter phenomena -- microblogging bursts of 140 characters maximum instantly to your subscribers -- is now the preferred method of communication to keep up with changes in the media and public relations industry, according to this article in The New York Times.

In essence, you are having an online conversation with dozens -- hundreds? -- of your friends simultaneously.

With Twitter, and other social networking sites providing breaking coverage of the events in Mumbai last month, even blogging seems like so last year.

Online-only Publications Now Eligible for Pulitzer Prizes

According to Brian Stelter, in The New York Times:

Bowing to the rapid rise of news distributed digitally rather than on paper, the Pulitzer Prizes will begin immediately accepting submissions from online-only publications.

The Pulitzers, administered by Columbia University, are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards for American newspaper reporting and commentary. Beginning with the 2009 prizes, which cover work done in 2008 and which will be presented in April, Internet newspapers and other news organizations that publish online will be considered for all 14 of the journalism awards, from international reporting to criticism.

Libraries as Local News Aggregators

As we have been talking about the future of print media recently, here is an interesting post from SirsiDynix VP of Innovation, Stephen Abram:

Some pretty dire predictions on the health of the newspaper industry.

One report by financial ratings firm Fitch put out a report predicting that "several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010."

"Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010," the Chicago-based credit ratings firm said in a report on the outlook for U.S. media and entertainment."

So, if you're in a public library and your town is potentially dependent on the McPaper or a major national (If the NYT survives), what could you do? Can you use RSS feeds to assemble a local news source from smaller independents? Can you surf the local blogs and aggregate? Would your town miss local news in print? or have they already gone 'e'?

Seems like an opportunity. You might even be able to hire some of the folks being put on the street by the big conglomerates as they lay off folks.

Google Buys 20 Million Archived Newspaper Pages

According to Lifehacker:

Google has upped its commitment to bringing newspaper archives online, first announced in September, by buying 20 million historical pages from Paper of Record, covering the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Good news for scholars, students, and "Day you were born" print-out gifts.

Library 3.0?

More fuel for Phillip's view the death of paper publishing is upon us. Seems the Kindle is doing very well. J.K. Rowling's feeling's aside, not to mention current cost considerations, but what are the long term implications to the vast shelving requirements of your favorite library? Will the library of the future simply be a server with electronic titles, databases of information, and social networking cafes. Sounds efficient and cheap. And sterile.

Maybe of more concern should be this ongoing study. Does anyone really believe this process does not effect the outcome of learning? What do you think? What do we gain? What do we lose?

A Reason for Print?

As I bought my cup of coffee this morning on my way into work, I did something I haven't done in years:

I bought a copy of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, this area's two big daily newspapers.

I am a news junkie, and I have converted about 90% of my intake to electronic format. At work, I have aggressively promoted replacing as much print with electronic as possible. I have blogged about the changes in the news industry. Buying something in print was an extravagance not really necessary in this economy.

Nevertheless, I was seduced by the "tabloid-type" headlines and layout of the automobile industry bailout stories.

Have I read them? No. They sit in my bag, along with a bill to mail. Will I read them tonight after work? Perhaps.

Unless I read the articles first today on the Internet.

Mumbai Tragedy Shows Rise of Internet Citizen Journalists

The tragic events in Mumbai this past week have “served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media,” according to Brian Stelter and Noam Cohen in their New York Times story, “Citizen Journalists Provided Glimpses of Mumbai Attacks.”

Stelter and Cohen write:

“At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word “Mumbai” in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years.

Those descriptions and others on Web sites and photo-sharing sites served as a chaotic but critically important link among people across the world — whether they be Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn tracking the fate of a rabbi held hostage… or students in Britain with loved ones back in India or people hanging on every twist and turn in the standoff while visiting relatives for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Noah Shachtman, posting on wired.com on the first day of the attacks, shows the breadth of coverage by such citizen journalists:

“First-hand accounts of the deadly Mumbai attacks are pouring in on Twitter, Flickr, and other social media.

Twitter has fresh news every few seconds, on Mumbai, Bombay, #Mumbai, and @BreakingNewz.

"Hospital update. Shots still being fired. Also Metro cinema next door," tweets mumbaiattack. "Blood needed at JJ hospital," adds aeropolowoman, supplying the numbers for the blood bank.

A Google map of the attacks has already been set up. So has a shockingly-current Wikipedia page, which features a picture of one of the gun-toting attackers.

The local bloggers at Metblogs Mumbai have new updates every couple of minutes. So do the folks at GroundReport. Dozens of videos have been uploaded to YouTube. But the most remarkable citizen journalism may be coming from "Vinu," who is posting a stream of harrowing post-attack pictures to Flickr.”

To me, this is the web’s social networking at its best: democratic, grassroots, newsworthy, and life-changing.