Quote and Comment: I am not a newpaper gravedancer, but if ever I was tempted in that way, I know which grave I'd start at
RickWaghorn
· 7 months ago
Reading their 'F*ck you...' parting shot, it strikes me that Messrs 'Steve Rivera & Geoff Grammer's mastery of Wildcats basketball...' should be put to rather more constructive use than simply giving the bird to all the Wildcats bloggers out there who valiantly try to cover the team without the level of influence, access and knowledge that Rivera & Grammar bring to the party...
Or did.
As that paper 'unbundles', those boys should get off their ass and cash in on their 'mastery' whilst their 'brand' still has any value and worth and their contacts book is still fresh...
As Mr Shirky has long maintained: 'People want a good read...'
It's as simple as that; that's not rocket science.
So give them a good read about their favourite basketball team in an organised, networkable format that can then tie-in fellow 'beat' reporters from the Rocky Mountain News, etc... be small, but give yourself the chance to be big... source local advertising, cascade down national advertising... look to syndicate your original reporting and not let AP or whoever market your wares as their own..
The only people who are going to help journalists in this current climate are journalists themselves.
Messrs Rivera & Grammer, your opportunity knocks... or are you going to let all that 'mastery' count for nothing?
the industry is changing. adapt. change with it. innovation is not the enemy
admonkey
· 7 months ago
If access to free content on the web is what's killing the newspaper industry, why is the porn industry still around? Sounds like the moribund desk jockeys in Tucson needed to show a little more flesh.
John Zhu
· 7 months ago
As I replied to Jay on Twitter, I think this piece is self-absorbed, and it says f' you to bloggers & citizen journalists. But I don't see any "f' you" toward readers in it (http://tinyurl.com/qc375j). I think it's important to distinguish between the two.
For context, here's what seems to be the main piece from the Citizen's farewell package. Read it and decide for yourself if they are giving the community the middle finger.
OUR EPITAPH
JENNIFER BOICE Tucson Citizen
This is it. After 138 years, seven months and one day, this may be the last Tucson Citizen to be published. At press time, our ultimate deadline, this was our last gasp - our final edition. Efforts still are underway to keep the Citizen alive. We'll let you know if they succeed.
I think I speak for us all and those who came before us - when I say it has been an honor to be a part of the community, invited daily into your homes and given the opportunity to tell the news of Tucson.
It was a sad moment to learn the Citizen was worth more to its parent, Gannett Co. Inc., dead than alive.
Ouch.
Monetarily, I suppose that's so. It costs more to produce, print and distribute this paper than we are contributing in revenue.
However, the Citizen does have worth that is being erased.
There's the loss of the stories we covered that other news media did not. Also our very existence made our competitors work harder - and be better.
Newspapers don't just close, they die.
And death is personal.
It is touching how many readers wrote about their attachment to the paper. More than one questioned, "What will I do without my Tucson Citizen?" Whether it was not knowing who Brenda Starr will date next, to the loss of Cal Thomas, to thanking our local columnists for making them think, to appreciating the reporters who dig for stories about our readers, their neighbors and their elected and unelected officials.
Many expressed profound worry about the staff and what we will do - a worry that is warranted.
The industry lost 12,000 jobs last year and this year is looking worse. We are the third major daily paper to shut down this year.
About 65 talented Citizen staffers are being shot into an economy that is losing rather than creating jobs. The newspaper industry is so distressed that few of us will be reporters, newspaper designers, editors or news photographers again.
It is a tragic loss of talent and enthusiasm.
Some people have expressed unalloyed glee that we are closing. Many of our critics didn't want us to pursue one of our greatest responsibilities. Editors have repeated the mantra over the 138 years: Make sure you get the other side.
A newspaper will never be perfect - we are a work in progress all day every day. The paper is just the culmination of what we have done at a certain point in time.
Journalism is history written in a hurry. We were created to reflect the news of the day.
Consequently, every paper has errors - a factual error, flawed grammar, a name spelled incorrectly, a wrong phone number. We try, and I think succeed, in minimizing these mistakes. But in the rush of putting out what is essentially a book every day (for 50 cents, not $24.99) they happen.
We correct them and move on to the next book.
Our hard work exists for a day. The previous day's work becomes cage liner and fish wrap and packing paper.
But the Internet has changed our business.
Stories exist in the ether, to be read days, months, years after they are published.
The Internet opened up a whole new world and a whole new set of readers - far beyond the boundaries of Pima County. Interactivity was quick and conversations about stories flourished online. Sometimes it was ugly.
We and our advertisers didn't really know how to deal with the medium. Some day someone will figure it out, creating another revolution within the industry.
I've had fun. I've made mistakes - which were very public. I have done stories and tasks I didn't want to do - closing the paper I've loved is one. I've talked with many people and let the world know their tales. I've had bosses who helped me along the way - harshly and gently. And I've met and worked with many terrific, weird and talented people.
I will never regret being part of this institution, being a part of the news we reported and working with the people here.
The Citizen helped shape Tucson's past and future.
We've dedicated this edition - our final one - to us and those who have worked here before us by celebrating our work.
It's been a great run. So long and thanks for the memories.
Bill L
· 7 months ago
Bloggers didn't kill the newspaper business. Your corporate masters did. From the selection of ads to the refusal to go for payments earlier (it's hard to collect money from people whom you are feeding the center right propaganda that keeps them supporting wars to reward big political doners and investors and tax and law structures favoring the wealthy). Of course anyone just ripping total articles should have been told to stop c. 2000, but the onerous $3 a look for archived articles that might not have what one wants, made that plan, a understandable and nonenforceable. Besides promoting a pro-business pro-war outlook newspapers and their writers fell into a self worship that saw themselves as part of an elite corps of being and that attitude made them feel a connection with other 'elites. And in the 90s even as newspapers were slashing staff (acc. to testimony by David Simon in Congressional hearings) and collecting every bit of 'news' the RNC and related groups sent them (political groups sending to news reports to journalists documented during the Clinton impeachment period by the AP) some had earnings that made other businesses envious. Simon says the Baltimore Sun was making 37% profit about that time. BTW, forget the board meetings. The people's business should be online. It's the age of the internet now. And it has to be as easy or easier to get a transcript of a meeting or press conference online than to field questions from every news entity that needs a repeat of what it known by a govt entity on a subject. It is well known that mainstream news organizations borrow heavily from each other, but true to form they select one group, to blame all their problems on. It doesn't hurt the center right agenda of mainstream news at all that those 'evil bloggers' are a big part of the group that Time magazine credits for getting the Democrats back into power (2006 Persons of the Year). But lest get real: Don't blame bloggers for your demise. It was yourself who didn't stand up to the War Party or your corporate masters, and it was your management team that could not accept business models that didn't include amazing returns for the shareholders (who would then allow amazing compensation for management). Bloggers usually at the most excerpt a few lines and make sure there is a link to your publication. How did that bring down America's Big News industry?
Rob McNair-Huff
· 7 months ago
In many ways this piece is off target for lambasting bloggers. The writers should be blasting their ownership and themselves for failing to adapt, if they are truly looking for someone to blame. But there is a ring of truth to the shots they take at many people on the Net who have claimed for years that netizens armed with a computer, a couple of hours of time to kill and a pet peeve around one topic or another can replace a trained reporter and perform the same duty to the community as journalists. It is a rare breed of blogger indeed who will spend hours doing the real work of reporting, especially on topics of local interest and especially when there is no real business model that would see them get paid for their work.
Grant
· 7 months ago
"there is a ring of truth to the shots they take"
So what? What's the point of griping about bloggers?
Dee
· 7 months ago
Sure, the piece was self-absorbed, and the writers are clearly pissed off. Who can blame them? I don't know how good or bad this particular paper is, but I empathize with its staff (and everyone else in journalism) being upset seeing their entire industry being brought to its knees by technological upheaval combined with mismanagement and an increasing proclivity for readers to be too easily appeased with light-fare celebrity coverage and uneven UGC. Citizens need good journalism -- whether it's in print or online -- but too many people don't seem to understand that it takes a lot of skill, time and money to make it happen. How will it get funded? Charity might work, but only for so long -- after years of losing money, Arthur Carter finally had to sell the "New York Observer," and it's a shell of its former self now. As for ProPublica, how much reach does it really have? And, by the way, when was the last time you actually dug deep and reported a worthy story?
Tracy at WSB
· 7 months ago
Once again, speaking in defense of those of us who publish original news in blog format:
Yes, we have cultivated sources. Not "just" the community members who kindly turn to us when they see a crash or a fire or a crime, because they know we will cover it NOW, but also politicians, community leaders, government employees, other 'insiders' who know we understand that if they feel something is important enough to check out, chances are it matters to thousands of community members, so off we go to dig in.
And yes, we sit through never-ending community meetings. Almost every night of the week. Some afternoons too. From design review, to Hearing Examiner appeals, to hearings scheduled just as formalities for some ongoing government process - buried in published public notices - and we go to City Hall and the County Council Chambers and the courthouse downtown.
We cover important stories that others don't bother with. No paper in our area, big or small, saw fit to bother with a murder trial last year that started with a shooting in an area of our neighborhood where "that just doesn't happen" and led through a story of stalking and self-defense, with the teenage suspect ultimately exonerated after a year behind bars. They all read our work so they knew it was happening and chose to ignore it.
I paid a reporter to cover it daily -- it lasted a few weeks -- even though at the time I couldn't really afford it -- just knew it had to be done and I couldn't do a full day of court justice while also managing the rest of the site. Now, months later, we have the revenue to pay more journalists to work with us - freelance for starters but I hope more permanent soon - including two veterans whose jobs were cut at local papers big and small for $ reasons.
So, dear old-media folks who I understand are acting out of pain and fear - I have been through layoffs myself -- please stop attacking and dismissing everything with "blog" attached to it - it is only a publishing format. If there is a specific writer you are upset about, call them out by name/site, but get educated and learn that the "blog" world has a surprising amount of REAL JOURNALISM going on, produced by REAL JOURNALISTS, and since some of us small operations seem to be showing signs of sustainability, this just may be the way a lot of REAL JOURNALISM is produced for the foreseeable future - you are welcome to buy a domain, install a CMS, and get after it yourselves, too.
--Tracy Record, editor/co-publisher, West Seattle Blog (Seattle, WA, 650,000 pageviews/mo., 20,000 homes/businesses visiting at least once weekly)
digidave
· 7 months ago
I'd only echo Tracy on this.
The Citizen took a cheap shot and also stereotyped "bloggers." It is a work in progress -yes. But, to take a cheap shot back, at least we are working on it.
Noah R. Bombard
· 7 months ago
I wrote a farewell to my staff and some regular sources last year when I and my entire editorial staff were slashed by the new owners of Worcester Magazine. Man, am I glad it sounded nothing like this.
Tracey, you are right on. For better or worse, I landed back in the industry, but I still feel strongly the news blogs are not to be blamed -- they're to be encouraged and nurtured. And painting "bloggers" with one broad-stroked brush is no more credible than blaming the New York Times for scandalous items the National Enquirer publishes.
Tom
· 7 months ago
I am very sorry for their loss; it's not easy to lose your job, and see all of your colleagues lose their in the midst of a bad economy and a profound technological revolution.
But Bill L is right, it isn't "the bloggers" to blame, it is Gannet and Scripps and Hearst and McClatchy and Tribune: communications conglomerates who bought up so many of the independent local newspapers and bled them dry of profits and flavor. Now that those formerly independent newspapers are no longer cash cows, they are summarily dumped. You can't blame that on "bloggers."
Remember travel agents? You used to call your travel agent to find your flight, to make your travel arrangements, to handle the payment, to hold your hand through the whole travel arrangement process. To the consumer, they gave away that service "for free." In reality, their fees came from the airlines. As the travel agent profession declined, they too lashed out at their customers. Who is going to navigate the difficult process, they asked bitterly, of finding the best flight, the cheapest fare Only a "professional," they claimed, could navigate the computer system (Sabre, I think it was called) and make smooth travel arrangements. Well, it turned out that most of us do just fine making our own travel arrangements. Travel didn't go away, only (most) travel agents went away. Same with journalism. Newspapers are going away, but journalism is doing just fine.
All Comments
Or did.
As that paper 'unbundles', those boys should get off their ass and cash in on their 'mastery' whilst their 'brand' still has any value and worth and their contacts book is still fresh...
As Mr Shirky has long maintained: 'People want a good read...'
It's as simple as that; that's not rocket science.
So give them a good read about their favourite basketball team in an organised, networkable format that can then tie-in fellow 'beat' reporters from the Rocky Mountain News, etc... be small, but give yourself the chance to be big... source local advertising, cascade down national advertising... look to syndicate your original reporting and not let AP or whoever market your wares as their own..
The only people who are going to help journalists in this current climate are journalists themselves.
Messrs Rivera & Grammer, your opportunity knocks... or are you going to let all that 'mastery' count for nothing?
Rick Waghorn
www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity
the industry is changing. adapt. change with it. innovation is not the enemy
For context, here's what seems to be the main piece from the Citizen's farewell package. Read it and decide for yourself if they are giving the community the middle finger.
OUR EPITAPH
JENNIFER BOICE
Tucson Citizen
This is it. After 138 years, seven months and one day, this may be the last Tucson Citizen to be published. At press time, our ultimate deadline, this was our last gasp - our final edition. Efforts still are underway to keep the Citizen alive. We'll let you know if they succeed.
I think I speak for us all and those who came before us - when I say it has been an honor to be a part of the community, invited daily into your homes and given the opportunity to tell the news of Tucson.
It was a sad moment to learn the Citizen was worth more to its parent, Gannett Co. Inc., dead than alive.
Ouch.
Monetarily, I suppose that's so. It costs more to produce, print and distribute this paper than we are contributing in revenue.
However, the Citizen does have worth that is being erased.
There's the loss of the stories we covered that other news media did not. Also our very existence made our competitors work harder - and be better.
Newspapers don't just close, they die.
And death is personal.
It is touching how many readers wrote about their attachment to the paper. More than one questioned, "What will I do without my Tucson Citizen?" Whether it was not knowing who Brenda Starr will date next, to the loss of Cal Thomas, to thanking our local columnists for making them think, to appreciating the reporters who dig for stories about our readers, their neighbors and their elected and unelected officials.
Many expressed profound worry about the staff and what we will do - a worry that is warranted.
The industry lost 12,000 jobs last year and this year is looking worse. We are the third major daily paper to shut down this year.
About 65 talented Citizen staffers are being shot into an economy that is losing rather than creating jobs. The newspaper industry is so distressed that few of us will be reporters, newspaper designers, editors or news photographers again.
It is a tragic loss of talent and enthusiasm.
Some people have expressed unalloyed glee that we are closing. Many of our critics didn't want us to pursue one of our greatest responsibilities. Editors have repeated the mantra over the 138 years: Make sure you get the other side.
A newspaper will never be perfect - we are a work in progress all day every day. The paper is just the culmination of what we have done at a certain point in time.
Journalism is history written in a hurry. We were created to reflect the news of the day.
Consequently, every paper has errors - a factual error, flawed grammar, a name spelled incorrectly, a wrong phone number. We try, and I think succeed, in minimizing these mistakes. But in the rush of putting out what is essentially a book every day (for 50 cents, not $24.99) they happen.
We correct them and move on to the next book.
Our hard work exists for a day. The previous day's work becomes cage liner and fish wrap and packing paper.
But the Internet has changed our business.
Stories exist in the ether, to be read days, months, years after they are published.
The Internet opened up a whole new world and a whole new set of readers - far beyond the boundaries of Pima County. Interactivity was quick and conversations about stories flourished online. Sometimes it was ugly.
We and our advertisers didn't really know how to deal with the medium. Some day someone will figure it out, creating another revolution within the industry.
I've had fun. I've made mistakes - which were very public. I have done stories and tasks I didn't want to do - closing the paper I've loved is one. I've talked with many people and let the world know their tales. I've had bosses who helped me along the way - harshly and gently. And I've met and worked with many terrific, weird and talented people.
I will never regret being part of this institution, being a part of the news we reported and working with the people here.
The Citizen helped shape Tucson's past and future.
We've dedicated this edition - our final one - to us and those who have worked here before us by celebrating our work.
It's been a great run. So long and thanks for the memories.
Besides promoting a pro-business pro-war outlook newspapers and their writers fell into a self worship that saw themselves as part of an elite corps of being and that attitude made them feel a connection with other 'elites.
And in the 90s even as newspapers were slashing staff (acc. to testimony by David Simon in Congressional hearings) and collecting every bit of 'news' the RNC and related groups sent them (political groups sending to news reports to journalists documented during the Clinton impeachment period by the AP) some had earnings that made other businesses envious. Simon says the Baltimore Sun was making 37% profit about that time.
BTW, forget the board meetings.
The people's business should be online. It's the age of the internet now. And it has to be as easy or easier to get a transcript of a meeting or press conference online than to field questions from every news entity that needs a repeat of what it known by a govt entity on a subject.
It is well known that mainstream news organizations borrow heavily from each other, but true to form they select one group, to blame all their problems on. It doesn't hurt the center right agenda of mainstream news at all that those 'evil bloggers' are a big part of the group that Time magazine credits for getting the Democrats back into power (2006 Persons of the Year).
But lest get real: Don't blame bloggers for your demise. It was yourself who didn't stand up to the War Party or your corporate masters, and it was your management team that could not accept business models that didn't include amazing returns for the shareholders (who would then allow amazing compensation for management).
Bloggers usually at the most excerpt a few lines and make sure there is a link to your publication.
How did that bring down America's Big News industry?
So what? What's the point of griping about bloggers?
Yes, we have cultivated sources. Not "just" the community members who kindly turn to us when they see a crash or a fire or a crime, because they know we will cover it NOW, but also politicians, community leaders, government employees, other 'insiders' who know we understand that if they feel something is important enough to check out, chances are it matters to thousands of community members, so off we go to dig in.
And yes, we sit through never-ending community meetings. Almost every night of the week. Some afternoons too. From design review, to Hearing Examiner appeals, to hearings scheduled just as formalities for some ongoing government process - buried in published public notices - and we go to City Hall and the County Council Chambers and the courthouse downtown.
We cover important stories that others don't bother with. No paper in our area, big or small, saw fit to bother with a murder trial last year that started with a shooting in an area of our neighborhood where "that just doesn't happen" and led through a story of stalking and self-defense, with the teenage suspect ultimately exonerated after a year behind bars. They all read our work so they knew it was happening and chose to ignore it.
I paid a reporter to cover it daily -- it lasted a few weeks -- even though at the time I couldn't really afford it -- just knew it had to be done and I couldn't do a full day of court justice while also managing the rest of the site. Now, months later, we have the revenue to pay more journalists to work with us - freelance for starters but I hope more permanent soon - including two veterans whose jobs were cut at local papers big and small for $ reasons.
So, dear old-media folks who I understand are acting out of pain and fear - I have been through layoffs myself -- please stop attacking and dismissing everything with "blog" attached to it - it is only a publishing format. If there is a specific writer you are upset about, call them out by name/site, but get educated and learn that the "blog" world has a surprising amount of REAL JOURNALISM going on, produced by REAL JOURNALISTS, and since some of us small operations seem to be showing signs of sustainability, this just may be the way a lot of REAL JOURNALISM is produced for the foreseeable future - you are welcome to buy a domain, install a CMS, and get after it yourselves, too.
--Tracy Record, editor/co-publisher, West Seattle Blog
(Seattle, WA, 650,000 pageviews/mo., 20,000 homes/businesses visiting at least once weekly)
The Citizen took a cheap shot and also stereotyped "bloggers." It is a work in progress -yes. But, to take a cheap shot back, at least we are working on it.
Tracey, you are right on. For better or worse, I landed back in the industry, but I still feel strongly the news blogs are not to be blamed -- they're to be encouraged and nurtured. And painting "bloggers" with one broad-stroked brush is no more credible than blaming the New York Times for scandalous items the National Enquirer publishes.
But Bill L is right, it isn't "the bloggers" to blame, it is Gannet and Scripps and Hearst and McClatchy and Tribune: communications conglomerates who bought up so many of the independent local newspapers and bled them dry of profits and flavor. Now that those formerly independent newspapers are no longer cash cows, they are summarily dumped. You can't blame that on "bloggers."
Remember travel agents? You used to call your travel agent to find your flight, to make your travel arrangements, to handle the payment, to hold your hand through the whole travel arrangement process. To the consumer, they gave away that service "for free." In reality, their fees came from the airlines. As the travel agent profession declined, they too lashed out at their customers. Who is going to navigate the difficult process, they asked bitterly, of finding the best flight, the cheapest fare Only a "professional," they claimed, could navigate the computer system (Sabre, I think it was called) and make smooth travel arrangements. Well, it turned out that most of us do just fine making our own travel arrangements. Travel didn't go away, only (most) travel agents went away. Same with journalism. Newspapers are going away, but journalism is doing just fine.