CBS gives the newsroom a Public Eye

September 6, 2005 by

This September, in an effort to bring “transparency to the editorial operations of CBS News,” CBSNews.com is embarking on a new endeavor: a blog called Public Eye. While largely CBS news-centric, the blog plans to touch upon journalism issues in the news as well as the blogosphere and will feature video, pictures, guest bloggers and Webcasts. The blog plans to bring a “public eye” into the CBS newsroom, unveiling the reporting and production processes that go on behind the scenes.

“Public Eye is an opportunity for CBS News’ audience and to hold CBS News more publicly accountable. But importantly, it is an opportunity for CBS News to be more open and accessible about why and how it makes the decisions that affect what millions of people see, hear and read,” announced CBS on its website.

The blog will be run by Vaughn Vevers, formerly the editor of The Hotline in Washington, joined by Brian Montopoli, a well-published writer and blogger for the Columbia Journalism Review, and Hillary Profita, a researcher from Nightline.

Filed Under: Sites

Stymied by Hurricane Katrina, journalists turn to the Web

August 31, 2005 by

With their presses and offices underwater, print and broadcast journalists in New Orleans are leaning on the Web to keep the news churning in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which has been in operation since 1837, refuses to go unpublished even in the midst of the catastrophe. Managing Editor Dan Shea and many of his staff have continued to work outside New Orleans to put the news online, knowing that their homes are flooded.

“‘We will not miss a day of publishing, if the brave people whom I’ve lived with for the last two days can help it. Most of our readers are now outside of the city and we can reach them on the Internet. We also want to restart some printing and get papers to the residents left behind,'” Shea told the WSJ.

“The Internet, as a decentralized communications network, can be more resilient than traditional media when natural disasters occur,” wrote the New York Times, which quoted the following from Jeff Jarvis, a consultant to online media companies:

“Owning broadcast towers and printing presses were useless. … The Web proved to be a better media in a case like this.”

Meanwhile, the NYTimes also reported that local news stations like WNOL Channel 38, a WB affiliate, and WGNO Channel 26 (of ABC) went off the air and employed their Web sites to get the news out. Their sites feature weather updates, footage of the hurricane’s aftermath and even some advice for coping with the event.

The Web has been a source of consolation for many in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. OJR now features a wiki for ongoing online coverage of the disaster.

Robert MacMillan of The Washington Post summed up the general sentiment of the week quite nicely: “Well, thank goodness for the Internet.”

Filed Under: Events

Columbia, S.C. paper joins community journalism revolution

August 31, 2005 by

From Editor & Publisher: The State, a paper in Columbia, S.C., is latching onto the community journalism bandwagon this week by launching TheColumbiaRecord.com, a stand-alone site that will feature blogs from 25 local mavens on everything from astronomy to the classical arts.

Registering at the site will enable users to post items or photos and to submit notices for upcoming events for the online community calendar. The site’s content management system, blog platform and calendar system were purchased from iUpload, a company that provides a similar service for NorthwestVoice.com, the Web site for a community newspaper in Bakersfield, California.

“‘We think that by leveraging the newspaper’s ability to reach 100,000 people every day, we’ll really be able to direct a large portion of our main news site to this community site, thereby increasing [reader] participation,'” said Dave Roberts, The State’s online editor.

Roberts says he hopes the Web site can serve to inject new ideas into the newsroom by generating leads and story ideas and also expects the public to take advantage of the self-service calendar function, which he hopes will save the newsroom valuable data-entry manpower, according to E&P.

Filed Under: Sites
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