Robert Niles: December 2008 archive
Happy holidays, from OJR
December 23, 2008
We're about to take a short break here on OJR, reappearing after the New Year's holiday, but I first wanted to take a moment to wish you a very happy holiday season and to thank you for reading OJR.It's been, uh, an interesting year for OJR. But I think I can say, without doubt, that if it were not for your very public support of the site, OJR would not be here at its new home at the Knight Digital Media Center. So, thank you.
As we enter the new year, I would like to renew my invitation to each of you to become a writer for OJR. OJR readers are (almost exclusively) new media and journalism professionals, people who are doing what we write about here. More...
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Newsrooms must get active to survive the economic meltdown
December 19, 2008
The past few weeks have seen the newspaper industry accelerate toward a previously unthinkable collapse. The Tribune Company (one of my former employers) filed for bankruptcy. E.W. Scripps put the Rocky Mountain News (another one of my former employers) up for sale, and might close the 150-year-old Denver paper should no buyer be found within the month. The Wall Street Journal reported that Detroit's two newspapers would stop home delivery on certain weekdays. (Their websites would update seven days a week.) Rumors continue to swirl that the Miami Herald is next up on the block.The financial trouble throughout the industry is leading many to consider a future without newspapers. Or, at least, without newspapers as we now know them. LA Observed's T.J. Sullivan asked "Ever wonder what the world would have been like if Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein hadn't uncovered Watergate? I fear we'll learn the answer in the next couple decades."
With all due respect to T.J., I fear that we already know the answer. Because we've been living in that world for the past 10 years already, a time when traditional journalists failed to uncover emerging scandals and to warn the public about abuses of power at the highest levels of government and industry.
Allow me to suggest that the U.S. news industry's collective failure to accurately portray the world over the past decade has done as much, if not more, to drive readers to the Internet than any inherent attractiveness of this new medium. If existing news businesses wish to have any hope of surviving the current downturn, in any medium, they cannot continue to perform as they have over the past decade. More...
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An online journalist's guide to entering the Pulitzer Prizes
December 12, 2008
Set one more milestone along the road toward the convergence of the online medium with the rest of the field of journalism.This week, the Pulitzer Prizes announced that it will accept entries from online-only news publications. The highest honor in American newspaper journalism now is simply the highest honor in American written journalism. Print and online, at last, will be judged as one.
Of course, I'd argue that distinction between the media long since been lost among our readers, the public. News is news, regardless of its medium. People will turn to the news sources that are, for them, the most informative, engaging, immediate and convenient. But I'll let other wax about the cultural significant of the Pulitzer decision. Today, allow me to address a more practical matter...
How do you nominate your website for a Pulitzer Prize?
Many print veterans are familiar with the entry process. But many worthy bloggers and online reporters won't be. And putting a site up for a Pulitzer isn't as simple as pasting your best URLs into an online form. A Pulitzer win, however, could catapult an online-only news site, fighting for attention in a hyper-competitive news marketplace, into a leading position in its market. The $10,000 cash award also could help plump the lean budgets at many online news start-ups.
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The top gifts for online journalists, 2008 edition
December 5, 2008
Last year, OJR presented its list of top gifts for online journalists, and today we continue the tradition with this year's list.In recognition of the current economy, we've kept all the items on this year's list under $200, so we won't be talking about the laptops, digital cameras, video equipment and other goodies that many of use want, but that would break a bank account faster than being bought by Sam Zell.
Feel free to e-mail this list to your friends and loved ones (or print it out for the Luddites), if you're the type of person who never can come up with a list on your own.
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