Timing Is Everything

From MediaBistro's newsletter that arrived at 3:15 p.m. today:
Promotions and New Positions
Benjamin Meadows-Ingram has been named executive editor at Vibe. He had been senior editor there. (Media Bistro)

On Poynter at 3 p.m.
Vibe magazine is shutting down, say sources

Onward and Downward.

UPDATED. I gotta say, this really pisses me off. Someone who does work for Poynter says "it's fine by me" if copy editor jobs are outsourced.

Amy Gahran says here: I think this international copyediting outsourcing experiment is an idea that needs to be tried.And as with any experiment, don't expect the first attempt to be flawless. If the Indian copyeditors can learn to do the job, then fine by me. Go for it.

I have an idea, Amy. How about if we ask Poynter to take away all the consultant gigs and outsource them? You know, YOUR job? I'd be willing to bet a bunch of those folks over there know a HELL of a lot more than you do about e-media issues. And they work for a hell of a lot less. Win win, I'd say. Yes, of course, it might not be a perfect experiment, but what the heck. It's only a paycheck, right?

Amy Gahran is a conversational media consultant and content strategist based in Boulder, CO. She edits Poynter's group weblog E-Media Tidbits.

Since 1997 she’s worked independently, managing content projects and helping individuals, media, and organizations participate in the public conversation.

A former full-time journalist, editor, and managing editor, Amy’s work mainly involves conversational online media (weblogs, forums, wikis, e-mail lists) as well as feeds, podcasting, and e-learning (including some courses on Poynter's NewsU.org).

Note, Jeffrey Rubin has been fighting the good fight, almost single-handedly, for quite a while. He could use some help.
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Not that I'm advocating it--really--but Reason Enough raises a good question about the next step in outsourcing.

And I wonder, too, about First Amendment issues--how might a jury respond in a libel case involving outsourced workers? Of course, papers stooping to this idea probably aren't doing deep investigative projects that open themselves to libel lawsuits. And Reuters is already writing a lot of little business stuff from Bangalore. Still, this move by the OC Register seems to have brought the newsroom-staffing crisis to another level.

Fading to Black has been tracking some of the carnage.

Good Point, Misleading Hed

Once again, the Poynter site has shortened a headline so much as to distort the meaning of the story. Here's how it reads on the main page:

Too Many Newspapers
John Dvorak's complaint.


Here's the hed on the main Romenesko page
Dvorak: There are too many papers selling the same news

and here is the reffed article, which is the real issue:

John Dvorak predicts newspapers will continue to slide because their owners don't understand that the public hungers for original material -- not just AP stories. "Publishers do know that their publication is their product, right? And they do know that if it's losing circulation, the key to reversing the trend is not to make it worse -- right? How does making a product worse fix a problem?"

Covering the Environment/Updated

UPDATED: Ah, The New York Times is on top of the Wall Street Green Trading Summit. Or rather, the summit is on top of the Times.

Some other events.

News University and the Society of Environmental Journalists are offering a course in covering water-quality issues. You have to be registered with News University to take the free course.

The course appears to be a valuable resource for many editors and reporters of all responsibilities, given the increased attention to environmental issues.

The increase in coverage previously mentioned here and here . Just look around the blogs, newspaper sites and TV--it's stunning how fast coverage has grown this year after years of dormancy.

For example, check out the date on this story.

And then there's this job posting.