Past as Prologue

The question is whether we are going to continue to mourn the decline of newspapers on the grounds of nostaglia, quality, etc., or move our skills over to a new medium. I'm for the latter.

Copy editors as a group have never been shy about using new technology. What some of us are unhappy about is the replacement of traditional skills by technology itself, an emphasis on tech skills over everything else and a non-news mindset that has taken over, in some cases, at what were formerly news sites.

This article suggests we need to think in a new way, by looking at what has happened in the past. And it's time to fight for what we know is right instead of relinquishing the battle. It's simple, really: How do we preserve and practice good journalism with new tools? If we try to make it any more complicated than that, we lose.

WSJ Sightings: Terry Teachout on the New-Media Crisis of 1949 - WSJ.com

Not Getting What You're Not Paying For

I suppose we risk looking like finger-pointing little children gleefully shouting "Told you so!" when we insist that eliminating copy editors reduces the value of a publication.

Or, conversely, like angry old folks, that things were better, sonny, back in my day!

So be it. You cannot read a newspaper these days without seeing clear signs of decline. Far too often, though not always, stories are increasingly superficial, key facts are missing, typos abound.

We can't completely blame the blogs or people's lack of interest in events, though the fact that slideshows about celebrities who wear pink or the latest sex scandal draw far more attention than do stories about the economic crisis is disturbing and depressing in a society that depends on an informed citizenry to survive with its values intact.

Even the best papers are declining, racing around in a panic, trying anything to make up for their failure to respond more than a decade ago when the Internet began capturing readers' attention.

At least we can use the Internet to document the decline and hope that when something new and better rises in the place of print newspapers, some remembers some lessons: a. you can't give your work away for free (it's too late to do anything about that now)
b. people notice when you keep reducing the quality and quantity of your product and eventually walk away from it.

Here's another citation on the road to decline, from Ken Robertson of the Tri-City Herald:

Why newspapers should love their copy editors
By Ken Robertson, Herald Executive Editor

Reporters sometimes have a hard time believing it, but the best friend they can ever have is a sharp copy editor.

I was reminded of that again Monday when I was reading a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. A couple of folks from George Mason University were arguing for accountability as the federal stimulus money is spent across the nation.

Their article started out this way:

“President Barack Obama has promised a full accounting online of where his $787 stimulus package is spent ....”

That no one at the Wall Street Journal had noticed a key word — billion — was missing shocked me. Yes, I’ve seen both “billion” and “million” go missing in the Herald’s pages, and both of them trade places at times when they shouldn’t.

And yes, much of my job every day is to preach quality control and teach about the ways good copy editing ensures accuracy.

But I’m still shocked when I see such lapses, especially from a national newspaper with a staff of copy editors that must number in the scores.

Looking Back

As he heads out the door of The Wall Street Journal and on to Pro Publica, Paul Steiger takes a look at the state of journalism. Check out the slideshow that accompanies it.

Read All About It

How newspapers got into such a fix, and where they go from here
By PAUL E. STEIGER
December 29, 2007
It was the fall of 1999, and the newspaper I edited, The Wall Street Journal, was awash in money. Thanks to the dot-com boom and the lush advertising it generated, we were running the presses at full tilt nearly every day, yet had to turn away ads for lack of space.

Even as the good times rolled, two non-newspaper names kept coming up. I recall being stunned to learn that the main place where our own readers checked stock prices was the finance section of Yahoo. A couple of kids from Stanford had launched a search engine called Google. Already, many of my colleagues were using it.

UPDATE Black Friday and Reality

Updated and moved up.

A Wall Street Journal blog takes a quick look at Black Friday myths and realities.

Of course, Black Friday has become such an event for some people that they'll do anything to get what they want


or simply use the occasion to make a statement.


UPDATE:

Cyber Monday Follies:

Fox dispatched a reporter to an ESPN Zone in Washington, DC, where they were lucky to find "online shopper" Peter Perweiler, who did indeed have big online shopping plans. "I'm looking at some big-ticket items this year," he said, "so I really want to know what other people - problems they're having with items, things of that nature."

Good to know. What would also have been good to know: Peter is also the marketing manager at the National Retail Federation.

And how did this happen? An explanation.

Good reporting by the AlleyInsider.

Waiting for the Big Guy

Gawker reports on a protest meant to greet Rupert Murdoch, who apparently is coming in to check out his latest property (it's almost his.)

Wall Street Journal Markets reporter and union bigwig Jim "E.S." Browning sent around an email in anticipation of new owner Rupert Murdoch's visit to the offices today. Apparently, the union sent around these signs last week, to make their feelings about the takeover known. ... But it seems that they've all been torn down.


And then there's the editing of his wife's Wikipedia entry.