Below the Fold

The Brand Illusion of News

The Big Four are no more.

According a recent survey published in Ad Age magazine, only one in four 12-to 34-year-olds can name the four major traditional broadcast networks: ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox (sorry CW, you’re not in the club yet.) What networks can they name? MTV, Cartoon Network and Comedy Central. It’s enough to make you wonder how we still have a Republic.

The most popular activity for this group is going on the Internet, with TV watching coming in fourth. In other words, they watch YouTube more than the “boob tube.”

The survey is interesting but not terribly surprising. If you tell a teenager about a great story he should read in the newspaper, he’ll ask you for the URL. The Internet, TiVo and IPods have expanded media choice and control, yet they have also homogenized differences among television networks, newspapers and radio. On the Internet, all media looks the same.

But there is another reason for the devolution of media brands. Yes, the Internet and time-shifting devices have played a part in the loss of brand luster and identity. In terms of news, however, the issue is not so much one of content overload or “brand killing” technologies like RSS.

The problem with news is that most network news programs and newspapers are going after that same audience of 12-to-34-year-olds. And in trying to stand out, the news media end up being the same – running the same stories, with the same angles and same opinions, vainly trying to appeal to and retain the same audience by not offending or challenging them.

Journalists like to say, “If it bleeds, it leads.” But in today’s environment of news as profit machine, there is now a just as important corollary: “If it pays, it plays.” 

Brands “Interrupted”
How is an 18-year-old supposed to tell the difference between the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times when he reads an article via his MyYahoo page? Other than the name or logo, there is no real difference.

The Los Angeles Times is now a newspaper by committee, having replaced voice with an illusion of balance. The Times is a brand interrupted, no longer sure of its own place so instead it is trying to appeal to everyone while offending no one – or a least no one with the disposable income coveted by advertisers.

The same is true for the “Big Four” broadcast networks – and let’s throw in CNN for good measure.

What makes a CBS news story different from an NBC story? Where is ABC without the tenacity of a Ted Koppel? CNN wasn’t making enough money being CNN, so it decided to become Fox and add the kind of vitriol necessary to meet the demands of modern broadcast news – namely, just shout louder than the other guy. It’s sad to think that the same network that gave us Bernard Shaw and John Holliman now gives us Nancy Grace and Lou Dobbs.

No wonder people refer to any news organization as “the media” – that’s what happens when you go from “brand” to “bland.” I’m not sure if this trend is a credit to capitalism or a discredit to the American news consumer, but either way, it is a harbinger of the future of news.

Newspapers Media News Media Journalism mainstream media News Citizen Journalism ABC CBS NBC Fox CNN Nancy Grace Lou Dobbs Los Angeles Times Broadcast News Journalists

DaVinci’s Code, Dowie’s Descent, the Soul Patrol, and the Scourge of PR “Comfort Food”

Whenever I get too busy to write my columns, two things happen: One, I write quick little posts like this one to remind people I am still alive; and two, I come across as flippant and cynical in said posts.

Perhaps it’s better to wait until I have something to say, but then again, the last time I did this I joked about Matt Lauer’s sexual orientation and got the highest traffic spike of my blogging career. So here goes:

• People throughout the world are protesting the DaVinci Code movie because it suggests a romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. To be honest, I didn’t care about this the first time it came up, when the movie was called The Last Temptation of Christ.

• And by the way, 60 million people read the DaVinci Code book and didn’t object this much, yet are now pissed off about the movie? Are we sure this isn’t just all about Tom Hanks’ hair?

• Former Fleishman-Hillard executive and Los Angeles Daily News Editor Doug Dowie was convicted on 15 counts of conspiracy and fraud, stemming from a scam to “pad” hours and overbill Los Angeles City and County agencies. In other news, a dog bit a man.

• Let’s stop sending e-mails with the little red “priority” flags on them, okay? If something is that damn important, there’s another technology that works much better. It’s called the telephone.

• Taylor Hicks may become the next American Idol, due in no small measure to his fans known as the “Soul Patrol” and a blog titled “Gray Charles” (a nickname for the silver-haired Hicks). Gray Charles has more useful information than the Fox Idol site, video and audio files available within minutes of each week’s performances, and posts with hundreds upon hundreds of comments from supporters. By contrast, fellow Idol contender Elliot Yamin has the Jewish Community Center of Richmond, Virginia, conducting an e-mail appeal to other Jewish organizations to vote for the singer. As my mother would say, Oy Vey…

• Matt Lauer still might be gay. There, I said it. I’m not proud, but if it helps my Technorati ranking, then it was worth the effort.

• Finally, a national organization recently asked us to write a Q&A about blogging for their publication. Here’s the answer my colleague Linda Zimmer and I gave to the question, “What's your bottom-line advice for communications & marketing professionals in terms of blogging?”

In 1994, the World Wide Web was considered a fad. E-mail was a distraction. And mobile phones were just used for talking.

If you feel the same way today about blogs, stop. Communicators for the most part blew it when the Internet came of age because they didn’t take the time to understand its power and influence. Many communicators are doing the same thing now with blogs, opting instead for the online “comfort food” of static web sites, one-way communication and expensive press releases distributed on outmoded paid wire services. Statements such as “I’m too busy” or “I don’t need to know that stuff” are not merely excuses, they are inexcusable coming from professional communicators.

So our advice to you is this: Read blogs and other forms of online social media. Comment and participate. Take the time to learn and understand the fundamental shifts occurring in media and society, because to do anything less is to abdicate your responsibility as a communicator and purveyor of the public good.

Media News Media Dan Brown DaVinci Code PR Public Relations Fleishman Hillard Matt Lauer Taylor Hicks Elliot Yamin American Idol

Lance Dutson Redux: The Blog That Roared

A Maine legislator has shot back in the pendng defamation lawsuit against local writer Lance Dutson, calling for an investigation of the state agency involved and suspension of the state's contract with New York ad agency Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKP).

The ad firm filed the multi-million dollar lawsuit against Dutson, who publishes the Maine Web Report, for criticizing the agency and publishing an ad created by the firm on behalf of the Maine Office of Tourism. The ad erroneously carried a phone number directing people to a phone sex service.

Maine Rep. Stephen Bowen (R-Rockport) told a state official in a letter, "WKP’s suit smacks of an attempt to silence a taxpayer who is legitimately expressing concerns over how his tax dollars are being spent. When the suit is looked at in the context of the Office of Tourism’s generally poor handling of this situation from the start, this entire sorry episode has the appearance of making the state complicit in a conspiracy to discredit a critic of its policies."

I just have one thing to add to this ongoing story, other than my hope it gets resolved soon for Dutson's sake and for the sake of protected speech in a civil society.

Bowen said that "In a small state like ours, where people retain a strong voice in public affairs, everyone has the right to question what the state is doing and how it is spending our money. That right is sacrosanct.”

Although his conclusion is correct, I disagree with his premise. The right to question has nothing to do with the size of the state, but the size of the voice.

Citizens have the ability to affect change, whether in Maine or Calfornia, whether in Belgium or the United States. And it wasn't just the voices of Maine residents and media that put pressure on Bowen to call for the investigation, it was the voices of hundreds of bloggers from around the country and the world that pumped up the volume on this clarion call.

What the greater community did on behalf of Dutson will not change the world, I know. But it's a hell of a start.

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Moussaoui Got it Wrong

9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says he "won" after a jury sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He's wrong. The life sentence doesn't mean Moussaoui won -- it means civilization did.

Moussaoui media death penalty capital punishment Terrorism 9-11

Lance Dutson's Legal Battle: Why It Matters to Modern Journalism

I didn't believe in objectivity when I was a reporter and I do not believe in it now. Objectivity is the Great Myth of modern journalism, up there with foreign correspondent being a “glamorous occupation” and Fox News being “Fair and Balanced.”

Reporters can’t  be objective because they are human. They have feelings, emotions and opinions that don’t stop when their fingers touch a keyboard or when the camera's red light goes on.

We accept this from professional journalists as a fact of news media life. So why do some hold citizen journalists to a higher standard?

Here’s a case in point – literally. Lance Dutson, a writer who runs the Maine Web Report blog, is being sued by New York advertising agency Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKPA). The agency, which handles advertising for the Maine Office of Tourism, alleges that Dutson’s blog “contains numerous defamatory statements designed to blacken WKPA’s reputation, expose WKPA to public contempt and ridicule, and injure WKPA in its business and profession.” The Media Bloggers Association, of which I am a member, is assisting with the case (the MBA has more information about the case and pending legal battle here).

I haven’t followed the case or know enough about Dutson’s character to make an informed judgment. But I do know a thing or two about First Amendment rights and journalistic principles.

Professional journalists do (for the most part anyway) exercise something more important than objectivity, and that is restraint. The good ones work within the invisible boundaries that separate the reporter from the rabble-rouser, the journalist from the loose cannon. You can call Tom DeLay a crook as long as you also call him “Mr.” DeLay and back up your claims with facts.

Some citizen journalists are motivated by making an impact on their communities, by lending a different perspective on an issue or simply by sharing and adding their voices to the discussion. But they are not restricted by the same boundaries that restrict the professional. Restraint is an option, not an obligation.

Dutson may have been motivated by other factors, I don’t know. He certainly could have exercised more restraint in his choice of words (for example, he could have said the Maine Office of Tourism was “wasting,” not “pissing away” tax money). But he did not appear to unduly harm and he did not break the law. He acted well within his rights as a journalist, a citizen and as an American.

What Dutson said about Maine government and the contractors it pays with public funds doesn’t matter. What does matter, however, is defending his right to say it without personal or legal prosecution. It matters to Dutson, and it should matter to us all.

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Death in the Blogosphere: What We Gained From Terry Heaton’s Loss

Those of you who follow Terry Heaton’s Pomo Blog already know that Terry’s wife, Allie, died this week. Her death at 41 was sudden, unexpected, and of course heartbreaking beyond words to Terry, her husband of only 18 months.

Terry’s post about his beloved wife is touching and sincere, as one might expect. But what is perhaps more touching and revealing than the post itself are all the comments from friends, online acquaintances and perfect strangers – more than 152 at last count and growing by the minute.

Many of these mourners knew Terry only through his writing. They didn’t know Terry personally, they didn’t know his wife, and they didn’t know Terry’s favorite food or football team. Yet the pain in these people’s comments seeps through the computer screen as if Terry was a blood relative. There are condolences, poems, prayers and personal reflections. There are people stripped of all pretense and puffery, commenting not out of the need to get links, but the need to share love.

Say what you want about bloggers and social media. Question blogging’s veracity and its place in the world of modern communications. But never question the power of one man with a computer and something to say to move a multitude of strangers.

Through his loss, Terry Heaton has given us all the opportunity to connect in a deeply personal way to him, Allie, and each other. And for that, Terry, we thank you from the bottom of our blogging hearts.

Zichronah livrachah -- may Allie’s memory be a blessing to us all.

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The New Journalism Rules: Learning to Fly in the Modern Mediasphere™

At first glance, The Naples (Fla.) Daily News web site looks like any other newspaper site: Articles include a local twist to a national story on declining home sales; a car crash that killed a local resident; and a cold front moving into the sunny Gulf Coast enclave of 20,000 retirees and not-so-idle rich.

But look deeper and you quickly learn that this is no ordinary newspaper web site: It is print gone wild. The site features online video, audio and podcasts; blogs and photo galleries; and news alerts about local high school football games delivered to subscribers’ mobile phones.

We have seen the future of news, and it is in South Florida – and, by the way, in Delaware, where the News Journal produces a daily, network broadcast quality video news show online; and it is in Columbia, Missouri, where the Missourian newspaper is available for download in PDF or QuickTime format, and the online “My Missourian” is produced almost entirely by local citizen journalists.

These are just some of the old media/new media marriages that, instead of diminishing the print product, actually enhance it with features not available in the version that lands on the driveway. And if newspapers are to survive in today’s Modern Mediasphere™, they need to embrace the “all media is multimedia” mantra, involve the news consumer and deliver the news in new, compelling, personal ways.

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, “old media” is not dying – but it is changing.

•    According to the most recent Pew Internet Study, more than 50 million Americans get their news online each day, up from 27 million less than three years ago.

•    The New York Times combined its print and online newsrooms into one staff, smashing the wall between journalism old and new; USA Today followed suit;

•    The Los Angeles Times eliminated most of its daily stock market tables, rationalizing that most people nowadays go online for that information. And the paper just began offering daily summaries of news available only on its web site, directing readers to put down the paper and pick up the mouse for more information and special web-only features;

•    VCast from Verizon Wireless now delivers CNN, ESPN and NBC News daily to mobile phones, and live sporting events are coming soon.

Still not convinced? Just follow the money – according to an article in Red Herring magazine, while media giant Knight-Ridder’s traditional revenue rose 3.1 percent in 2005, revenue in its digital division grew nearly 55 percent. And venture capitalists have poured about 50 million dollars into new media companies that enable readers to organize, rank and edit the news within a kind of volunteer journalism co-op.

Social Media Rules
There obviously are many changes afoot, and big dollars to be had in the “zeros and ones” of digital data. But what we are seeing is not one media form replacing the other, but rather a sense of cooperation, mutual dependence, and excitement about the future of news.

Why else would The New York Times buy About.Com, a “non news” site? Maybe because “About” gives the Times’ content a consumer-focused kick – not to mention millions of new users. Other major “old media” companies now own pieces of the new media pie, from news aggregators like Topix.Net to job boards and online shopping portals.

The most intriguing “mashups” of old and new media, however, are the Web 2.0 social networks – sites where news from mainstream media, citizen journalists and bloggers is submitted, organized and voted on by thousands of amateur editors, also known as “the audience.”

Audience: The Missing Ingredient
The content of social news sites like Newsvine and Digg is not much different than that of traditional sites, except for one very important thing – the audience now has a voice. And, therefore, the content becomes both more powerful and personal.

The audience is as much a part of the mediasphere as anything else, with as much to say and, because of new publishing tools, the ability to say it and be heard.

This is what “old” media needs to focus on the most. Not technology or how to use the new tools of the web, although providing news in different ways such as video and podcasts, or via personalization like text messaging, is still critical to engage and attract today’s and tomorrow’s audiences.

What truly matters is the ability for media to listen, involve and engage these audiences, and the willingness to share the news with them. As a journalist you may write a story, but it doesn’t belong to you. And the more journalists who involve the audience before, during and after the process, the better those stories will be. Bloggers understand this – after all, blogging is all about sharing information and connecting with others. Journalists need to do the same.

Newspapers and mainstream broadcast media can’t survive without the online audiences made possible by social networks, and sites like Newsvine, Digg and even Google News can’t survive without the content and vast resources supplied by mainstream media news organizations.

There is room for both in the Modern Mediasphere -- and as communicators and marketers, we now also need to put the audience front and center. We should have been doing this all along, but better late than never.

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Online Community Newspapers for Sale: Out2 Media Group Is Out To Nurture “Hyper-Local” Citizen Journalism

Want to own your own online newspaper? Bob Leonard, CEO of Out2 Media Group, may have a deal for you.

He will set you up with a “hyper-local” local online presence. He will train you to be a newspaperman and a businessman. And he wants your reporters to get paid.

Leonard believes all media is local, even when it is online. That’s why next week, Leonard plans to roll out more than 13,400 online newspaper “franchises” and introduce per-article payments to citizen journalist contributors.

“Our objective was always to create a newspaper,” said Leonard, whose Florida-based company has been in the online media space since 1997. “But the changes in the last year have accelerated our actions.

“We always believed that (print) newspapers will diminish, but that there would be an evolution that will take place,” Leonard said. “We don’t want to replace traditional newspapers, but what we have is a product with a foothold in place, and evolutionary momentum.”

This isn’t new to Out2. What’s changed is the prevalence of low-cost publishing tools, the availability of Internet access in rural areas and small towns across the United States (where citizen journalism is more needed), and a growing distrust of mainstream media as well as dwindling professional resources. News abhors a vacuum, and citizen journalism sites from Northwest Voice in California to H20 Town in Massachusetts are filling the void.

New Media Meets ‘Old School’
Out2 is taking the concept further – in a sense, applying a more “traditional” model of local ownership and paying freelancers than a pure online model where anyone anywhere can contribute and work is done on a purely volunteer basis.

Out2 “reporters” will earn $5 per published article. The idea, according to the company, is to “reward contributors and further encourage citizen journalism for local and community-based coverage.” In other words, while reporting on the local sewer project or the high school wrestling match requires passion and an interest in writing, a little extra cash doesn’t hurt, either. And if there is more good local coverage, then online eyeballs will increase and advertising and e-commerce dollars will follow – or so goes the theory.

Franchisees get a piece of the online pie, although they also need to make a capital investment, work to sell the ads and keep the content fresh. This includes reprinting local government press releases verbatim, which is less news than it is dictation from an unchecked source. And then there are the issues of accuracy and legal liability, which are problems for all news organizations that accept public-generated content.

Nevertheless, Leonard believes this is the only way to make hyper-local journalism work.

“We don’t edit or censor, but I believe the quality will improve over time,” Leonard said. “Once someone posted a story about a local football team beating another, but it wasn’t true and the story was corrected within minutes by the community.

“You need to live in the town you cover in order to be a franchisee,” he said. “If you want to be the local media, you have to be local.”

No Blogging, No RSS ‘Stealing’
Leonard believes in the newspaper model – so much so that Out2 publications shy away from modern “Web 2.0” engagement tools like blogs and RSS (syndication) feeds.

“We like the newspaper model, it’s very cost-effective,” Leonard said. “ I don’t believe in the Internet model -- blogs are the hula-hoop of the day.

“We also don’t believe in RSS,” he continued. “There is no deep linking in Out2 – why have a newspaper than allows you to just buy the sports page? I don’t want someone to be able to come in and steal our newspaper, so I don’t like RSS.”

Whether the public feels similarly remains to be seen. Out2 is confident, but being a good communicator today means reaching people in ways that make sense to their own lives, not to a company’s balance sheet. If I am at a high school football game and want to know how the team across town did, I can’t pull out my computer and go online. I can, however, get an alert on my mobile phone – Naplesnews.Com is doing this in Florida with some success.

But after nine years in business and a planned expansion over the next few months, Leonard is in it for the long haul. And his success, as well as success for other citizen journalism ventures, will have little to do with business models or whether you can get RSS feeds.

It will be about relevance. It will be about quality. And it will be about trust – you can't pay for it, but you can and should earn it.

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Citizen Journalists at the Gates

For a profession where the practioners' names are connected to every story, journalism is a bed of insecurity stuffed with pathos, where journalists bemoan their lot in life as if the act was as essential as breathing. Forget that a journalist's job is so important that it is written into the U.S. Constitution, the question still comes up at every family gathering: “So, it would have killed you to go to medical school?”

The truth is you don’t need any formal training to be a journalist. You don’t need a degree, you don’t need a membership card and you don’t need to learn to play golf. All you need are curiosity, skepticism, and the means to communicate. Not only does it take more training to become of plumber, it pays better, too.

I went to journalism school and I believe that anyone who wants to pursue a career in journalism should have some level of formal training. But that’s not to dismiss the majority of working journalists who do not have journalism degrees or formal training (read Leonard Witt’s post for details), or the hundreds if not thousands of 'citizen journalists” who are trying to find their way and contribute to the conversation of news.

It is this lack of official sanction that causes some professionals to deride and dismiss citizen journalists as purveyors of rumor – amateur scribes steeped in ignorance who lack the skills or will to play in the big leagues. Every person with a blog is a threat not only to truth and civility, they believe, but to their very livelihoods.

“Less Journalism,” More “Raw Material”
Witt wrote about one such journalist, Columbia University professor and author Samuel Freedman. In a column published on CBS News’ Public Eye blog, Freedman said:

“However wrapped in idealism, citizen journalism forms part of a larger attempt to degrade, even to disenfranchise journalism as practiced by trained professionals.” He added: “I appreciate the access that citizen journalism provides to first-hand accounts of major events. Yet I recognize those accounts are less journalism than the raw material, generated by amateurs, that a trained, skilled journalist should know how to weigh, analyze, describe, and explain.”

This is how much I respect Sam Freedman – he teaches at Columbia University and I went to the University of Missouri, and I still like him. Freedman is well meaning and, like me, believes we need to train journalists in the fundamentals and teach them to use their Constitutional freedom to question, before that freedom atrophies like an unused muscle.

Nevertheless, methinks the professor doth protest too much. News doesn’t belong to the professionals anymore; it belongs to all of us because we all can create, comment and share the news. Smart news organizations like the Washington Post recognize this and include bloggers in the conversation. There is no finished product without the raw material, and if that means sometimes seeing how the sausage is made then so be it. This is something to be embraced, not feared.

Opening the Gates
And, by the way, it also works. MyMissourian, a citizen journalism site run by the University of Missouri journalism school, is testament to the “sharing the news” philosophy.

“What happens is, well, they write,” said Clyde Bentley, Missouri journalism professor and MyMissourian founder, in a speech last year. “And they write about controversial things and they write about very nice things. We have a religion section that has some really great things by our local group of pagans, and we have some really great recipes and stuff. But they write and they write and they write. And that’s fine. That’s what we want. We’ve got all the room in the world.

“We’re getting into this whole idea of participating — the idea of journalism; of sharing. It’s a new concept for us, but we think it’s going to work.”

Witt is correct when he says “…rather than worry that citizen journalists might tarnish the profession, open the gates instead. Search for the very best talent in the blogging, citizen journalism movement and invite them into the party.”

Yes, open the gates. The ones who are unkind or unruly will be asked to leave, and the rest will learn from each other, from pros and from amateurs, until there is no longer a distinction between the two.

There will just be citizens and journalists, one and the same.

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In a World Full of Strangers, Everyone is a Suspect

I wrote a newspaper column nine years ago about the perils of living in a world full of strangers – nobodies, if you would. Now that I am an official Nobody I decided to pull out that old column to see if it still had resonance today.

Following is an excerpt from that piece so you can decide for yourselves. For me, I found it interesting that suspicion and fear were just as rampant then, four years before 9/11, as they are now. Social networks have done much to bridge the human divide, but we still live in a world full of strangers.

“We go about the daily duties of our lives, meeting and talking to dozens of people, yet without hardly knowing or remembering any of them. You might get a raised eyebrow of recognition, perhaps a polite smile. ‘How are you, I am fine’ could just as well be replaced with ‘we have acknowledged each other’s presence – now leave me alone.’

“I went to the post office to pick up my mail after the holidays and the clerk asked if Paul was my mailman. I didn’t have a clue. I’ve lived in town for two years and I don’t even know the name of the guy who delivers my mail six days a week. Come to think of it, I don’t know who my Sparkletts Water guy is, my lawn guy or the guy at the yogurt shop down the street (with as many times as I go there, he should be family by now.) I know the name of my favorite checker at Vons, but that’s only because she wears a nametag.

“None of this is really news to any of us in Southern California. We like being anonymous. We’re too busy to stop and chat like Midwesterners. Getting to know your neighbors takes too much time.

“But this attitude, this mindset, is killing us. You can’t change a tire on the 405 Freeway without someone taking a shot at you. You can’t ride the bus without fearing for your life.

“In a world full of strangers, everyone is a suspect.

“It’s a lot easier to kill people you don’t know. You don’t have to grieve for their families or go to their funerals. They are not your neighbors but a nuisance. Their existence is without consequence.

“I’m not so naïve to think that finding out who your mail carrier is will change all this. But somewhere along the line, in our nation’s grand rush for superiority in all human endeavors, we have forgotten what it is to be human. We no longer value life because we no longer live it together.”

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