Comments on: Losing my remote: Jumping from TV to newspapers

By: Anthony Moor

Anthony Moor — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:13:09 +0000

Great post, Liz,

When I traded 15 years in TV for newspaper.coms back in 2001 I was stunned at how much bigger Rochester NY’s newspaper newsroom was than KRON’s in San Francisco. I remember flapping my arms around too, wondering, ‘why don’t these guys care that a plane’s down?’

But these print guys are getting ‘breaking news’ again — it’s not like they didn’t know what it was, it’s more that they’re rusty because they’d ceded that franchise to TV back in the early 80s when live trucks and 24 hour news channels were born. And when afternoon dailies died around the country the last of the ‘breaking news’ print products died too.

One of the things I enjoy the most about working in print is that these people are SMART. And committed to community service. Now, I don’t mean to knock my erstwhile colleagues in TV — but let’s face it, reporters have always been about showbiz as much as journalism. (Why is being an anchor a step ‘up’ from being a reporter — unless it’s about the money, personal prestige and showbiz?) At newspapers it’s about serving a community by communicating the things they need to know — nuance and all.

I do hope as newspapers and TV converge on the Web, that the values so evident in print come along as well — along with maybe a bit more arm flapping than before!

By: Every Internet Game

Every Internet Game — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:27:56 +0000

personally i prefer the internet
you can stay connected to everything that is happening the minute it happens
you dont have to wait until tomorrow or tonight when something happens
you just read about it as it progresses and that is a plus
in addition you can do many things at once on the internet
i play online games such as online poker and online backgammon, win money, read news, listen to music, all at the same time.
you can’t do that with the tv or the newspaper

By: oakling

oakling — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:24:03 +0000

I love that newspapers can do more in-depth reporting, but I wish they would do more than they do. I see far more Associated Press here-are-the-facts-let’s-not-acknowledge-any-bias pap in the SF Chronicle than thoughtful, well-written and well-researched reporting, even though they have those resources.

By: seth

seth — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:26:10 +0000

Liz… Thanks for sharing! As you compare the size of a newspaper operation to that of a TV station, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds.

Will TV add writers and sales people to cater to niche and beat audiences online (and on-air)? Will newspapers continue to downsize and will that compromise some of their content depth?

I asked each of those as questions (to which I’d answer “yes”).

The real question is which old media will hit the right size first - and at what cost to margins, content and community?

When it’s all said and done, will our products differ much? Will our staff? Our resources?

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:18:58 +0000

Liz … really interesting, eye opening stuff there. I went the other direction from newspaper to TV so I liked reading how things turned out going in the opposite direction.

Your boss’ mantra … If you don’t mind I’m going to share that with my boss, although I’ll substitute ‘print’ for ‘TV’,

By: Mel Taylor

Mel Taylor — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:05:31 +0000

liz,
that’s an awesome report, one in which i can relate to.
i too, left TV and moved into newspaper recently.
your rundown of experiences are very accurate !
if only TV knew how serious newspaper is in regards to online video.
mel

By: David Johnson

David Johnson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:37:42 +0000

nutty lady… ha!

how are you handling diction and presentation with your newsies? do they get on-camera coaching?

also, we’re interested in where newspapers go in terms of content– are you drifting more towards broadcast style or documentary style?

By: bonita sarita

bonita sarita — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:17:46 +0000

Lately I’ve been getting my newspaper newsroom fix from The Wire but this is even better. I worked in tv news for 7 years and left to work for a PBS station. The difference in pace was the biggest change for me. I never thought I’d be able to leave the news biz but now I don’t know if I could go back!

Great post, thanks for the insight.