That's how Steve Buttry quotes his boss, Journal Register Co. CEO John Paton, on the challenges facing the newspaper business. Another Paton quote: "Stop listening to newspaper people" on the future of newspapers. Buttry uses those comments as a springboard to his own list of tips for journalists making the transition from traditional reporter to digital reporter. Among them: Look for mentors, including those who are younger than you.
State of the craft
From Nieman Reports, a broad collection of essays on how newspapers and other traditional journalism institutions can transform themselves from one-to-many broadcasters to collections of interest-based communities. Among them, how to deal with "the digital equivalent of the loudest drunk in the bar" in comment sections, and a look inside Al Jazeera’s newsroom.
Activist organizations in the U.S. and Europe are stepping into the void left by budget cuts at news media businesses, according to this report on the Editors Weblog site.
A recent Maryland poll found the public wants more science news, but not necessarily from the news media, which has reduced coverage. "More scientists need to be reaching out to the American public, in transparent, plain English communication," Paige Brown writes on a Nature.com blog. "In a time of reduced public exposure to science through our familiar newspapers and favorite news channels ... the answer increasingly involves the internet, websites, and social media."
An AAAS media/science panel delves into the proper role of media in convincing the public about climate change and explores differing views on what precisely makes news, helping illustrate scientists’ and media’s sometimes vast cultural differences. From the Spring 2011 ScienceWriters,
Heavier on scientists than bona-fide writers, this list features names like Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, E.O. Wilson, and Oliver Sacks. The methodology is undefined and the credentials of the web site that published the list, OnlineCollege.org, are equally murky. But at least a couple of NASW members received mentions, and the inclusion of some names you might not expect — Isaac Newton? Galileo? — make for an entertaining read.
Issuing their new guide as a PDF was the first sign that print remains their priority, Steve Buttry writes in his review of "10 Best Practices for Social Media" from the American Society of News Editors. Editors "remain afraid of social media," Buttry says. "Their need to control remains an impediment to innovation." On the guide's top 10 list of tips: "Break news on your website, not on Twitter." Buttry's revised version.
That popular view of social media and the Internet in general can be traced to 1987, when an earlier generation of computer gurus overhauled Usenet, an early discussion board system. Alexandra Samuel traces the history in the Harvard Business Review. “‘Free, open and participatory’ is the social web’s equivalent to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” she writes. “And it’s been a driving force on the Internet since at least 1987.”
Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, lists more than a dozen pitfalls to be avoided when writing about clinical trials and other aspects of medical research. Example: "Many stories about drugs that are still in clinical trials include some estimate or projection of when the drug ... might be available on the market. Many times, such projections are just shots in the dark."
From the Scholarly Kitchen, two well-established writers going in different directions. One, thriller novelist Barry Eisler, spurned a $500,000 advance in favor of self-publishing. The other, Amanda Hocking, who specializes in the young-adult paranormal genre, is signing with St. Martin's Press after self-publishing nine wildly successful books. Plus more on Hocking's move from the New Yorker and the New York Times.