The Daily Peg: Pegasus News, Inc. Founder's Blog

Friday hymnal

A nasty case of the flu preceded by a couple of hectic and frustrating days had me out of the game for more of this week than I could afford.

But, as I was beginning to succumb to the fever, my Itunes mix popped out with this little slice of inspiration. Although Mrs. Peg prefers the Sinatra version, I say that you can't mess with Soul Brutha Number One.

And, as I'm getting back at it today, the chorus has been ringing in my head:

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing
Each time I find myself   flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race

Dallas in the news

We're no Greensboro yet, but Belo's online re-org is the subject of Mark Glaser's latest.

The piece includes some ineloquent remarks from a certain "anonymous blogger."

(Flashback: "The Media Company I Want to Work For -- Not Someday, But Now")

More transparency

Dan Gillmor on "the end of objectivity."

A more cogent, better-thought out piece that put me in mind of our writings on the subject.  We were identifying the problems. Dan is articulating a strawman for the answers I think we're all seeking.

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UPDATE: Andrew Lark: The stuff that seems to be a nuisance - producing transcripts following keynotes, setting up webcasts, posting notes from interviews - need to become embodied in the day-to-day practice of communications. And communications teams need to be resourced to do it.

Checking in

Lots of activity in Peg-land. Hope to be able to say more about it soon. In the meantime, here's some things to chew on:

• From our DC bureau comes this note:
  We should quit now. The DMN has beaten us to the punch. From a Keven Ann Willey post [yesterday] from the DMN blog [emphasis added]: "When people tell me that they've noticed big changes on the editorial pages in the last couple of years, I generally thank them and ask them to describe the change. Almost without exception, they cite the openness, crispness, freshness of the pages. Or words to that effect. They seem to think that we're doing less preaching from the Ivory Tower and more conversation with fellow Dallasites, Texans, Americans, global citizens. Nothing could make me happier."
• MarketWatch on Backfence, saying things that would give our lawyers a heart attack.
• Speaking of Citizen-only plays, here's articles (via Romanesko) from the LaTimes and WaPo on why there's a need for a mainstream media. As I've said before, the Citizen-Journalists are creating a whole new niche; we're trying to reinvent a broader one.
• Tim Porter: I've come to believe the traditional newsroom structure is obsolete. (His six starting points are pure gold.)

Now playing:  Bruce Springsteen - This Hard Land

Another more succinct way of putting it

"Blogging is a tool, Journalism is an occupation, and Credibility is a goal. They are strange bedfellows."

Transparency in the three-legged race with our advertisers

First, Gentle Reader, a confession: I've been blogging around on you.

You might have guessed from the slowdown in posting. I know, we've had this nice, exclusive little chat. But I needed something more intimate.

Last week we started an internal blog, to enhance communication on the projects we're currently trying to execute, many of which would either be uninteresting to the wider world or are related to things we can't discuss in public.

I'll still post here regularly on the bigger-picture stuff, so take your finger off the unsubscribe button. Meantime, there will be occasions where I want to share a discussion from the internal blog. Here's one of them:

It started with a question on how we manage the market perception that a pay-for-performance ad model compromises our content even more than the mainstream model. The short answer is Transparency. The long answer (copied in the continuation due to saltier language than I generally use in public) inadvertently touches on a lot of other things that drive my philosophy, so I thought I'd share:

We're everywhere you wanna be

Bill Sanders on how local broadcasters can use cell phone content. A lot of this is in our plan, although I think that the early days will be mostly text.

Remember that being an avid user of KRLD's traffic service was part of the germination of this thing we call Peg. Sadly, those alerts have not convinced me to add to my motor fleet via a trip to see Carl Sewell.

One of our team pointed out the other day that the type of multimedia hyperlocal news we'll provide will be right in line with what the local TV news broadcasters have/want. I've always thought that -- A partnership in with a local station will be key. But whom?

More guidance

How to fix the NYT. Good advice for almost any mainstream paper.

And us too.

Dumb? Brilliant? Both?

There's a lot of talk in the blogomediajournosphere about "Citizen Journalists."

One of the toughest tasks for a media organization today is to figure out how to cost-effectively get at the Long Tail, particularly when it comes to advertising.

Citizen Ad Reps?

Would only work with a fanatical user base like Craig's List has. Would have to be simple. Would have to be conversational. Possible Amway-esque cheese factor could be problematic.

Percolating...

Oh, the absurdity!

The NYT selfspose' on third-party subscriptions provides yet another opportunity to pull out my favorite Ed Wasserman quote:

Still, there is an absurdity to the whole scam. Counting copies is a dopey way to gauge impact.

Rex Hammock also points out the absurdity.

So when will they run the expose' on NIE?

Now playing:  John Hiatt and the Goners - My Baby Blue