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

A hedline is worth nine words

From the Texas Press Messenger's March issue:

66% believe journalists tell truth some of the time

Preparations for the future

This may be the best description I've heard of the incremental fixes being undertaken by many newspapers:

But to look at a typical American metro newspaper, regardless of format, and think the most dramatic thing you can do to pump life into it is change the size of the paper itself? Is that the best we can do?

I'm sorry, but that's like shrinking a three-foot hemorrhoid to one foot: if the former is your problem, the latter is not your answer.

Killing 'em softly

For those new readers who are still wondering what all this fuss about change in the news business is about, I highly recommend Jay Rosen's excellent analysis of the continued viablility of newspapers and the ensuing conversation from Alan Mutter, Doc Searls and others.

Same planet, worlds apart

We actually did wind up paying a visit to the NAA convention, as we were looking for vendors to supply one piece of technology we need. The thing that struck me was that among the myriad exhibitors, there were fewer than 10% that would be useful at all in our business. Not that these folks aren't good at what they do -- but those products and services have no meaning in a world where online is primary and circulation isn't a key metric for ad sales. (Presentation notes from the conference are now available online.)

Then comes this article from the AJR, suggesting that the DMN may have kowtowed to Joe Barton:

Since last spring, the few references to Barton on the editorial page have been much more respectful in tone. Readers active in air quality issues have complained, in letters to the editor and on their Web sites, about the perceived change.

Although the News had favored Barton in past elections, many hoped the paper would come out against him this past fall. O'Leary told me that the journalists on the editorial board wanted to recommend a vote against Barton. "Keven Willey ran the idea up the corporate flagpole," O'Leary says. "The higher-ups shot it down."

Willey says she is "not at liberty to disclose the arguments and positions taken by individuals that culminate in our collaborative board view."

Editorial board? A deliberative body writing opinion pieces? Running opinion ideas up a corporate flagpole? Collaborative board view?

I know that's tradition and SOP at many daily papers, but I just don't get it, man. I just don't get it.

Weekend reading

• We asked for a master list of citizen journalism sites. Johnathan Dube delivered.
     
• People are finally talking about the future of advertising with the fervor previously reserved for the newsroom:
  
  • This NY Times piece on the outlook for TV commercials touches on many of our core concepts.
  • Amazon was a big inspiration for our ad model. Here's why.
  • Ken Auletta rings in.
       
• Mark Cuban understands how multi-multi-channel distribution can make the content business attractive again-- and the risks if the pipelines are curtailed. And he's putting his money behind Grokster's legal fight to protect those lines.
     
• Another dirge for newspapers: As for the local papers: they will be shut down, their presses depreciated and scrapped, their offices leased out and the newsroom reporters scattered to the four winds of blogdom and specialty Web sites ... where they will provide local news, commentary, movie times and maybe even those long lost Little League box scores.
   
• Best stateside analysis I've seen on the need for news organizations to get on the mobile bandwagon.
     
• My schpeal on our plan generally involves a lesson on the Long Tail. A good reminder that this meme is often improperly used.
     
• Is Phil Anschutz' Examiner chain a web play in disguise? I don't think so. Yet.

Easter eggs

Don't think of them as bullets -- they're little black-dyed Paas creations:

• Online news isn't fulfilling its promise. Yet. More discussion at the Brookings Institution.
     
• AJR: The Dallas Mourning News. Plus, Belo's preaction.
     
• Congrats to Larry Skrenta and the crew at Topix.
     
• Interesting discussion on embargoes. While I think embargoes make no sense in today's world of instant communication, I also think a deal's a deal. So, to be clear, we don't respect embargoes on blasted-out press releases. And if staffers will only agree to embargoes on individual contacts when there's a darn good reason to do so. Be forewarned before sending us anything you're not ready to publicize. We'll make this policy clear on our site.
     
• Some people are noticing that aggregators (see Topix above) are the media biz darlings of the day. But, how will content creators make money?
   
• If you ever need a limited number of business cards quick, cheap and super-high quality, we heartily recommend Prints Made Easy. Especially if you don't have a design pre-made. Their tool is the height of ease and sophistication. And we got our order four days earlier than promised.
     
• More TK...

A couple more Journalism 2.0 exemplars

• A roof collapse at a UTD construction site. 10:49 AM: The Frontburner has it, via a CNN-watching reader. Nobody else online seems to have the story. I imagine they're all waiting for the "full story." (Note: Since Adam's post references Brendan Higgins, I presume that Channel 5 has it.)
     
• On Monday, Mike Wise of the Washington Post reported that the Sweet Sixteen game in Austin today means that Duke's Daniel Ewing "gets to play in Texas for the first time since high school."
  
  I and millions of other Americans caught a little pick-up game in San Antonio last year that seriously contradicts that statement.
  
  I can't imagine that no one's called the Post's attention to the error. Yet it stands.
  
  Worse, it's being picked up as a lede by other columnists. If there was instant and public reader-response on the original story, the error wouldn't be spread by others.

A welcome to all the "papah-hatas"

So, over the past few months, we've written hundreds of posts, numbering thousands of words -- carefully focusing on the changes facing the local news business and broadly outlining a plan to capitalize on those changes. Over time, we've gathered a small, but loyal readership.

So what brings us more traffic than anything we've ever done?

A link to a cartoon. (Wiley Miller's brilliant Non Sequitur from March 7.) If you like the cartoon, hang around and join the conversation. It's pretty emblematic of the chatter around here..

(Thanks to Steve Rubel, Trompe L'oeil and Amy Gahran for the linkage.)

History lesson

A master calendar, perhaps?

Could someone in the "wedia" please take on the task of coordinating a master calendar of launches, so that we don't trip over each other's at-birth publicity?

Yesterday, Ourmedia.

Today, Now Public.

Soon, Backfence.

What's cool is that all three (and us; and others) are coming at it from very different directions. I wish them us all the greatest success. As I've said before, in terms of the right business model, we're all wrong in some way or another. I guarantee it.

But Ours is an exercise of search, and I assume that they, like us, are dilligently working to refine their visions in the forge of experience-- to "Create to be free, consume to die to yourself." And simply by existing, we're closer than the incumbents. And by attacking the problems differently, we'll teach each other a lot.

It's a great big wedia love-in. But I'd still like a calendar so that we can manage not to roll out the same day as Dan Gillmor.