Author: Kathryn Jones Malone

Kathryn Jones Malone is co-director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. She began her career as a staff writer at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, then worked as a staff writer for the Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News; as a contract writer for The New York Times; as a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly magazine; as editor of the Glen Rose Reporter; and as a freelance writer for numerous state, regional and national magazines. She teaches journalism at Tarleton State University.

Categories
Newswriting

Avoiding errors in news copy

You’ll want to read this one and then post it in several places around the office, and maybe put it in your online stylebook (if you don’t have one, that’s another issue to address). There are actually 44 tips for reducing errors, and they’re down-to-earth, common-sense ideas. Like #3: Always find the first reference to a person in copy. Make sure that on first reference you have a first name and title, and doublecheck to make sure the first reference hasn’t be omitted rearranged or deleted in trimming copy. To which I would add: Make sure the reporter hasn’t omitted the first name of the mayor, just calling him Mayor Smith on first reference. Simple stuff, but really valuable as a review for new employees.

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Online news

Why Internet startups fail

Alan Mutter’s always-interesting blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, draws some conclusions about Internet start-up news operations that are certainly of interest to Texas newspapers who may someday face competition from online-only media (some already do). The bottom line, Mutter says, is that frequently the startups are run by journalists who are interested primarily in producing a good news product. In other words, the focus is on good journalism rather than building the business model and focusing on how the startup will make enough money to survive. Journalists who start these Internet operations frequently assume that good journalism will make a way for itself. To borrow from the baseball movie, they assume that if you build a quality news medium, the readers will come and so will the advertisers. But they’re so busy with journalism, they neglect the how-am-I-going-to-make-any-money-off-this end.

Categories
Business of News Online news Paid content

Surving in the new media economy: some options

If you’re trying to get a handle on just what the options are for traditional media companies like yours in a new media world, check out this article. The options briefly outlined by the article are these: (1) Erect a paywall. (2) Put up a semi-permeable paywall (a fraction of articles are free to encourage readers to become paying customers). (3) Implement a metered system, where readers can read a certain number of articles a day and then must pay for further access. (4) Remain free – to try to get more readers and thereby create a site where advertisers will want to appear. (5) Create a better value for advertisers – in effect, turning the newspaper’s advertising department into a miniature advertising agency that offers creative advertising solutions. This article summarizes the various options out there right now, and it will help you think more concretely about what your online future may hold.

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Hyperlocal news

Michelle’s List surveys local news sites

This is one of those sites you could spend hours and hours with. And should. Michelle McLellan, a Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri, has compiled a list of new local news providers. And maybe more importantly, she has categorized them in a way that helps to see what kind of news sites are being produced. Some are hyperlocal sites in large cities, but many are in small towns or are citizen journalism efforts. Why should people at Texas community newspapers pay attention? Well, some experimental sites in the Lone Star State are mentioned (check out http://impactnews.com/contact-us/about-us, for example), and many of the sites are a treasure trove of ideas for developing your own website.

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Uncategorized

The five stages of new media acceptance

The blog Lost Remote has published what the bloggers consider to be the five stages of new media acceptance. You can probably look back at your own experience with anything from the Web to Twitter and find yourself on the list. Here they are:

1. Denial: You believe the new app is useless, doesn’t apply to community journalism, or definitely won’t make any money for your newspaper.
2. Disbelief: You read about the app’s use at other newspapers and can’t believe people are wasting their time. And even if it IS working for them, you know it won’t work in your town or at your newspaper.
3. Trial: OK, you decide you’ll give it a brief trial since so many others are doing it. But you are pretty sure nothing will come of it.
4. Acceptance: It works! Readers are following you on Twitter. Your website is getting hits from your Facebook page!
5. Piousness: You run into your friends at TPA meetings and tell them that anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook page is hopelessly behind the times. You call the Center’s Andrew Chavez and ask if he wants you to “give a testimony” on the success of your website at the next workshop.

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Paid content

How to charge for content

Alan Mutter thinks there’s no future in newspapers charging for online content. Still, he offers a summary of the different types of paywalls out there: the Newsday-style wall (which gives readers a few lines of a story and requires a payment for more), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette model (which requires a subscription to the print product or an online subscription to access some content), New York Times-style metering (a certain number a free views, then a demand to subscribe), iTunes-style micropayments (paying for news stories the way you pay for songs on iTunes, something that has been suggested but not implemented anywhere), and Miami Herald-style tip jars (asking for voluntary online contributions—yeah, like that would work). It’s a nice summary of the various approaches – and be sure to read the comments section of his blog following the piece.

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Community Journalism

Get names into the paper

Kennebunkport, Maine, is a long way from Texas. But Bridget Burns in Kennebunkport, who writes for a community newspaper, uses this blog to write about one of the major strengths of community journalism — the fact that we run lots of names and reflect the real lives of real people. You’ll enjoy Bridget’s short blogpost on the value of running names in the paper and why she loves community journalism.

Categories
Business of News

A new revenue stream that could be up for grabs

One of newspapers’ main advertising competitors is dead, though they haven’t acknowledged it yet. It’s the various yellow page directories, and the same thing happed to those ubiquitous yellow books that happened to our classified pages: the Internet. But there’s one difference, according to blogger Alan Mutter – newspapers could be in position to benefit from the demise of the yellows. You should read Mutter’s piece and have some serious conversations about it with your ad staff. The bottom line, Mutter says, is that customers won’t trudge through fat books looking up stuff when they can mouseclick their way to better information in seconds. How much is at play here? Mutter says it’s $16.5 billion. And guess who else is looking to cash on the deathwatch of yellow pages? Google, of course. But the blogger reminds us that Google doesn’t have even a fraction of the sales force that we have. And last time I looked, Google didn’t have anybody pounding the pavement in Brady or Dalhart or Corsicana or Mt. Vernon. Advantage, newspapers. Mutter summarizes the opportunity: “If you are a newspaper publisher interested in diversifying away from print while building a valuable, defensible and sustainable digital revenue stream, then it’s time to think about the online directory and web-marketing business.” So be sure to read this blog. And if you’d like to talk with someone about implementing some of these suggestions, call us at the Center.

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Uncategorized

GameChanger targets local sports events

The new GameChanger iPhone app is designed to help keep score in Little League and high school baseball – without a pencil. You can now record every pitch, hit and run on your phone. It’s free, but the originator, Fungo Media, plans to launch a subscription service to let people get digital simulations of live games. Says a Fungo exec: “This is real-time game content for local sports. This is like ESPN Gamecast for Little League.” Up next: Fungo want to partner with newspaper websites, so that papers can receive get box scores without anyone ever having to call the newspaper.

Categories
Cool tool

Once you get past the name, you’ll like this site

The name is ePodunk. And having grown up in a town so small we used to go watch the druggist fill prescriptions on Saturday, I was a little put off by the “podunk” name. But I went, and I checked out a few Texas cities and a few in other states, including the Arkansas “podunk” where I was born. You’ll find lots of interesting information and links here on your town and those around you. Check this one out.