March 18, 2004
Roundup from the Road
I'm traveling (see below), but here are some things that caught my eye while catching up via the Atlanta Hilton's wi-fi ($9.95/day) connection:
Susan Mernit on paralyzing factors: "… the three words that spell challenge to large media companies … are complacency, bureaucracy, and fear. Complacency that a market lead will endure (cause you want it to). Bureaucracy (curse of all mature companies), Fear (Of change, new blood, people's jobs changing, and so on). This is the cycle of product innovation--and now it is being applied to media.
Tom Mangan on ethics from the ACES conference: "Obey the inner voice telling you 'we can't put this in the paper.'"
Bob Stepno on the cross-pollination capabilitities of journalism skills: "I do believe the curiosity and healthy skepticism, fact-finding and storytelling skills, and the values and ethics of 'the type of journalism taught by journalism schools' apply quite well to the online world as well as print and broadcast news."
Steve Outing on newspaper web design: "The home pages of most news Web sites are too cluttered and suffer from link and content overload." (Thanks, JD.)
Jay Rosen on blog-watching the L.A.Times: A blogger accuses the Times of liberal bias; the Times takes the challenge and proves him wrong.