The bloodshed gets worse: On the heels of news that the New Orleans Times-Picayune would be moving away from a daily edition is news that three metro papers in Alabama would be getting the same treatment. Each of these newspapers is owned by Newhouse, a chain with newspapers across the country. Not a very good day for newspapers in general, folks. (thanks @MegsLeigh)
It was clearly something that he was familiar with and I wasn’t. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that this went on.Journalist Jeremy Paxman • Testifying before the Leveson inquiry, about an event he attended during 2002, during which then Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan taught him about phone hacking. Paxman told British officials that Morgan’s openness was “quite shocking”, particularly when it came to gaining and maintaining access to phones. “[Morgan explained] that the way to get access to people’s messages was was go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 or 1234,” testified Paxman, adding, “if you didn’t put on your own code… his words: “You’re a fool.” Unsurprisingly, Piers Morgan was less than pleased with Paxman’s testimony. (slight edit) source (via • follow)
AdWeek requires you to share certain stories in order to finish reading them. Why would I want to share something I can’t read? And is there anything more desperate a publisher can do? Gross.
I want to talk to the evil stupid-genius that invented this.
This is slightly worse than this image we ganked last week:
Soft paywalls like these are simply terrible ideas.
Yesterday Tumblr blogger Joshua Gross tried to make a really good point about how cab drivers in New York City made a ton of cash off of a set of buttons that artificially raised the size of the tips they were given. Not long after that, The Next Web posted essentially the same thing with two paragraphs copied almost word-for-word, giving little credit initially. Gross got upset, complained, and drew the wrath of TNW’s CEO, Zee M. Kane. A couple sample tweets:
@endtwist @harrisonweber and i think “copying” is pretty extreme. Facts are facts, and we included them.
— Zee M Kane (@Zee) May 14, 2012
@endtwist @harrisonweber think it’s pretty ridiculous that you’re even getting the slightest bit annoyed about this.
— Zee M Kane (@Zee) May 14, 2012
@endtwist @harrisonweber needless to say, we’ll be staying well clear of anything ur involved with in future for fear of ridiculous reaction
— Zee M Kane (@Zee) May 14, 2012
Then Hacker News, where the story was originally posted, noticed the uproar, and from there it turned into a mess. Kane eventually wrote an apology on Google Docs, while still denying the plagiarism allegations, which ended as such: “Secondly, seriously keep my mouth shut until I know all the facts. Even when I’m sure I know them, check again.” (Initially it said “keep your mouth shut,” which made it sound like he was attacking his readers.)
To put it simply, there’s a right and a wrong way to aggregate, and The Next Web is doing it wrong. (Especially with that response. You took his story; be gracious.) Rewrite. Add something new. Don’t just copy word for word. In some newsrooms, this would be grounds for dismissal. Don’t forget that.
![theatlantic:
Robert Wright on Gay Marriage, Barack Obama, and Andrew Sullivan
I was at the New Republic in 1989 when Andrew Sullivan published his pathbreaking cover story “The Case for Gay Marriage.” There are two things about the experience that may be hard to convey to people younger than 25, maybe even 30:
1) What a radical idea this seemed like at the time. I’m not sure I’d ever heard anyone mention gay marriage, and I’d certainly never seen a written defense of it.
2) How important a single magazine could be in pre-internet days. Mike Kinsley, who for my money is the most amazing editor of his generation, had during the 1980s made the New Republic the magazine in Washington.
The combination of these two things was potent. When you take an off-the-charts idea and unveil it on the most prominent stage in Washington, it gets people talking. Yesterday, when President Obama embraced gay marriage, this was a kind of culmination of the conversation that Andrew, more than any other person, started.
Read more. [Image: The New Republic]
Worth keeping in mind that the guy who wrote this cover story also wrote this one.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3t8t56kQf1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Robert Wright on Gay Marriage, Barack Obama, and Andrew Sullivan
I was at the New Republic in 1989 when Andrew Sullivan published his pathbreaking cover story “The Case for Gay Marriage.” There are two things about the experience that may be hard to convey to people younger than 25, maybe even 30:
1) What a radical idea this seemed like at the time. I’m not sure I’d ever heard anyone mention gay marriage, and I’d certainly never seen a written defense of it.
2) How important a single magazine could be in pre-internet days. Mike Kinsley, who for my money is the most amazing editor of his generation, had during the 1980s made the New Republic the magazine in Washington.
The combination of these two things was potent. When you take an off-the-charts idea and unveil it on the most prominent stage in Washington, it gets people talking. Yesterday, when President Obama embraced gay marriage, this was a kind of culmination of the conversation that Andrew, more than any other person, started.
Read more. [Image: The New Republic]
Worth keeping in mind that the guy who wrote this cover story also wrote this one.
A historical tidbit: the original business model for Gizmodo was affiliate fees from purchases of gadgets through Amazon. We didn’t have the scale then to make that work. We do now. In December we made $70,000 from Amazon. Without really trying. No seriously, it was an accident.Gawker Media founder Nick Denton • In a memo regarding his company’s business. Let that sink in a little bit. His company is so big that they can make $70,000 in affiliate fees from Amazon in a single month — something which is hard for many sites to pull off.
Journalists who refused to stand in respect for Golden Dawn party leader Nikolaos Michaloliako were forcibly removed from a recent press conference. Michaloliakos railed against the conservative Samaras party, illegal immigrants, and the mainstream press before heaping praise on the youth he believed responsible for Golden Dawn’s election success. “I want to dedicate this victory to all of our brave lads,” he said, continuing, “who wear the black t-shirts with the ancient letters reading ‘Golden Dawn’.”(Photo via CBC News) source
Is this the future of journalism? The currently-in-private-beta iOS app Signal wants to bring a little geolocation, quick sharing, Reddit-style voting and right-place-right-time-ness to the world of citizen journalism — with hopes of making it as simple as Instagram. It looks like a sweet little app, and it’s one that intends to focus less on who is publishing the news, and more on what the news is, wherever it is in the world. When it comes out, we wonder if people will see why.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the...
soon
Yahumblr.
Many, including news organizations around the country, are assuming and making judgments based on information they do not have. That’s a shame, it makes us look bad.
We did not cover up anything. We bend over backwards to treat ourselves the same way we would treat any other member of the community. In fact, we go overboard at times to make sure there is no perception that we have treated ourselves favorably because of our position.
Did we go too far here in holding to this standard? I don’t know, I will always ask myself that question. But we made our decision based on the facts we had. That’s all we can do. As journalists, we report facts, not assumptions.
The story notes specifically that if people who were not employees of the paper were attacked in a similar way, based on the “simple assault” police report, the paper would not have covered it. The reporters, Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, each missed a week of work following the incident, which Michelle Washington’s column hinted may have had at least perceived racial overtones. (Denis Finley, the editor, makes it clear that they don’t know for sure, and that was merely speculation captured on Twitter.) The reporters initially did not want to go public with what happened, at least initially.
Post editor Marcus Brauchli had a private talk with 24-year-old Pulitzer winner Sara Ganim at last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Ganim was a guest of the Houston Chronicle:
We had a brief kidnapping at the Washington Post party. Don Graham was gracious as always (and he…
If you win a Pulitzer and break a major news story less than two years out of college — especially at a mid-sized paper — the chances that someone will try to pluck you to a major market are very high. Ganim broke the Jerry Sandusky scandal wide open last year.
Did that potted [plant] incident ever happen? … [A]nd meeting in some garage. One meeting in the garage? Fifty meetings in the garage? I don’t know how many meetings in the garage. … There’s a residual fear in my soul that that isn’t quite straight.Legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee • Quoted in a 1990 interview about Watergate, uncovered by Jeff Himmelman, whose new book, “Yours in Truth,” is partly adapted in New York Magazine. With this quote, Bradlee appears to be casting doubt on some of the details of the Watergate story, one of the greatest in the history of journalism. Bob Woodward, one of the journalists that uncovered the story, suggests that Himmelman’s own work undercuts the 1990 interview: “There’s a transcript of an interview that Himmelman did with Bradlee 18 months ago in which Ben undercuts the [New York magazine] piece. It’s amazing that it’s not in Jeff’s piece.” (ht margafret)
Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?The best line in that article we just posted.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
