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7
May 15

This will be quick

You know the end of the year is coming upon us when the mundane things are odd. Or is it that the odd things are mundane? Not sure. I was walking up a flight of stairs on campus and noticed that someone just left their class notes on the handrail.

I hope they were through studying them.

I thought about that for a while and then ran into one of our JMC students doing a standup in the cafeteria. I don’t think she was discussing classic liberalism. She was very animated.

Turns out someone was getting reaction to something about the cafeteria. I moseyed away.

friends / journalism / memories / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
6
May 15

End of the Crimson-year party

Two classes today. Stayed late to go over some things with a small handful of students before their final. Drove off to get the sandwiches I always buy at the end of the year: Roly Poly. Got stuck in traffic and when I got back on campus the end-of-the-year party was already underway.

We had two staffs in there this year, the outgoing and part of the incoming. It was a lively, chatty, fun affair. The has-beens told the up-and-comers secrets about the job. Some of them lingered and told stories about what it meant to them, which was lovely.

I walked them all to the door, and gave each one a little letter. Each one was different, but each said how thankful I was of the effort they’ve put in, how proud I was of the work they’ve done. I hope they are proud too.

And then there were just a few of us. And I realized that, with Sydney graduating, our newsroom lost its institutional memory of Purvis, the rock:

The short version: On our way to a conference last year, Clayton, the then-sports editor, was reading interesting facts about every town in Mississippi we passed. Our favorite was Purvis, basically because of everything he read aloud from Wikipedia.

So on the way back from Purvis, and getting a bit punchy, we stopped there for this picture, Sydney, then-news editor, Zach, then-editor-in-chief and Clayton, who was the sports editor. Because we were punchy we dug up that chunk of asphalt from off the side of the road. Clayton or Sydney one named it Purvis. It now sits in a place of honor in the Crimson newsroom.

And now they’re all off into the great wide world.

A little bit later Sydney walked out of the door. She was in the hallway looking in and three members of next year’s staff were in the newsroom were looking out. There was a joke or two and a bye and then she walked down the hall, through the fire door, down the steps and she was gone.

I closed the newsroom door. Emily, the new editor-in-chief who served so ably as the news editor this year, looked at me and we both took half-a-moment to compose ourselves.

And I thought, you get into all of this — the late nights, the too-cold office, dealing with people who don’t understand what you’re trying to do, thanking people who do understand, the good leads, bad headlines, working through stories you don’t care about, wondering each week what they left uncovered — you do all of this because you figure that you have something to offer students. It is something important, you figure, just as it was important when you learned the same things when you were in their place. It is important because the work they’ll one day do with it is important and civic and useful. And so, then, you are useful and maybe formative. And that is worth every 2 a.m. that you find yourself still in a cold office, because you are there for them. Only when you watch them go do you really realize what they did for you.

All of that was in my head as I cleared my eyes and watched Emily clear her eyes and then launched into the first meeting with the new staff.

I’ve taken to looking at this newsroom as both a laboratory and, these last two years, as a spectrum. Sydney and Zach and Katie before them started something these people will continue and improve upon. I have high hopes for that because here’s another group of young people who are sitting in the newsroom at 7 p.m. on the Wednesday of the last week of class.

That’s passion.

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5
May 15

The last Tuesday of the year

We had the departmental picnic this afternoon. We hold it indoors now. Two years in a row we could have drowned students in the rain. Today was lovely and warm. The picnic is great fun. You get to see all of the seniors pick up all of these awards that go onto their resume. Top of the this, best of the that.

And there are awards for underclassmen, too. I gave out one to a freshman and he got a standing ovation. He deserved it.

I got to give out the SEJC awards the students won in February. I gave a special award to our editor, Sydney. I always give a very brief speech for that one. I’d been thinking about what to say, and I kept thinking about when she was in my class her freshman year and about the young woman she’s become during her four years with us. We always miss them after that. So I flubbed the speech because it got almost-dusty in the front of that room.

When the picnic was over and everything hauled away and put back in to some semblance of order we all returned to the routine. This was the last night of this year’s newspaper. This is the last time they’d be together like this. We’ll meet tomorrow, but it will be different. I should have been grading — because this stack of papers is finally getting manageable, I’ve been on a roll — but I just stayed in the newsroom with them for much of the night.

We’ll lose four of the editorial staff to graduation. Sydney will be editing for Starnes’ newspapers. She had an internship there and they were wise enough to be impressed by her and offered her a job at the beginning of her senior year, I think it was. And now she’s going to be an editor, working on five community papers, in her first newspaper job. Rachael, who ran features this year, will go to grad school. Halley will be a media buyer in town. Adam, who ran a solid opinion section this year, will be heading to Ireland in a few weeks on a Fulbright scholarship. One of our underclassmen is transferring. Two more will stay on, Emily as the new editor-in-chief and Samantha will return to rule her fiefdom as photo editor.

As a group they did us all proud. Good journalism, taking slings and arrows and commendations and never getting hung up on any one thing or another, always ready to turn out the next good product. They did what I asked of them, don’t repeat mistakes and get better each time out. And they did it all with cheer and fun. Though not all of them would admit it out loud, they had a great time.

I’m glad they were at the Crimson. I can’t wait to see what they all do next.

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4
May 15

Things to read

Once more, with pastiche.

Here’s the incredible weekly feature that is going to throw a lot of important information at you. Some of it we’ll try to elaborate on or hint about what it means. Other things will be placed next to key messages that should let the reader draw individual conclusions. But that will be within subgroups, of course. These are organized so that if the topic isn’t of a specific interest, you can skip around a bit. Today the groups are journalism and media in general.

All of this is important. All of it is contemporary. It is by no means exhaustive or authoritative, but simply things to read.

We’ll start today with the journalism stuff, because the latest read from Pew is always of interest.

State of the News Media 2015:

Call it a mobile majority. At the start of 2015, 39 of the top 50 digital news websites have more traffic to their sites and associated applications coming from mobile devices than from desktop computers, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of comScore data.

That’s telling enough, but there is so much to unpack from the Pew report and you can do it all at that link. Or you could follow the following.

The thing about this data, and how it is being rolled out in various ways, is that it would be great if we could understand it in the whole, but failing that, remember that any one point is not the end-all-be-all. Take, for example, the above in the context of Newspapers: Fact Sheet:

After a year of slight gains, newspaper circulation fell again in 2014 (though tracking these data is becoming more complicated each year due to measurement changes). Revenue from circulation rose, but ad revenue continued to fall, with gains in digital ad revenue failing to make up for falls in print ad revenue. Despite widespread talk of a shift to digital, most newspaper readership continues to be in print. Online, more traffic to the top newspaper websites and associated apps comes from mobile than from desktop users, and the average visitor only stays on the site for three minutes per visit. And several larger media conglomerates spun off their newspaper divisions as separate companies in an attempt to prevent the newspaper industry’s woes from affecting the health of their broadcast divisions.

Here’s a slightly different read off the same report, The State of the News Media 2015: Newspapers ↓, smartphones ↑:

Newspaper print ad revenue dropped again in 2014 to $16.4 billion, a 4% drop from 2013, the report said. Though newspaper digital ad revenue increased last year slightly — to $3.5 billion from $3.4 billion — it hasn’t been anywhere near enough to make up for the loss in print revenue.

“For the past five years, newspaper ad revenue has maintained a consistent trajectory: Print ads have produced less revenue (down 5%), while digital ads have produced more revenue (up 3%) — but not enough to make up for the fall in print revenue,” the report said.

Print ads are going to digital, specifically mobile and, this part should be the scariest, elsewhere.

USA Today on the Pew report, Mobile news on the rise as print decline continues:

Unless you’re big, digital revenue remains an elusive target for many publishers, even though the amount of money paid by advertisers to get their brand on video and display ads across all media grew 18% in 2014 to $50.7 billion, Pew said, citing research firm eMarketer. Five companies — Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL — captured 61% of domestic digital ad revenue in 2014, it said. Digital ads make up about a quarter of all media advertising spending.

While newspaper circulation is falling, the appeal of print still holds sway for many readers. More than half of readers — 56% — still read newspaper content in print only, the study said. Newspaper publishers have a reason to hold onto their ink barrels as well, with $16.4 billion still spent on print ads. But that’s down from $17.3 billion a year ago. Their digital ad revenue totaled $3.5 billion, flat from a year ago.

As revenue declines, so does the industry’s employment. Overall newspaper newsroom employment fell 3% in 2013 — the most recent year for which figures are available — to 36,700, the report said, citing the American Society of News Editors’ Newsroom Employment Census.

And, to bring the consumer trend on home, here’s this from Dadaviz, For The Top-10 Newspapers, Mobile Overtakes Desktop Traffic.

A few links into the news on Facebook plan:

Emily Bell in CJR: Google and Facebook are our frenemy. Beware.
Facebook banned us for writing about pot
The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers

This is about data and the publishers are going to give it away. If Facebook builds out this network and they don’t share evenly with the content providers it is going to be a disaster for publishers. Facebook has pitched this all on the idea of “news, faster” and has applied that idea to the people already there. News outlets can’t seem to build faster and they can’t capitalize on the one place they should be the strongest — local networks — so they are giving this away. Maybe it will be a long term, brilliant win for news outlets. But one hopes they’ve realized they’ve given the keys, editorial and otherwise, away to an entity who has designs on being the biggest ad market, biggest search, biggest network and biggest video provider in the world.

Let’s think again about what news outlets should do: sell ads, help people find local things, tie communities together and tell compelling stories.

And just wait until someone decides they need to report on something happening over at ol’ Ma Facebook.

This is a nice collection:

The Baltimore photo on Time’s cover was by an amateur photographer
Seven Tips for Photographers Covering Protests
App from ACLU of California aims to preserve videos of police
Cops Shut Down CNN; Reporter: “Are We Under Martial Law?”

Let’s call this section news media trends:

Drop in Discover Traffic Poses Questions for Snapchat
NPR Clips Can Now Be Embedded on Other Websites
In Nepal, the BBC is using Viber to share information and safety tips
University of Florida explores geolocation news feeds
Adopting a digital-first mindset at the University Daily Kansan
It’s Time For Every Journalist To Learn Basic Data Skills
Reuters’ mobile strategy: ‘If it has a screen, it’s fair game’
Why The New York Times apps look different

About the first one in that list, I bet it comes down to novelty, the Discover channels still tinkering with best practices and the inability to share the cool stuff. Snapchat isn’t very good at this fundamental element of social media yet.

About that last one, I just had this conversation with our new web/mobile editor last week: what about microsites and apps? And then he and I brainstormed an app that, if he develops it, might let him retire young.

I’m angling for kickbacks.

And a few general media links of interest …

If done well, and given time to breathe, this may work in Space City: Houston’s KRIV Launches Web-Only Personal Take On News. I think, if done well and given time to breathe, it could work even better elsewhere. Like Birmingham, for example. Birmingham is a destination city in broadcast for most people. Small enough to be nice, big enough to let you be successful if you have the chops, and a little something for most everyone.

The state’s largest media market has an incredible stable set of anchors and plenty of long-term reporters. Sure, people pass through, but people really stick. They like it because they can do good work and because it can be impactful and because they are important here. The Yankee’s former boss at WBRC said this at the Emmy’s as he was presenting a 50-years-in-broadcasting award to one of his colleagues. He tried to explain the market by saying there aren’t huge stars or professional sports teams or a lot of other inane attractions. The city’s faces of news are the city’s celebrities. He was write. Put this plan, from Houston, in a personality-driven market like Birmingham, and you could do some really cool things with it.

Some TV entities are wisely trying to change up their distribution models. Here’s to their success: How 7News hopes to livestream video to reach new audiences.

Meanwhile, the people trying to eat the industry’s lunch:

Yahoo Aims for Millennials With 18 New Shows, Says CEO

Report: Comcast plans YouTube-like online video service

Bloomberg’s New Publishing Platform Is ‘Like Tinder for Video’

One guess why all of that is important, Mobile Shopping: Smartphone Visits Increase 269%; Revenue Up 123%.

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3
May 15

Catching up

The weekly post with extra pics, the excuse to be thin on the weekend around here, is extra thin this week. I have been too busy to pull my phone out of my pocket and take extra snapshots for you, Internet! I don’t know what you’ll do, but I’m sure you’ll soldier on. We’ll go with what we have.

I found these at Publix on Greensprings and they are inherently creepy.

I’m not sure if it is the unfinished nature of the beasts or that the rest of the top is rather lazily the same color. I suppose if your kids asked questions about it — inside the containers were all the parts you’d need to make your own classic farm scene — they might be just about ready to advance out of this age-bracket.

Of course they were placed at the proper eye level.

“MOMMA! MOMMA! MOMMA! I WANT THE CREEPY COW THING!”

She’s helping me grade things.

She has the amazing ability to only be interested in the one I’m grading at the time. Not any other stack of fake papers I could put out as a deterrent. “This one, hooman.”