Entries from Lucas Grindley's blog | Exploring the new way for journalism tagged with 'Leadership'
Post to change course, combine Web-print newsrooms
Washington Post is bringing on Marcus Brauchli as executive editor and he's bringing with him a significant change to the Web strategy. EditorAndPublisher.com reports that Jim Brady, head of washingtonpost.com, expects to merge the print and Web newsrooms sometime after...
L.A. Times editor given too much power
While interviewing for a few jobs recently, I asked a prospective boss whether the Web department had its own budget or was part of the larger newsroom budget. He asked me to repeat the question just to see if he’d...
Zell: Top-down management creates Web sites that 'suck'
My new hero in the world is becoming billionaire Sam Zell, who is using a speaking tour of the Tribune Co. to explain the virtues of letting employees take the wheel instead of corporate know-it-all's. This line earned cheers from...
Multimedia cliques; One day you're in, the next day . . .
HeraldTribune.com's own Melissa Worden talked about her recent speaking engagement in California, where newsroom folks asked her advice on how to crack the clique that runs multimedia. And she has some advice from inside the clique. What I learned is...
Editor quits after forces of status quo attack
All we know for sure is the Mercury News' editor suddenly resigned. The rumors say she proposed too many changes, some of which fulfilled my prediction that standalone Sports sections could soon hit the cutting room floor. Here's how E&P...;
Throw the bums out, and he means senior editors
With circulation plummeting, online revenues not catching fire quickly enough, and newsroom culture still named as the top need for change, Yoni Greenbaum says it's time to clean house of senior editors who "claim that they get 'it' but really...
Bloggers question the way reporters are paid
If newspapers are no longer able to keep pace with the big players for salaries, then maybe we'll have to start offering a new way of paying reporters and columnists. Pay extra based on the number of page views that...
Chris Tolles calls reporters lazy, overpaid
PRESSTIME asked: “With online news often described as a commodity product, where does traditional newspaper content fit?" To which, Topix.net CEO Chris Tolles seems to agree with the premise that news is nothing more than a commodity and then makes...
Newsroom not needed for community sites
What I’ve seen while helping to launch our first user-submitted Web site, PortCharlotteVoice.com, is piqued excitement and involvement from the Advertising and Marketing sides of the business. Their level of participation is enough that it begs the question about whether...
A purpose-driven project plan
Ask your boss why increasing video content is important, or why any of those buzzy projects happening now across the industry is worth your time, and the answer is likely to cite attracting new audiences or making money. Both are...
When employees leave, it's not all bad
Whenever an employee leaves, it’s a bittersweet feeling. Moving onto bigger things hopefully means you’ve done something right as a manager, not wrong. The latest employee to depart my Web team is Jackie Luper, who starts work today as “Vice...
Still hoping for a fourth-quarter comeback?
Any hopes that print advertising revenues would recover during the last three months of 2007 should start withering with the announcement of first-quarter earnings in a few days. Optimistic executives might be tempted to retract earlier predictions of a late...
Holovaty versus the CEO of washingtonpost.com
Recent interviews pit the views of programming whiz Adrian Holovaty against those of his boss, CEO and publisher of Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive, Caroline Little. During an interview with PBS, Adrian said that because washingtonpost.com is so separate from the rest...
If I had a nickel for every boss, I could quit my job
Online journalists have a lot of bosses. Don’t we? Beyond the individual who signs your paycheck are a host of people with a lot of expectations. First, the readers, who have too many expectations to list. Second, the newsroom. Reporters...
Corporate think's online reincarnation
I’ve said before that it’s important to learn the teachings of Craigslist. Use the lessons to compete more effectively. Lesson No. 1 from Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster: Pace yourself. In a podcast with OUT-LAW, he says keep costs of doing...
The art of online journalism
Are we artists? Or, should I ask: aren’t we? Journalism is about making the community better. It’s about challenging people directly, with information. Newspapers, like artists, are out to affect the world. If newspapers die, then some part of society...
One way to survive the stock price slide
Wall Street expects newspapers to maintain huge profit margins. But during this transition to a new reality, those margins must slide. So investing in the online future means pissing off shareholders now. Investing in the online future costs money. It...
New perspective for AP planning
My former boss, Lou Ferrara, someone who I learned a lot from, left HeraldTribune.com in mid 2005 to become Online Editor for the Associated Press. A little more than one year later, the AP is promoting him to “deputy managing...
Millionaires get rich for a reason
Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News explored tonight an interesting paradox about the current fortunes of the newspaper industry. Why is it that with such steep declines in circulation, some of the country’s most notable millionaires are exploring the possibility of...
Web monkey work – monkeys not included
“Web monkey” work might not be glamorous or all that fun. It might be really early in the morning or really late at night. But I resent any implication that it’s not important. Tomorrow morning I’ll be waking up...
Why Sunday circulation?
For an example of what will happen when newspapers don’t listen to their readers, just look at the latest dismal Sunday circulation numbers released today. Here’s how E&P; reported it: While the estimated decline 2.8% for daily circulation for all...
Fight for the low-end market
Let’s name names. The San Jose Mercury News is about the report a serious decline in circulation, according to E&P.; Daily is down 9.4% and Sunday slipped 9.7%. Vice President of Circulation David Rounds said the paper has been cutting...
Zollman on wasted effort
Listen to Peter Zollman, of the Classified Intelligence and the AIM Group, in an article he wrote for SNPA eBulletin yesterday: As audience migrates online at a remarkable pace, too many newspapers are positioning for the past. They’re trying to...
Can this be done?
(Last installment in “From good to great” series) Consider the infamous “Innovator’s Dilemma.” As a company’s main source of revenue dries up, it takes deliberate leadership to reallocate jobs and money to those areas of immature but growing revenue. Those...
Need for immediate expansion
(4 of 5 in “From good to great” series) At the Associated Press, the Web staff of 10 multimedia producers is so overwhelmed that the duty of posting breaking news is being transferred directly to desk editors. JSOnline.com has already...
Set up for success
(3 of 5 in “From good to great” series) Focusing goals is an important step toward focusing energy, but new mandates will most certainly be received negatively if the newspaper does little to help editors succeed. Don’t set editors up...
Tactics for transferring ownership
(2 of 5 in “From good to great” series) Models that help the newsroom take ownership of its Web site are already emerging. And they can be adapted to benefit the television partner, as well. With interests in the Web...
Hurricane Curley
Fast Company has written a flattering article about Rob Curley, who was for a short time my counterpart to the South when he took over the Naples Daily News site. As much as I’m tired of hearing about Curley, the...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 2
2) Change paradigm The operators of CraigsList are not out to make a buck, they’re out to make a point. And this is their biggest weakness. Once newspapers accept their lesson, we can make more money than CraigsList. Here’s the...
Syllabus for 'The New Way'
The New Way for newspapers comes with a few “new rules,” as Bill Maher likes to call them. Only these are serious. 1. If newspapers are going to survive, first some newspapers will have to die. And it’s every man...
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