Citizen Mom

Where the (journalism) jobs are

From the just-released State of the News Media 2011 report:

In 2010, however, some of the biggest new media institutions began to develop original newsgathering in a significant way. Yahoo added several dozen reporters across news, sports and finance. AOL had 900 journalists, 500 of them at its local Patch news operation (it then let go 200 people from the content team after the merger with Huffingtonpost). By the end of 2011, Bloomberg expects to have 150 journalists and analysts for its new Washington operation, Bloomberg Government. News Corp. has hired from 100 or 150, depending on the press reports, for its new tablet newspaper, The Daily, though not all may be journalists. Together these hires come close to matching the jobs in 2010 we estimate were lost in newspapers, the first time we have seen this kind of substitution.

Granted, it's not an even swap, as many of the lost newspaper jobs were higher-skilled, more experienced and better paid than ones in upstart local online sites. Then again, if you sent a reporter with decades of experience to cover a local zoning spat or a supermarket opening (the way a neighborhood Patch or a Yahoo! local might) it would be a waste of everyone's time and money. Yet both are needed.

So while I've been -- and will continue to be, when appropriate -- a critic of local "content providers" like Patch, etc., I'm also am in a position to work with eager young journalists out looking for their first and second jobs.  And the fact is, there are jobs for them right now, sites hiring people and paying them to do locally-focused journalistic work -- the same kind I started my newspaper career doing. It's not only Yelp-ish restaurant ratings and group coupons. 

This is not great news for mid-career newspaper reporters losing metro daily jobs, though even here, AOL and Yahoo! are both hiring far above entry level. This is simply too important, and too positive, a piece of the big puzzle of journalism right now to ignore. 

If the local online news networks survive, it surely follows that their journalistic standards and the quality of the work will mature. There's definitely no reason for them not to try.

Two Unrelated Things That Are Like, Duhh

1.) "Go to the black Macys if you want plus-sized formal gowns," from Consumerist.

The story told by "Amanda" sounds a little bit far-fetched in that I doubt any Macy's employee would run on at the mouth like that.  But, as a woman who has bought clothing on both sides of the plus-size threshold, I can tell you there is a morsel of truth in this. Though it doesn't really follow that if black women are plus-sized they must be poor -- why would black women supposedly need plus-sized suits and party wear if they're broke? Maybe it's about the fact that African-American church ladies tend to dress up more than your average white Lutheran? (It works in opposite ways, too -- my MIL tells a story about trying to buy size 10 ladies shoes in a store in New York with a large Asian population, and no dice.)

Big girls, what say you?

2.) "D.C. Bureau Cuts = Journalism 2.0 Opportunity?" 

Every time I hear about D.C. or state capitol buro cuts by newspapers, I think about how easily the right online operations could step into the vacuum, start kicking arse and continue the reinvention of the news business. Think about how any laid-off or bought-out newspaper folks are going hyper-local or to startup news sites. Of course it'll take money, but some smart venture capitalist/would-be media mogul or co-operative could set up a shop, get some people credentialed and start covering statehouses and Congress themselves. A bunch of smaller Politico-type sites that will one day join up, become a giant media conglomerate and collapse onto itself the way newspaper chains are right now, but hey that's decades from now so . . . Anyway my point is, the days when it only "counts" if it comes from a newspaper are over, poopies. Again, like duh.

MANSCAPE: A New Shirt For Guido, Doing It For The Boys, and More White Guys Than You Can Jump A Motorcycle Over

Rocket in his pocket: Robbie Knievel breaks his late father's record, jumping his motorcycle 200 feet, over 24 delivery trucks. (AP Photo by David Kohl)

* True story: Many years ago, I spent a crazy weekend in Ventor/Margate with a friend who was dating a minor-league wiseguy type. It was an interesting couple of days to say the least, the highlights of which were dancing at the Geator's place in a large group of women that included Rita Merlino, and a scene which unfolded inside and just outside the old South Beach club in Margate at about 4 a.m., involving me and a cluster of large dudes who were pissed off at something Kitty Caparella had written and several Sambucas later, expected me to answer for it. I told them  va fa Napoli. You know how it is.

Aaaaanyway the other big stop on  Goumad Tour '95 was Ventura's Greenhouse in Ventnor, which was lousy with overtanned Italian-American guys sporting what would now be called the Tony Soprano Look: hairy arms, thick gold bracelet, short-sleeved button-down silk shirt bearing an aesthetically questionable pattern.

Next month, James Gandolfini will sell the shirt off Tony's back to benefit wounded U.S. soldiers. Christies will auction several pieces of Gandolfini's TV wardrobe, including the tan bathrobe from the first episode and the "blood-soaked" shirt from the scene where Uncle Junior shoots Tony.

* Also going above and beyond the call of hooters, er, duty, the Eagles Cheerleaders going to visit the troops in Iraq! What, no beefcake for the female soldiers? One in 7, people! 

* Too male, too white, and too old -- no, no, I'm not talking about Congress, but the Washington Post's Op-Ed page. But really, why look that far?

* One good thing (one of the few good things, from the reviews we're reading) about that "Sex and the City" movie: Chris Noth as Mr. Big = Lots of Det. Logan on cable. Rawwwrrr. (OMG he touched her ass, proving yet again that a story is sometimes all in the telling.) Also, the mayor's box at the Wachovia Center was empty through the Flyers playoffs, but Nutter was to attend a private "Sex" screening at the Ritz Five last night. Mayor Metrosexual?

When The Shit Hits The Internet

Courier-Post newsroom employees are going to the mattresses. Here's an open letter circulating 'round the internet today, addressed to Publisher Walt Lafferty -- and more importantly, Gannett News poohbah Phil Currie, who will not be pleased -- voicing a litany of objections to working conditions (no notebooks, the whole Poopgate thing) and threatening to go to the Department of Labor over unpaid work and "comp" time.
Aside from the comp time thing, which would probably take down any newsroom in the country right now if people really wanted to go there, no notebooks and paper borders on ridiculous. Is it possible to make the Bob Collins days seem good?  I'm here to express my support for all the staff of Gannett NJ papers, who are under the same control. You guys deserve better than this.
Read all about it here and here.

Meanwhile, in Honolulu .  .  . (via Romenesko)

REQUIRED READING: Stop Me If Any Of This Sounds Familiar

Courtesy our friends at the Washington (D.C.) City Paper, a cautionary tale about how to make make your newspaper's online and print operations hate each other with only the contempt that bitter mid-career journalists can muster (hint: moving them to a different building might dilute the whole 'we're on the same team' thing).

Many people in the Post newsroom would prefer that their peers at washingtonpost.com restrict themselves to technical stuff. Post the brilliant news stories that come from 15th and L, put together slide shows, edit the videos, and go home. But it doesn’t work that way.

Of the 100 employees on the editorial side of washingtonpost.com, 10 provide content of one sort or another, a count that jumps to 20 if you add in contract writers and bloggers. Once their bylines go up on the Web, they become the competition.

These Arlington-based professionals work in a place that they commonly refer to as a “newsroom,” a point that short-circuits longtime Posties. “They have this thing called the news desk,” says one. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not what our news desk does.”

Duplication of functions has a way of offending journalists who are feeling the pain of budget cuts. Why is dot-com paying for nightlife coverage and political coverage when the main newsroom does the same things—and is losing staff via early retirement offers and attrition?

Yes I'm driven to sigh by that last question there, because surely someone understands that the dot-com versions of  the newspapers are FORCED to duplicate coverage to produce web content (like videos, blogs etc.) because the "real" journalists, the ones quoted sounding so amazingly, deludedly outmoded and snobby, either can't or won't learn how to do those things? Or because the newsroom labor unions still act like everything about the media has changed except the expectations placed on its members, and that they still really only work for the printed newspaper?

Just a thought.

Great Moments In Free Speech

Via Wonkette, an Op-Ed from the Ottowa (Kansas) Herald, which manages to perpetuate every bullshit scary Obama Internet meme in one giant, paranoid, journalistically retarded swoop:

Well, now comes another bad idea … maybe even worse. The Democratic Party actually intends to put a Muslim fundamentalist in the White House. Yes, you read it right. They want to put a man of Muslim origins in the White House.

You know, opinion writing is opinion writing, but there is a responsibility to be factually correct.

Some Web sites suggest Obama will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin. He will not face the flag during the playing of the National Anthem nor will he sing it or even mouth the words. [Editor s note: Other reputable Web sites refute each of those claims and show Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance in the Senate.]

What compels an otherwise rational uncle, or your neighbor you thought was cool, or the old co-worker you though was pretty smart, to so eagerly buy into this stuff? AND WHEN WILL THEY STOP EMAILING IT TO ME?

It's unclear what motivated Sillett pause from his work as a press operator at the Herald and take up writing, but it's safe to say he's a man undeterred by facts. That doesn't mean the paper's editors should be. We just hope they think twice before running Sillett's next piece, which I'm betting is titled "Hillary Snubs Gold Star Moms."

An Unfinished Lunch

*as nicely as possible*

How is it possible to do a Food section centerpiece about the challenges of packing school lunches, using a peanut butter and jelly sammich as the art (in the print version) and including lots of info about how good-for-you PBJ is, how to make it healthier, etc., yet never mention the allergy thing?

I did a quick poll of my beloved May Moms, who as you know are my focus group on many things, and asked for a show of hands on who deals with some kind of peanut/tree nut restrictions on what they can send in to school either for lunch, snack or party food. Of the 25 responses (my own included), 12 answered yes, and several who answered 'no' said they either have in the past or know someone who does.

The answers in both categories, which came from 19 U.S. states and Ontario, revealed a dizzying array of rules, regulations and restrictions that vary from district to district and even classroom to classroom. Some schools are just nut-free, top-to-bottom, and others have nut-free classrooms, and still others allow you to send in a PBJ but your child has to sit at a special peanut-friendly table to eat it.

Look, this isn't going to be a whole rant about how it makes me wonder if anyone involved in the writing and editing of this story has actually packed a school lunch lately, because it doesn't have to be that deep. The story is incomplete. It didn't have to be turned into a Health/Science piece about peanut allergies, but a few grafs would have patched a big hole. Also, it shows that this was a good story idea, as it's obvious that parents really are in need of some help in this area. A service could have been done here, and it wasn't. Sayin'.

Our Man in Blacksburg

Jason Cherkis, on the ground at VA Tech. He's also been sharing some more personal thoughts in the comments section over at Pop Cesspool. There's a reason we love this guy so much, and his humanity has a lot to do with it. 

Classy broad

The Inquirer's Gail Shister signs off her TV column after 25 years.

Annette John-Hall goes there

Interesting approach on the "Is Barack Obama black enough?" controversy.

And look, it's not even Friday night and Lisa Scottoline has already ruined my Sunday morning. Can someone please tell me what this column was about, other than -- you know what I'm about to say -- Lisa Scottoline?