Is your Mojo working?

From today's WP.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120301037.html

Some highlights for those that won't read the link, which is about how a Gannett paper in Florida is joining the online revolution:

Reporters are going to go with sales people to advertisers to talk about a project they're working on, looking for a sponsor for the story.

Reporters ... aka mojos (mobile journalists) file from their car onto the web.

The paper is now second in line of importance behind the web.

And this, my favorite, from the last 2 grafs of the story, about what one of the Mojos says when people ask him when his story is going to be in the paper.

On the other hand, none of the sources Myron dealt with in two assignments on consecutive days seemed to grasp that what he was reporting and writing about them would go to the News-Press Web site.

"They ask me, 'When's what you wrote about me going to be in the paper?' " Myron said. "I have no good answer."

Full disclosure, I worked in the area for years, have a healthy respect for their product and am friends with a couple of sports writers. However, and it's happening down with their Scripps competitor in Naples, when you work in an area that is full of diehard newspaper readers, people who aren't as technically adept as younger readers/web browsers, then aren't you doing a disservice to them when you put your product out in a format that they don't quite grasp?

 

yes.

 

The only reason my mojo works at state-tournament time is because I have to use my own laptop and other supplies. My paper has a few laptops that struggle to run Windows 98.

Now, good for Gannett on a select few things, I guess. Shit, I don't know. Many chains will be predictably cheap with hardware funding so it's not an option to go this route.

Other places (like mine) don't think you're working hard enough if you're not seen in the office.

However, advertisers sponsoring stories? WTF?

Edit to add: Also, where's the editing in this process? From the reporter straight to the site without even one read? WTF?

 

...but it sure don't work on you....

 

Sounds like a way for advertisers to pin their pitiful performance on the news side.

"Hey, I had the department store ad sold, but they didn't like Marty's lede."

Brilliant.

 

First, the good part: Fourteen more reporting jobs is a thumbs-up in my book, even if you have to work from your car or your apartment. In a time where so many papers are cutting back, it's nice to know some people are hiring.


Now, my concerns are the same as everyone else's on this thread and I'll add one more.

This nugget from some unnamed staffers:

"They recalled one recent incident in which Marymont walked through the newsroom and strongly noted that the Web site had not posted any fresh material in three hours, and urged them to publish something quickly."

Do that too much (shoot, do that more than a couple of times) and you run the risk of glutting the site with things that just aren't news ... kinda like a sparsely-attended "Hunks of North Fort Myers" calendar signing. It's one thing if you overload with harmless fluff, but it also might generate pressure for writers to produce and produce now at the risk of losing their jobs, spurring them to make errors in judgement.

It might be too extreme of an example, but wasn't Janet Cooke's excuse for conjuring up an 8-year-old heroin addict the pressure in the newsroom to produce?

 

At my newspaper, neither sports reporter (and I'm one of them) has access to the internet at their desk. The computers that do have access are EXTREMELY old and web browsers barely function on the some of the sites we need for stats, schedules, etc. Also, we both have personal e-mail accounts, with the newspaper as the domain name. However, we, like every other reporter, must check our mail on a common PC in the corner of the office. Every reporter can read (and does read) everyone else's mail. I don't even use mine.

So, I highly doubt my paper would spring for a new laptop (we currently have two the newsroom "shares" and one's so old the battery barely makes it through a council meeting).

I brought this up at my shop. I refuse to upload to the web until my stuff is edited, proof read, etc. So far, the union has my/our backs.

 

There is a fine line between keeping your website current and posting any old crap just to keep the numbers up. I fear the push is just to get crap on there rather than to see what works and build on that.

 

News = the most offensive four-letter word at a hyperlocal paper.

 

Well, I suppose it's appropriate to work from your car considering the pay (or lack thereof) in journalism probably means you're already living there.