Web responsibilities

I'm hearing this a lot. I think the moral to the story is you better plan, communicate and sell the plan to your staff, get their input, etc. And HIRE SOME PEOPLE DEDICATED SOLELY TO THE SITE who can simplify the tasks for the rest of the staff. Otherwise, you risk losing confidence from the crew. Heck, I've heard of mutinies being planned over Web site issues...

 

In response to your first graph, I'm a huge believer in that and have had that experience. The college I cover (a mid-major Division I) has a nasty habit of mid-afternoon press conferences for major announcements with extreme secrecy leading up to it. In fact, the more I break stories before the official announcment, the more they seem to passive-aggressively try to "hand" scoops to TV by timing the news conferences for the 6 p.m. broadcast.

So I took to, first, getting the story on the Website as soon as the event happens. Ideally, the minute I find out about the press conference, I'm trying to get confirmation to have what's going to happen on the website before the press conference. I know I've beaten TV because when I do this, it seems to infuriate the school I cover.

It's a petty thing. They like to control the flow of information from their school so I wind up in a battle of wills sometimes...

In response to the rest of your post, I'm extremly jealous. Your paper has accomplished what I would like for our paper to try. The only problem I foresee is the fact that in our outlying areas, I don't know if they have internet yet... ;D

 

How can your paper take that position? Industry wide, online ad sales are less than 10 percent of total newspaper ad sales. And there's little evidence that that bridge will ever be completely closed considering that the rate of growth of internet ad sales has declined in recent years.

That's case No. 2 on this thread of selling your soul to the Web...

 

And that there, sir, is good reportin'.

sp, I hear you and empathize with you. I never thought I'd be in a position where some nights I feel like I've been a Web site producer more than a newspaper editor.

But to last it out in this business (and I really don't want to look for a new profession at this point in my life), we're going to have to go with the flow. Do I think the move toward electronic publishing is going to "save" newspapers? I'd say I have my serious doubts. It still isn't clear to me how the revenue produced by a Web site is going to bring in the type of money needed to keep our operation going.

But my serious doubts don't matter right now. I have to follow the money, the hand that signs the paycheck.

And in the same vein, I want to have a good feeling when I leave the office at the end of the night. And you can get that sense of accomplishment from Web work just like you can from print work.

 

The problem is that the Web stuff is not instead of work that I've done for the print edition, it's on top of the work I've always done for the print edition. With layoffs, I've also had to absorb work other people used to do.
I guess that's the way of the world. I have no choice but to suck it up and get used to it.
One thing I'm really not crazy about is expecting stringers to write stuff on a daily basis for the sake of the Web site. Most of the stringers who write for me have been doing it long before we made this push to the Web. They're used to writing stuff once a week and there isn't enough money in the freelance budget to make it worth their while to do stuff daily.
If the company wants to hold my feet to the fire to write stuff for the Web daily, so be it. Maybe I'm afraid to be too demanding of stringers, but they can quit anytime they want and it's not like there are people lined up around the block to replace them.

 

Not lost on me, believe me. Good point.

 

Unilateral sucks, doesn't it?

I don't even change the terms of my kids' curfews without some give-and-take and explanation (unless they demonstrate serious cause to have their wings clipped! )

 

So treat this guy like an athlete with a guaranteed contract. You can't fire him, but you sure can sit his ass on the bench, figuratively speaking. Make him do the least desirable duties in your department. Hell, make him swab out the toilet bowls if you can. You might not want to lose a staff spot by firing him, but in this economy and in this profession, he's going to have to think long and hard about quitting.

 

Put it this way...there's plenty of stuff that needs inputting (even if it has been emailed to us...).