16 May 2009
MeMo riles the sisterhood on Supreme Court vacancy
Kyrie "Memo" O'Connor, the Chronicle's erratic features editor, recently offered this perspective on the Supreme Court vacancy:
If Obama appoints a woman to the Supreme Court, everyone will be happy. Two-ninths of the court will seem appropriate, even fair. Most people won't say hey, why aren't there three women, or six, or eight? all of which outcomes would actually be more fair to men than has been the history of the court since its inception.
Now, somebody -- do I see your hand raised, Matty B? -- will point out that something as important as a U.S. Supreme Court opening should go to the very best person, not the very best [fill in group here]. That it's never been handled that way -- certainly not in the past century -- won't persuade a purist. And of course if this were a perfect world the purists would be right.
But until there are eight women on the bench, I'm going to be grumpy.
We don't recall seeing any objections on MeMo's blog when diminutive Chron editor Jeff Cohen laid off the only two women on the editorial board a few weeks ago. Furthermore, we don't recall seeing any objections on MeMo's blog when Dai Huynh, the newspaper's award-winning food writer, was told not to return from maternity leave at that same time, and a male took her place.
What is that bumper-sticker phrase, "Think Globally, Act Locally?" Maybe that advice applies here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/16/09 11:50 AM |
13 May 2009
Chron's Bernstein leaving newspaper to work for Sheriff Garcia
Yesterday, Unca Darrell posted the news that veteran political reporter Alan Bernstein will soon be leaving the Chronicle, to go to work for Sheriff Adrian Garcia. We've since confirmed the news with another knowledgeable source.
It's not clear who will take over Bernstein's duties. We've sent a query to Chron reader rep Jim Newkirk, but since he doesn't answer emails, we are not holding our breath for this to be the exception. Maybe he will post something about it on his blog.
BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls, Campos Communications, Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/13/09 09:11 PM |
11 May 2009
Chron wants Congressional hand (not handout or bailout)
One of the Chronicle's two editorial writers* weighed in today on the matter of "saving" newspapers.
Cory Crow was as unimpressed as we were, and much more motivated to explain why, so go read him here.
"Newsosaur" Alan Mutter did a nice job last month debunking the notion that somehow Google is to blame for the decline of newspapers, and suggested that editors and publishers need to get to work trying to figure out how to remake their enterprise.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has recently taken some steps in that direction, and seems to be trying hard to re-engage potential readers. The Chronicle, on the other hand, has exorcised a blog from its blogrolls, rolled out this website, cut its delivery area, and shrunk the size of the newspaper. It's hard to see how those moves (or punishing Google, or changing antitrust provisions, or continuing to lay off quality journalists, or having an invisible, unresponsive "reader representative") are going to fix the problems locally.
BLOGVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/11/09 10:20 PM |
07 May 2009
Originality is overrated (at least judging from the metro/state columns)
A reader emails the following links and a question, as follows:
Lisa Falkenberg: H-Town’s pride on the line
Rick Casey: State lawmaker: 'I'm a victim'
Is it too much to ask from the columnists at my paper that their reporting not be solely based on what they’ve read in other publications?
Frequently -- yes, that would seem to be too much to ask.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/07/09 02:08 PM |
28 April 2009
Chron publisher spins (and spins and spins) latest circulation decline
As anticipated in the addendum to yesterday's post on the Chronicle's sagging circulation numbers, the newspaper featured publisher Jack Sweeney's spin on the severe decline today:
“We’re concentrating our sales and marketing efforts on our core market, the ZIP codes where our advertisers need it,” he said.
Sweeney said home delivery accounts are up nearly 5 percent Sunday and more than 21 percent on key weekdays in those 75 ZIP codes.
While the Chronicle has fewer seven-day customers, “five-day, three-day and Sunday-only delivery programs have helped fuel that growth,” Sweeney said.
In the core Houston market, Sunday home delivery has continued to grow — a more than 1,000-paper gain in this reporting period. In the core market, daily readership is up 3 percent, Sunday is up 9 percent and seven-day readership is up 4 percent, Sweeney said.
“And when you add chron.com, our reach is nearly 2.4 million adults each week, or 55 percent of the market,” he said.
Combined print and online audience is up 5 percent over the last year, based on data from the Scarborough Audience Ratings Report. Chron.com exceeded 91 million page views in March, up 14 percent over last year.
“Strong journalism keeps consumers of Chronicle content engaged on multiple platforms: print, online, mobile or all three,” Sweeney said. “That’s the way information is consumed these days, and our metrics are large and growing in all modern measurement areas.”
At times like this, saying less is probably better. But the Chron's senior management seems to be in denial. Who knows, maybe the numbers will pick up next time, now that the big blogHOUSTON blogroll exorcism is complete! At least they didn't put a reporter's name on that "story."
The newspaper's so-called reader representative posted this earlier:
The Houston Chronicle's circulation declined 13.2 percent daily and 7.8 percent on Sundays, according to the latest circulation figures. Here's the story.
Also, here are the top 25 newspapers by daily circulation. The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the country. Check it out.
He links to the Chron PR release posing as a news story for the 13.2 percent number. Then he links to the Editor & Publisher story, which actually cites a decline of 13.96%.
Isn't that just par for the course?
UPDATE (04-29-09): In a rare update to the About:Chron blog, Jim Newkirk explains the discrepancy:
Update: Several readers pointed out by e-mail a discrepancy between the Chronicle daily circulation figures reported in the Chronicle and the figures reported in the Editor & Publisher online story. The Chronicle story reflects a Monday through Saturday average for daily circulation and our story should have made that clear. The story by E&P reported a Monday through Friday daily average for the Chronicle. Gene Haddock, Chronicle vice president for circulation, told me the Audit Bureau of Circulations considers Monday through Friday as well as Monday through Saturday valid reporting metrics for daily circulation figures.
Story? Just call it a press release.
BLGOVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/09 11:09 PM |
27 April 2009
Not good news if you work at the Chronicle
It shouldn't come as any surprise that newspapers keep going down that spiral. Following a link from Drudge Report you find this story about the top 25 newspaper circulation numbers.
The Houston Chronicle was down almost 14% of daily circulation to 425,138. Sunday fell 7.8% to 583,364 copies.
This number reflects circulation numbers during a six-month period ending March 31, 2009.
Ouch! For the top 25 list go here.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: And yet, some member of Chron management decided that a laughable exorcism of blogHOUSTON from all Chron.com blogrolls should be a priority for the newspaper (and not, say, the precipitous decline in customers).
I feel bad for the poor Chron journalist who has the duty of getting Jack Sweeney's spin on this latest decline. Maybe they will just label it as "Houston Chronicle News Services." Or more honestly, just run a straight press release.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Jason @ 04/27/09 11:13 AM |
20 April 2009
Congrats to the Chronicle, 2009 Pulitzer finalist
Congratulations are due for the Chronicle (and current and former staff ), honored today as a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of Hurricane Ike.
The Chronicle proved unable to duplicate the success of the nearby Times-Picayune, which captured the Pulitzer in the breaking news category in 2006 for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, the New York Times took the top prize in the category this year, for its Spitzer coverage. Still, it's a big deal being named finalist, and it's especially nice to see the recognition of a stellar team effort during a crisis.
And now... a question (or several) for diminutive editor Jeff Cohen. Would it be possible, finally, for the newspaper to stop looking to a prize board for validation? To stop trying to get their attention with death-penalty journalism so skewed as to be a caricature? With environmental gotcha activism by a journalist who left town fairly quickly when the prize didn't materialize? With a cartoonist who won the Prize at another newspaper trying just a little too hard here?
Your community news coverage/analysis of Ike was Pulitzer finalist quality (and if the newspaper's past coverage of Enron or Stanford Financial had been so strong, that prized Pulitzer surely would have been captured). Why can't the newspaper focus like a laser on local/regional affairs all the time, instead of just during a crisis?
Granted, that's made more difficult now with all the layoffs and the lack of emphasis on local/regional news, reported by professional journalists (reflected by a glance at Chron.com's disjointed main page, by this strange sister site, and really the absence of any serious effort to communicate the newspaper's vision to the public moving forward). But if the Atlanta Journal-Constitution can re-evaluate itself from top to bottom after its own downsizing, engage with its readers, and remake itself as a news and editorial organization, why couldn't our Pulitzer-finalist newspaper? Who knows, owning the local/regional news space and re-engaging the entire customer base (even those in the center and rightward!) might eventually lead to that elusive Pulitzer -- or at the very least, a healthier bottom line (just in case a proprietary electronic news reader isn't quite the salvation promised by the Hearst suits).
Darrell Hancock and Cory Crow have written more -- and more thoughtfully -- on this topic, so go check out their stuff and leave them some comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/20/09 11:13 PM |
05 April 2009
Two opinions on the Chron from around the local blogosphere
The County Seat blog updates us on the activities of Chronicle metro/state/teen diarist Lisa Falkenberg, who apparently spoke recently to the grownups at a Democratic Party event that reportedly later involved serious discussion about candidates to run against Republican judge John Phillips, whom Falkenberg has criticized more than once in the Chronicle.
Shockingly, Alan Bernstein, who regularly posts about similar Republican Party events on Chron.com, did not chronicle this meeting for the newspaper. Perhaps one day! (Or maybe in lieu of that, we'll get emails about nearly twenty-year-old Chron coverage of some related political event).
Meanwhile, over at The ClownVision Chronicles, John Royal posts the following about the Chron sports pages, although it might just as easily be said about other parts of the newspaper:
So why is the Chron failing? That answer is simple: the Chron treats its readers as idiots. And there's only so long that a consumer can be treated with such utter contempt.
That seems to be the way the Chronicle's diminutive editor wants it to be. Fore!
Feel free to discuss further on the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/09 10:09 PM |
04 April 2009
Adventures in downsizing, Jeff Cohen-style
A commenter on the Chron's reader rep blog (an oxymoron in its current form) offers this:
The only things I have noticed since the Chronicle's re-organization are:
1) The blogs are updated less frequently
2) I get daily spam from chron.comNot winning the game, Chronicle...
Au contraire. There has been another noticeable development that traces directly back to diminutive editor Jeff Cohen's, ah, "re-organization" -- copy editing oopses (via Hair Balls):
Lay Off Copy Editors, Lose Opening Paragraphs
Still A Rough Transition For The Chronicle
Meanwhile, Jeff Cohen took all his pain and sadness to the Shell Houston Open on April 1st. Looking good, Mr. Editor!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe Cohen is pondering future cuts while hitting the links. Fore!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Cohen notes it's an "interesting time" to be a journalist, hits the links
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/04/09 11:19 AM |
02 April 2009
Michel, Michelle, Ma Belle, who can tell the difference?
Chronicle tennis wine columnist Dale Robertson is surely having a bad week.
He led this week's column, about prominent women in the wine world, as follows:
It’s no longer unusual to meet a woman winemaker. Helen Turley raised the bar almost off the charts. Other than perhaps Michelle Rolland, there’s likely no more famous a wine consultant to be found in the world. Glass ceilings are for greenhouses, not vineyards.
There's just one little problem.... The famous wine consultant cited in the lede was Michel Rolland, very much a male. That led to this correction in today's Chronicle:
International wine consultant Michel Rolland was misidentified in a story on Page 2 of Wednesday’s Flavor section.
Yeah he was! (Because he IS a he, after all).
Sadly, the Chron didn't even blame a copy editor for the gaffe (which might have been understandable, since the Chron just fired so many of them). Apparently, the tennis wine columnist just blew it. Oops!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/09 10:05 PM |
30 March 2009
Clay Robison has left the building
Clay Robison, the longtime Chronicle Austin bureau newsman (six days per week) and editorialist (one day per week), pens his farewell column for today's newspaper.
Much of the column is the customary reflection on a long career on a beat, although Robison couldn't resist dispensing this bit of advice:
I offer an observation to bloggers, whose presence in the political arena is expanding as the ranks of traditional news reporters thin. There is a difference between reporting and spinning. I have done both for a long time, and reporting is a lot harder.
With regard to the bolded portion -- yes, you have, and the combination of heading up the news bureau six days per week and producing a reliably lefty opinion column one day per week was one that many of us found odd (and, frankly, part of the problem).
So ... kudos to Clay Robison for a long run in a career he obviously enjoyed. Maybe we'll even see his writing surface somewhere; surely there's a publication that could make good use of his institutional knowledge. But looking to the future (instead of back), let's hope the Chronicle Austin bureau moving forward takes Robison's parting advice to heart, and focuses only on reporting. There are plenty of sources of opinion these days, but those (we?) editorialists are, in most cases, no substitute for hard-news reporting done by pros.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/09 07:37 AM |
26 March 2009
The fallout
We comment on local media quite a bit on the blog, so readers have probably been wondering about the deafening silence on the big layoffs at the Chronicle.
Frankly, what was there to say in the middle of the carnage?
When ninetysomething journalists get whacked in one day at the biggest news organization in town, and countless more support staff are fired the next day, your community almost certainly is not the better for it. So out of respect to the many journalists at the Chronicle who were literally walking on eggshells as lives were being upended, we decided not to engage in running gossip on the blog about who may have gotten the axe, the corrections that inevitably follow from such speculation, and generally crass rumormongering.
So, for now it's done. Some dead weight was cleared (and much more was not), but many more journalists who did good work are now gone. Our best wishes go out to everyone who lost their jobs during these tough times.
And our best wishes also go out to the folks left at 801 Texas Avenue, who somehow have to reconcile the oversized, overpromising "vision" of diminutive editor Jeff Cohen (who apparently stayed hidden in his office during the carnage) with the pint-size resources he's given them to accomplish the "vision," all while knowing that quality work is probably not as important a factor in job security at the Chronicle these days as being one of Cohen's pets.
But what do I know? Please become a part of the conversation in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/26/09 09:25 AM |
08 March 2009
Why not just reprint the press release?
Matt Bramanti calls our attention to this story by Chron reporter Todd Ackerman.
As Bramanti notes, a number of phrases in the reporting seem to be lifted from this press release with hardly any change (and no attribution).
It's not the first time that Ackerman has been caught engaging in really lazy journalism (whether you care to call it something else is your prerogative). Why does the Chronicle allow it to continue?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/09 09:43 PM |
Ruffled feathers: Recent Chron METRO, county coverage prompts responses from public officials
Chron transit reporter Rosanna Ruiz is shaping up so far to be much more diligent and probing than her two most recent predecessors on the beat. METRO isn't quite used to the local newspaper being anything but a PR outlet for its proclamations, and one official apparently wasn't too happy with a recent headline. Spokesperson Raequel Roberts also felt the need to write to the Chronicle recently to clarify some matters:
Houston Metro encourages everyone to ride Metro, including Chronicle reporters. (Please see “An inside look at Metro bus commute,” Monday.) To neophytes, riding transit can take some time to master. We have a project under way to straighten out routes that have evolved over the years into zigzag patterns. Any visitor to New York City finds venturing into the subway system a bit daunting, but a day or two of experience leaves many singing the praises of the system. It’s a maturation we often observe with first-time riders to MetroRail.
We are glad the reporter noticed Metro’s buses are clean. We were, however, perplexed by the statement that one must input intersections, not addresses, to use our trip planner. The trip planner works with addresses, as it does with landmarks. We recently added Google Transit to our site as an added form of assistance.
On the matter of fares and our operators: Operators monitor fares to look for abuses of the system, but their primary responsibility is to drive buses safely and adhere to schedules. Buses lurching and creaking? Well, they’re buses, not limousines. Metro isn’t perfect — we’ve fixed a clogged drain that caused leaking on the bus the reporter rode — but we provide a valuable, clean and safe service for one of the lowest fares in the U.S.
These points merited a letter taking issue with the newspaper's coverage? The skin seems to be pretty thin at METRO headquarters these days. As for the bolded comment, one can only wonder what has taken so long, as METRO's route system has long needed a makeover beyond the usual "service improvements" we've discussed before.
Elsewhere on the Chron metro/state pages, Liz Austin Peterson has apparently ruffled some feathers in Harris County government (another beat that hasn't been covered all that well in the past by the Chronicle) with a recent report on drivers for the Sheriff and County Judge. Like many commenters, bloggers, and even our friend Chris Baker, we aren't that bothered by the notion that the Harris County Sheriff and Harris County Judge might need a professional driver/security detail from time to time. On its face, it doesn't necessarily seem like an unwise or inappropriate use of tax dollars, although Commissioner's Court probably would like to be kept better informed on these matters. (Then again, if he were being fully honest, one quoted commissioner might admit that it's a LOT more fun talking about this kinda-not-really "scandal" than his own).
Still, we were a little surprised to see Sheriff Garcia and Judge Emmett's office react so strongly to the story, in terms of this letter to the editor and various comments on local blogs. We're always interested in seeing facts reported accurately and different perspectives represented in stories, but we're also interested in reporters getting stories out there and letting readers/voters decide how important they are. So we hope Peterson isn't dissuaded by the strong reaction from public officials.
What say you?
UPDATE (03-09-2009): METRO is even more thin-skinned than we thought. The Chron apparently cut Raequel Roberts much-too-lengthy letter, so it has been reposted by METRO's very expensive blogger Mary Sit on their blog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/09 09:25 PM |
05 March 2009
Chron E-Edition signup/purchase process = Monumental FAIL (updated)
We recently commented on the news that Hearst newspaper executives are discussing putting some of their online content behind a paid firewall and raising subscriber rates. Locally, there has been something of a backlash to that news, as reflected in various blog posts and their comments.
I seem to be in the minority in that I do think there is content in the Houston Chronicle worth paying for. I wonder what all the people who insist that online news should be "free" are going to blockquote and comment on when the local newspaper's revenues can no longer support the sorts of coverage of local affairs we've seen from Brad Olson, Carolyn Feibel, Rosanna Ruiz, Matt Stiles, and others. And I just can't quite believe they think Yahoo/AP sports coverage is a substitute for real sports beat writers (although the Chron sports section is weak weak weak).
But I'll admit, I haven't subscribed to print delivery for a long time. Like many people, I'll skim the paper copy in the office sometimes, and pick up a print edition here and there. Because I like to travel, I don't want newspapers cluttering my yard advertising "Hey, I'm gone -- come take my stuff," and I don't want the hassle of turning the delivery on and off. So I prefer online copy, but only partly because it's "free."
Someone recently reminded me of the Chronicle e-edition, which is effectively a pdf version of the print newspaper. That seems like a perfect solution for someone who actually wants to see a "print" newspaper from time to time. And if Hearst is planning on charging me for some content anyway in short order, why not just go all in with an e-edition subscription? The price is certainly right ($4.95/month).
And so it began. Yesterday, I went to subscribe, and was presented with a request for a physical address for delivery. That didn't seem quite right. Since the Chronicle has been known to throw promotional newspapers that people don't want, I decided an email to the Chron was in order, because I really do not want print newspaper delivery (see above). Reader (or should that be customer service?) rep Jim Newkirk responded quickly to my query, and assured that the info was merely for tracking and billing purposes, and that no print newspaper would ever be thrown, nor would any carrier ever have access to the address info.
Good! I went to sign up for the Chronicle e-edition today, entered my email and physical address and credit card info, and got this announcement after a short time (during which I foolishly assumed credit card info was being verified and temporary username/password were being generated):
Thank you!
Your request has been sent to our Subscriber Services department. If appropriate, one of our Subscriber Services representatives will contact you regarding your request via telephone or by e-mail if you provided an e-mail address. You can use our automated phone service 24 hours a day at 713-220-7211 or 1-888-220-7211. Our associates are available to help you on Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on weekends from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m..
Orders placed on the weekend will be processed in the next 2 - 3 business days of placing the order.
The year is 2009, I've just tried to engage in e-commerce and support my local newspaper, and I'm getting a customer service message that reads like something from the 70s?
It gets worse. A few minutes later, I got this email:
Dear Kevin Whited,
Thank you for becoming a Houston Chronicle subscriber.
Your Houston Chronicle should begin arriving at your home within two business days of placing your order. If you haven't received your Chronicle by that time, please let us know.
Our top priority is providing you with first-rate customer service. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.
If you need further assistance, please contact a Subscriber Services representative using one of the following options: 713-220-7211 or toll-free at 1-888-220-7211.
In addition, if you would like information on placing classified advertising (there has to be something in your garage that you can sell!) please call our Classified hotline at 713-362-6868 and one of our friendly representatives can get you set up and selling withing minutes.
Thank you again for choosing the Houston Chronicle.
The Chronicle can't pull off a simple e-commerce transaction that should result in my receiving a username/password to their "e-edition" product immediately, they send out a form email describing a product I did not order (home delivery), and Hearst executives think they are going to start charging for online content shortly? Umm, I JUST TRIED TO BUY ONLINE CONTENT AND YOU ARE MAKING IT A PAIN IN MY ARSE!
Wow.
I once had trouble imagining a world without newspaper newsrooms engaged in local reporting, but I have to say that the people on the business and customer-service end of things sure seem to be doing their part to bring that world about.
Now, I'm going to email the Chron's reader rep again and see if he can help me to get a username and password for the service I just tried to purchase, rather than waiting two business days to see what happens (will they toss the username/password on my driveway?) and then calling a "Subscriber Services representative" (on the phone, perhaps with menu trees and hold times! whee!). I'll update the post when/if I manage to get access to the product I just tried to purchase from my local newspaper.
UPDATE (2:15 PM): The reader rep must have passed my email on to someone, because I just got a voicemail message from a pleasant sounding woman who informed me that I had received an incorrect email, and that I was NOT subscribed to print home delivery. Rather, I'm subscribed to the Chronicle electronic edition. And if I have any questions, I can call her back.
That's it. No further useful information, like, say, my username/password. I will follow up later, perhaps. Or maybe I'll just wait and see if I ever receive a username/password.
UPDATE (03-06-2009, 7:15 am): I received my username and password via email this morning, and am trying to access the product. Login was fine, but the iBrowse newspaper pages refuse to load in Firefox on my work PC. They load in Google Chrome just fine, and the product seems pretty good (nice pdf-style reproduction of the actual Chron pages). I'll try Firefox on my home machine tonight and report on that. I am pleased to report that all sections seem to be reproduced (including the Fry's ad, yay!).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/05/09 11:40 AM |
01 March 2009
Qualitative Survey: What parts of Chron.com would you pay for (or not)?
Banjo Jones calls our attention to this Wall Street Journal blog post, in which Steven Swartz, president of Hearst newspapers (which include our Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News), indicates that Heart newspapers plan to start charging for some online content, and charging print subscribers even more (for a shrinking product). Here's an excerpt from Swartz's memo:
We believe we must begin to provide greater differentiation between the content of our free Web sites and the content of our paid product, be that paid product read in print, on a digital device like Amazon’s Kindle, or online. This doesn’t mean we wall off our Web sites behind a paid barrier. Our sites must continue to be the superior and dominant free Web sites in their markets. This means they must offer the best in breaking news, staff and reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries. In fact, we need to expand the number of reporters, editors and photographers who are running a truly great blog, creating a rich dialogue of opinion and data sharing. We must do a far better job of reaching out to prominent citizens in our communities, those who already have a blog and those who don’t, and providing them a prominent platform to state their views. We must develop a rich network of correspondents to help us grow the deepest hyper-local community microsites in our markets. We must do a better job of linking to other great sources of content in our communities. And we must put staff resources behind building those channels of interest that have the greatest potential: those built around pro sports teams, moms and high school sports, to name a few. Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day.
We must continue to ask readers to pay more for their subscriptions. Our print subscribers don’t pay us enough today that we can say they are actually paying for content. Rather, we only ask readers to pay for a portion of the cost of printing the paper on newsprint and delivering it to the reader’s doorstep. We must gradually, but persistently, change this practice.
I have no objection in theory to paying for quality local content, since the Chronicle has the resources to cover local/state better than any other Houston news organization -- stuff like critical urban, county, and state reporting, food and drink reviews, arts, and sports. Unfortunately, the local newspaper's coverage of county affairs is spotty, cheerleading on urban issues like rail has sometimes displaced quality, watchdog reporting, and the fare offered by most of the sports and opinion columnists (and editorial board) is weak, making "local" harder to sell than it should be for any newspaper. I have no need for this newspaper's rewrite of national, international, and entertainment stories covered by many other, higher-quality outlets, and would not want to pay for that.
What parts of the Chronicle would you be willing (or unwilling) to pay for to read online? Why (or why not)?
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Unca Darrell, Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/01/09 01:03 PM |
23 February 2009
Why would anyone miss this when it's gone?
The Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and one-day-per-week lefty editorialist offered this snippet in his latest opinion column:
Although a lifelong Republican of the traditional, country club genre (as opposed to the more-rabid social conservatives who now control the Texas GOP), Straus has in the past voted for Democrats for selected offices and presumably will do so in the future.
Nice, objective treatment from the Austin bureau chief.
I'm sure that's how (other) people who dislike social conservatives feel, anyway.
And I'm sure that Clay Robison's attitude would never come through while he is playing bureau chief the other six days of the week, when he's objective and evenhanded. *wink*
The Chronicle's erratic features editor keeps telling us we're going to miss them (them being newspapers) when they're gone. But this regular business from Robison, a deceitful editorial board, unethical impersonation of hurricane refugees, a featured columnist who's a plagiarist, or even the typical MeMo fare aren't really going to be missed.
We are hopeful some metro/state reporters will still be around if that dead weight is ever cast aside, though, because what they do is important and should be valued.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/09 09:00 PM |
17 February 2009
Calamity: Government officials are putting off some purchases!
We're in the midst of an economic downturn. People are losing jobs and homes. The credit market is tight. And there is a great deal of uncertainty (malaise, even).
Naturally, it's time for the area's newspaper of record to focus on how bad your government has it:
They’re not feeling the economic storm quite yet, but local governments across the Houston region are hunkering down anyway. Some have frozen hiring, others have stopped filling potholes. Planned purchases of police cars, golf course mowers, Tasers and sewage equipment have been halted.
The caution infecting budget offices is universal, whether down south, where Galveston County is anticipating shrinking its budget by $5 million, or up north, where Montgomery County continues to rake in the tax dollars from growth. All are playing it safe, waiting for property reassessments and 2009 sales tax figures to come in before making any major decisions.
“We need to be watching every dollar that we spend,” said Cheryl Hunter, Texas City’s director of finance. The recession may have come to Southeast Texas late, but it has come. Public finance officers fear a future double-punch: lower tax revenues from a slower economy, combined with Hurricane Ike’s destructive effect on tax rolls in coastal towns, counties, and school districts. After years of growth and decreasing tax rates, budget officers now just want to hold on.
If there's one thing I know as a political scientist, it's that government in America does not get smaller. Sure, some purchases may be postponed for a while. If the recession is sharp, some services may suffer in the short term. But beyond the short term -- government in America does not get smaller. So we aren't shedding too many tears just yet for the woes of the government officials quoted in this story.
A journalist friend of mine actually had a slightly different take on the story: "Real readers don’t care about this sort of thing – this is a story written chiefly for the reporter’s sources ABOUT the reporter’s sources." It's hard to disagree, although I think some editors may care much more about these sorts of stories than reporters (hence their recurring nature).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/09 08:23 PM |
13 February 2009
More staff reductions at the Chron
The Chronicle has announced more staff layoffs. This time, at least 10% of the workforce will be cut.
Banjo Jones has posted the memo from Jack Sweeney.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/13/09 08:58 PM |
11 February 2009
New Chron Eye profiles killer/rapist
There's a new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy today.
The profile centers on Johnny Ray Johnson, whose rap sheet includes four murders and more than a dozen rapes (including the rape of his pre-teen niece).
As usual for these sorts of efforts, this Chron Eye takes a look at Johnson's "abusive childhood" and alleged problems with the case (claims that his confessions to heinous crimes were coerced by detectives at gunpoint).
The only thing really missing in this Chron Eye is a discussion of the man's discovery (in prison) of his love of poetry. Or ballet. Or some such.* However, the conclusion makes up for that omission a bit:
“God has a time for everybody,” the killer said. “Regardless of what happens, I know that I will be in heaven.”
It's a shame that the area's newspaper of record fritters so much of its credibility (and space) with these insipid profiles of some of the worst criminals ever put away. On those occasions when real doubt is raised about someone on death row, Chron readers can't help but wonder if it's just another of Jeff Cohen/Kathryn Kase Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/09 09:24 AM |
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