Posted on 11/19/2007 12:08:59 PM PST by abb
The reinvention of the San Jose Mercury News began with an undercover operation.
More than 100 staffers fanned out to places like a nearby Starbucks, asking people what they thought of the paper, disclosing only that they worked for a local media company. Now they are cooking up plans for a smaller, radically different product.
"The very top of the organization is saying, blow up the newsroom," says Chris O'Brien, a reporter immersed in the overhaul effort. Under one prototype, the paper would be cut back to three sections: Live, Play and Innovate. In a second blueprint, it would junk everything except Silicon Valley business news.
The Mercury News is limping along with 200 journalists -- half the number who were employed several years ago. In the last 20 months the paper was sold by the now-defunct Knight Ridder chain to McClatchy Newspapers, which then spun it off to Media News, owned by Dean Singleton. The current goal is to slash the print edition further and shift two-thirds of the remaining staff to the Merc's Web site, up from 10 percent now.
In an era of declining circulation and shrinking budgets, virtually every paper in America is trying to jazz up its product while beefing up its online presence. But the effort in San Jose, where the Internet bubble popped hard in 2000, may be the most ambitious -- or the most desperate.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"There was a land of Publishers and Editors called the Newspaper Business... Here in this pretty world Journalism took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Reporters and their Enablers, of Anonymous Sources and of Stringers... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization Gone With the Wind..."
With apologies to Margaret Mitchell...
ping
ping
“The Mercury News is limping along with 200 journalists — half the number who were employed several years ago.”
That is still about 190 more liars/er journalists than they need.
They could get by with 10 or less. Howard Dean and the DNC could write their national political hate Bush, Conservatives, Republicans, Military and Christians lies.
The State Rat Party could write the State lies and hate articles.
La Raza could write the PC articles praising illegal aliens, er the wonderful non documented.
...and no one would be able to discern the difference in the paper...
>> The Mercury News is limping along with 200 journalists
Boo hoo.
I love the way they call themselves “journalists”. How delusional. Their true profession is “DNC campaign workers”.
NYT hit another 10-year low today and is down almost 5% for the day.
They may have “journalists” at the SJ Monkey but they have no journalistic integrity.
Sadly, it’s either the monkey or the SF Comical and I have to select the lesser of two evils to light my BBQ with. . .
I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout savin’ an MSM newspaper.
The mercury news has always been a rag good for lining bird cage bottoms. My dogs also know instinctively what to do on it.
“and no one would be able to discern the difference in the paper...”
You are correct.
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As another FReeper said, what in the world do they need with 200 writers??
The reality is far different when it comes to the number of journalists you need ~ it’s more like 200,000 ~ and no one can afford it so almost all of them work for free.
Hopefully, my grandchildre (6 and 8) decades later when asked what journalists did, will say they lied and lost their jobs for lying.
The “Murky News” is dying far too fast to suit me...
All those years of their own snarly brand of “news”, their insufferable P.C. bull squat and sucking up to every “victimized” minority -—— earned us the right to watch them die SLOWLY, PAINFULLY and with lots of CATERWAULING AND CRYING OUT.....
"The very top of the organization is saying, blow up the newsroom," says Chris O'Brien, a reporter immersed in the overhaul effort. Under one prototype, the paper would be cut back to three sections: Live, Play and Innovate. In a second blueprint, it would junk everything except Silicon Valley business news.
The Mercury News is limping along with 200 journalists -- half the number who were employed several years ago.
An editors' blog chronicling the debate is, at times, brutally candid. "Personality: The Merc has none. Or at least it's not one that's immediately apparent," one entry says. "We repeatedly heard that people felt the writing and storytelling was flat, monotonous. . . . Many Merc staffers remain cynical that the process is going to lead anywhere."
Some comments have also been harsh. "This initiative is about feigning interest in what people want," one man wrote. "Then the Merc will find ways to cut the product even more." Another said the paper's writing style "is not just bland, it's simplistic. Most of the articles seem to be written at a 6th grade level at best."
bump
Why don’t they try “Integrity” or “Honesty” ?
Then they’d have a national audience that WOULD subscribe to their “new” paper.
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