Lunch with T-D Guy

I went to the PRSA luncheon today to hear T-D Executive Editor Glenn Procter, who is not a quotable guy. There wasn't a "money quote" (words worth capturing for a story) until the very end when he answered a question about whether the citizenry was taking over journalism since they are everywhere with their blogs and camera phones. "For big news events, I want trained reporters on scene. Good content still sells. Watchdog journalism still sells."

Only the blogs are often better watchdogs. He did concede that a large part of the news website of the future was going to be contributed citizen journalism. (Don't have to pay them salaries or health benefits either.)

I wanted to ask what happened to the seasoned and senior reporters who all left in a mass exodus, but never quite got my hand up since I was not in the mood to pick a fight. 

Then he kind of answered my question anyway. He said reporters go out the door now with a "tool kit," a video camera, still camera, pad and pen, and an audio recorder, so they are prepared to report a story for multi-media. That's probably why the old-timers bailed. That's too much stuff to deal with. I know when I go out on a story, I can't really do justice to taking photos and taking notes at the same time. I end up doing a half-assed job when I have to multi-task with equipment. Imagine if I also had to do video and audio.

Other tidbits:

He wears ear rings.

Seventy percent of Richmond area businesses do not advertise in the paper.

"We're a media company. We're not the newspaper anymore."

Buying up all the suburban weeklies was to "get as much of the population into one of our products."

The priorities "going forward" (I hate that phrase) are 1) breaking news, 2) state government, 3) municipal governments, 4) health, 5) environmental issues, 6) education. Maybe not in that order since he came back a minute later and said state politics was No. 1.

(In retrospective, and I add this now in 2012 after Procter left, the priorities should have been 1) municipal government, 2) state government, 3) health, 4) technology. You can't do breaking news when you publish once a day the morning after the news happened.)

The most hated things about the T-D: the website and the half pages.

Since this was an audience of all public relations specialists, naturally they asked what is the best way to get their news into the paper, and Procter pretty much said no one at the paper looked at our press releases or emails. "Face to face is the way to play. Come and talk to us." He repeated it later on, too.

Now, this makes no sense because why do you need to come begging in person to have your press releases considered for story material unless....unless...

You make the appointment with the appropriate editor for the face-to-face, and when you get there, you find an ad salesman and a newspaper marketing person at the table, ready to pitch web and print ads...giving the illusion that if you buy in, your press releases will be read and considered. (Like, you don't have to buy magazines to be entered into the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes, but people still think it gives them an edge.)

When I was an editor, I didn't want to meet everyone sending in press releases. Who has time? I just looked at them and asked myself, is this a calendar item? Is this a feature story? Do my readers want to know about this? Where in the paper do I put this? Or does it go in the wastebasket? I could call them if I needed more info. I didn't need them to come for lunch.

The Richmond Voice (update 2022, long gone newspaper) is a case in point. I send them a press release about a community meeting, something my job is doing that is going to impact the community in their pocket books, something they need to know in case they want to protest or ask questions. The Voice calls me within minutes and asks if I want to buy an ad for the announcement.

No, I say, it's a public meeting. Just run it in your community calendar.

No, you need to buy an ad, they say again.

This is news. This is the sort of thing you're supposed to write about as news. (And I say that sincerely as a fellow journalist, not as a PR hack. We're not selling anything!)

No, you need to buy an ad. She even puts me on hold to talk to the editor, and still comes back and says I need to buy an ad.

So I don't send The Voice things anymore because after going through this twice, I get the message. You're not a newspaper anymore. You're a shopper. I got the same creepy vibe when Proctor told the room full of PR people they needed to come in and sit down at the table with his editors.

Which begs the question, how much can you trust the newspaper if story selection and placement might be influenced by face-to-faces?

Death of Newspapers - Colonial Edition

The first newspaper in the Colonies was Publick Occurrences, printing in Boston in 1690. Early American newspapers were inevitably weeklies because it took 16 hours to set in type four pages. The first “death of newspapers” in America was 1765 as a result of the Stamp Act, which levied a tax on every printed page. The second death of newspapers was the Sedition Act of 1798, a low point of the John Adams presidency, making it a federal crime to defame his administration. (whoa!) Thomas Jefferson once proposed newspapers should have four sections: Truths, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Lies. (Wouldn't it be great if someone did a paper like that now?) Objectivity in journalism is a creature of the 19th century. Prior to that (and apparently now) the whole point was to espouse a point of view.

Thanks again to The New Yorker for source material.