roundtable: Transition to Online-News
roundtable: Transition to Online-News
Transition to Online-News
Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Fri, 21 Apr 1995 18:04:19 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 18:04:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: Transition to Online-News
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950421180059.21279B-100000@access5.digex.net>
----------------Original Message Posted in Multiple Lists-----------------
------------------------Republication Authorized--------------------------
FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE
Vol III, Issue No. 8 (119 lines) April, 24, 1995
READ THIS ISSUE OF FINS TO CONSIDER:
* Examining the propaganda system of newspapers
* Sustaining media self-interest in online-news
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CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP":
Transition to Online-News
By Vigdor Schreibman
An individual sent a message out on the Net the other day, claiming
"There is no 'propaganda system' in the world of text." On April 5, Rick
Crawford replied, "A brief reality check is in order." Crawford cites an
article published in Editor & Publisher (Jan 16, 1993) that says,
virtually all 150 newspaper editors in a 1992 Marquette Univ. study
acknowledged interference by advertisers. 93% of editors said
advertisers tried to influence the content of their newspaper
articles. 71% of editors said advertisers tried to kill certain
stories outright. And 37% of editors were *honest enough* to admit
that they actually had succumbed to this advertiser pressure. More
than half (55.1%) said there was pressure from within their own
newspaper to write or tailor news stories to please advertisers.
Crawford also included a report from the Center for the Study of Commer-
cialism, "Dictating Content: How Advertising Pressure Can Corrupt A Free
Press." The report documents instances of how the news media tailor editorial
content to suit advertisers. Meanwhile, the online-news list has been having
a showdown concerning the goals of the mass media transition to online-news.
A message sent to the online-news list April 14, on the subject "Wrong
focus" set off an extended discussion. It was posted by Steve Yelvington,
Editor/manager, Star Tribune Online, Minneapolis-St. Paul, one of the
newspapers cited by CSC that was hit by flak for running critical stories
about an advertiser. Yelvington has been advocating a value-centered role
for online newspapers, focused on community service as a viable way to build
a customer base but said he found it "distressing" that some newspaperfolk,
are looking at this electronic stuff merely as an opportunity to
"repurpose" or "recycle" ... their information assets. I heard
people talking about converting Quark newspaper pages into online
presentations. To look at online services that way is, I think, to
miss the point entirely. This is not a repackaging exercise.
A set of 26 messages were sent back and forth following Yelvington's
lead, between April 14 and 18 [Fins-PaN-22]. Participating in the discussion
were 17 individuals--editors, journalists, students, techies, and information
systems designers--interested in the transition from print to electronic news
dissemination. The discussion clarified the views of a group of "newspaper-
folk" concerning both the possible technologically enriched community service
component of electronic newspapers, and efforts to retain the old status quo.
Despite strong support for a public journalism ethic, the ethic of
narrow self-interest easily won out. Ten out of seventeen participants in
the online-news discussion simply rejected the major significance of
interactive discussion groups. Instead, they supported the continued
dominance of plain old information content enhanced by technological software
programs organized for the individual. For instance, Stan Jones, Anchorage
(Alaska) Daily News put it this way, "I think providing high-quality content
will be the critical service, just like it is when we smear ink on dead
logs." Similarly, Vin Crosbie, ProductView Interactive, Inc., observed:
Traveling America to enlist newspapers and magazines to join a
major publisher's on-line service ... last year, I was amazed by
how many publishers, ME/Admins, and directors of marketing saw
on-line as merely another new medium in which to 'repurpose
editorial material'(a phrase I'd hear place after place) ... an
'opportunity" to increase returns and margins from existing copy
'without new production expenses'...
That debate over community-centered online-news was upstaged April 19--
when eight of the nation's largest newspaper companies announced that they
were forming a new company to create a national network of local online
newspaper services. The new company, New Century Network (NCN), was described
as "a catalyst for a wide number of services, such as helping members share
content and develop new content packages." Online and electronic delivery is
"the natural extension of the newspaper's mission to provide content --
edited with context and clarity," said Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief
executive officer of The Washington Post Co.
NCN will be operated as a joint venture by Advance Publications, Inc.
Cox Newspapers, Inc., Gannett Co. Inc., The Hearst Corporation, Knight-
Ridder, Inc., The Times Mirror Co., Tribune Company and The Washington Post
Co. A press release stated that "The creation of NCN signals the evolution
of the newspaper industry to a new era of cooperation." The founding
companies of NCN own 185 daily newspapers with a total Sunday circulation of
more than 23 million. Erick Meyers, of WWW News link, commented online that
"they've just created what amounts to an online news cartel."
Nevertheless, Rosalind Resnick, the well regarded editor and publisher
of Interactive Publishing Alert observed that news, "isn't necessarily what
people want to read about in cyberspace." Expressing confidence in the genius
of cyberspace, Resnick added, "To me, the incredible thing about the Net is
that now the reader *is* the publisher, and amateurs ... are just as likely
to succeed in Internet publishing as The New York Times. Or does the news-
paper industry arrogantly believe that it can control content of every kind?"
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