2010 March | Zombie Journalism

If page views are the goal, keep those comments a-comin’

Would newspaper editors be likely to eliminate anonymous commenting from their websites if they knew how much it would bring down page views? [...]

An anonymous comment ban could kill the public forum

If news websites were to get rid of anonymous comments, we may be eliminating the opinions of some very valuable (and young) readers. [...]

Anonymity isn’t to blame for bad site comments, it’s a lack of staff interaction

We as an industry like to collectively wring our hands about the toxicity of online comment boards, but if we really want to improve the quality of on-site discussion we need to be willing to get involved in our sites in a hands-on manner. No amount of filters, comment-detecting robots and user-end moderation will replace the presence of a dutiful moderator. [...]

Twitter is the perfect place to break news (but don’t tell Reuters)

When Reuters released its new social media policy last week, their competition had to be salivating. The wire service stipulates that its reporters are not to use Twitter to break news – and thus are digging their own grave. [...]

Furloughs – and the one year anniversary of Zombie Journalism

The furlough – a company cost-cutting measure previously associated with the manufacturing sector – now embraced by those of us working in paragraph factories around the nation.

In the last year, my husband and I have had three separate weeklong furloughs (perhaps it wasn’t so wise to marry a journalist after all). These furloughs are, we’re told, [...]

Kirkland trial coverage shows us why good beat reporting still matters

The court case of Anthony Kirkland is showing us that while Twitter and live blogs and all that are great tools for enhancing the way readers get news, it’s tough to replace the know-how of an experienced beat reporter. [...]

Enquirer Editor comments on print-first initiative

Cincinnati Enquirer editor Tom Callinan has a column in Sunday’s paper (online now) about the Enquirer’s evolving First in Print initiative.

He also gives a shout-out to ZJ and its commenters. Check [...]

Sunday plan evolves from print-only to print-first

I wrote first last week about my employer, The Cincinnati Enquirer, experimenting with a print-only strategy for certain stories to boost Sunday single-copy sales.

Not long afterward, I was in a meeting where we decided on the next course of this ever-evolving experiment – and came up with a conclusion web readers should find a bit more [...]

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