Nieman Journalism Lab reporting: Our colleagues upstairs at Nieman Reports are out with their Spring 2012 issue, and there’s plenty of good stuff in there: Stefanie Friedhoff on the challenges of global health reporting, Steve Weinberg on Chauncey Bailey, notes from a Gay Talese talk, and more.
But it’s the cover package that might be of the most interest to Lab
readers. Nieman Reports asked six former newspaper editors a simple
question: What would you change if you were back in charge?
Without worrying about tradition, how would you best organize the
resources of a newsroom to do great journalism, serve your audience, and
make the newspaper a sustainable business in 2012?
The new issue features essays answering that question from former editors at The Baltimore Sun, the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor, The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., The Los Angeles Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
What do they suggest? Distinguish between reverence for the past
and reluctance to face the future. Hire more investigative reporters.
Accept that there is no magic bullet to save journalism. Ask yourself:
Do you really need a print edition on Mondays? Encourage extraordinary
work, and give reporters what they need to produce it. Your newspaper
can’t be everything. Know the community you serve. Report, don’t just
repeat. A business-side problem is everybody’s problem. Good journalism
is good business. Keep trying as many things as possible.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/03/new-in-nieman-reports-what-former-top-newspaper-editors-would-have-done-differently/
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