tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post6409213042129185745..comments2024-03-15T07:23:41.562-04:00Comments on You Don't Say: Why newspapers failJohn McIntyrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03559687583130468871noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-88767395043474318462009-10-14T10:34:42.134-04:002009-10-14T10:34:42.134-04:00I can only speak for myself. I had 22 years in new...I can only speak for myself. I had 22 years in newspapers before moving on to magazines. I have never been in a journalism classroom, ever, so I'm not equipped to criticize what they either teach or don't teach. What I do know is that in my years of work, I never saw anybody at the middle management level do much in the criticism of writing. The process of editing was largely to fill any gaping factual holes or potential libel in the narratives, which the reporters, who were being churned out by j-schools, knew little or nothing about. Plus, most of the managers had the stated goal of not rocking the boat in order to make it to retirement (most, but not all, succeeded). Brighter writing might have spotlighted irony or otherwise been controversial, so it was out. That's a big part of the reason I left. After I did, the executive editor apparently told his managers, "We don't want any phone calls (from readers). On anything. We don't like phone calls."<br /><br />No, he didn't make it to retirement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-89316399424680486382009-10-09T17:11:20.949-04:002009-10-09T17:11:20.949-04:00Newswriting is writing by committee --the bigger t...Newswriting is writing by committee --the bigger the paper, the bigger the committee. A reporter's only hope that his story will run the way he wrote it is if the copy is edited by an even number of editors, one to change it and one to change it back; one to change it and one to change it back, and so on until deadline.Patrick K. Lackeynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-43857685338644539522009-10-07T23:36:02.443-04:002009-10-07T23:36:02.443-04:00Bill said ...
John,
Only one grammatical error in ...Bill said ...<br />John,<br />Only one grammatical error in that lead?<br />In any case, yes, if I weren't working for a newspaper (as a copy editor), I very likely wouldn't read newspapers because the story content is far too frequently incremental and the writing is more boring than the topic.<br />It helps not at all that reporters and line editors have chosen to fall back on noun-strung prose that limps across the breakfast table.<br />But I also contend that most blogging is equally unimpressive -- the difference being that the bloggers are dealing in topics in which we have a particular interest. We are therefore willing to ignore clumsiness in exchange for getting the news we seek.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-18933027843977583472009-10-07T12:09:11.213-04:002009-10-07T12:09:11.213-04:00Wendy Whitebread! I almost fell off the sofa. I wa...Wendy Whitebread! I almost fell off the sofa. I was hoping when she went back into the kitchen a zombie was waiting for her, but you kicked it up a notch!<br /><br />We quit our papers because even the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> started making inexcusable wrong-word gaffes, and our <i>Courant</i>, "the country's oldest continuously operating newspaper" gets facts wrong, serves pablum instead of substance, and sends out writers who have NO knowledge of Hartford suburbs. They get business names wrong, street names wrong, school information wrong, and so forth. The "local" paper, run by people way out of town, is no better and even makes huge mistakes and embarrassing unintentional double-entendres in headlines. We want credibility and clarity.sputnikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636063437215380370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-13176722050076397252009-10-06T15:32:08.874-04:002009-10-06T15:32:08.874-04:00Jonathon, the whole point of newspaper writing is ...Jonathon, the whole point of newspaper writing is <i>not</i> to tell the story from beginning to end, but to create something that the user can (and often will) stop reading at any time after the lede. John's Clot example is an extreme case of this whole-story-at-once style, but my take is that if you <i>plan</i> to allow the reader to quit any time, you end up writing prose that's easy to quit reading even before it starts.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-74922592045593789412009-10-06T14:41:28.332-04:002009-10-06T14:41:28.332-04:00John,
After some 25 years as a regular newspaper r...John,<br />After some 25 years as a regular newspaper reader, I allowed my subscription to the local paper to lapse this past summer. I still feel some guilt about this, but it had become increasingly irrelevant to the point where I subscribed mainly for the TV schedule - and I don't watch much TV.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-33652613936108658022009-10-06T12:45:35.079-04:002009-10-06T12:45:35.079-04:00I've probably said this before, but lousy writ...I've probably said this before, but lousy writing is the thing that most deters me from reading newspapers (either online or in dead-tree format). It seems like an awful lot of journalists don't know how to tell a story from beginning to end. They often start at the end, jump back to the beginning, and then haltingly make their way forward. I often give up halfway through because I'm tired of trying to piece together all the out-of-order bits.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323568112711824064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-33158010616570152552009-10-06T12:39:35.919-04:002009-10-06T12:39:35.919-04:00It's not just the writing, it's the conten...It's not just the writing, it's the content. The Washington Post is my daily paper. (Full disclosure: they owned Government Computer News for most of the 8 years I worked there.) They recently sent a Style reporter to cover an opera in Santa Fe. The Style section sent another reporter to Europe to cover the fashion preview shows. Yet the Post routinely misses major stories in my suburban county. The Post is not unique among major metro dailies in treating the suburbs with contempt and ignoring them. But population growth, and hence circulation growth, is in the suburbs. For self-preservation alone the metro dailies should do a better job of covering their suburbs. What does it say when one of the largest papers in the country is missing stories that are broken by papers whose staffs would fit in my living room?Jim Sweeneynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-13409466689349007582009-10-06T09:57:57.310-04:002009-10-06T09:57:57.310-04:00John, how long has it been since you've seen t...John, how long has it been since you've seen the film "Teachers pet".<br /><br />Fifty one years ago (when papers were still actually selling rather well) the die was cast.<br /><br />The rat-a-tat two finger typing reporter has a new home.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com