Gangrey.com

Mojo

Write like the wind -- Then do another

Could this be the future of newspapering?

Darkness falls on a chilly Winn-Dixie parking lot in a dodgy part of North Fort Myers just before Thanksgiving. Chuck Myron sits in his little gray Nissan and types on an IBM ThinkPad laptop plugged into the car's cigarette lighter. The glow of the screen illuminates his face.

Myron, 27, is a reporter for the Fort Myers News-Press and one of its fleet of mobile journalists, or "mojos." The mojos have high-tech tools -- ThinkPads, digital audio recorders, digital still and video cameras -- but no desk, no chair, no nameplate, no land line, no office. They spend their time on the road looking for stories, filing several a day for the newspaper's Web site, and often for the print edition, too. Their guiding principle: A constantly updated stream of intensely local, fresh Web content -- regardless of its traditional news value -- is key to building online and newspaper readership.

(Thanks, Ramsey)

Comments

Re: Mojo

No. Please? Please no.

Re: Mojo

I know, I know, I'm clogging the posts. But I gotta respond here: I work for Gannett. I can assure you, this is our reality. The Fort Myers paper is being held up company-wide as a sterling example of what we all should be.

Re: Mojo

I'm sorry. But I just don't buy that that's what people really want in a newspaper (or a newspaper website). Three stories on a fundraising calendar for the Chamber of Commerce? Three?
I've got no quarrel with the Internets. And I'm all for local being the franchise, especially at mid-size and smaller shops. But let's be local with a brain, and not just cover crap because it's there.

Re: Mojo

I enjoyed the story, but was I the only person who felt like the lede was a little to much like "It was a dark and stormy night ..."? Snoopy, anyone?

I'm sorry. But I just don't buy that that's what people really want in a newspaper (or a newspaper website).

I think it's a little early in the game to start bashing. Have you done anything lately to stop the slide in circulation across the nation? It's possible that the generations coming up don't want a newspaper at all. And if newspapers don't figure out a way to be relevant and draw eyeballs to their web sites, there's not going to be anyone to cut paychecks for us to spend time crafting 14 paragraph ledes.

Re: Mojo

I could live with this type of reporting, if and only if it involved doing slice of life stuff. When I first started reading the piece, I thought how cool, a reporter driving around looking for good stories, reporting quickly and writing quick hit narratives about kids playing in the street or a homeless man pushing a shopping cart or what not. But that's not what he's doing, not even close.

I have to concur that three stories on a Chamber of Commerce calendar reminds me of my old newspaper, a small daily (25,000 circ.) that was hyper-local to the point of writing 15-inch articles on the new stoplight in town. This is not going to save newspapers. If it is, why not just eliminate the reporter and start running Chamber press releases. If this is what people really want, and the jury is still out, then it's time to start re-evaluating our career paths.

Re: Mojo

Look at the ft. myers Web site. Click on the city names under "local news." The reporter didn't seem unfair with his example.

To be fair to Gannett, here's a job description posted for a "mojo" through journalismjobs.com

The Star Press, a 32,000 Gannett daily in Muncie, IN, is looking for a reporter to cover the city’s neighborhoods from a grassroots level as a roving journalist, filing stories and photos directly to the Internet throughout the day. The successful candidate will excel at covering a wide range of subject matter, from spot news to features on schools, businesses, non-profits and everything in between. Most of the reporter’s stories will be short takes, much like a blog. Some content will also be used in print. Candidates should have a demonstrated ability to be a self-starter, innovative at developing a wide variety of story ideas and sources, comfortable with a fast, demanding reporting pace and at ease with technology. This is an innovative approach to making our news report even more local and reaching new readers and we are looking for a reporter excited about the potential and challenge of this opportunity.

Re: Mojo

This story made the rounds in my newsroom yesterday. Aside from the watered-down content (I think the fact hardly anyone showed up for the calendar signing despite two previous stories might be a sign supply overshot demand), the following excerpt caught a lot of people's attention:

"Next spring, the paper plans to run a large story on a topic it would not identify. It did, however, say that the reporter on the article will accompany News-Press ad salespeople on trips to advertisers as the paper seeks a sponsor for the article. The logic: The reporter understands the project and can explain it best to potential advertisers. Though the reporter will be in sales meetings, he or she will not be part of the sales pitch. "

My question is what happens when that reporter needs to report on one of those advertisers? Say that company opted not to "sponsor" the previous project, and the story is tough on them. Are they going to feel shafted? I'm guessing they will. Puts the reporter in a real bad spot.

Re: Mojo

I know I posted the first comment in this thread, and I know things can't exist in a vacuum, and I know all this is real and more than a bit unsettling and totally valid, but let me just say this: At the core of the Gangrey conversation is the belief that stuff that sucks doesn't get read, and SHOULDN'T. A plea, then, however unrealistic: No more bitching. Leave that shit to the beaten folks who sit on Romenesko and can't stop clicking refresh. Fuck. That. No matter the platform, no matter the length, no matter the source -- crap is crap is crap. So: We come early and we stay late. We read and we talk. We report the hell out of things. We write it and we write it hard and strong and spare. We help each other. We get better. We MAKE people read.

Re: Mojo

More End Of The World As We Know It talk and some reasons papers won't be replaced by laptops:

1) You can spill coffee on a newspaper without tears.

2) If you leave a newspaper on the bus 35 cents will get you another one.

3) Nobody ever makes you boot-up a newspaper before getting on a plane.

4) You can chuck a newspaper across the room in Sudoku Frustration without damaging the wallpaper.

5) Smacking a rude child with a laptop is likely to get you a visit by social services.

6) You can stuff a newspaper into your back pocket without injuring yourself.

7) Ever try to start a fire in your fireplace with a laptop? It's not pretty.

8) In a newspaper the lingerie ads are just kinda there.

9) That whole "paper training" business.

10) After the Big One falls and EMP has destroyed all electronic information, you can read old newspapers while waiting for the marauding hordes of zombies to arrive.

Re: Mojo

Reading the job posting makes me think that they thought this could be an opportunity to do those nice little slice of life stories. But then for the reporters who need to file a few times a day deadline reality sets in and they realize they could spend the time to report and write a great, relevant story and not contribute to the web, or they can do what's easy (three stories on a calendar) and feel they have done their jobs.
As for the paragraphs about the advertising, that scared the shit out of me. What happened to when reporters got mad when an ad rep walked into the newsroom and mentioned some advertiser they might want to write about. Now they're going along with the ad reps to meet the advertisers themselves?! Hmm, can't see any conflict of interest here at all....

Re: Mojo

Nice.

Re: Mojo

See, that's how it should be done. I wouldn't mind writing THOSE stories.

None

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
(include http://)
Title:

Comments:

Remember your info. on cookie?

Type the word in the image: