Something Is Not Right With Me

I've had it.

I’m angry.

I am thoroughly pissed off.

Q: What could possibly have me so riled up? A: The subjects of David Carr’s article from Sunday, “Journalists, Provocateurs, Maybe Both” and Brian Stelter’s “When Race is the Issue, Misleading Coverage Sets Off an Uproar.”

I try as best as I can to avoid cable news, partisan media and bloggers who push an agenda. It’s not my cup of tea and, generally, I’m not missing out on any actual news by refusing to engage with these outlets. However, the agendas, inaccuracies, hate and stupidity peddled by these people and organizations have crept so far into my daily news digest that they can no longer be ignored, and that is infuriating.

Jon Stewart did a nice takedown last night on the knee-jerk reactions of politicians and reporters in regards to the Shirley Sherrod story. He summarized Robert Gibbs’ statement as: “This administration is so sorry that you people suck so bad.”

Here is what makes me angry: The job of reporters is to provide facts. It is NOT the job of reporters to publicize whatever videos or opinions come their way. To air an edited video is wrong. To air an edited video from a person who openly pushes an agenda is inexcusable.

In Carr’s piece, he writes in regards to “tradition-bound journalists,” “Why, after all, would someone spend their professional life enmeshed in the civic conversation unless they had a stake in it somewhere? But what is emerging is more of a permanent crusade, where information is not only power, but a means to a specific end.”

Everyone has a stake in the civic conversation. Civic issues include everything from educating children to taxation to caring for the ill to trimming the trees. Civic issues keep this great country going, and a reporter who covers politics or government is chronicling events because it is his job.

As for the people who have the time and attention to edit videos and destroy lives, careers and organizations as a “means to a specific end,” here is a list of 10 things they could do that would actually help their country and community, which they claim to have such concern and regard for:

1. Donate blood
2. Tutor a child
3. Serve the homeless at a soup kitchen
4. Pick up trash on the sidewalk, beach or along the highway
5. Donate school supplies and Christmas gifts to a children’s charity
6. Coach Little League (or lead the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts)
7. Join a civic group
8. Go outside and run 5 miles
9. Plant a garden
10. Read a book

Any one of those things would help a heck of a lot more than getting the Georgia State Director of Rural Development fired. How on earth does that help the American people?

Journalists have a duty to move the conversation away from this crap. I said it – this is all a bunch of crap that keeps us from discussing anything of substance. OK, an example of how we can move away from the swamp of crap that fills cable news and the Internet:

Before she was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor would often say in her speeches:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion.”

This makes her a racist, right? She must hate white people. That quickly became the narrative of the story until she clarified her remarks and promised to take the phrase out of her speeches. (I know the greater issue was whether a judge’s personal experiences do or should influence her interpretation of the law.)

An incredible opportunity was missed here by reporters, who could have used the occasion to actually look at the experiences young Latinas have in this country. I had recently ended a 16 month-tutoring relationship with a young Latina when Sotomayor was nominated. My student’s home life was unstable, chaotic and violent. Her family had no expectations for her. Her first day of school was interrupted by a gun scare. Her living room was a revolving door of drug dealers and gang members. Yet, she would beg her mother to drive her to the downtown library (the one without the fistfights and yelling). She spent hours sketching. Her face lit up the first time I brought her brochures on art school and community college.

You cannot tell me that those experiences won’t give her a completely different world view than you or me. Let’s talk about that, as journalists. Let’s tell those stories.

In the future, when reporters find themselves getting all hot and bothered over a crap-filled issue that will unnecessarily rile up viewers, may I suggest they take a cue from survival guides: Sit down. Have a smoke. Take a deep breath.

Oh California Oh

This weekend I watched the Joan Rivers documentary, “A Piece of Work.” In the film, Rivers’ agent talks about one of the first times he met with Richard Pryor. The agent sat down with the comedian and laid out a master plan for his career, explaining projects that were six and 12 months down the road. Pryor looked at the agent and said, “That’s all great but what the f--- are we gonna do Monday?”

That’s how I feel. It’s great to have big visions and ideas, to think about how I’ll achieve something and plan it all to death. But, you still have to get up in the morning and make it happen.

With that in mind, I have a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles on deck for Aug. 10^th to the 13^th. I had been thinking for some time that it would be useful to go out to L.A. as part of my independent study then, all of the sudden, I looked at the calendar and realized that the quarter is quickly coming to an end. So, off to Los Angeles I go.

The purpose of the trip is to talk to journalists, professors and political types about political and governmental reporting in the city. What gaps do they see in coverage? What types of stories are poorly or inconsistently reported? My adviser pointed out to me that if I’m going after an audience that already reads the Los Angeles Times, then I have to find the stories The Times doesn’t have. I have 10 interviews lined up so far, with another three in the works. I’m sure it will be exhausting.

The trip is added motivation to get this project done. The various elements I have written up for the business plan – a positioning statement, a market and competitive analysis, the financials – are being compiled into one final document. My sketches for the website are getting photoshopped and coded. The Twitter and Facebook pages will, I expect, be public in another week or two.

In between my interviews, I want to photograph iconic images of Los Angeles that can be used on the Project Goldfish website. “Iconic” images being a little bit of what tourists would expect to see – the Hollywood sign, City Hall, the LAX sign – and a lot of what Angelenos would expect to see. I want to capture what makes Los Angeles home to more than 3 million people. [Update: As I was writing this, Kevin Roderick posted a link to news photographer Bryan Frank’s photographs of the city: http://coolshots.blogspot.com/.]

I also added The City at Stake to my reading list. Raphael Sonenshein’s book on Los Angeles’ charter reform is one that should probably be in my library of L.A. books regardless, but I expect it will be particularly helpful as I navigate the political-governmental divide of stories.

Spending a few days in California will make this project feel “real,” as will finding investors. Last week I contacted the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, which pointed me toward the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. The group’s very helpful website includes a section on financing and within that, there is an even better list of Southern California venture capitalist firms. I spent time Friday researching every firm on the list. I found four that specialize in financing media and online start-ups.

I briefly thought about just knocking on the firms’ doors and asking for a suitcase full of cash. I have a winning personality and that’s all it takes, right? Hmm … well, maybe it takes an actual proposal. With that in mind, I’ve reached out to venture capitalists I know here in Chicago to ask them how I approach investors and what they will expect to see from me in a start-up proposal.

The greatest challenge in the next two weeks is finding an answer to the question everyone asks me: How are you going to make money? Sigh. I’m meeting with another professor on Wednesday for help on estimating impressions and contracting with an ad network. Another small step toward the greater vision.

Notable Quotable

"I just don't believe the economics of a paywall are going to work, unless your content is unique, highly differentiated, difficult to duplicate. As good as I believe our content is, if there are reasonable substitutes available for free it's tough to get people to pay."

-- Randy Michaels, CEO of Tribune Co. (WSJ, 7/26/10)

Design Star

In Googled, Ken Auletta goes into great detail about Google’s hiring process. After describing the lengthy and tedious interview process, Auletta writes that the new hires became “employee number 26” or “employee number 84.” I want my employee number 2 to be the tech guy.

I find the task of creating the Project Goldfish website to be very daunting. It isn’t so much the how of making the site, because I seem to have that down, but it’s the how do I make this good? “Good” meaning both in aesthetics and function. I do not want the site to look like a traditional newspaper website, nor do I want it to look like a blog. Aesthetically, I think the site should be fresh, clean, modern and authoritative. I was going to add “youthful” to that listing, in place of modern, but it seems in conflict with having an authoritative voice.

The functionality of the site is something I struggle with because I keep asking myself this question: What is the best way to tell a story? For the time being, Project Goldfish will be dominated by words, not pictures or videos. So, what can I do with those words? First, I think reports, letters and ordinances that are referenced in stories should also be linked to those stories. The Los Angeles Times does this to an extent but I think it should be the Project Goldfish standard. Why not give the audience the same materials we have as reporters? If my reporters and I do our jobs, our stories will give readers context, history and perspective that go beyond the words in a committee report. This would also allow Project Goldfish to become a resource for readers who want to pull files in a pinch.

I also want to revolutionize how readers comment on stories and interact with reporters. I have written before about my disdain for comments that appear at the bottom of news stories. With that in mind, how can I utilize web design to create an intelligent, engaged community of readers? One thing I want employee number 2 to do is program software that would apply something like Microsoft Word’s tracked changes to a story. For example, let’s say you are reading this story about the Department of Water and Power. As you’re reading, you may have questions. With the system I want to design, you could highlight a portion of the article and write in your question, instead of leaving an angry or confused comment at the bottom of the story.

The comment would be sent to the reporter as an email. At a given time every day, the top 10 questions on a story would appear in a sidebar next to the story, along with answers from the reporter. This would provide greater depth to the story and show readers that their questions or concerns are heard and respected by the reporter.

I also plan for Project Goldfish to have a community page that is entirely separate from the news pages. Over at “The Watercooler,” I envision having video sessions with reporters talking about their latest stories. I would also like to have video interviews with newsmakers. I could see every Thursday evening being a web version of Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live!” Council members, union reps or members of neighborhood councils could come on to talk about the stories of the week, what they’re working on, and give their perspectives on what is happening at City Hall. Also, as you can see from the mockup below, there is a section called “Letter to the Editor.” Every day, my staff and I would pick one letter that is thoughtful and intelligent enough to be highlighted. And yes, the writer is identified through Facebook Connect. A newspaper wouldn’t publish a letter without verifying the writer’s identity; why would I?

I have plenty of ideas on what to create. Building those ideas, now that’s why I need employee number 2.

Money, Money, Money

I am at the point in my independent study where I am calculating what it would cost to start up and run Project Goldfish. I want to see if this is something that is feasible, economically. I have spent about two, three weeks now putting together a budget for the site, estimating rent, insurance and newspaper subscriptions. The cost to start Project Goldfish is roughly the same as a new Honda Accord. If I cut down on attorney’s fees, we’re basically looking at a Ford Focus.

As far as the cost to operate Project Goldfish, the greatest expense is my own salary. For the purposes of the budget, I’m choosing to pay myself more than I ever made as a reporter but, considering that I used to work for compliments and ulcers, that is not saying very much.

Still, I am combing through these numbers trying to find anything that can be cut. I am used to working for a lean operation. In my last job, all supply orders for the bureau had to be pre-approved. I understand. For all they knew, I was stockpiling reporters’ notebooks and selling them out of the trunk of my car for 25 cents a pop. Printer and fax cartridges? That’s big money. Then, there was the fateful day I accidently dumped an entire cup of coffee on my computer keyboard. For me, this was just another day, as I routinely spill coffee on myself, skirts, coats, desks, tote bags and the floor. The coffee short-circuited the keyboard. I figured this was a pretty essential piece of equipment for a breaking news organization, but the response from the home office was, can’t you just make due? Oh, sure. How about I make due by picking up the $14 tab for a new keyboard?

The point, though, is that I know how little it takes to produce good copy and get it out to an audience. I’ve already taken on the cost of domain registration and hosting services. I am designing the site myself, and hitting up friends and family for help when needed. With that in mind, I start playing the game of "Do I really need this?":

• Office furniture: A new desk and chair are needed if I hire a reporter and that person works out of the office. Do I expect my reporter to be sitting in my office or out in the field, conducting interviews and attending meetings? I’d be perfectly happy if my reporter made her office on the bar of The Redwood or tucked away in an anonymous Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

• An office for that furniture: There’s no reason why a home office wouldn’t work for Project Goldfish. I’m budgeting for the second bedroom of a two-bedroom apartment or bungalow. Ohh, how about a beach bungalow? As for a mailing address, there is the neighborhood UPS store where I can get a mailbox with a street address.

• Insurance: Honestly, this is where I could use some professional guidance because I have questions like this:

-- What is the extent of insurance coverage I need for a home office?

-- How much general liability insurance do I need if I have one or two employees?

-- Do I need to change my auto insurance if I use Lola for work purposes?

-- Do I need to provide some sort of auto insurance if I have an employee use her own car for work purposes? (Also, I think I’m required to reimburse for gas. Yes?)

The next step is calculating how I make money at this thing. I assume, at the moment, that the site will partially be ad-supported. What I am struggling with is whether to make part of the website subscription-based. I have been playing with the idea of creating a “pro subscription.” For example, maybe articles are free but copies of reports and ordinances, video footage and interactive elements are behind a paywall. As I’ve previously mentioned, I do think readers should have some skin in the game. However, I received an email from a survey participant who identified a problem with a paywall for such materials:

"I would not be willing to pay for exclusive online topics because you then have a poorer populace who remain uneducated on the behind-the-scenes activities in the headlines."

I completely agree. The point of Project Goldfish is to inform the public. Why would I create something that falls short of that mission?