“Memos, Presentations” Items

Electronic Newspaper of the Future, 1992

One of the more innovative folks in the design universe was a professor from Spain, Dr. Juan A. Giner.  Giner was at the School of Journalism  at the University of Navarra. In 1992, he asked several folks for their thoughts about electronic newspapers.  This is before the Internet.  I think he was using some of the information for a research paper and for a presentation at the Summit Meeting of Editors and Publishers, a European conference, I’m guessing.

Here’s what I wrote, the conclusion of my thoughts, sent via FAX:

They have information to sell, regardless of the form it takes to reach the reader. Unfortunately, only a few see the road ahead; too many are looking behind at the road they have just traveled.

If the current leadership fails in understanding the market place or fails to adjust to the needs of the news consumer, then the consequences will be two-fold:

• Many more companies will go out of business.
• Many more companies will be bought by those who understand the needs of the marketplace and replace those publishers and editors who do not.

The future will belong to the quick and smart. Be neither quick nor smart and you’ll be out of the game.

It was fun to think about the future.

Constant Training: New Normal or Missed Opportunity

As part of the grant to The Poynter Institute for the creation and running of News University, an online training program, the Knight Foundation asked that we conduct studies as to how effective training was and better understand the training needs of journalists. One study was called “Constant Training” and it was based on a survey of newsrooms and journalists.  Here’s what I wrote in the introduction:

These results are from an anonymous survey of staff members from 31 newsrooms around the country conducted by The Poynter Institute on behalf of the Knight Foundation.

The survey was conducted in newsrooms that ranged in size from 20 to 150 staff members. More than 1,650 staff members were possible participants for the survey, which achieved a 72.5 percent response rate. The survey was conducted online in June-July 2014.

Is the glass two-thirds full? Or, more important to ask, is it one-third empty?

A third of the journalists in the survey [34 percent] said they received no training in the past 12 months. But the numbers varied widely in different newsrooms. While in some newsrooms, nearly everyone had gotten training, in one newsroom, only 17 percent reported receiving training. In six of the newsrooms, less than half of the staff members had received training. Considering the abundance of free or low-cost training available, those numbers seem strikingly high.

One of the key findings was the hunger journalists had for training.  However, then, as in now, time or the lack of time, was a key factor as whether journalists got the training they needed or wanted.

This raises the point that everyone, especially journalists, lives in a world of constant learning. Each new technology creates new opportunities and new challenges. Which create new openings for training. To be successful in the digital world, a journalist needs to embrace the idea of “constant training” to meet the changing demands of the workplace.

Other results from our training survey are more troubling.

Actually doing the training presents a significant problem. Lack of time was cited by 62 percent of the participants as the number-one factor that prevented them from getting the training they needed or wanted. That’s twice as many responses as lack of funds, the second-place factor, which was selected by 34 percent.

One final point involved the focus of newsrooms in 2014:

The survey also provides an unsettling insight into the focus of the newsrooms surveyed. The journalists surveyed still see their newsrooms as print-centric or straddling the fence. Only one in 10 said that their newsrooms are thoroughly
“digital-first.”

Eric Newton wrote the introduction to the report.

The Explosive Growth of Journalism E-Learning

Part of the mission of Poynter’s News University was to provide research on the whether e-learning would be an effective method of training journalists.  NewsU launched in April 2005 after a short beta period, with 1961 registered users.  In April 2006, the e-learning platform had more than 13,500 users.

NewsU’s success was detailed in its first report: The Explosive Growth of Journalism E-Learning.  Here’s the overview:

The growing reach of the Internet has changed the nature of job training and career development. Training no longer is limited to in-person contact, either by trainers coming onsite or by managers and employees traveling to seminars and conferences.

The Internet is increasingly popular as a delivery system for training – through Webinars, online courses that use instructors, Webcasts and readings, as well as interaction among participants in discussion groups. In addition, many companies such as Cold Stone Creamery, Cisco Systems Inc., and Canon Inc., are turning to online training games on corporate Web sites.

Those in the media industry are also embracing this form of training, with thousands of journalists turning to e-learning to supplement conferences, seminars and in-house training programs. One of the fastest-growing sites for journalism e-learning is News University (www.newsu.org), a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Being Part of the News

While in journalism school at San Francisco State University, I was stringer for United Press International. UPI was the second largest wire service in the U.S. during the 1970s.  It was a tradition that one of the college newspaper editors would be a UPI stringer and so I was.  A former SFSU graduate worked as a reporter at UPI and he would often call and ask for a bit of “string” for national stories.  String was just another way of saying comments from around the country that could be woven into a large round-up story.

One such story that not only did I provide string but provide a quote that was in the story involved the firing of Lt. Gen. Lewis B Hershey in 1969.  Hershey was the head of the selective service  system, the draft, and a hated official during the Vietnam war. 

Here’s my quote:

“It’s great that Hershey as a personality is finally getting out,” said Howard Finberg, 20, a student at San Francisco State College. “But the system is still wrong, and that’s what needs to be corrected.”

The image is the wire service teletype copy that was set to newspapers and other subscribers of the UPI national wire. 

This was an interesting period to be a journalist and cover the Vietnam war era turmoil on your own campus.

Changing the Paradigms of Production

In 1997 I was asked to do a presentation about pagination to a group of users of the Harris computer systems. Even thought Phoenix Newspapers weren’t customers, Harris executives thought our experiences installing the CCI system would be helpful in understanding the changes of a new publishing system.

My key points included:

  • New way of thinking
  • New technology
  • New installation model

The slides used in the presentation outline our new approach to new technologies.

Agenda and Plans for PAFET

This is a memo to the PAFET management committee, the group that oversaw the work of the operating committee [the real workers in the PAFET universe]. The meeting was held in St. Louis, headquarters of Pulitzer Newspapers.   Here’s the agenda:

1. Introduction: Comments from Jim Rosse
2. Name and Mission Statement:
   Discuss/approve name and m1ss1on
3. Structure: Organizational roles and partnership material.
4. Operating Plan: Plans for initiating and/or participating in research, including development of database of member activities. Discussion of possible group relationship with Delphi.
5. Finance/Budget: Proposed budget and contributions.
6. Confidentiality: Proposed standards and procedures.
7. Communications: Draft announcement and any other release materials.
8. Executive Session: Discussion as appropriate.
9. Next Steps: Next Management Committee meeting; other issues to be addressed.
Two handouts were used at the meeting. Alan Flaherty provided an eight-page agenda package dated March 10, and Dean Blythe provided a three-page undated document entitled Financial Administration and Guidelines. Materials from these documents will not be repeated in these minutes, except insofar as they were modified, or were the basis for specific resolutions adopted by the Management Committee.

And here’s the bit about PAFET’s name and mission statement:

The name Pafet, standing for Partners Affiliated for Exploring Technology, was adopted. The wording of the mission statement was adjusted to the following, in accordance with a suggestion from Joel Kramer:
The mission of Pafet shall he to assisl individual member companies in the development of mechanisms for presentation and marketing of information using new technologies, in order to help the member companies make better individual decisions concerning the future of their businesses.

Founding Memos for PAFET

The technology consortium was the brainchild of James Rosse, chief executive officer of Freedom Newspapers, which owned the Orange County Register. His idea, which he pitched to fellow CEOs, was to gather similar sized organizations to discuss and share information about the technology that was affecting the newspaper industry. The first meeting of this yet-to-be-named organization was on Nov. 8, 1993 at Freedom Newspapers’ office in Irvine, CA.

Here’s how Rosse saw some of ways the various companies could work together:

List of Possible Forms  of Collaboration
This list has been prepared by Jim Rosse solely to stimulate discussion and is not intended to represent a proposal for joint action. The items are ranked roughly from those requiring the least to those requiring the most collaboration.

  • Comparing notes on technologies in which we are individually involved or interested.
  • Creating a technology newsletter internal to the Consortium with production costs shared among members.
  • Hiring a specialist (consultant? more than one?) to work for the Consortium whose job it would be to scan emerging technologies, collect information about them, and report it succinctly to us according to our individual needs
  • Negotiating a Consortium membership in the MIT Media Lab or similar group or participating in the Knight-Ridder effort in Colorado.
  • Representing Consortium members in dealing with third parties regarding Consortium interests in new ventures
  • Facilitating joint ventures in new technology projects among two or more Consortium members.
  • Creating an entity to carry out investment  activity  in new technologies on behalf of the Consortium.

Eventually the consortium would do most of what Rosse envisioned.

In this file are follow-up memos, including a discussion about the group’s name:

I am writing to let you know what has been going on to take Pafeot to its next stage of development. I have talked with several of you, but time has not permitted nor did I think the matters justified extensive consultation. It seemed less important that we dot all of the i’s and cross all of the t’s than it is just to get started with something we can shape as we go along.

You will be pleased to know that the acronym “Pafeot” now has an alternative interpretation – Primarily Affiliated For (the) Exploration Of Technology. Now if we can just think of an easy way to explain its pronunciation (“paf” with the a spoken as in “hat”, and “fet” for feat with the e spoken as in “set;” in combination, “pafet.”).

Eventually the word Primarily would become Partners

 

Poynter Seminar on Design for 1980s

One of the first seminars I taught at was The Poynter Institute for Media Studies’ “Newspaper Design for the ’80s”.  Here’s the invitation letter from Mario Garcia bio, associate director of Poynter. I had been at the Institute earlier as both a participant and a presenter.

Dear Howard:
I am delighted that you will be working with us to present the Graphics & Illustration Seminar, November 27-December 2, 1988. As you can see, I have scheduled your session as a Wednesday evening wine/cheese session to be held at the hotel. However, I hope that you will be able to be with us the entire week since we feel that interaction with the faculty is part of the reason for the success of our programs….

The reception and dinner Sunday evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Petersburg Beach Hilton where the group will be staying. Martha has reserved a room for you for Sunday through Friday night. Let her know if you plan to arrive earlier or depart later.

I’m looking forward to having you back with us at the Institute.

Sincerely,

Mario R. Garcia

 

The Future, a 1997 Memo

This is a memo I wrote to fellow executives at the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette in early 1997.  It outlines some of my views on the importance of online services and about the reorganization of a newsroom to have a great mix of skills among editors.

The overall direction that I see journalism [and journalists] heading in the next five to 10 years is one of multi-skilled individuals. These will be the people that will succeed and prosper in the next century. In a sense, we will be going back to our roots – the small town publisher/editor/reporter/ad salesman – to find models that put more responsibility for all aspects of journalism in the hands of the source. If good journalism is good story telling, let’s put all the story telling tools into everyone’s hands and give them the access to information to help tell their stories.

I’m pleased that I was right on some of the points I raised, albeit a bit too optimistic.

1995 Online Service Research Study

In early 1995, PAFET conducted a consumer online market research survey to establish baseline information in order to measure the development of the consumer online market. This document summarizes the goals, approach and results of that study.

[PAFET stands for Partners Affiliated for the Exploration of Technology. In 1994 six media companies [mostly a bunch of newspaper companies] created this research consortium to learn about and evaluate technology that could impact media and support the creation of new businesses and services.]

Some of the highlights of the study:

• The level of familiarity with online services among PC owners and online subscribers is lower than expected. Despite online services’ aggressive subscriber acquisition efforts and heavy media attention given to these services, almost 1 of 4 PC owners considers themselves to be “not at all familiar” with online services.
• Current online users still represent a niche market, that can be characterized as young, affluent, highly educated, and predominantly male. However, improved presentation of online content (via graphical and multimedia technology), faster transmission speeds, better content and lower prices are attracting more mainstream consumers.
• The demographic profile of online subscribers using the Internet and those who do not is very similar.
• Accessing or subscribing to multiple online services is not uncommon among current online service users. One of four online service users reported regularly accessing at least two online services.
• “News and information” remain the top reason non-online users subscribe to a service. The research results showed that, among current online users, the primary reason they chose their current service was for “news and information.” Among those who canceled a subscription within the past six months, “lack of use” and “lack of information” were cited most often as the reasons for the cancellations.

The study’s questionnaire and research methodology were designed by Maritz Research (Los Angeles, CA), PAFET Operating Committee members, and market research directors and managers at each of the newspapers included in the study.

Also included with this post is the presentation made by Maritz Marketing.