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Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts surprised many in media and political circles. But surely the local press and pundits who followed the race closely for months saw it coming? Not so much. Boston Phoenix political reporter David Bernstein describes what he, and the rest of the local media, missed.
Last summer the Washington Post, in an attempt to increase revenue, planned a series of off-the-record salons whereby a sponsor could pay for the opportunity to meet with government officials, Post reporters, and others to discuss, say, health care. The man responsible for implementing and marketing the salons was media consultant Charles Pelton, and though that attempt proved ill-fated he remains convinced that media outlets should find ways to turn their reporters into profit centers.
When the media makes a mistake, Craig Silverman takes note. He’s the creator of the website Regret the Error, and he joins us again with his annual round-up of the year in corrections, errors, apologies and more. Silverman says 2009 was the year of fact checking, but not by the people you’d think.
Countless reporters in D.C. are accustomed to seeing Daniel Lippman's name in their in-boxes. The Associated Press's Ron Fournier says Lippman's emails are filled with helpful and polite corrections. And Lippman, who is 19 years old, explains why he's become a rogue copy editor.
Newspaper archives used to live in dusty stacks in libraries. Today, they're a five second Google search away, leaving news organizations grappling with the question of what to do when an article haunts a source, or even a journalist, online for...essentially...ever. OTM producer Nazanin Rafsanjani reports.
Science departments at newspapers everywhere are shrinking. One outlet that aims to help fill the coverage gap is Futurity.org, a new website that lets scientists publish their findings directly to the public. Michael Schoenfeld, Futurity’s co-founder, explains the site’s mission.
Washington is paying attention to the newspaper crisis. The president has even weighed in. But some worry that any government help would create a conflict of interest. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), sponsor of The Newspaper Revitalization Act, and Jim Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News discuss what role, if any, the government should play in saving newspapers.
News organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to turn a profit, thus making non-profit news an increasingly attractive solution. Jim Barnett has been studying and blogging about non-profit journalism for 5 years and he says new organizations are springing up left and right.
