Matt DeRienzo is group editor of Journal Register Company's publications in Connecticut, including the New Haven Register, Middletown Press, Register Citizen and Connecticut Magazine. Contact him at mderienzo@journalregister.com.
Steve Buttry’s Blog- Advice for editors: Deal firmly with staff problems June 18, 2013This continues a series on advice for new top editors in Digital First Media newsrooms. Staff behavior and performance problems are among an editor’s greatest challenges and opportunities. The staff member who is performing poorly or behaving inappropriately can bring a newsroom down and in most cases an editor needs to deal decisively with it. […]
- Guest post by Scott Bryant: Nothing connects like a still photograph June 10, 2013Continuing a discussion of how newsrooms and photojournalists need to respond to changes in journalism and photography: After I blogged my criticism of the Chicago Sun-Times for firing its photo staff, I followed with a guest post from someone who had emailed me privately. A comment on that post deserved greater attention and a response, […]
- Photojournalists need to embrace video skills and priorities June 6, 2013Some experienced print photographers are too dismissive of video and multimedia opportunities, a veteran visual journalist told me in an email. The journalist messaged me privately after my post last week about the Chicago Sun-Times firing its whole photo staff. I asked the journalist if I could use the email in a blog post. We […]
- Advice for editors: Your newsroom is watching June 4, 2013Today I want to call attention to a post by someone else: Are You Mad at Me? by Adam Bryant. It underscores how closely a newsroom watches the editor (or any workplace watches the boss): I learned a memorable lesson that day about how people can read so much into subtle, and often unintended, cues. […]
- Advice for editors: Time is precious; manage it carefully June 3, 2013This continues a series on advice for new top editors in Digital First Media newsrooms. Time is one of an editor’s and a newsroom’s most precious resources. Spend your time wisely to move your newsroom forward and elevate your digital journalism. The challenges of digital journalism give you – and your staff – lots more […]
- Advice for editors: Deal firmly with staff problems June 18, 2013
- John Paton’s Blog
- Peter Worthington: Patriot, Warrior and Journalist May 13, 2013My first editor, Peter Worthington, died today at age 86. He fought in WW II and Korea. Spent 15 years as a foreign correspondent covering various civil wars in Africa. He was posted to Moscow as bureau chief in the … Continue reading →
- The Subscription Project – Or A Paywall By Any Other Name February 4, 2013Paywall. Even the name is debated so contentious is this subject in the news industry. The Pros and Cons of some form of online paid access for newspaper websites have been argued in such extremes that nuance and accuracy have … Continue reading →
- Another Tough Step September 5, 2012Folks, Today Digital First Media announced Journal Register Company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will seek to implement a prompt sale. We expect the auction and sale process to take about 90 days, and I am pleased to … Continue reading →
- In Defense of the Times-Picayune July 11, 2012Stop me if you’ve heard this one. An old and distinguished business in New Orleans has seen more than half of its revenue disappear in five years and has decided to change how it conducts business – before it goes … Continue reading →
- Not Your Grandpa’s Old Newspaper Company June 11, 2012We are looking for people who want to transform the newspaper industry. We’re looking for people with ideas, energy and the guts to implement them. And we’re looking for people who would rather fail trying to succeed than play it … Continue reading →
- Peter Worthington: Patriot, Warrior and Journalist May 13, 2013
- Jeff Jarvis’ Buzz Machine
- All journalism is advocacy (or it isn’t) June 17, 2013Jay Rosen wrote a insightful post forking the practice of journalism into “politics: none” (that is, traditional American journalism: objective, it thinks) and “politics: some” (that is, the kind just practiced by Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian). Jay catalogs the presumptions and advantages of each. As both he and The New York Times’ Margaret Sullivan [... […]
- Lessons from Waze for media June 11, 2013Now that I’ve written my commuter’s paean to Waze, allow me to get a bit journowonky now and examine some of the lessons newspapers should learn from the success of the service: 1. Waze built a platform that lets the public share what it knows without the need for gatekeepers or mediators — that is, [...]
- I trust Waze June 11, 2013I’ve had to learn to trust Waze in a few traffic jams. Now every time Waze tells me to turn, I turn. I’ve missed horrendous traffic jams that way. I’ve learned new routes to work and home I’d never imagined. I’ve seen parts of the countryside that are new to me. Waze is wonderful. Here’s [...]
- Matters of principle June 8, 2013America is supposed to be a nation governed by principles, which are undergirded by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and carried into law. The discussion about the government and its capture of *our* data should be held on the level of principles. * Privacy: Our direct and personal communication in any medium and [...]
- To the dauntless lensmen May 31, 2013The Sun-Times was wrong and right when it fired its entire photo department. Wrong: Images are more important than ever. Look at this page: Medium practically forces us to include a photo with every post. On Google+ posts sans images get little love. This week at my J-school, a dean emphasized that every item we [...]
- All journalism is advocacy (or it isn’t) June 17, 2013
- Jay Rosen’s Press Think
- No, Candy Crowley. That is not good enough. June 16, 2013“You have to know your stuff. You have to mute your instinct to reduce everything to the next election. This is serious business. We need interviewers who are dead serious about holding people accountable for what they say.” Watch what happens at the 7:00 mark in this interview that CNN’s Candy Crowley did today with [...]
- Politics: some / Politics: none. Two ways to excel in political journalism. Neither dominates. June 14, 2013“Edward Snowden’s decision to leak to Greenwald, and Glenn’s domination of newsland for several days, tells us that politics: none is not the only way of excelling in journalism. It now has to share the stage with politics: some.” I offer one observation about the story that has consumed the worlds of journalism and politics [...]
- Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times, misinforms Columbia B-school about The Meter June 4, 2013No one knew if it would work when the Times started to charge regular visitors to its site. There were no experts. But there was a reasonably well-informed debate among people who followed it closely. Here is what they said then. In a recent speech to the Columbia University business school graduates, the new CEO [...]
- Jon Karl got played by a confidential source and now ABC News has a big Benghazi problem May 18, 2013“His colleagues at other news organizations know it. His friends at the network, were they real friends, would try to talk him out of this disastrous state of denial.” [With four updates below: May 19, 20, 22.] I am going to be brief here because for anyone closely following the story of the Benghazi talking [...]
- Designs for a Networked Beat May 13, 2013“When the users know more than the journalists, what are good journalists supposed to do?” These are lecture notes and links from my presentation to the editors of Quartz, May 13, 2013. The ideas that I share with you tonight originate in a personal obsession of mine that is now 14 years old. It dates [...]
- Some shifts in power visible in journalism today February 18, 2013“To some degree they have achieved what Tim Russert of NBC News had when he was host of Meet the Press. Sitting down for an interview with Swisher and Mossberg is a thing you do to show that you are a serious player…” Quick: How many shifts in power can you spot in this one [...]
- Look, you’re right, okay? But you’re also wrong. February 3, 2013A post that arises from a certain image I have of disaffected newsroom “traditionalists,” who look upon changes in journalism since the rise of the web with fear and loathing. It is not addressed to particular people but to a climate of mind I’ve encountered a lot in blogging about all this since 2003. Look, [...]
- “Even about your Lie of the Year there is doubt.” January 27, 2013Romney’s chief strategist Stu Stevens is trying to re-litigate a campaign ad suggesting that Jeep was shipping factory jobs to China. Why? I speculate. “Lie of the Year,” people in the establishment press called it. As bad as it gets. To which professional strategist Stu Stevens, head thinker for the Romney campaign in 2012, says: Nonsense, [...]
- Mounting costs for the default model of trust production in American newsrooms January 6, 2013The outlines of the new system are now coming into view. Accuracy and verification, fairness and intellectual honesty–traditional virtues for sure–join up with transparency, “show your work,” the re-voicing of individual journalists, fact-checking, calling BS when needed and avoiding false balance. For about 20 years (yikes!) I have been trying to move Ameri […]
- Loyalty and obsession are intimates: Andrew Sullivan goes independent January 3, 2013“We, the journalists, have part of what it takes to create an informative and exciting site. You, the users, have the other part.” Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan announced that he’s parting ways with the Daily Beast and taking his blog, The Daily Dish, independent. Truly independent: no advertisers! (Though he hasn’t ruled that out for the [...]
- No, Candy Crowley. That is not good enough. June 16, 2013
Category Archives: Hartford Courant
What’s in store for print-first journalism schools?
The University of Connecticut might lose the print edition of its newspaper, “The Daily Campus,” after students voted to reject an increased subsidy of the product. This should be a great opportunity, right? UConn has a journalism school. What would … Continue reading
A new kind of newspaper severance: Help laid-off journalists be entrepreneurs and partners
As I was packing for a trip north to speak at the Maine Press Association convention this weekend about our Newsroom Cafe project in Connecticut, this story came across my Twitter feed this morning. The Portland Press Herald, my hometown … Continue reading
How’s this? Partner with one of your critics
Our first experiment with the type of partnership I talked about in an earlier post is getting a great reception from readers. George Gombossy, a former business editor and longtime journalist at the Hartford Courant, has taken his hard-charging and … Continue reading
