Reporting starts on Bay Area journalism story
Feb 9th, 2009 by admin
It was an odd feeling Monday walking back into the office where I was laid off last year.
I returned to talk with the man who laid me off, Contra Costa Times Executive Editor Kevin Keane, about a story I’m doing for Spot.us on the future of Bay Area journalism and how newspapers are using the Internet to try to gain readers.
Before I get into a little bit about what we talked about and where the Times is headed, I want to first throw out the potential conflict of interest I have in reporting and writing this story. While the story won’t focus entirely on the Times, it will probably be a large part of the story because the Times and the other newspapers that MediaNews owns in the Bay Area have a lot of readers. Keane oversees 11 dailies and 12 weeklies in the Bay Area News Group, with 1.6 million print subscribers.
I worked at the Times for 13 years, as a copy editor and assigning editor. I’ve only known Keane for about two years, when he took over as executive editor after the paper was sold by Knight Ridder to McClatchy for a few hours, then to MediaNews. I wasn’t thrilled with the change in ownership, but enjoyed my job and wanted to stay on there as an assistant metro editor. It was a job I had wanted to do my entire life and I really enjoyed it. If you want to view my resume and see what I’ve done, please check it out.
For me to say that I don’t have any grudges against the Times and that I can’t be impartial in doing this story for Spot.us, is something that many won’t believe. I’m too close to the story I’m covering. So while I may try as hard as I can to keep my reporting and writing impartial, I want to warn readers to be on the lookout for it, and I plan to do my best to keep my opinions out of the story.
One thing that makes that easier for me is that while I don’t agree that I should have been laid off, I do understand the company’s decision and think Keane was fair to me during the process. He’s been nice and helpful since I was laid off in June 2008, and was gracious enough to let me interview him for the story I’m working on.
But it was still odd walking into his office Monday, although he put me at ease and asked how my job hunt was going. Walking into the Times building gave me an eerie feeling, and without a pass card to get into the newsroom, I waited in the lobby for a receptionist who never came and called Keane’s secretary to tell him I had arrived for the interview. A former co-worker walked by and said hello without stopping to shake my hand or inquire how I’ve been since leaving — and other than that and a quick hello to a friend who works there — Keane was the only other person I talked with. I was nervous and glad to walk out when it was over, and maybe things will be different if I ever return. I’m sure there’s nervousness on both sides.
Much of what Keane discussed with me focused on how he still believes in the survival of print news, and that the online audience that the Times and other Bay Area News Group properties are growing and that both serve different customers. Reliable, local news coverage is its strongest asset and adding more blogs and other ways to reach people online, such as through Twitter, will help spread that news, he said. His main message seemed to be something that I used to tell my reporters — that providing quality, in-depth and local news will attract readers no matter what form it comes in.
To get a feel for his views on the news industry, a transcript of an online discussion he had in December is helpful.
On Monday, he didn’t have any major news on where his newspapers are heading online and how they plan to attract readers. For an update on what the Times is doing or plans to do soon online, he referred me to an online editor who I’m trying to get an interview with. I expect that will offer more specifics.
I have some follow-up questions of my own to throw at Keane sometime soon, but if you have some follow-up questions you’d like me to ask, please e-mail me at: aaron.crowe.consulting (at) gmail.com
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May I suggest that prior to posting, you double check your “article” for spelling. Just at first glance, caught 3 here.
I too am unemployed. Not good!
Wishing you much success in your quest.
You are all like the guys who owned stables and horse and carriages, who took on a few ‘motor cars’ but didn’t believe they would replace your ‘primary’product. How can newsmen be so clueless? Newspapers as you knew them are done for. And your old boss will be joining you on the unemployment line eventually. You at least are embracing the replacement media. Good Luck!
Your resume is awesome and congradulations on some very impressive awards, especially being on a Pulitzer Prize winning team of writers. Top ‘o the Hat to you, sir.
With the demise of local ownership of newspapers, the dramatic change in the working habits of the readers and the instant access of electronic media newspaper publishing is very different than it was twenty years ago.
Corporations look to the bottom line and people no longer can wait past 6:00 AM to get their paper before they go to work so they turn on their televisions and computers. But none of this means that print publishing is dead. People still want to hold their news (and their store flyers) in their hand. All this means is that print publishers need to get smarter about their product, but I’ve yet to see the answers come out of the boardroom. The only answer that they can seem to come up with is to have legions of newspaper people, from editorial to production to circulation have their nose pressed to the glass looking for the jobs that are no longer there. So good luck, Aaron, like many of us, you are going to need it.
And Jan, editing your own work is very different from editing someone else’s. Producing electronic media is not the same as producing print media but that is a very different subject.
Aaron: You might try converting to the Amish lifestyle. No cars to pay for and no problems with gas prices wherever they may go. Oh yeah, get to sleep with the horse and cow, never lonely etc.
Come to Ohio and find out how the people live that actually do the work and pay the taxes to support you do-nothing boobs that are marooned physically and mentally on both touchy-feely-goody-goody East and West Coasts.
Aaron, Thanx for sharing your experiences. I see a surprising “crack in the wall” that you can exploit. In Kevin Keane’s web chat he stated “Finally, we’ve learned to rely more and more on part-timers and stringers to fill in the hyper-local report, leaving our full-time staff to tackle the broader news when possible. Local blogs — some written by the staff — also play a huge role in filling out the local report.” A few minutes later “40 year subscriber complains – “De La Salle and the Danville and Pleasanton schools seem to get a disproportionate share of the coverage while Dublin and the Livermore schools barely have a presence. The latter schools may not be as “high profile” as the others, but coverage is still just as important to their fans.” and Kevin Keane meekly replies – ” I agree. We’ll try to do better.”
There is your opening – and you can take one of two paths.
A. You could offer your services as a part-timer or stringer to Kevin with a focus on football and other sports at Dublin and Livermore schools and other media-underexposed schools and at least get back into game at Media News. Or,
B. You could start you own advertiser supported Bay area prep school and college sports news website. You can bring on-board your own stringers to do the coverage and you could feature video clips from each game. You can get independent contractors to sell the advertising. Being the boss, you have complete freedom to pursue interesting story angles – surely there is a referee or other football official who has been officiating for 30, 40, or 50 years – what a great feature story!
Here in Florida we have some new prep rules coming into effect this year – no horsecollar tackles and chin straps are now just as off-limits as a facemask or helmet opening. Another great feature story to bring football officails into and also the state high school athletic commission. You can develop sources within the colleges and schools. Kids being kids, somebody is going to get caught shootin’
‘roids or in some other substance abuse violation at some point – you could blow the lid off and end up as a guest on ESPN and then write a book on prep sports substance abuse.
You could regularly feature background articles on collegiate scouts – some from the Bay area – some from places like Nebraska and Florida.
You could do a feature article on a former local player that went far away to college – like say Boise State and is doong well.
You could do in-depth analysis of the opposing teams that selected Bay area prep schools will face each week.
Obviously I favor choice B. over choice A. since I got so enthused over that option.
The bottom line is this – I have divined from reading Kevin Keane’s web chat is that he is a man without passion. He has been drinking Media News’ corporate KoolAid for far too long and his primary focus is circling the wagons and trying to hang onto his Executive Editor position, salary, benefits, and perks. Creating news products that the Bay Area develop a voracious appetite for is beyond his capabilities as he cuts this, slashes that, and downsizes the next unfortunate batch of employees.
I hope this helps…
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