And now a little Katharine Graham...

I've always been a fan of The Washington Post. I'd say out of all the "national" papers, it's always been my favorite.

I've always thought it sucked I couldn't get the Post delivered to my doorstep like the NY Times.

That being said, I've never gotten around to reading Katharine Graham's autobiography, which I'd always heard great things about.

I finally got to the part where her father, Eugene Meyer, bought the Post in an auction on the paper's front steps for $825,000. Can you imagine?

I ran across a great passage:

My father wanted a paper that would advance beyond what it had achieved even in its heyday and "take a leadership that could be achieved only by exceptional quality." In one address, on March 5, 1935, he spoke about the principles that he insisted on from the beginning, outlining them as follows:

1) That the first mission of a newspaper is to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained;
2) That the newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of America and the world;
3) That as a disseminator of news, the paper shall observe the decencies that are obligatory upon a private gentleman;
4) That what it prints shall be fit reading for the young as well as the old;
5) That the newspaper's duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owner;
6) That in the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifice of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good;
7) That the newspaper shall now be the ally of any special public interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.

It seems the more things change in this uncertain world, the need for some things stay the same.

Sam Zell and Me....

I've never been part of a newspaper ownership change.

My previous job was a family-owned newspaper that had stayed in the Gaylord family hands since statehood (1907, for you non-Okies). Interesting enough, the other major metro in Oklahoma --- the Tulsa World --- is also a long-time family owned broadsheet.

And until not too long ago, Oklahoma also had the Tulsa Tribune, a family owned newspaper that traced family links to Frank Lloyd Wright.

So when I came to the Sun-Sentinel, it was my first time working for a publicly traded company. Now we're part of a private ownership group that is owned by employees. Oh yeah, and a guy named Sam Zell.

I'm normally a cynic. At my old shop, I heard executives say words like "communications vehicle," "solutions-based," and "multiplatform communications company." It seemed like there was always promise of reasons to be optimistic.

I usually felt like Office Space, just like most of you.

But this time I'm optimistic. After the Zell press conference, which was beamed into our auditorium, many employees clapped. I am excited.

I can imagine what they're thinking at the LA Times, which seems to be dancing a jig in print:

"There's no need to belabor the multiple reasons for that failure, but suffice to say that, as of Wednesday, there were only three places in the world where you still could find people who believed in the efficacy of Brezhnev-style bureaucracy and central planning: North Korea, Cuba and Tribune Tower in Chicago."

So this could be a wild and fun ride. Count me among the optimists for a change.

Ain't that the truth....

The impending deals....

Great read from Reflections of a Newsosaur.

"In the last five decades, newspapers came to be run by bean counters and soothsayers whose idea of leadership was to do everything possible to ensure that the operating performance of their companies never varied from between 9.8 to 10.2 on a 10-point scale of predictability. For the most part, the top industry jobs came to be populated by people more skilled at managing than innovating – and who, despite their formidable analytical, administrative and public relations skills, had no more feel for newspapering than for running tire stores or meat-packing plants."

How many of you have had this conversation? I know I did in a past job.

Me: Why can't we do this?
Management: Because we've never done that here.
Me: But X paper did it and they flew off the racks.
Management: We don't do that here.
Me: Online clicks will skyrocket.
Management: But we don't do that here.
Me: Why?
Management: Because.

Have I seen our savior?

A music critic at my old paper used to end every column with something along the lines of, "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it is..." and he would discuss a new group.

So I wonder if I've seen the future of journalism.

For anyone who hasn't taken a peek, the St. Pete paper launched the results of four years of work this week. Who would've thought a zoo held such a story?

More evidence that a great reporter can find a great story in anything.

But I digress.

In this era of trimming resources, this reporter went to Africa to help chronicle a local story. In an era of shrinking news hole, the St. Pete paper dedicated the space. In an era of short stories, this runs long.

This is the kind of journalism that will save our product. Not gimmicks. Not schemes.

We have to provide our readers something they can't find elsewhere. That's CAR. That's investigations. That's fearless writing about stories that matter.

If we don't do those things, who will? TV won't. They're too busy covering meth busts and house fires.

It's the content that matters. Medium is secondary.

We have to find our niche. And we have to promote it. And we have to convince readers it's worthing taking the time to read, whether it's in print or online.

The Front Page...

Finally got around to watching The Front Page. Well, not the original --- the remake with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Earl Williams: You don't have to answer this, Mollie, but is it true what they said in the papers?
Mollie Malloy: Is what true?
Earl Williams: That you were going to marry me on the gallows.
Mollie Malloy: Well, if it's in the papers, it must be true. They wouldn't print a lie.

Classic.

But it still doesn't beat the greatest journalism movie of all time --- The Paper.

Carmen: You wanna cover Brooklyn, then cover Brooklyn! But let me tell you something, it's a little tough to do from a barstool in Manhattan.

What other movie so closely resembles the characters of the great American newsroom?

I'm convinced that characters in The Paper can fit someone in your newsroom.

Alicia: We're not exactly the Washington Post, okay?
Michael McDougal: No, we're not. We run stupid headlines because we think they're funny. We run maimings on the front page because we got good art. And I spend three weeks bitching about my car because it sells papers. But at least it's the truth. As far as I can remeber we never ever, ever knowingly got a story wrong, until tonight.

And another thing....

Check out the work of my collegues...John Maines, Sally Kestin, Peter Franceschina and Joe Demma today launched the first of a six-day look at the Seminoles ...

Clicky clicky.

I'm back...

I know. It's been a while since I posted --- not great for building readership, I suppose. But I've been busy at work and home, but I've finally got time to rant a little.

This isn't about CAR.

However, being from Oklahoma, I always take a peculiar interest in how the press talks about flyover country, particularly during election season. A lot of times, it seems to be with an, "Aww aren't they cute?" attitude.

Most of the time the national press does a pretty good job. However, the international press is another thing.

Disclaimer: I haven't been overseas much. Other than the typical Caribbean haunts, I spent about 20 days in England a couple years back, staying with some long-time English friends. I got to spend a lot of time in the pubs, far away from the tourist haunts in London, and meet a lot of people.

But I do enjoy reading as many of the British papers online as possible.

One thing became clear when I was in England: We think we understand Europe, but we really don't. And Europeans think they understand America, but they really don't. Anyways, I saw this lead in the Telegraph's online edition:

"They call it flyover country. These are the parts of the United States that the pundits and prognosticators of American politics see just occasionally - and usually from several thousand feet. It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home. They can decide on their vote with the help of talk radio, cable television and the internet - or from a combination of rumour, scraps of hard information and gut feeling."

Huh?

I think the part that really grabbed me: "It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home."

I guess I have a hard time figuring out what the author is saying. Does this mean people in other states don't shop at Wal-Mart? Does this mean people in other states don't eat at Dairy Queen? And, of course, no one in other states has a Bible at home or works more than one job.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. But these generalizations in political coverage really annoy me.

Well, here we go again....

I like to think I'd gotten to know Oklahoma's Open Records Act pretty thoroughly.

Now it's time to start all over.

Since I moved to South Florida, I haven't had time to dive into the state's fairly broad sunshine laws. Sitting on my desk is the pretty hefty --- and I must say kick ass --- Florida Public Records Handbook.

It's tough starting over in a new state when it comes to sunshine laws. When you've been somewhere for a while, you get used to the lame excuses and how to maneuver around them.

About a week ago, I had my first negotiation for some electronic records in Florida. I usually play dumb in a first conversation, letting them explain themselves and then I take some time to craft up a response.

I figure it's also useful to play dumb early because you can give them enough rope with which to hang them. But, in this instance, I also needed some time to go back and do some reading.

So here goes...

And what a good thing to see....

William Hartnett, CAR specialist at the Palm Beach Post, points out a fine follow-up to an earlier post of mine.

And it was right under my nose. A nod to him for doing my work for me.

The Sun-Sentinel is hunting a municipal reporter to cover Pompano Beach, where yours truly lives.

"Spanish skills as well as knowledge of computer-assisted reporting are preferred."

I like.

There's got to be a better way......

The Houston Chronicle's Chase Davis has put together a great idea for the Knight News Challenge.

His idea for a sort of collaborative lawmaking site --- to put it lightly --- is very interesting.

I covered the Legislature for about two years at The Oklahoman before becoming the database editor. When I stepped back and noticed how we covered the Legislature --- afraid to miss any little event, a feeling of obligation to write about every back-and-forth political nonsense spewed in a "statement" --- I always thought there had to be a better way.

I just didn't know what it was.

I think sometimes we fell in the trap of thinking the public gave a crap about what went on inside the state Capitol. We thought the public cared whether former House Speaker Todd Hiett and Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan got along.

Or whether they called each other names.

Kings in a castle syndrome, I suppose.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find a way to combine our knowledge of the beat and how things work in legislative bodies with the power of the Web? Like I said, Chase's idea really seems like a gigantic step in that direction.

I've really got a data crush on some of the stuff the folks at the NY Times are doing with some of the national elections, such as this gem on visits by candidates. They did something similar with campaign contributions.

I've always thought it'd be wonderful to come up with a way to show a flow of campaign contributions vs. bills moving through the Legislature. And we wouldn't have to stop there --- you could add in a number of other variables.

Again, I'm not sure what else, though.

But there's got to be a better way.

I better not post too much...

...or I could become a "new media douchebag."

Even daily reporters need CAR....

Joey Senat, a media law and public affairs reporting professor at Oklahoma State University's journalism school, always told us to stay in a public records state of mind.

In today's world, we need to take it a step along. We need to also stay in a data state of mind.

Ziva Branstetter, projects editor at the Tulsa World, once told a panel I attended that the best ideas for investigations typically spring up from beat reporters. I think it's the same way with CAR stories.

I've always preached that all beat reporters need data skills.

When I first arrived at the Sun-Sentinel earlier this month, one of the first people who e-mailed me was Mc Nelly Torres, who I'd seen around at several IRE and/or NICAR conferences. Mc Nelly, a member of the consumer watchdog team here at the paper, had done some neat analysis of gas pump inspections in south Florida.

"In South Florida, 34 percent of the gas stations inspected in the past
three years had at least one gas pump that failed accuracy tests used to determine if the devices are giving consumers the correct amount of gas they pay for, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel analysis found."

Mc Nelly produced a great Sunday p1 by requesting the data from the Florida agency with oversight. She knew not only how to get the data, but how to analyze it.

Newspapers across America are spending an awful lot of money training reporters how to get audio and video, and then how to edit it. But aren't newspapers missing the boat by forgetting about content? It doesn't matter what kind of equipment you have or how much audio/video is on the Web site if the content isn't there.

Isn't that what we dislike about TV? All flash but no content?

CAR skills aren't hard to pick up. It just takes time and some monetary commitment from organizations.

Steve Lackmeyer, one of the finest reporters around, is old school. He's a shoe leather guy. But Lackmeyer recognized CAR skills aren't a substitute for shoe leather reporting --- they show you how and where to do better shoe leather reporting.

Lackmeyer, a mentor of mine at The Oklahoman, went to NICAR with me in Denver. He went through some of the boot camp stuff on Access and Excel. He came out excited.

"I can do this!"

This after just a couple hours of training.

I hope the industry doesn't forget that content is the No. 1 issue. Without content, we have nothing.

And I can make a great case that CAR skills will pay off big for beat reporters and the content they produce.

Mc Nelly's story proves it.

What this place is about....

Apparently I don't have enough to do.

So today, I'm trying out a new blog. This is on top of my other site.

I wanted a place where I could talk about journalism.

Journalism Bull is a nod to the stock market. I'm not ready to hang up the cleats on journalism because of the Internet. A friend of mine, who admittedly is a lot smarter than me when it comes to these types of things, tells me he's a bear on the industry. But maybe we're talking Xs and Os.

He was talking about newspapers. I'm talking about journalism. Then again, I don't think the buzzards are circling around newspapers just yet, either.

But it won't take long if we aren't careful. Chalk it up to cheerleading, if you want.

As for journalism, I think the Internet is great for journalism. It provides us a medium to do things print couldn't --- and expand on topics that newspapers prevented because of space reasons.

You'll probably see me talk about data and its role in journalism a lot --- mainly because that's what I do.

So, at risk of rambling with no point and boring you, here we go....