WSJ Secretly Free!!

I love this -- a workaround for the Journal's subscription wall. I need to investigate more ... and will be watching for when they turn it off.

Two More Spitzer Notes ...

1. Interesting to see that the latest Paterson news (that he and his wife also had extramarital affairs) was broken by the Daily News, in an exclusive interview -- but because they teased the story online, the Post had time to get it on their cover. Incidentally, the fact that he chose the Daily News is the kind of thing that is a big deal among beat reporters in Albany, who are all competing with each other for the same stories.

2. This Q&A is fascinating, particularly for journalists to see how the Times talks about things like this, and something we would never get access to if it weren't online.

Breaking News: Internet Changes Journalism!!!

... Not quite. We all know the Web has forever changed traditional journalism. But a new report looks at exactly how. This E&P article has some good highlights -- like the idea that whatever the medium, all journalists are essentially covering the same few stories.

Rick Edmonds has a good piece here, focusing on the business side of the equation.

Thoughts on Spitzer ...

Several interesting and relevant notes:

1. The story was broken by a traditional reporter (Danny Hakim of the New York Times) but online at nytimes.com, where it was continuously updated.
2. The steady but somewhat slow drip of details -- how much he spent, what he wanted to do, how the investigation started, whether he would resign -- have made the Web the best source of information. For instance, we all learned that his resignation plans were final this morning via either the Web or TV.
3. Many of those details were contained in the affidavit related to the investigation of the ring, which we were all able to read because it was posted online as a PDF on many many sites, even on nytimes.com.
4. All that said, a very popular online game has been speculating about the print headlines that the New York tabloids would use, or trying to come up with better ones. Why is it, I wonder, that the Post and Daily News save their best puns for the print editions?

Interview with Leslie Primack, student journalist

As a former student journalist, I'm interested in the relationship between print and online journalism particularly at the college level, where many papers don't have the resources necessary to make the initial investment that developing a serious Web presence requires.

For that reason, I emailed with Leslie Primack, a fresman at Brown and a reporter for the Brown Daily Herald, to get her thoughts.

Q: As a consumer of news, where would you say that you primarily get your information -- online or in print? Blogs or newspaper websites?
A: As a college student, I primarily get my global news online at washingtonpost.com, but most of my information comes from reading our school newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald. When I am at home, most of my information comes from the Washington Post each morning and news articles in the New Yorker.

Q: As a student journalist at the Daily Herald, can you describe how the papers' editors view their Web site -- i.e., do they plan extra content for it? Is it treated as a separate publication or just a different medium?
A: Though I’m not involved in online publication, I don’t think the editors plan extra online content, though they do offer numerous options such as Facebook sharing applications and convenient ways to subscribe to the newspaper via email. Blogs are not prominent: though one can register with blogger.com, there are not blogs on browndailyherald.com itself, to my knowledge.

Q: How do you personally use the Web for research in your reporting?
A: I use the Web extensively for each story. It’s invaluable for finding contact information (navigating through the department websites to find professors and officials to interview), and I always begin to set up an interview by emailing the subject. I’ve done interviews with alumni over the phone, and I use their websites to familiarize myself with their background so I can have so questions in mind going into the interview. I’ve also used facebook to find students to interview. (For example, when writing a story on video downloading, I searched for students in the Brown Film Society to get their perspectives.) However, I avoid actually contacting subjects over Facebook, as I feel that using their Brown email address is more professional.

Q: Are you at all concerned about going into newspaper journalism as a career, given the business problems that newspapers are having and their seeming inability to compete with the Web?
A: Yes, only this summer I’ve seen the New York Times increase its price and reduce its size, showing the financial trouble of print journalism. I’d hesitate to go into newspaper journalism because I wouldn’t want to end up writing for a purely online publication or getting laid off.

Q: Would you consider online journalism (working for a blog or news site exclusively) as a career? What do you see as the pros and cons?
A: I wouldn’t consider a career in online journalism. I prefer concrete print publications because I see entirely online things as somehow more abstract and not as reliable (though this may not be the case). I feel that the news loses its power when it can be scrolled through quickly online, and I know that I don’t read the washingtonpost.com very thoroughly because it is difficult to navigate and I get tired of staring at a screen for so long. The positive aspect of online journalism is that it is that the news is so timely and I often find things online just after they’ve happened, instead of in the newspaper the next day.

Q: How do you feel about the shift to online journalism?
A: I think it’s a shame that journalism is shifting to online. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I like holding a newspaper in my hand and seeing the headlines jump out at me. However, I must admit that online publications are more convenient and for the most part free, so many consumers prefer them.

Silly Old Newspapers ...

Both of these papers put the story about the letters sent to Congress with a photo of the bombing site on their front pages. As Gawker notes, most everyone knew there was no connection early this morning -- but there were the headlines in cold hard newsprint, unchangeable.

More Drudge Influence

I heard about this story but just learned that it was actually Drudge who revealed that Prince Harry was fighting with British troops in Afghanistan -- prompting his removal.

This piece takes one stance on the tricky journalism ethics here. Interestingly, no one expects Drudge to abide by those same ethics ...

Old Media on (Very) New Media

It seems like when election time rolls around, we always get an interesting look at how well old media understands the Web. In 2004, it was the fascination with Howard Dean's netroots campaign.

This year's online story is John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain's blog, which was the subject of an old media story on the front page of the LA Times.

It seems to me that the story doesn't totally "get" the blog. To me, the blog is very much like lots and lots of personal blogs out there. It's a look at her daily life -- mundane at times, silly at times, happy at times, too-much-information at times. These are not adjectives that describe typical political communications, but they do describe typical blogs. Maybe the reporter is too familiar with the former and not at all with the latter?

The Atlantic 'Crunches Content'

This is an interesting move -- I wonder if it's true that online content necessarily has to be shorter. Speaking solely from my personal experience, I have no problem reading long-form items, including journalism, online. I regularly read the New York Times magazine cover stories online. But, I have noticed colleagues who prefer to print out documents longer than a few pages. Could it be a generational difference? And could the Atlantic's audience be older?