28 Aug 2008
by Stephin Newsy Tags: buyout, Gatehouse, World Herald
My newspaper was sold today for the second time in 9 months. It’s the weirdest feeling ever. I’ve never been through a takeover before, let alone two of them and it’s been quite the ride.
When GateHouse purchased us, along with 13 other properties, from Morris, it was like a bombshell announcement that took everybody by surprise. There was excitement mingled with a healthy tinge of fear. What does this mean? What about my insurance and retirement? How do we keep the site running with new tools? Aw man we *just* did a redesign and now we have to do it again?
But GateHouse was good to us. Right after I found out about the news, I blogged it in my personal blog, and not even a day later I had a lovely ‘welcome to the family’ message from Howard Owens. That right there went a long way toward making me feel pretty good about our new owners. GateHouse worked hard with all 14 Morris papers to get us integrated quickly. We had some battles and we tried hard to fight to keep our new design, but we understood the importance of maintaining a sense of uniformity among all the papers in the company – both from an administrative and branding perspective. once we got over ourselves, we could see the wisdom in it.
I’ve enjoyed meeting GateHouse peeps on Twitter. I love being a part of something as awesome as WiredJournalists (started by some GHS folk.) I haven’t known them very long, but they’re good people. I can just tell. And I’m sorry to be leaving them. They have the right ideas when it comes to online journalism and I hope they keep that enthusiasm for it.
At the same time, when the announcement was made this morning that the Omaha World Herald purchased The Independent and York News Times, I was, to put it mildly, floored. They sent pretty much every Very Important Person in the company to welcome us (and they brought juice and cookies! 
) so there was a real emphasis on this being a great thing for The Independent.
Only time will tell. But I’m a glass half full kind of person, and I hope this means great things for my paper and this job I love.
So, thank you GateHouse, I learned so much in the brief time I got to work with you guys and I wish you all luck. You’re all wonderful people.
And Hello Omaha World Herald and Co. I’m looking forward to working with you!
18 Aug 2008
by Stephin Tools of the trade
I’ve been thinking about different ways I can approach my newsroom about Twitter. I decided the best way is to approach each reporter individually, and tailor my spiel to each reporter and their interests. Luckily, I have a small newsroom so this probably wouldn’t fly in the larger ones.
Short of a directive from on high, my reporters are still not showing much interest after me previously mentioned flurry of messages about it. I have had some minor successes with one of the photographers who gamely jumped in feet first and did his first proper tweets today. I’m so proud After the emails I’d been sending, he came to me wanting to know more. So we got him set up, and I showed him some other photogs I knew of who Twittered (one of them being a friend of his who used to work for us and now works for another paper) and I think that helped. I had some Twitterati give him some encouragement, and got him set up to use his cell and all that good stuff. And I think he will be the one to take advantage of it. Just need to keep up the encouragement and hope that he is able to break a story on it.
Our senior writer also approached me to find some time this week where I can show him how to use Twitter. With him, I will have to approach him a little differently. He has blogged off and on the past couple of years, but I believe he has trouble letting go of his instinct to write for the paper and not for the web. He tends to turn his posts into masterpieces of column-length proportions. This made him regard blogging as another column he had to write, and so gave it up. He has trouble understanding the informal nature of a blog, and that even a blurb is ok to post. I’m hoping that getting him to Twitter will reinforce that informalness (yes I just made up a word/. I can do that online ), and I think as I’m showing him Twitter, I will work that in. He has a tendency to make simple things much harder than they need to be. I need him to see that Twittering and blogging should be simple and quick.
After I tackle that, I will contemplate how to get the rest on board. I’m sort of hoping that if they see the two using Twitter, it will have a domino effect. Perhaps they’ll talk about it, or tweet in the office so the others can see it’s as easy as sending a text message and not really an extra load of work at all.
Fingers crossed.
05 Aug 2008
by Stephin Tools of the trade Tags: twitter
I know I’m not alone in this battle. And maybe use of the word “battle” is incorrect. But sometimes it sure feels like one. But there must be hundereds of newsrooms like mine where the reporters are slow to try new technology and often hold up their “Oh great, more work” placards whenever something new is introduced to them.
I can sympathize. For a mid-size paper, we really have a tiny newsroom. Five news reporters, two full-time photogs and three sports guys. We cover Central Nebraska. That’s a lot of ground to cover for eight people. And so I feel this huge burden of guilt whenever I want to ask them to use a new tool for getting the info out. I like my newsroom and the people who work it, and the last thing I want is to add to their workload.
But there are some tools out there that would either be minimal work, or perhaps even ease the workload. It’s just a matter of finding a way to make them understand that. Twitter is such a great tool. How cool would it be if we could tweet a breaking news story before anyone else? Just takes a simple cell phone text and wham-bam we beat the competition.
Or how about tweeting the scores from a local ballgame? Or texting/tweeting updates from a volatile city council session or high profile court hearing? Drive by a terrible accident? Send a tweet, let the followers know to avoid a certain intersection during high traffic.
It’s so easy. And so far, in my 4 years here, getting Twitter introduced and used by anyone other than me has been one of my biggest obstacles.
Ryan Sholin wrote an interesting article in which he says “…stop thinking about Twitter as a place on the Web, and start thinking about it as a platform for publishing.” I like that thought because it underscores one of the major problems in overcoming this obstacle: Twitter perception.
Twitter is a silly name. “Tweet” is a silly name for referring to the updates. It doesn’t sound professional. And when trying to explain the service to the newsroom, I get giggles everytime I say “tweet.” So the perception is that Twitter is just a flash-in-the-pan social media-whosit-thingie that will go the way of using Blogger to post news updates.
I’ll tell you who my biggest obstacle is, and that is our head sports editor. Nice guy, good writer, but looks upon the web as a denizen of basement-dwelling freaks who should come into the light more often. Nothing I say can change his mind, and so unless the order comes down from on high, I don’t think he’ll ever listen to me.
The rest of the newsroom… well, we have two reporters who have been willing to try new things, such as using the handhelds to grab video or even blogging (though one gave up blogging when his traffic dropped after we switched layouts and he couldn’t be featured as prominently as before.) The others seem indifferent.
Yesterday I sent an email to them asking them, again, to do what they can to check in on the comments their stories generate. One replied back asking me basically if I’d just do it for them and let them know when there’s a good one they can look at. I blinked a few times, and scratched my head. I think they missed the point.
But today, my publisher emailed them and backed me up (yay!) and also pimped the use of Twitter as something they need to be doing. After I fainted, I quickly threw together a quick Twitter For Dummies page and sent it to them in the hopes that the publisher’s email combined with the message that they must help us interact with our readers would get them interested in learning more about Twitter.
That was early this morning. It’s nearly time to go home now, and I haven’t heard a peep from any of them. And this is where I stand right now. I’m almost thinking that I should just set up Twitter accounts for each of them, go around and give them training whether they want it or not. I’m really frustrated. And I know I’m not the only one experiencing this problem.
If anyone finds their way to my little blog here who has any advice that doesn’t involve nagging the newsroom until they all hate me, I would greatly appreciate it. I can nag if I have to, but I’d rather not.
[UPDATE 081308] One photographer is now on his way to Twitterdom! he tweeted his first tweet this morning, and is set up to tweet from his phone. I asked his old friend and fellow photog, who is a regular tweeter, to give him some encouragment and help if he needs it so yay! I’m hoping for a domino effect here. While I was helping to get him set up, the other photog wandered in to watch and asked a question or two. Fingers crossed!
I think when the new/old videographer starts back up next week, I’m going to ask him to sign up as well.
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