Disqus - Latest Comments for Craig Stoltz

Re: 26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail

Craig Stoltz — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:26:52 -0000

Can someone please explain to me how Clorox is a good example of corporate social media? http://www.drlaundryblog.com/

To me, it looks like a classic misuse--use a blog to push out self-interested marketing messages to an unresponsive, and apparently minute, audience.

Time to quit cheerleading for corporations that misuse and misunderstand social media.

Unless I'm missing something. Anyone?

Craig Stoltz's last blog post..Mr. Tweet is a Genius–and Good Lookin’ Too

Re: The Editor As Curator Of ALL The News On The Web

Craig Stoltz — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:08:48 -0000

Scott--Excellent post. But I can't help point out while so many of us are sitting here typing about the future of this profession, there are vast wildfires burning in SoCal and, vast amounts of excellent UGC being made in real time. . .and no one aggregating it. (See my blog entry on this.)

I believe we need a single big, branded, civic-minded site that aggregates the best UGC at a moment like this. Unless one exists and I'm missing it.

Anybody?

Re: Publish2 Gets Funded By Velocity Interactive Group

Craig Stoltz — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:23:44 -0000

Congrats, Scott, and Godspeed!

To everyone out there, I'll just say this: I've been banging on the Publish2 beta for a couple of months now, and (no exaggeration) it's changed my professional life. *So* much better/easier/faster for doing story research than browser bookmarks or del.icio.us.

And that's just me. When a lot more journalists are using it, it'll gain power.

Re: Journalists, Made For AdSense Publishers, And Regression To The Mean Of Content Quality

Craig Stoltz — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:25:36 -0000

Scott,

First let me betray my heritage by saying I'd read Samuelson's column on pulp and ink.

To your point about the airspace between crapland and Pulitizerville:

The "sweet spot" for a lot of sites featuring (on the main stage or as a side act) news is commodity journalism. Wire reporting of the sort you see crawling across the bottom of the screen on Headline News and CNBC. AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, that crowd.

Commodity journalism has brand credibility and a respectable quality floor. It never hits home runs but hits singles and sometimes doubles every day. It is created by huge InfoCorps, so it's priced way cheaper than original content. It is utterly safe and never antagonizes the great powers with a daring idea. We all scan it every day.

Here's the mediascape I see developing:

The vast middle of the news stream is filled by commodity reporting.

The bottom end, with very low production costs and tiny audiences, will be a random mix of frisky-smart boutiques, hammer-stupid storefronts and muttering whackjobs carrying big signs that the world is ending.

The higher end--the places that produce the essential work of truth-squadding public affairs and kicking ass when necessary--is left with no revenue stream to sustain it, and high fixed costs.

Who what becomes of the work that Holly so (justifiably) cherishes?

Either it will fall to Zuckermanesque highbrow vanities, or to any number of digital empires willing to consider world-class news a promotional expense.

Or, my favorite option: They'll be run by public service non-profit foundations, endowed to produce the kind of independent journalism the world needs but cannot be sustained by new economics.

Yes: The most important journalistic work becomes a kind of charity case, funded as a public service alongside anti-tuberculosis campaigns and save-the-whales efforts.

Re: Should Google Subsidize Journalism?

Craig Stoltz — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:07:00 -0000

If you put all the original journalism a newspaper does that has an impact on the democratic process, or even informs the citizenry on important matters, you'd have maybe 25 percent of what's in the paper. A business model that preserves that amount of quality information is not unimaginable. A lot of what newspapers deliver, and which keep costs of people and pulp so high, are things like comics, sports scores, stock market charts, Ask Amy, crime reports, recipes for herb-crusted lamb chops, etc. All fine things, but hardly contributors to a healthy democracy--or worth private subsidy.

Re: New York Times To Fold TimesSelect Presaging The Death of Paid Content

Craig Stoltz — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:18:57 -0000

Great post as usual. I'd add that it's a wonderful coincidence (or not) that this announcement is nearly simultaneous with the debut of the new smaller print version of the Times. The two facts together--capitulation to the free-access mandate and the move to trim paper-based product costs--are more powerful than either act alone.

Yesterday analyst John Morton as quoted as disapproving of the shrinking Times as something that [paraphrase] just ought not to be done, the Times is too great for this, etc.

He of all people should realize that changes far more dramatic are coming to paper-based journalistic products, and sooner rather than later. The idea that the Times for some reason could/should resist is sentimental. This is not a good time for sentiment in the newspaper industry.

Re: Big News

Craig Stoltz — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:50:41 -0000

Scott, et al.,

Big, brave, ambitious. Godspeed!

Craig

Re: The Huffington Post Allows Top Commenters To Become Bloggers

Craig Stoltz — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:30:21 -0000

I think it's time to think of a new name for "journalists." If you look at it etymologically, it means "one who journals," which is to say records persona thoughts, external observations, etc. This does not capture Huff's idea of "reporting" (central to many practical IDs of journalism), nor does it capture those who work with media other than words on a screen. I have nothing to propose at this point--contenteurs?--but I think it's a good time to launch an effort. Crowdsourced, of course.

Re: When A Newspaper Stops Publishing In Print, What Happens To The Print Advertising Dollars?

Craig Stoltz — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:23:36 -0000

Scott--
Excellent point, and indeed overlooked. I'd amplify your final point--that the costs of producing news would plunge not only because expensive paper, ink, presses, trucks, gas, plastic bags and personnel would be off the books. They'd also drop because a lot of newspaper newsroom functions--including page layout, cutting-to-fit around ad configurations, and IT services that support the paper alone and not the website--would disappear as well.

I'm guessing publishers who dare to take out that pencil will find the math much more intriguing--certainly less calamitous--than they'd expect.

Re: Why local-news aggregation is useful information, not information overload

Craig Stoltz — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:19:05 -0000

Josh--

I understand your point. But I'd say this, and it applies to a link as much as any other piece of content:

Editing means making hard decisions on your reader's behalf.

Just because a "related links" widget can be of any length doesn't mean that lower-value content should be included.

In my years as a writer/editor, I've found that a firm length limit forces better choices. I haven't done this particular exercise, but I'm guessing a list of 5 well-selected links delivers more reader value than 10 links.

You raise the excellent question of whether hyperlocal content should be included to expand the service to specific groups. I'd still argue that, regardless of the answer, 5 links still beat 10 in most cases.

A reader's attention is the most precious asset on the web. Editors ignore this it at their risk.

Craig

Re: Why we link: A brief rundown of the reasons your news organization needs to tie the Web together

Craig Stoltz — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:11:28 -0000

Ryan--

Excellent work. A cogent defense. I now have my go-to bookmark when trying to explain this counterintuitive notion.

On a more hopeful note, yesterday I was talking to a publisher of trade journalism on the web and in newsletters. The publisher "got" link journalism completely and was pushing the cause internally.

He is a business guy, not a journalist.

There is hope.