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By Jerry Ceppos
The Los Angeles Times has demonstrated again why regular people just don’t understand journalists. The Times wrote in an editorial:
“…Google now is doing yet another thing that’s bound to get under journalists’ skin. This month, it announced plans to let people and organizations comment on the stories written about them. For example, if The Times ran another exposé on conflicts of interest within the Food and Drug Administration’s drug-approval process, Google News would provide a forum for the FDA and any researchers or drug manufacturers implicated in the story to respond, unedited.”
The Times argues that Google’s plan isn’t journalism. It may not be, but it’s giving readers, even if they’re not objective readers, a chance to reply to a story in an unfiltered way. Actually, forget the filter. Many readers can’t figure out how to break down the walls of the newsroom to comment on a story in any way, filtered or not.
Google has a good idea. And the Times overlooks the fact that many newspaper sites already allow readers to comment on stories—another sign that journalism, even if the Times doesn’t call it that, slowly is crawling off of its perch and thinking like regular people.
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By Jerry Ceppos
Many reporters and editors at the Wall Street Journal think that the sky is falling—actually, that it fell on Tuesday—because the new boss might tell them what to write.
In their self-absorbed way, they’re missing the big point: New boss Rupert Murdoch has more control over media—way beyond the Journal–than anyone else in history. […]
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By Jerry Ceppos
The Bancroft family clearly is treating the fate of Dow Jones seriously. The family is considering the rational question of a huge price for the company against the emotional question of giving up many decades of family ownership of America’s best newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, and assorted other enterprises.
Lost in the shuffle […]
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By Jerry Ceppos
I used to chide broadcast friends, who tell me that they almost never pay summer interns. I always thought it was important, legally and morally, for important institutions to pay employees. (I remember how proud I was of that $67 a week that I earned in my first internship at the Frederick, Md., […]
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By Larry Olmstead
Human resource managers from around the nation convened last week in Las Vegas, a desert venue that seemed fitting given one speaker’s remedy for addressing negativity in the workplace: Put your head in the sand.
Steve Gilliland, a consultant and motivational speaker from Pittsburgh, didn’t exactly use those words, of course. His point was […]
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By Larry Olmstead
It is the season of ceremonies – graduations, weddings, recitals, final commemorations of any activity that must cease before summer. I have attended several this past month. I was particularly thrilled to see my son graduate from middle school last week. But the most inpsirational event I have attended recently was my brother’s […]
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By Jerry Ceppos
One of America’s best reporters was on stage recently explaining how she and a colleague broke a great story, a sure Pulitzer candidate next spring. Each of the reporters worked four months on the story, she said–and then gave the federal government four or five days to respond, with the publication date right […]
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By Larry Olmstead
From a leadership perspective, it’s not too early to start thinking about Memorial Day 2008.
This year, we grieved over the nearly 3,500 American military personnel killed thus far in Iraq. What will the number be next year? What’s a leadership posture for dealing with this ongoing tragedy, one that has also killed untold […]
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By Larry Olmstead
Many of you soon will be welcoming summer interns. You are happy to see the fresh, eager faces, young people who pick up slack while permanent employees go on vacation and do some of the drudge tasks that everyone else has avoided.
Think strategically. A good intern program is probably the most cost-effective talent-management […]
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By Larry Olmstead
Like many executives, I travel a lot for work – in fact, last year I became a one-million-mile customer with American Airlines. I have decided to confront some truths:
Air travel isn’t as fun as it used to be.
I’m getting older, and too much travel can wear me down.
Extensive travel is the surest way […]
