NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 60 NO. 4 WINTER 2006 Five Dollars Goodbye Gutenberg rward • Building C g Fo omm hin un us it P y • • F ge in n d a in h g C O e h u t r g F n o i o s t n i n e g S • • E s x d r p o a n W d g i n n i g k O a u T r • R s e n a o c i t h c • e n C n o o n C v e w r e g i N n g g n o i r n o l t h p e x E W e • b ‘… to promote and elevate the standards of journalism’ —Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation. Vol. 60 No. 4 NIEMAN REPORTS Winter 2006 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Sarah Hagedorn Design Editor Diane Novetsky Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, E-Mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. 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Vol. 60 No. 4 NIEMAN REPORTS Winter 2006 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Goodbye Gutenberg Sensing the Change 5 Caught in the Web BY JON PALFREMAN 7 A Dinosaur Adapts BY KEVIN CULLEN 8 Risk-Adverse Newspapers Won’t Cross the Digital Divide BY CHRIS COBLER 10 Capital Crisis in the Profitable Newspaper Industry BY ROBERT G. PICARD 13 Newspapers and Their Quest for the Holy Grail BY MICHAEL RILEY Pushing Forward 15 Tired of Waiting to Move Ahead BY GENEVA OVERHOLSER 16 Media Convergence: ‘Just Do It’ BY ULRIK HAAGERUP 19 Navigating the Road to Convergence BY RALPH GAGE 23 Meshing Purpose With Product BY PHILIP MEYER Building Community 25 Community Building on the Web: Implications for Journalism BY CRAIG NEWMARK 27 The Challenge of Community Building BY GARY KEBBEL 29 Why Anonymity Exists and Works on Newspapers’ Web Sites BY STEVE YELVINGTON Finding Our Footing 31 Are Journalists the 21st Century’s Buggy Whip Makers? BY WILLIAM DIETRICH 34 Looking Past the Rush Into Convergence BY EDWARD WASSERMAN 36 We Can Adjust to Changing Demands, But Should We? BY JOE ZELNIK 37 Evolving Definitions of News BY TOM BETTAG 39 Toward a New Journalism With Verification SPEECH BY BILL KOVACH 42 Journalism and Web 2.0 BY FRANCIS PISANI Cover photo: A medal by Scharff of Vienna from “A Short History of The Printing Press And of the Improvements in Printing Machinery from the Time of Gutenberg up to the Present Day,” printed and published for Robert Hoe, New York, 1902. Expanding Our Reach 45 Gathering Voices to Share With a Worldwide Online Audience BY REBECCA MACKINNON AND ETHAN ZUCKERMAN 48 Blogging News in China BY LUWEI (ROSE) LUQIU 50 Puzzling Contradictions of China’s Internet Journalism BY FONS TUINSTRA 52 Will News Find a Home on YouTube? BY MORRIS JONES Converging on the Web 54 Myths and Realities of Convergence BY RANDY COVINGTON 57 When Walls Come Tumbling Down BY JIM KENNEDY 59 Enterprising Journalism in a Multimedia World BY JOHN SOLOMON 62 Confronting the Dual Challenge of Print and Electronic News BY PAUL E. STEIGER 64 Feeding the Web While Reporting the Story BY NEIL CHASE Exploring New Connections 66 Taking the Big Gulp BY JANE ELLEN STEVENS 70 Sights and Sounds of a Newspaper’s Editorials BY SUSAN ALBRIGHT 72 An Optimistic Plunge Into Multimedia Reporting BY JOE HOWRY 74 Narrative Journalism in the Era of the Web BY LEE HANCOCK AND MARK MILLER 76 Finding New People to Tell the Stories BY CRAIG COX 78 When the Web Feeds the Newspaper BY ERIC BLOM 80 Inviting Readers Into the Editorial Process BY ELLEN FOLEY 82 The Digital Reach of a Newspaper’s Code of Ethics BY DEAN MILLER Taking Words 84 Plagiarism Goes by a Different Name on the Web BY JUDY MULLER 86 Teaching Journalism Students to Value What Is Authentic BY BRENT WALTH 88 The ‘P’ Word in the Book Business BY MARGARET ENGEL 3 Curator’s Corner: Examining the Core of the Nieman Experience BY BOB GILES 91 Nieman Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 91 Newspapers Have Met Their Enemy Within BY WATSON SIMS 92 Class Notes 102 End Note: Goodbye To All That—A Memoir BY EDWARD C. NORTON 2 Nieman Reports / Winter 2006 Curator’s Corner Expanding Our Reach Examining the Core of the Nieman Experience 45 Gathering Voices to Share With a Worldwide Online Audience BY REBECCA MACKINNON AND ETHAN ZUCKERMAN The Curator explores how the foundation can best cultivate the skills journalists 48 Blogging News in China BY LUWEI (ROSE) LUQIU will need in the digital era. 50 Puzzling Contradictions of China’s Internet Journalism BY FONS TUINSTRA By Bob Giles 52 Will News Find a Home on YouTube? BY MORRIS JONES n almost any gathering of journalists these days, the • Nieman Reports utilizes eMprint templates, developed topic eventually turns to the state of our craft and the by Roger Fidler at the University of Missouri’s School of Converging on the Web Icommercial enterprises that support it. A rapid trans- Journalism, to create newsbooks of its articles on specific formation is taking place in journalism. The changes are themes in an easy to read and download format. 54 Myths and Realities of Convergence BY RANDY COVINGTON driven by digital technologies, many of which have been • The Nieman Watchdog Web site encourages investigative brilliantly adopted by entrepreneurs capitalizing on op- reporting by drawing on authorities in various fields to 57 When Walls Come Tumbling Down BY JIM KENNEDY portunities they’ve seen that mainstream news companies offer analysis of issues and questions the press might 59 Enterprising Journalism in a Multimedia World BY JOHN SOLOMON failed to anticipate. consider asking. Members of the last Nieman class were consumed with • The Nieman Narrative Digest, launched in April, advances 62 Confronting the Dual Challenge of Print and Electronic News BY PAUL E. STEIGER worry over the demise of Knight Ridder newspapers and its the practice of narrative journalism by providing useful potential implications for newspapers owned by publicly and inspiring resources for writers, editors, teachers 64 Feeding the Web While Reporting the Story BY NEIL CHASE traded companies. (Two members of that class returned and students of narrative, and offering a forum for the to jobs at their former Knight Ridder newspapers to find exchange of ideas and resources. different ownership than when they’d left.) The relentless Exploring New Connections demand of institutional shareholders for extremely high The foundation also can be helpful through its occasional 66 Taking the Big Gulp BY JANE ELLEN STEVENS profit margins and strong stock prices is incompatible seminars for journalists and the annual Nieman Narrative with the historic role of the printed press as a public trust. Conference. Such initiatives are part of the foundation’s 70 Sights and Sounds of a Newspaper’s Editorials BY SUSAN ALBRIGHT During an afternoon discussion in late spring the fellows service to journalism. Though each is educational in na- worked through two case studies with professors from the ture, they don’t fully address the question of what role the 72 An Optimistic Plunge Into Multimedia Reporting BY JOE HOWRY Harvard Business School; they examined how Google, a foundation, as a whole, might play. start-up, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, from The answer might be found in thinking about the core 74 Narrative Journalism in the Era of the Web BY LEE HANCOCK AND MARK MILLER the mainstream media, had shaped their business models strength, which is the fellowship program. Through the 76 Finding New People to Tell the Stories BY CRAIG COX to succeed in the digital age. years, Nieman Fellowships have been held largely by print During their weekly discussions at Lippmann House, journalists. Will the print media, especially newspapers, 78 When the Web Feeds the Newspaper BY ERIC BLOM our fellows also examined and reexamined the more tradi- continue to provide the most serious, authoritative content? tional issues of journalistic performance and, in particular, In recent Nieman classes, an increasing number of broad- 80 Inviting Readers Into the Editorial Process BY ELLEN FOLEY challenges to the watchdog role of the press. They were cast and online journalists, documentary filmmakers and haunted by the acknowledgement that the press failed to freelance writers have been represented in the applicant 82 The Digital Reach of a Newspaper’s Code of Ethics BY DEAN MILLER report aggressively and authoritatively during the months pools and in the fellows selected. In future years, we need leading up to the Iraq War. And they were troubled by the to ask ourselves, as part of our selection process, what the deepening conflicts news organizations are experiencing best mix of skills and work site will be to meet the needs Taking Words with the Bush administration and the federal courts over of the digital era.