{"id":753,"date":"2013-08-09T14:05:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T21:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=753"},"modified":"2013-08-10T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T00:01:08","slug":"content-is-king-hire-reporters-as-if-your-millions-depend-on-it-they-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=753","title":{"rendered":"Content is King; Hire Reporters as if your millions depend on it. They do."},"content":{"rendered":"

Memo to Jeff Bezos:<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"WAPO\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get back to thinking about education tomorrow.\u00a0 Today, I\u2019ve been following the news about my first occupational love, newspapering.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post <\/i>for $250 million this week has set the world of newspaper watchers a twittering.\u00a0 While there is much, largely vacuous, conjecture about the future of the paper\u2019s editorial policies and its longevity in paper form\u2014dead tree news\u2014one thing is clear.\u00a0 Bezos will bring change.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0 Or as Michael Hiltzik commented in the L. A. Times<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s looking forward to turning the Post <\/i>into a laboratory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the chatter this week\u00a0has come from web developers who see Bezos as transforming the paper from a mass medium to a scalable, personally tailored communication device, opening up new channels for connecting with readers. \u00a0Others commented on his conflict of interest, including the $600-million contract with the CIA, as if most publishers don’t have complex financial arrangements that give them less-than-disinterested motives. \u00a0But in all the talk of delivery, content was largely undiscussed, other than assurances that the editorial management of the paper would remain untouched, which is probably the least believable statement of the week.<\/p>\n

Bezos knows, or will learn, content is king\u00a0regardless of\u00a0how news is delivered.\u00a0 The most essential investment Bezos can make is not web networks: it\u2019s reporters and editors. Bezos is known for his long game\u2014a willingness to invest in the future as he has at Amazon with very slim profit margins.\u00a0 The future needs content.<\/p>\n

The turn from print to Internet underscores this essential truth.\u00a0 Where the content of a printed paper is constrained by the decline in display and classified advertising that has shrunk all newspapers, digital packaging and delivery is highly expandable.\u00a0 Revenue still needs to flow, but the marginal cost of producing and distributing more news is relatively low.<\/p>\n

The largely unsung heroes of the newspaper world are beat reporters, who get to know segments of the community or the political world very well.\u00a0 Great city hall reporters have more institutional knowledge of the town than the mayor.\u00a0 The best education reporters know enough about how schools run and students learn not to be bamboozled by the superintendent\u2019s sound bites.\u00a0 It has been the ranks of these reporters who have been thinned by the decline in metropolitan dailies.<\/p>\n

Media stars get attention, and the the lore of WAPO is full of them. \u00a0(See \u00a0veteran critic and editor Henry Allen’s recollection<\/strong><\/a> of The Post\u00a0<\/em>that was.)\u00a0But the underling craft of cultivating sources and of patiently developing stories is what creates loyal readers who become habitual customers, regardless of whether the instrument is a handheld device or a broadsheet.<\/p>\n

So, while others are assured by Bezos\u2019 pledge to keep hands off the newsroom, I am alarmed.\u00a0 Great editor-publishers see building reportorial capacity as their central hands-on job.\u00a0 And this is doubly the case when the nature of news itself is changing along with the medium of expression.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memo to Jeff Bezos: I\u2019ll get back to thinking about education tomorrow.\u00a0 Today, I\u2019ve been following the news about my first occupational love, newspapering. Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post for $250 million this week has set the world of newspaper watchers a twittering.\u00a0 While there is much, largely vacuous, conjecture about the future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[147],"tags":[149,148],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":770,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}