DEDICATED TO BJ ALUMS FOUNDER HARRY LIGGETT 1930-2014, BJ NEWSROOM LEGEND 1965-1995, AND TO JOHN OLESKY JR., 1932-2024, BJ MAINSTAY 1969-1996 AND BLOG EDITOR 2014-2024.
Blog for retired and former Beacon Journal employees and other invited guests.
Pages
▼
Sunday, January 06, 2008
A question for our viewers
One of our non-BJ type viewers asks us to pose this question:
What wiould you like to see the Beacon improve in 2008?
I would like to see the Beacon do more exciting centerpieces on the front page. The Plain Dealer has really mastered this art in the past few years but the BJ continues to do predictable, unexciting front pages. I find myself now reading the PD first and the ABJ second - and I"m a former ABJ newsroom employee.
As older BJ types have been saying for years, the more local news the better. I think strides have been made in that direction, but cutting the newsroom staff nearly in half works against that tactic. I have no problem, as others do, with putting an Indians playoff story or a Browns almost-playoff story on A1. With the Internet -- words and pictures now that YouTube has taken over -- and 24/7 cable news channels, most things in the BJ are up to 24 hours old by the time they are read. The only chance newspapers have is to do more and more local coverage, in detail and in analysis. Everything else is covered by the rest of the world, and better.
I realize newspapers are in an uphill fight, and that they are joining the Internet revolution as they must. But local news is their only hope.
More stuff from people like Bob Dyer and Kim Hone McMahan.
Bob is an excellent reporter, but rarely gets to flash more than environment coverage. Maybe that's his doing, I don't know. But he's mighty skilled.
McMahan is the great underutilized. She writes stories that you get nowhere else and her work should be respected as such. How great was her Slabaugh (sp?) series? More stuff like that from her.
Here's a tip ABJ: Cut some of that fat in sports (do you really need Stephanie Storm AND David Lee Morgan?) and hire a news writer who can whip up a good story (gee, thinking cutting Delano Massey was a bad idea?).
The question you posed about how to improve the Beacon is a good one. I've thought about it. I really don't know. John Olesky and others are right, of course, about local news. It is the one thing a local paper can do that no one, not local television or even the internet, can do. (The vast majority of hard news on the internet comes from newspapers.) That in-depth coverage is not as easy as it sounds, I think, because of limited budgets and realistic angst about the future. Then I got to thinking about the reporters. They really are in a terrible position. Those of who were there when it was fun are disgruntled because the reporters don't have the tools, the money, to do it as well anymore, do it in depth and take time. Meanwhile, the bosses are insisting that they should be doing it the way it once was. So there you are, a veteran reporter, and you have to be more of a jack of all trades, when once the veterans got to specialize. At the middle or back end of their careers, they find themselves near the beginning. I'd make the Beacon better by telling the reporters that those of us who know, who have been there in the better times, are slightly in awe of them, in the trenches now when the sky is gray and you hear the bombers coming. I know the Beacon isn't what it once was. But the reporters are. They have less to work with and they're running around like crazy. The editors don't know which way to jump. I think readers themselves don't know what they want. Until they see it. That's where the reporters come in. In spite of those gloomy circumstances, I still see them working to make magic. I see the Carneys and Dyers and Downings and Cardwells and Ockers - oh, hell, the whole damn crew up there right now. My hat is truly off to them. And I think they still are making magic. They care about the story. That's all you can ask.
I would like the Beacon to improve their coverage of Business News.
ReplyDeleteI think Pat McManamon has been doing a great job as a sports columnist.
Also it's nice to have Giffles back writing for the paper.
I would like to see the Beacon do more exciting centerpieces on the front page. The Plain Dealer has really mastered this art in the past few years but the BJ continues to do predictable, unexciting front pages. I find myself now reading the PD first and the ABJ second - and I"m a former ABJ newsroom employee.
ReplyDeleteAs older BJ types have been saying for years, the more local news the better. I think strides have been made in that direction, but cutting the newsroom staff nearly in half works against that tactic. I have no problem, as others do, with putting an Indians playoff story or a Browns almost-playoff story on A1. With the Internet -- words and pictures now that YouTube has taken over -- and 24/7 cable news channels, most things in the BJ are up to 24 hours old by the time they are read. The only chance newspapers have is to do more and more local coverage, in detail and in analysis. Everything else is covered by the rest of the world, and better.
ReplyDeleteI realize newspapers are in an uphill fight, and that they are joining the Internet revolution as they must. But local news is their only hope.
-- John Olesky
More stuff from people like Bob Dyer and Kim Hone McMahan.
ReplyDeleteBob is an excellent reporter, but rarely gets to flash more than environment coverage. Maybe that's his doing, I don't know. But he's mighty skilled.
McMahan is the great underutilized. She writes stories that you get nowhere else and her work should be respected as such. How great was her Slabaugh (sp?) series? More stuff like that from her.
Here's a tip ABJ: Cut some of that fat in sports (do you really need Stephanie Storm AND David Lee Morgan?) and hire a news writer who can whip up a good story (gee, thinking cutting Delano Massey was a bad idea?).
Getting it straight: The Beacon Journal's environmental writer is Bob Downing, not Bob Dyer.
ReplyDeleteYeah, whoops. That's what happens when you don't see either name enough. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeleteYou are digging yourself into a hole. Dyer and Downing bylines are published regularly.
~~Harry Liggett
The question you posed about how to improve the Beacon is a good one. I've thought about it. I really don't know. John Olesky and others are right, of course, about local news. It is the one thing a local paper can do that no one, not local television or even the internet, can do. (The vast majority of hard news on the internet comes from newspapers.) That in-depth coverage is not as easy as it sounds, I think, because of limited budgets and realistic angst about the future.
ReplyDeleteThen I got to thinking about the reporters. They really are in a terrible position. Those of who were there when it was fun are disgruntled because the reporters don't have the tools, the money, to do it as well anymore, do it in depth and take time. Meanwhile, the bosses are insisting that they should be doing it the way it once was.
So there you are, a veteran reporter, and you have to be more of a jack of all trades, when once the veterans got to specialize. At the middle or back end of their careers, they find themselves near the beginning.
I'd make the Beacon better by telling the reporters that those of us who know, who have been there in the better times, are slightly in awe of them, in the trenches now when the sky is gray and you hear the bombers coming. I know the Beacon isn't what it once was. But the reporters are. They have less to work with and they're running around like crazy. The editors don't know which way to jump. I think readers themselves don't know what they want. Until they see it.
That's where the reporters come in. In spite of those gloomy circumstances, I still see them working to make magic. I see the Carneys and Dyers and Downings and Cardwells and Ockers - oh, hell, the whole damn crew up there right now. My hat is truly off to them.
And I think they still are making magic. They care about the story. That's all you can ask.