BYLINE
A New Hope for Journalism
The Magazine of the New York Press Club
2010 EDITION
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BYLINE
2010 EDITION
The Magazine of the New York Press Club
FEATURES
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A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR JOURNALISTS By Nicole Bode Industry insiders weigh in on what lies ahead in media.
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2010 JOURNALISM AWARDS: THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES By Selena Hill What makes a great story? An up-andcoming writer interviews five New York Press Club journalism award winners to find out.
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THE CONTENT FARMS DILEMMA By Matthew Vann As the Web continues to evolve, a new approach to journalism is emerging. But should “content farms” be the new model?
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THE JOURNALIST’S GUIDE TO NETWORKING By Vicki Salemi 10 tips for building your little black book.
Cover: Illustration by Bill Gallo. This page: Illustration by Nate Bear.
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NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOOLBOX
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TOUCHING TECH 8 iPad apps to improve your journalism.
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WOMEN’S STYLE WNYC’S Amy Eddings’s practical approach to fashion in Gotham.
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MEN’S STYLE Elements of style for the male journalist, featuring Rob Morrison of WCBS-TV.
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PRIVATE DINING The city’s best quiet (and not so quiet) spots to take a source.
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Q&A: MONEY TALKS An interview with Josh Benson and Tom McGeveran of Capital New York.
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THE UNCLICKED A modern look at old-fashioned research.
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER EDITOR’S LETTER CONTRIBUTORS PEOPLE & EVENTS IN RECOGNITION: BILL GALLO This page: Top photo by Jesse Winter. Bottom photo courtesy of City Hall Restaurant.
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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Taking reinswill of the presidency of the New Next the year mark my 30th year in York Press Club this past summer, there is one over radio. A friend of mine asked me thing that I immediately told a close friend theI summer, you of: really that could not be “Do more proud byline.think radio will be around in five years? And what Unbelievably, we are heading into the year 2010 and technology continues to change faster than about newspapers? Surely they aren’t some change”formats these days. goingradio to stations be around. I don’t profess In this issue of byline we take a look at the gadgets to own a crystal ball, I canlivetell that no modern journalist canbut or should you one News media without. Andthing: what are the hangouts for and those the of us in the media?who The places we exchange journalists drivewhere them are here ideas and push ourselves to higher levels of to stay. journalistic productivity? Byline takes a look at the hotspots journalists call their second home. Thejust New York Press Club is leading And how important are Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert to thechallenging news industry?new byline examines those who make fun ofcontinues the news the way in this chapter.how Our organization nowgrow, seem towelcoming be able to lead in it. byline is a magazine that you must read cover to cover. to bloggers, internet-based products andBelieve an me it is worth it.
exciting new crop of young journalists. The New York Press Club Foundation Journalism Conference Press Club puts As a Bronx man who bleeds Yankee blue, I’m oftenthat guiltythe of comparing the icons of on each our world to Ruth, DiMaggio, Walter Cronkite was Lou Gehrig, and for fall is a shining momentMantle. of creativity, discussion, unity the andMick passion Joe D. wrapped in one. It was the easiest decision the New York Press Club Board has the storytelling we do.
ever made by inducting him into our Hall of Fame. We lost the “Most Trusted Man in America” in July but his stature in journalism sets the standard for future generations. It This yearofall of us in22,the magazine, Web and was thepast afternoon November 1963,radio, when anewspaper, bulletin broke into “As the World Turns. ” TV Cronkite later that day would put on glasses and read “President Kennedy at and business have continued tohisface great challenges. We seedied more 1 p.m. Central Time. ” He would then pause, choke downhave a tear and his glasses more of our colleagues losing jobs they heldputfor years or even back on. A moment in news history that may never be surpassed. I get chills every decades. But while it is demoralizing in many ways, it has unified our single time I watch that clip.
business like never before. We had the biggest crowd ever for our Then thereawards is Irene Cornell. 30 years hasat covered courts andClub. police Events in this citylike annual dinnerForthis pastIrene June The Water and we honor her at this year’s Journalism Conference with our President’s Award. Gabe Pressman’s in-depth talk with Elie Wiesel, Robert Morgenthau’s From Mark David Chapman to John Gotti, Abner Louima, Bernie Madoff and the Diallo appearance weeks after he stepped down as Manhattan DA and the case, Irene paints the picture of a courtroom battle better than anyone. reintroduction of our journalist mixers stand as a true sign that great Speciallie thanks to Nikki and her team this extraordinary knownhas days ahead forGoldstein our business. TheforCity Universityachievement of New York as byline. Thankoffered you to Mitch Lebe for his thisnow year. Enjoy Yankees. graciously us space, andhelpwe holdbyline.And many ofgoour events there, such a spring's Women in Media event with Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Kate White, CBS Executive Producer Susan Zirinsky GLENN SCHUCK and the great Mary Alice Williams. President New York Press Club
byline is a New York Press Club tradition that this year is being led by Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Semrai. Elizabeth may be soft-spoken, but don’t let that fool you. Her leadership on this year’s byline has been invaluable, and she is a great asset to us all. The board of the New York Press Club thanks her for her hard work. 2009 Press 7 So enjoy byline. And if you are not a member of theBYLINE New York Club, we look forward to welcoming you soon.
GLENN SCHUCK President New York Press Club BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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BYLINE
EDITOR’S LETTER
Hope. “Hope” is a word often used in colloquial speech. In a larger sense, hope is a promise, an expectation of something … of what might be, of what lies ahead. And when thinking about the future of journalism and its everchanging face, there’s much hope for what’s to come. In deciding, in consultation with the editorial team, on a central theme for Photo by Jesse Winter this year’s byline, the notion of new hope resounded loud and clear. We in the media, and as members of the New York Press Club, stand at the veritable apex of our profession, looking optimistically outward. While hoping is altogether romantic, the present is here and now. There’s still much uncertainty in journalism, yes, but we must carry on. We are all aware of the tremendous importance of both content and creativity, and we are taking back control to ensure that our profession’s principles are upheld. More than ever, technology affords us new opportunities and better ways to communicate—ultimately, with the entire world. The iPad, an incredible resource for journalists, is a striking example. Paula Gould reveals which apps are her best bets in the review (page 12). Also in this issue, Nicole Bode asks industry insiders what we can be hopeful about as the media industry evolves (page 20). Selena Hill takes a look at the stories behind the stories that won this year’s journalism awards and shines a light on a cluster of them (page 24). Moving on, as we watch the internet evolve, new terminology enters our journalistic lexicon. Matthew Vann delves into “content farms” (page 28), which figure prominently in the debate on the quality and credibility of online content. And on page 32, Vicki Salemi shares tips on networking, giving in to the notion that it’s all about who you know. An aside regarding the cover: Bill Gallo, the esteemed Daily News cartoonist, illustrates his views on where journalism is headed—and on the promise of the future. In summing up the issue, a challenging question remains: Where will journalism be in ten years—and what will our place be in that journalism? For now, one thing’s certain: We’re in this profession because we want to be, and because we’re passionate about what we do. We’re in New York City because if we can make it here.... And we’ll stay in journalism because we all hope. ELIZABETH SEMRAI Editor-in-Chief 6
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Elizabeth Semrai GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Catherine Ray MANAGING EDITOR
Keren Ritchie SENIOR EDITORS
James Erik Abels Stewart Coerver ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Amy Smith CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Thomas P. Farley PHOTOGRAPHY
Jesse Winter ILLUSTRATION
Nate Bear Bill Gallo COPY EDITOR Melissa Wohlgemuth RESEARCH
Jennifer Ching CONTRIBUTORS
Angelica Berry, Nicole Bode, Dominique Carson, Kristin Francoz, Paula Gould, Selena Hill, Vicki Salemi, Matthew Vann ADVERTISING SALES
Clare Davis Special thanks: Peter O.E. Bekker, Clare Davis, Glenn Schuck, TEN10Studios and Melissa Wohlgemuth byline magazine is published annually by the New York Press Club. To reach our advertising or editorial staff, please write to byline@nypressclub.org. byline is circulated throughout the year. All rights reserved. All material appearing here is copyrighted by the New York Press Club Inc., except where other copyright is indicated. Reproduction in whole or in part without the express permission of the New York Press Club is strictly prohibited.
CONTRIBUTORS
JAMES ERIK ABELS
DNAinfo.com
After covering the media/digital beat for several years at spots like Forbes, James Erik Abels, Senior Editor for byline, founded Three Minute Media. He anchors video segments about media trends and companies at its site, TMMnews.com. While interviewing fellow entrepreneurs Josh Benson and Tom McGeveren (“Money Talks,” page 36) about their new company, Capital New York, Abels says he briefly thought about quoting Charles Dickens’s Tiny Tim: “God bless us, every one.”
NICOLE BODE
For close to a decade, Nicole Bode (“A Bright Future for Journalists,” page 20), the financial secretary of the New York Press Club, was a print reporter. When she made the shift to an online-only, hyperlocal news website, Bode had to adjust to the changing requirements. “I have a largely positive outlook on online news,” she says. “But I know much remains to be seen about the direction the industry is headed—and the debate rages on.” Formerly of the Daily News, Bode is a senior editor at DNAinfo.com. PAULA GOULD
“I’m ridiculously app-happy,” says Paula Gould. In her research for “Touching Tech” (page 12), she looked for apps that either solved a problem or encouraged an artistic inclination. She owns boutique firm PEG PR in Los Angeles, and she has been quoted for her social media and tech expertise in the Wall Street Journal and on the Public Relations Society of America website, among others. Her writing has appeared in SXSWORLD Magazine, on AltPick.com and on G4 television’s annual Consumer Electronics Show Best of the Best special. SELENA HILL
In interviewing five selected journalists who were among the winners for the 2010 New York Press Club Journalism Awards (page 24), Selena Hill was able to dig into their thoughts and motivations, and the intentions behind the acclaimed pieces they composed. “This was both a learning experience and an honor for me,” she says. Hill, a member of the Press Club, is a news desk assistant and assistant producer at WOR 710HD radio. She began her career as an intern at both Talking Points Memo and WOR. Hill also blogs for a sports-related website. VICKI SALEMI
Vicki Salemi (“The Journalist’s Guide to Networking,” page 32) is familiar with etiquette and the dos and don’ts of the New York social scene. “To get ahead in this business, it’s all about networking,” she asserts. The freelance journalist, a member of the New York Press Club, recently penned the book Big Career in the Big City: Land a Job and Get a Life. Her articles, which focus on career and lifestyle topics, have been featured in the New York Post and Forbes and online at iVillage, Yahoo!, AOL and Weight Watchers, among others. MATTHEW VANN
In his article “The Content Farms Dilemma” (page 28), Matthew Vann sees one positive aspect to freelancers’ extremely low pay: “I guess churning out articles in the luxury of your own home makes it a tad more bearable.” Vann is the student representative for the New York Press Club, and he is pursuing an honors degree in journalism and political science at Brooklyn College. The editor-in-chief of his college’s weekly publication, The Excelsior, Vann got his start as an editorial assistant at The Economist, where his work has been published.
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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HAPPENINGS
PEOPLE & EVENTS
September 26, 2009
New York Press Club Foundation Journalism Conference New York University Photos by Jack Dobosh
COMPILED BY ELIZABETH SEMRAI
The year that was saw no shortage of stellar events held by the New York Press Club. Kicking off autumn 2009, the 17th annual journalism conference delved into the industry’s brave new world and how to successfully plan for the future. Then, in late October, the mixer, a former Press Club tradition, was revived to much success. Winter arrived, and with it the always convivial holiday party. Throughout the year, the house was—literally—filled thanks to an illustrious group of exclusive guest speakers, including Kate White, Susan Zirinsky, Byron Pitts, Elie Wiesel, Ray Kelly and Robert Morgenthau. And summer began with the annual bestowing of awards—a sold-out event—that honored journalists in newspapers, TV, radio, magazines and websites throughout New York City and the metropolitan area. We’re already excited about what the coming year will bring!
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NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
October 26, 2009
Midtown Mixer Ted’s Montana Grill Photos by Jack Dobosh
November 10, 2009
January 19, 2010
An Evening with Byron Pitts New York Press Club Penthouse Photos by Jack Dobosh
An Evening with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly New York Press Club Penthouse Photos by Jack Dobosh
December 7, 2009
Holiday Party Kellari Taverna Photos by Jack Dobosh
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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February 9, 2010
April 27, 2010
An Evening with Robert Morgenthau Associated Press Conference Room Photos by Sonia Rincon
An Evening with Elie Wiesel Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY, Manhattan Photos by Jack Dobosh
April 15, 2010
Women in Media: The Leaders Kate White, Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Mary Alice Williams, broadcast journalist, executive Susan Zirinsky, CBS News Executive Producer CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Photos by Elizabeth Semrai
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NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
June 14, 2010
2010 New York Press Club Journalism Awards The Water Club Photos by Jack Dobosh
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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TECHNOLOGY
TOUCHING TECH
Judging by the hype, a modern-day Moses might carry the Ten Commandments on a tablet computer rather than a couple of heavy stones. With thousands of helpful apps quickly becoming available for Apple’s iPad, a journalist’s life could get a lot easier— or at least lighter. Here are eight apps that may make you a believer.
8 iPad apps to improve your journalism. BY PAULA GOULD
NOTES
HelvetiNote (Rage Digital Inc./cypher13, $2.99) Like the look of a tablet computer, but miss the ease of pen and paper? HelvetiNote may be for you. This app lets you scribble and scrawl your way through an interview— in the austere, minimalist Helvetica font—using the tip of your finger. deathtomarkerfelt.com 12
NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
STORAGE
TCoder (Luis Olivan Tenorio/iZinkit, iPhone version $3.99) Video cameras aren’t designed for one-man bands. TCoder can help fix that by letting you take notes in time with your audio and video gear. How’s it do that? By staying in synch with the time code your gear uses to mark time as it records. izinkit.com
Evernote (Evernote, one month of storage $4.99) Tired of losing time rifling through page after page of a spiral-bound notebook? Forget it! If you take notes digitally, the Evernote app can help you track and search them, along with videos, story documents, Web pages and more. evernote.com
GoodReader (Yuri Selukoff, Good.iWare Ltd., $0.99) Leave the clunky, gadgetfilled backpack at home. GoodReader turns your iPad into a portable filing cabinet by giving you easy remote access to your work—or home— computer. goodiware.com
Flipboard: Your own virtual magazine
RESEARCH
Flipboard (Flipboard Inc., free) If you’re like a lot of journalists, many of your friends are in the field too. Flipboard can help you mine their wisdom for stories on a slow news day. It’ll build a custom magazine on the fly from the links, pictures, videos and status updates your friends post to social networks like Facebook. flipboard.com
AUDIO & VIDEO
Search Tool (Wolfgang Augustin, $1.99) This aptly named app makes internet search results easier to scan on a tablet computer. Rather than list them on an infinite set of pages, it creates an easyto-search graphic grid of returns from Bing, Google or Yahoo! to keep your searches short and sweet. apple.com/ipad
VideoPix (SeeItWithUs Inc./Mirage Labs Private Ltd., $2.99) Video’s great, but sometimes a picture tells the most important thousand words. VidPix is here to help by making it simple to scan each frame of video for the perfect still picture. Your editor will be saying “I can’t believe you got this” in no time. apple.com/ipad
Photogene (Omer Shoor/Mobile-Pond, $3.99) Picture this: It’s five minutes to deadline, there’s no laptop around, and your photo’s too dark. The Photogene app may just save you. It’s got all the essentials—such as color correction—in a package that can be faster and easier to use on the go than Photoshop. mobile-pond.com BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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FASHION
WOMEN's style A practical approach to fashion in Gotham. BY ELIZABETH SEMRAI PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSE WINTER
In this great metropolis, every woman seems to exhibit an inimitable personal style. And that fact can put a lot of pressure on a working journalist, who must eschew many fashion details because of their utter impracticality. For most women, in fact, when it comes to everyday dress— especially work wear—there is an element of pragmatism. Amy Eddings, host of “All Things Considered” on WNYC Radio, wryly shares with byline her feelings about fashion, what clothing works best on her and her idea of “festive” attire.
byline: What style of clothing works best for you?
to the Salvation Army, but I still feel guilty. I’ve seen them Amy Eddings: Sportswear separates, because you get more packing their trucks with mountains of clothes; it’s sad. mileage out of them. I like dresses, but they can feel like a byline: What can’t you live without? uniform. AE: A great bra, fitted by the miracle workers at the Town byline: What’s your ideal outfit?
Shop on the Upper West Side, and well-made shoes from Coach or Cole Haan. Hey, to build a temple, you need a AE: Something that doesn’t show cat hair! It’s a top or a sweater, great jeans or Theory slacks and high-heeled shoes firm foundation. that I can actually spend the day in. I have wedge platform byline: What do you wear as far as casual work attire? sandals from Calvin Klein that I love. Everyone winces AE: The farthest down on the casual scale I’ve gone is when they see them, but they’re really comfortable. I can’t white, knee-length, cotton shorts. Someone should start a run for the G train in them, though. countercultural Formal Fridays movement. Bring back skirts byline: What key seasonal pieces are in your wardrobe? AE: For the winter, knee-high boots with a heel that’s sturdy enough to take me across icy sidewalks. For the summer, I have several Lilly Pulitzer cotton skirts in eyepopping pink/green/white patterns; it’s a little bit of South Beach in the newsroom. byline: What do you look for when buying clothes? AE: Fit, first and foremost, and quality. The price tag is the last thing I check. I don’t have the patience or fortitude for sample sales or the bargain bins at Century 21. I don’t want to have to take someone out over a discounted designer blouse. byline: Do you splurge on certain clothes or accessories? AE: Just buying new clothes feels like a splurge! Who wears anything out anymore (unless you’re a kid or a construction worker)? Nearly 6 percent of New York City’s waste stream is clothes and shoes. I donate my cast-offs 14
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and suits and ties! Just don’t bring back nude pantyhose; I draw the line there. They’re like a mini prison for your lower body. byline: When going from work to evening events, what’s your favorite day-to-evening look? AE: The annual WNYC gala calls for “festive evening wear,” so I usually bring my dress to work in a bag and change before I leave. Maybe this year, I’ll experiment and do “All Things Considered” in a backless black dress with sequins. I wonder if it will make me sound festive? byline: Do you feel it’s important for a journalist to dress the part? AE: Yes! Everyone should be wearing fedoras with a card that says “PRESS” stuck in the hatband.
Consider This Amy Eddings in the lobby at WNYC
FASHION
MEN's style Elements of style for the modern male journalist. BY ELIZABETH SEMRAI PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSE WINTER
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that classic clothing never goes out of fashion. Especially for the male journalist, when dressing (and dressing well), a timeless, tailored approach often works best, even in Manhattan’s casual style zeitgeist. byline interviewed Rob Morrison of WCBS-TV, an anchor and correspondent for more than 20 years, who handsomely incorporates the elements of understated, classic dress and, clearly, likes to keep it simple.
byline: How would you describe your everyday style, at home and at work?
byline: What are your favorite stores and brands? Are you brand-loyal?
Rob Morrison: Simple and classic is how I’d describe my style, both at home and at work.
RM: I dislike shopping, so when I find something or someplace I like, I stick with it. My two favorite suits are Armani. Brooks Brothers and Barney’s are a couple of go-to places. But my favorite has been Façonnable, simply because it was right around the corner from 30 Rock, where I worked for a decade—although they’ve changed owners recently, and I’m not crazy about some of the changes.
byline: How do you dress for today’s casual workplace? Is comfort a factor? RM: Unfortunately, if I’m dressed casually for work, it usually means I’m in a place like Haiti or Afghanistan. Comfort and functionality dictate the dress code in those circumstances.
byline: As a journalist, do you feel byline: What piece of clothing can’t appearance is important? How do you you live without? want to present yourself? RM: Vineyard Vines pajama pants. RM: I had the importance of byline: Do you carry a bag? If so, what appearance drilled (literally) into me do you look for in its structure? in the Marine Corps. I think I still have an imaginary drill instructor in RM: I carry a black Patagonia my head making sure my shirts are messenger bag—the perfect size for pressed and my belt is the right length, a small laptop. et cetera. Sharp, professional and byline: Let’s talk shoes. What’s your “ready for a surprise inspection” is favorite brand or style? Do you look how I hope to appear. for functionality? byline: Do you have a style icon, a journalist you esteem and strive to emulate? RM: I always thought Peter Jennings was well dressed. I remember reading when I was a teenager that he traveled to London twice a year to shop and thinking how cool that sounded. byline: Do you wear your own clothes when you’re on camera, or does the station provide them for you? And we have to ask: Do you get a clothing allowance? RM: Everything I wear is my own— picked out and paid for by me.
RM: My work shoes are from Cole Haan. They will last forever if you take good care of them. Plus, they’ve incorporated Nike Air technology into the soles, which just might be the smartest invention ever. Off-duty, I alternate between sandals and Top-Siders. byline: Do you wear a watch? RM: I own two watches: an Omega Seamaster and an Oris Divers. byline: What does style mean to you? RM: Dressing well enough to be interviewed for a magazine article like this.
byline: What seasonal clothing staples do you have in your closet?
Left: Sharply Suited Rob Morrison on set at WCBS-TV
RM: A simple blue blazer can go a long way. In the winter, I rely heavily on a black wool topcoat from Brooks Brothers that continues to withstand the elements. In the summer, when I’m not working, I pretty much live in linen cargo shorts and V-neck T-shirts from J.Crew. BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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RESTAURANTS
PRIVATE DINING The city’s best quiet (and not so quiet) spots to take a source.
Sometimes all it takes is one conversation with a key source to transform standard copy into a hard-hitting, investigative story. Meeting at the right restaurant or bar is crucial: It should be private, with only a low murmur of voices, a touch of elegance and a sprig of comfort. We traipsed around New York City to find out where real-time journalists take their sources for discreet, important conversations.
BY AMY SMITH
1. BRICK NYC
22 Warren Street Brick NYC in Tribeca is part art gallery and part Italian eatery. For much of 2010, painter Neil Enggist’s colorful, textured paintings decorated the spacious dining and bar areas. The wine and antipasto bar offers an extensive wine list as well as handcrafted dishes; the atmosphere lends itself to long, lingering conversation.
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2. JERRY’S CAFE
90 Chambers Street The famous photograph of Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz playing chess greets patrons of Jerry’s Cafe, a popular diner that serves brunch and lunchtime classics, on entering. Journalists can have a burger and a beer for about ten dollars, a known rarity in New York City, and enjoy easy conversation in this low-key setting. 3. KNICKERBOCKER BAR & GRILL
33 University Place Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, a favorite Village haunt of celebrities and media types, is reminiscent of an old-style saloon. The restaurant boasts excellent T-bone steaks, great martinis, live music on Friday and Saturday nights and an environment conducive to quiet but significant moments.
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CITY HALL RESTAURANT
4. FORLINI’S RESTAURANT
93 Baxter Street Offering a personal and friendly dining experience, the large menu at Forlini’s can accommodate a variety of tastes. Close to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Forlini’s is an ideal lunch spot, replete with the intimacy and comfort of home, for journalists covering the crime beat. 5. BAR PLEIADES
20 East 76th Street Bar Pleiades’s rich décor—a composite of black and white patterns beneath beautiful, bejeweled chandeliers—creates a palpably elegant atmosphere. Small tables in cozy niches form secluded spaces for journalists to sip cocktails and speak with sources.
MINETTA TAVERN
These locations, always abuzz, offer a more public interview setting. 6. CITY HALL RESTAURANT
131 Duane Street A decidedly alluring facade of floor-to-ceiling windows welcomes politicians, businesspeople, locals and, of course, journalists to this classic New York steak and fish restaurant. 7. MICHAEL’S NEW YORK
24 West 55th Street Media celebrities frequent the light, airy, carpeted front room of Michael’s New York to see, be seen and eat lunch. The Cobb salad with iced tea is a lunchtime favorite. 8. MINETTA TAVERN
PÓ
113 MacDougal Street Exclusivity, vintage decor and fine burgers are Minetta Tavern trademarks. Settling into crimson-leather seats, journalists can enjoy a night of networking and continuous conversation. 9. PÓ
RABBIT IN THE MOON
31 Cornelia Street Occupying a former off-Broadway theater, Pó retains a literary and bohemian character that attracts writers and artists to the simple but lively space. Choose from an array of signature pasta dishes. 10. RABBIT IN THE MOON
47 West 8th Street Every aspect of this gastropub, from the plush armchairs and portraits of great British writers and poets to the exotic cocktails and small-plates menu, is infused with royalty and romance. All photos courtesy of the restaurants.
a bright future for journalists As a new media landscape emerges, industry insiders weigh in on what lies ahead. BY NICOLE BODE ILLUSTRATION BY NATE BEAR
Newsrooms are shrinking. Print readers and broadcast viewers are moving online. Ad dollars are drying up. The news cycle is down to the millisecond. Journalism is at a crossroads, and it’s easy to view the changes to the industry as negatively affecting the mission of news gathering. Yet digital media experts say that the more technology changes the day-to-day operations of working journalists, the better off we are—not only we in the media, but also we as an informed nation. Here are eight points that experts suggest journalists can be hopeful about as the media industry evolves.
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WATCHDOG JOURNALISM’S TEETH ARE AS SHARP AS EVER.
According to Sig Gissler, administrator of Pulitzer prizes at Columbia University Journalism School, the economy may have cut down on the volume of investigative journalism, but the quality of the annual submissions to the Pulitzer committee still impresses him and the panel of judges he assembles from around the nation. “From what I see in the Pulitzer Prize entries … the quality has remained very high. The watchdog function is very vibrant,” he says. Gissler cites several examples of small-circulation papers that won the Pulitzer for their tenacity in covering their subjects. One winner, investigative reporter Daniel Gilbert of the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol, Va., earned the Pulitzer Prize in public service for exposing gas companies’ failure, thanks to a lack of oversight, to pay required royalties in exchange for draining an area’s natural gas reserves. Some of the reporting was standard shoe-leather investigation, but Gilbert also took advantage of one of the new technological tools: database reporting. After teaching himself how to do it, Gilbert assembled a database for his story, which took it to a new level, Gissler notes, adding that the result “demonstrates what tenacious journalists can do, regardless of [publication] size.”
in Washington, D.C., says the surge in contextual information for stories can be seen in everything from PBS’s running transcript of a debate along with analysis to the pop-up buttons on The Texas Tribune website that offer additional background for stories. “Technology is part of it, but also now when it’s out there, anybody can call a story to account and say, ‘You missed this, you missed that,’ ” Schaffer says. “You can read it online and e-mail the reporter. If your mainstream news organization is not responsive, you can take it to another outlet. There’s a lot more airing of both the front end and the back end of journalism.” Schaffer asserts that the push for transparency is good for readers, who have grown tired of pack journalism and the conflict-based reporting paradigm. Readers’ ability to participate in the process of news making is also good for journalists, who are searching for their bearings in the changing media landscape. “I don’t think it’s just the business model of journalism that is broken. I think journalism is broken too,” Schaffer says. “Journalism on autopilot is not effective in this day and age.”
available to news organizations around the world. “There’s room for great writing alongside video, audio, interactive graphics, et cetera,” he says. “Packaging is key.” A 2010 Oriella Digital Journalism Study surveyed 750 journalists in 15 countries, and 35 percent said they enjoy their work more since the advent of online media; 46 percent said the quality of their work has improved. Says Columbia’s Gissler: “Visual journalism and multimedia online—it’s been a remarkable development. We don’t know where it’s going to go from here, the changes are happening so rapidly, but some people think we’re entering a golden age of visual journalism.”
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GOVERNMENTS, LARGE AND SMALL, ARE MAKING MORE DATA AVAILABLE.
From the New York City mayor’s office teaming up with software developers to create apps to distribute municipal data, to data disclosure mandates from the Obama administration, there’s a new expectation of data accountability from government. The problem is, as always, finding journalists who can IT’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF put the glut of raw information into VISUAL JOURNALISM. a meaningful context. J-Lab’s Schaffer Multimedia journalism is incorporating points out that the improvement in technology and new file-sharing audio, video, graphics and interactive apps have given the public morefeatures into its stories in ways direct access to the original source unthinkable a decade ago. The result material. Sites like TMZ.com include is a new expectation: journalism that JOURNALISTIC links to original court documents replicates the sights, the sounds and TRANSPARENCY HAS BEEN when reporting celebrity arrests, the feeling of a story in a deeper, HEIGHTENED—BOTH FOR almost virtual-reality experience. “The and the city and the state have been JOURNALISTS AND FOR THE new landscape offers the potential for publicizing stats—from the New York STORIES THEY COVER. Police Department’s CompStat crime more fully realized stories—stories reporting numbers to the number of that engage an audience through One of the upshots of the online complaints to 311. multiple media, including tools that revolution is that access to original “I think that the data is being source documents, ease of distributing allow for audience participation and visualized, so it’s easier to see it, search interaction, ” explains Jere Hester, video and audio and the speed of it and put in your queries,” Schaffer director of the CUNY Graduate transmitting information have created says. “All of that contributes to the School of Journalism’s NYCity News a perfect environment for “truth Service, a multimedia, Web-based wire availability of much more data and squadding” real-time analysis. Jan is an opportunity for journalists.” It’s service that makes student stories Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab: also an improvement for newsrooms, The Institute for Interactive Journalism about New York City neighborhoods
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she adds, where in the past, unwieldy databases were purchased and used for a single story or series, then sat collecting dust. Now, however, “it’s much easier to put it online and make it available for people if they need it.”
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SOCIAL MEDIA ARE AN ASSET TO REPORTERS.
With the surge in social media networks, journalists often find themselves torn between doing their best work and feeding the beast of status updates and blog posts. Add to that the fact that some reporters have been fired or pressured into resigning over controversial social media postings. It’s enough to make some veteran journalists wonder why they should bother. Case in point: twentyyear-veteran CNN reporter Octavia Nasr, who resigned from the network in July after tweeting that she was sad to hear of the passing of one of the leaders of Hezbollah. But Columbia J-School dean of student affairs, social media aficionado and contributing editor at hyperlocal Manhattan news website DNAinfo.com Sree Sreenivasan asserts that a good journalist already possesses all of the skills needed to be a good social media networker. “All the traits that make folks successful at social media and a lot of the newish stuff are traits that traditional journalists already have: something to say, years of experience, sharp BS detectors, connections to real people, deep Rolodexes,” he says. “Start with those, and you will succeed in this new universe.”
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Illustration by Nate Bear
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SMALL-TOWN JOURNALISM IS REGAINING ITS STATURE.
As the budget ax comes down on journalism, small towns are often the first to lose their sources of news. The same goes for suburban areas surrounding big cities like New York. Online media outlets have sprung up in the coverage cracks, restoring the community-level reporting that
“Visual journalism and multimedia online—it’s been a remarkable development. We don’t know where it’s going to go from here, the changes are happening so rapidly, but some people think we’re entering a golden age of visual journalism.” —SIG GISSLER
had been underrepresented or not represented at all by “big-J journalists,” notes J-Lab’s Schaffer. “Most of these places, at best, had an urban shopping gazette. This is a new era of media for communities that never knew who was running for local office before, if they’re lucky enough to have a hyperlocal news site in their communities.” She adds, “For all the hand-wringing—Woe is us! Reporters have been laid off! Coverage has declined!—there are a number of communities that have … people who have figured out they can cover this online. And big-J journalists were not really doing that.”
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NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD HELP DRAW IN YOUNGER READERS. A January 2010 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reports children and teens between the ages of 8 and 18 now spending more than 7.5 hours online, on their phones or watching TV—sometimes all three simultaneously—during the course of a single day. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter drive massive quantities of content, including links to news. Making news appealing to younger readers could be one of the
upshots of the push toward online technology, rekindling an appetite for good storytelling. “The new landscape hopefully will encourage young people to become regular consumers and, potentially, creators of news,” says CUNY’s Hester. “Young people already have a familiarity and facility with new technological tools and means of communication—they speak the language. Getting people interested in consuming news early on and in potentially becoming journalists is crucial, not only for the future of our business, but for democracy.” He adds: “I’d say that technology isn’t the future of journalism as much as the future of journalism is people—as it’s always been. The technology is just a way to engage people to consume and produce news.”
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START-UP NEWS WEBSITES ARE MORE VIABLE THAN EVER, AND JOURNALISTS ARE LEARNING TO VALUE BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE.
According to Columbia’s Sreenivasan, the move to online media, coupled with the economic downturn, has created a neo-dot-com boom, with a resurgence of investors looking to team up with journalists to create
new-media start-ups. However, unlike the boom and bust in the late 1990s, many of those involved in the current online boom seem to have learned from their predecessors’ mistakes, he notes. “The last time we saw this much start-up energy was during the dotcom boom; that was around the time that everybody thought they could get rich,” Sreenivasan says. “Now the ideas that are coming up and the money that’s out there are more targeted. People know going in that these things are not going to be home runs right away.” He adds that the transition is forcing journalists to stretch their comfort level with the business side of news—which he believes is necessary to repair the disconnect between business sense and content: “Not only were journalists told they need not know about the business side, they were also told they should not know about the business side. It’s a good thing for all journalists to know how money works within a news organization. Even if you don’t end up running your own business, you have more opportunities to take control of your own life and your business life.”
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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York w e N e h T
Awar m s i l a n r Jou Press Club
Stories e h t d in h e B ILL The Stories Y SELENA H B
WHAT MAKES A GREAT STORY? AN UP-AND-COMING WRITER INTERVIEWS THIS YEAR’S JOURNALISM AWARD WINNERS TO FIND OUT. The New York Press Club honors top journalists across more than 20 categories in print, television, radio and online media at its journalism awards ceremony. Selected by a rigorous judging committee, the award recipients are not only breaking new ground in journalism, they’re setting an industry standard. This year, byline takes an inside look at the reporting/writing/investigative process as we sit down with five of 2010’s awardwinning writers to talk about the work that went into their captivating pieces.
to other officers. Soon after, the gruesome photos spread virally online. Though the Catsouras family eventually won their lawsuit against the CHP, which was forced to admit wrongdoing, it’s almost impossible to remove the photos from the internet or to indict third parties for reposting the images. “This is the kind of thing that can happen to anyone, but no one really thinks about it,” notes Bennett. After researching the Catsouras case, Bennett reached out to the family to see if they’d be willing to talk in person. She knew it would be an emotional meeting, but she wanted to give the family a voice. “I knew I wanted to tell their story and get into some was emotionally wrenching. In “A Tragedy That Won’t Fade Away,” which appeared of the legal issues of why they weren’t protected,” says Bennett. “Technology is changing so fast that, in many cases, in Newsweek and on Newsweek.com in April 2009, it’s hard for the legal system to keep up. We need to be Bennett reveals how the lack of regulation on the Web thinking about the right ways to address online bullying. We engulfed one family in an emotional and drawn-out legal all need to be aware, because this can happen to other battle to stop the internet circulation of grisly photos of families in other ways,” she adds. “There is a dark side to their teenage daughter’s death—and prosecute those responsible for leaking the pictures online. The back story: the Web, and there needs to be some type of restriction In 2006, the Catsouras family of Orange Country, Calif., lost for online bullying.” their 18-year-old daughter, Nikki, in a fatal car crash that left her nearly decapitated. Two California Highway Patrol Photo Credits: Jessica Bennett: Elizabeth Weinberg for Newsweek; dispatchers took photos of the accident and e-mailed them Lisa Chow: MarcoAntonio.com; Michael Schwartz: Michael Schwartz JESSICA BENNETT Jessica Bennett, a 28-yearold senior writer for Newsweek, received the Nellie Bly Cub Reporter Award, a unique Press Club honor that recognizes the city’s best young journalist. Although several of Bennett’s pieces were submitted for consideration, one story in particular
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CAROL TOSCANO The Reverend Mychal Judge Heart Award was named after the FDNY chaplain whose death on 9/11 was the first reported casualty of the Twin Towers attacks. In this spirit, it honors one or more journalists whose work best represents New York City. This year, Carol Toscano earned the award for her piece “Woman Around Town: Hilary Boyajian—Designs for Survivors,” published on WomanAroundTown.com, where Toscano is a freelance contributing writer. In her article, Toscano highlights Boyajian’s clothing collection, which caters to women who have undergone breast cancer surgery and are living with breast asymmetry. “I thought Hilary was doing something different,” says Toscano. “She found a hole in the system, and she filled that hole.” She adds that Boyajian, whose business is based in New York and who donates ten percent of her proceeds to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, greater New York City chapter, exemplifies New Yorkers doing great things for their fellow city denizens. LISA CHOW Lisa Chow, the economics reporter for WNYC New York Public Radio, won the Business Reporting Award for her NPR radio segment “Bailing out Banks, One Toxic Asset at a Time.” In her piece, she brings listeners inside the world of banking as she shadows a former hedge fund manager and a mortgage broker negotiating to buy “toxic assets,” or bad mortgages. One of the most challenging factors in composing the piece, says Chow, was first to understand the language behind this economic procedure and then to explain it in a way people could easily grasp. In the segment, she illuminates the economic crisis that saw trillions of dollars of mortgages lose value “in a real way” and made toxic assets a not-so-foreign reality for the average American. “The toxic asset becomes another character in the story,” she explains, “so you’re almost meeting the toxic asset for the first time.”
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ Michael Schwartz, a selftaught photographer by trade, has been working at the Daily News for 15 years. His hard work has been rewarded with the Spot News Photography Award, which honors the best photograph of an event under breaking-news conditions. Schwartz’s photograph “The Decision” captures a troubled man clinging to the bars at the edge of a Bronx rooftop as he prepares to jump. Just a few feet below his dangling feet, a young girl—unaware—gazes out of an apartment window, contrasting with the grisly roof scene. The picture, says Schwartz, depicts “how people are sometimes … oblivious to each other. They were so close physically, but so far apart emotionally.” PETER KEATING In the world of sports, few journalists take on the task of incorporating business news, notes Peter Keating, a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine whose article “Uncontested” won the Sports News Award. On top of that, few writers have probed the scandals and lawsuits surrounding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, a self-made millionaire who continues to profit from owning a losing NBA team. But “Uncontested” rose to the challenge, and in this lengthy investigative piece, Keating reveals how Sterling’s business practices and alleged racial discrimination and sexual harassment seem to be reflected in the people he has hired to run his large real estate holdings, and in the team’s makeup. Keating says that writing this story took a lot of persistence, especially when it came to trying to get people to talk about Sterling. Players, NBA representatives and Sterling himself declined to comment for the article; only a few coaches and Clippers employees were willing to cooperate. In addition, says Keating, it is notable that it was Sterling’s tenants who leveled charges of racial discrimination against him, and that the story “just didn’t make any news” and got only minor coverage in L.A. Keating allows, “I had to work hard in digging for this story." “I’m very glad that ‘Uncontested’ is one of the pieces that got attention, because it’s hard to get an investigative sports and business story to launch,” he says. BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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ards
m Aw The New York Press Club Journalis The Winners for 2010 GOLD KEYBOARD
ANTICIPATED NEWS
“World of Hurt” Steven Greenhouse N.R. Kleinfield New York Times
“Sentencing of Bernard Madoff ” Samantha Gross Tom Hays Larry Neumeister Vinnee Tong Associated Press
NELLIE BLY CUB REPORTER Various Articles Jessica Bennett Newsweek REV. MYCHAL JUDGE HEART OF NEW YORK “The Jazz Loft Project Radio Series” Sara Fishko Edward Haber WNYC-FM “Woman Around Town: Hilary Boyajian—Designs for Survivors” Carol Toscano WomanAroundTown.com “Wrongly Accused Queens Man Exonerated” Brian Antonson John Metaxas Jeffrey Morgan Dan Smysky WCBS-TV Clem Richardson Columns Clem Richardson New York Daily News SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY “The Decision” Michael Schwartz New York Daily News 26
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“The Yankees Tickertape Parade” WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio News Team WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio “Yonkers Firefighter Funeral” News 12 Staff News 12 Westchester “President Obama’s Inauguration” New York Post Staff New York Post NEWS SPECIAL “Back on the Highline” Bobby Cuza Thomas Farkas Elizabeth Kaledin Budd Mishkin Stephanie Simon Jill Urban Tara Lynn Wagner NY1 News BEST HEADLINE AND FRONT PAGE “Hero of the Hudson” Staff of New York Daily News New York Daily News
BEST WEB EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
CONSUMER REPORTING
“The Bloomberg Record” Gotham Gazette Staff and Freelancers Gotham Gazette
“Bargains Series” Sean Adams WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio
BUSINESS REPORTING “Bailing out Banks, One Toxic Asset at a Time” Lisa Chow National Public Radio “Harvard’s Toxic Swaps” Gillian Wee Jason Kelly John Lauerman Michael Quint Michael McDonald Bloomberg News “Your Money: Surviving the Crisis Town Meeting” Brian Conybeare Lisa Salvadorini Doug White News 12 Westchester “How Bernie Did It” James Bandler Nicholas Varchaver Doris Burke Fortune “Green China” Keith Bradsher New York Times “Jobbed” Nancy Cook Arlyn Tobias Gajilan Devin Gordon Newsweek.com
“Fatal Flying on Airlines No Accident in Aviator Complaints to FAA” Caroline Salas Bloomberg News “Medicaid Fraud” Carl Campanile New York Post “Consumer Ally” Mitch Lipka WalletPop “Unpaid Workers” Roy Isen Brian Kartagener Barbara Nevins Taylor Paul Tsakos WNYW-TV My Fox NY “The New Retirement” Peter Keating Smart Money FEATURE VIDEO “Marc Blumenthal Composite” Marc Blumenthal News 12 Westchester OUTSTANDING WEB COVERAGE “2009 US Open Golf ” New York Times Sports Department New York Times
CONTINUING COVERAGE
FEATURE PHOTO MAGAZINE
“Tragedy Over The Hudson” WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio News Team WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio
“The Directors— Photographs by Ben Baker” Ben Baker Armin Harris Nancy Jo Johnson Mina Kimes Julie Schlosser Jessica Shambora Fortune
“Armageddon in Alabama Proves Parable for Local U.S. Governments” Ken Wells Bloomberg News “Detroit in Decline” Wall Street Journal Staff Wall Street Journal “Murder Mystery” News 12 Staff News 12 Westchester “Time.com on Health Care” TIME.com Staff TIME.com CRIME REPORTING “Dope” T.J. English Playboy Magazine “Stop and Frisk” Colleen Long Associated Press “Petty Crime on the Rise” Murray Weiss Brad Hamilton New York Post “Drunk Driving Moms on the Rise” Kirstin Cole Joe Garufi WCBS-TV FEATURE PHOTO NEWSPAPER “Spa Treatment” Bryan Smith New York Daily News
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS “Hazel Scott as Herself ” Sara Fishko WNYC-FM “A Rare Armonica Player” Lisa Voyticki FiOS1 News “Carnegie Hall Stagehand Moving Props Makes $530,044” Philip Boroff Bloomberg News “The Lily’s Revenge—A Flowergory Manifold” Alix Cohen WomanAroundTown.com FEATURE REPORTING “World’s Fair 1939” Sara Fishko Andy Lanset Wayne Shulmister WNYC-FM “Fallen Heroes” David Abrams Brian Endres David Garden Virginia Huie Juan Monsalve News 12 Long Island “America’s High-Tech Sweatshops” Steve Hamm Moira Herbst Bloomberg BusinessWeek
“The New Homeless” Jonathan Berr Lita Epstein Sam Gustin Eric Wahlgren DailyFinance
“Heading for Trouble” Peter Keating Alexa Pozniak ESPN the Magazine
“Running in the Shadows” Ian Urbina New York Times
”Hudson River Splashdown” AP New York City Bureau Associated Press
POLITICAL COVERAGE “Mayor Bloomberg’s Re-Election Campaign” Sara Kugler Associated Press “Campaign 2009” Juan Manuel Benitez Timothy Farrell Robert Hardt Leslie Mayes Michael Nitzky Grace Rauh Josh Robin Michael Scotto NY1 News
SPOT NEWS
“Miracle on the Hudson” WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio News Team WCBS-AM 880 Newsradio “Yonkers Firefighter Death” News 12 Staff News 12 Westchester “Ahmadinejad Says Obama Should Back off ” TIME.com Staff TIME.com “TIME’s Michael Jackson Commemorative” TIME Staff TIME
“Travel on the Taxpayer” T.W. Farnam Brody Mullins Wall Street Journal
“Miracle on the Hudson” Staff of New York Daily News New York Daily News
“State of Israel” Edward-Isaac Dovere City Hall
REGULARLY SCHEDULED LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS NEWS “Concussion Series” Alan Schwarz New York Times
“Freak Summer Storm” Brian Conybeare Janine Rose Andrea White News 12 Westchester
“Yankee Fans Head to Anaheim” Glenn Schuck Metro Networks “Amazing Athletes” Brian Endres Virginia Huie News 12 Long Island “Uncontested” Peter Keating ESPN the Magazine BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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THE CONTENT FARMS DILEMMA As the Web continues to evolve, a new approach to journalism is emerging. But should “content farms” be the new model? BY MATTHEW VANN ILLUSTRATION BY NATE BEAR
RUPERT MURDOCH, THE BILLIONAIRE CHAIRMAN of News Corporation, once proclaimed “Content is not just king, it’s the emperor of all things electronic.” In the early days of the internet, many writers and editors reveled in this heady notion. As the new technology leveled publishing’s playing field, the rich and powerful’s stranglehold on what the world reads certainly eased up. All things being (mostly) equal, the highest-quality content ruled the day. But as the internet matures, an unexpected challenger is vying for the throne. A new brand of media organization, derisively labeled by many traditionalists as “content farms,” has turned the world’s reliance on Google into a profitable business of expertly formatting cheap content to be favored by Google’s sophisticated algorithms. Demand Media, Associated Content and Suite101— some of the more widely known content farms—employ an army of freelancers who often aren’t professional writers, but just interested people willing to write about a topic for next to no pay. They pen articles with headlines like “Why Are We So Tired in the Winter?” and “How to Whiten Your Teeth.” As mainstream media outfits struggle 28
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to make money in the internet era, these newer businesses are built around the idea that for content to be profitable, it has to be produced on a massive scale. And that means it has to be a lot cheaper to acquire than it is in traditional journalism models. At Demand Media, for instance, as many as 7,000 new pieces of content are produced in a single day. The articles are published on several of the firm’s websites, such as Answerbag.com, Travels.com and eHow.com. Some of these firms’ own freelancers don’t think there is any clear editorial standard governing what goes up on the websites, except to get as many page views as possible. “You publish what you want,” says a writer (who requested that her name be withheld) at Demand Media who supplements her meager income by teaching adult dating courses. She has also written for Suite 101 and is unimpressed with the skill set of some of the editors she’s worked with at these media outfits. “Aside from the first article or two that you write, [the pieces] really aren’t edited and there are no changes in copy. The editors are concerned, I think, with driving traffic to the site.” The writer, however, thinks this is still no excuse for
“Most media organizations take the idea of putting out quality content very seriously, and a few who believe in that ideal do see a glimmer of hope in this new model.”
editors at the content farms to crowd the Web with articles that aren’t the very best they could be—at least grammatically. “I know they put up articles that were not my best,” she says. “The timing may really drive people to just get things published. If you don’t do it within the time you’re given, you lose the opportunity to get articles up there.” In addition to the lack of editing and the quick turnaround, many employed by content farms aren’t happy about the unthinkably low pay they receive for their work. “You’re basically paid a penny per page view,” says Beverly O’Neal, a freelance writer in Los Angeles who produces articles for Examiner.com on parenting. “It’s remarkable if you can even meet their $25 monthly threshold to get paid. If I was looking for a way to make money, I would definitely be doing something else.” Some eyebrows are being raised as articles from companies like Demand Media are ending up on conventional news websites such as that of USA Today, which recently struck a deal to publish travel tips written by Demand’s legion of writers. “We’re not going to sit and write 4,000 ‘How to Travel With a Toddler’ or ‘How to Find the Best Airfare Deals’ pieces, but that’s the sort of thing people are searching the search engines for,” notes Victoria Borton, general manager of Demand’s travel section. There are plenty of journalists, however, who think that is precisely what news organizations should start doing. “Demand and other content farms are getting attention because they are writing what the readers want, quite clearly,” explains Brian Stelter, a media reporter for the New York Times. “There may be lessons to be learned from them since these sites are using data to drive their writing more than most other media organizations.” But Stelter is quick to add that he isn’t thrilled that the Web is now jam-packed with thousands of articles that are, in his words, “disposable content”—something you read but don’t remember ten minutes later. “One of the theories of the internet is that the best stuff will rise to the top,” he says. “I’m sure there are many mainline media companies that have written wonderful articles about
how to bake a cake. But the first thing that pops up is a HowStuffWorks article.” Most media organizations take the idea of putting out quality content very seriously, and a few who believe in that ideal do see a glimmer of hope in this new model. “We are going to be the largest net hirer of journalists in the world next year,” says David Eun, president of AOL’s media and studios division, which is building on its contentfirst business model. For many journalists, that is a bold and welcome prediction in these uncertain times for the industry. But some media scholars still think the relationship between algorithms and assignments is too cozy if news outlets are looking to deliver quality journalism. “If what you want is a fairly low bar in terms of getting advertising and eyeballs, you can make a financial model that fits,” says David Wallace, an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College. Other industry insiders go even further. “If you want to know how our profession ends, look at Demand Media,” writes Jason Fry, a former Wall Street Journal columnist who edits the blog Reinventing the Newsroom. The new model raises questions that cut to the very core of journalism. What will happen if important stories of public interest can’t get written because no one cares enough to Google them? Who will hold policy makers and rogue business leaders accountable? The content farm strategy is obviously good for business, but at what cost? In a Google search for “How to save journalism,” the content farm websites were notably absent. If only the world Googled that question more often.
BYLINE 2010 EDITION
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THE JOURNALIST’S GUIDE TO
10 tips for building your little black book. BY VICKI SALEMI ILLUSTRATION BY NATE BEAR
Have you ever walked into a luncheon, a cocktail party or a New York Press Club event and seen a sea of faces with nary a recognizable one? You’re not alone. When it comes to working a room and being a savvy social networker, the rules of the game are much like those of dating. Experts and journalists agree: Networking is about tactfully putting yourself out there, being your best, authentic self and having faith in the process. Whether you come away with a business card or a simple handshake, these ten tips will ensure you do it right.
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KEEP YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN CHECK.
Most dates don’t lead to serious, longterm relationships, and you need to date a variety of people before you can find a meaningful LTR, right? “The same holds true with networking,” notes Shawn Graham, author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself With the Perfect Job. “Sometimes you’ll be able to establish a meaningful connection, other times you won’t.” As for a strategic so-called pickup line that’s not your cheesy ‘Come
here often?’ cliché, he advises simply introducing yourself: “ ‘Hi, my name is [your name here]. And you are?’ There’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple.” You may also comment on the speaker or the food, or find common ground such as the similar watches you’re both wearing.
avoid discussing religion, politics and sex (and in this town, such sensitive topics as allegiance to crosstown rivals Yankees or Mets). “If other people are in conversation and it’s not too personal, just listen politely for a chance to join in,” advises Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D. (a.k.a. Dr. Romance), a psychotherapist and author of The KNOW WHEN TO Unofficial Guide to Dating Again. Her CUT IN. advice? “Make a comment that adds It’s important to know how to tactfully to the conversation but isn’t too insert yourself into an ongoing controversial: “‘I saw that game [read conversation, always remembering to that article, saw that movie, et cetera].
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Wasn’t that goal spectacular?’ If you end with a question, you invite others to respond.”
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WORK IT, WORK IT.
Two networking advantages that journalists have over members of other professions are a curious nature and an intrinsic facility for asking questions. Andrea R. Nierenberg, the author of four networking books, including Savvy Networking: 118 Fast & Effective Tips for Business Success and Nonstop Networking, recommends flexing these skills in social situations. “Ask people open-ended questions, and listen as a journalist when they begin talking. You can come back with ‘Tell me more’ or ‘That reminds me . . .’ while incorporating something about yourself.”
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AVOID THE ONE-NIGHTSTAND MENTALITY.
Graham says that just as you wouldn’t propose marriage to someone you just met, don’t go “for the home run in the first five minutes of a conversation.” Thomas P. Farley, a lifestyle and manners expert and the corresponding secretary for the New York Press Club, adds, “It’s a delicate dance; it’s a courtship. The key is not going in for the kill too quickly.”
keep in touch with little follow-ups. “Send an article in a nonthreatening way. It’s all about being subtle. You can’t expect things to happen overnight. In the past, networking took a little bit more effort, and today we’re so much more accessible. A lot of people who are just starting out don’t understand it’s necessary to have boundaries.”
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MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR CONNECTIONS.
A good matchmaker can put you in touch with the senior producer BUILD TRUST you dream of working with, but it’s SLOWLY. your job to make a good lasting impression. Remember that your Farley, who’s currently working on a friend’s reputation is on the line, tech etiquette book, explains, “The first time you meet somebody, start to and be prepared to return the favor build that sense of trust.” For instance, if someone asks you for a contact. Stacy Lipson, a freelance writer for after meeting a well-connected print and online outlets, recently person, exchange business cards and
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Photo courtesy of Vicki Salemi
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Social Graces Writer Vicki Salemi and friends
saw the benefits of this firsthand. “A freelancer reached out to me for help with a friend who was pitching a magazine I had been working with. The friend was quite nice, even slightly apologetic about e-mailing me, but it took me less than a few minutes to find the information she was looking for: We’ve established a friendship now, and keep each other updated on the various projects we are both working on.” That said, be careful not to ask for too many favors on behalf of a connection’s connection whom you barely know. “You’re essentially cashing in chips,” notes Farley, founder of New York Insider Productions. “Be really careful in requesting favors from others, especially when you’re several levels removed. That’s one way to shrink a Rolodex.”
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GET INVOLVED WITH ONLINE DATING—ER, SOCIAL NETWORKING: TWITTER, LINKEDIN AND FACEBOOK. Steve Scott, a news anchor for WCBS Newsradio 880 and a Press Club member, loves technology. As an active user of Facebook and Twitter, he stays in the public eye by posting interviews and frequently updating
his status to let people know when he’s on the air. “I use FB and Twitter to solicit resource help on stories (it’s worked!),” he says. “Has it replaced face time? To a certain extent, yes. When I was a cub reporter, I literally took donuts to the police station and made friends with the desk sergeant. Those days are somewhat gone, thanks to instant, electronic communication. The best strategy: Let the two complement one another.”
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DON’T BECOME THE DREADED EX WHO NEVER FADES INTO THE SUNSET. The benefit of online networking? Accessibility. The drawback to online networking? Accessibility. Scott notes, “I’ve met some people on Twitter, for example, who’ve become, for lack of a better word, pests. Nice pests, not threatening pests. But pests. They’re listeners—or radio/TV people in smaller markets—who start tweeting a little too much. Then the tweets start to ask personal questions. ‘Bye!’” Scott is careful about what he posts online and tries to not get too personal in his messages. “And, of course, I’m very protective and supportive of WCBS and our CBS brand.”
BUILD THAT LITTLE BLACK BOOK. Molly Stark Dean, an assignment desk assistant at Fox News Channel and a Press Club member, has her own system. When she meets someone, she literally takes notes. “I write down where I met them and what they said, and upload their information into my computer.” Stark Dean also syncs LinkedIn with her BlackBerry so there’s instant access to information. Her strategy includes waiting until she has a specific reason to contact her new connection, so when she reaches out, she relies on her introductory notes to recall how, when and where they met. She also recommends getting your own business cards. “I like Vistaprint; you can buy a lot of them and they’re ridiculously cheap.”
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CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION ONLINE AND OFFLINE, BUILD MOMENTUM AND LET THE RELATIONSHIP BLOSSOM. As you build rapport and trust with a new contact, you’ll also build the ability to tap into his or her network. Graham’s advice for keeping it going? “Respond periodically (not daily, hourly or every five minutes) to discussion threads they’ve commented on through LinkedIn, blogs, et cetera. Doing so will help open up a dialogue with the person you’ve met.” Above all, have fun and play the field! Nierenberg reminds us, “Tune up your ears and listen more than you speak. Smile, make great eye contact and have a firm handshake, remember the names of people you connect with, be present and have fun.”
BYLINE 2010 EDITION 35
Q&A
MONEY TALKS In New York City, Capital New York wants to be king. BY JAMES ERIK ABELS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSE WINTER
WE’RE IN CAFÉ SELECT ON LAFAYETTE. IT’S full of fashionable people, many on break from an afternoon of designer-store shopping. This is Soho, a neighborhood just south of New York City’s Houston Street that is home to trendy eateries, expensive boutiques and Capital New York, the news website Josh Benson and Tom McGeveran launched this past summer. At the table, Benson reclines comfortably; McGeveran sits forward attentively. The neighborhood suits them. Like it, their site is all about money and how it’s used in New York. The pair’s daily goal is to chronicle the cash behind politics, media and culture here. It’s a tall order. But the former New York Observer editors are well prepared for it. They know the scene and its players. And the press has already begun helping them build a reputation by telling their story. To many observers, Benson and McGeveran are clearly “could be” heroes, journalists-turnedentrepreneurs who are focusing on the very thing that many say the internet slaughters daily: quality. It’s a time-consuming mission. An hour passes quickly as we chat about their plans. They’re clearly busy. I’m impressed they took the time to talk. I’m even more impressed two weeks later when I find that the recording of our conversation has been accidentally deleted. Without hesitating, Benson and McGeveran offer to reconnect. Here are their answers to my questions.* 36
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byline: Why not just “get a job” instead of building this news site from scratch? Josh Benson: We don’t have anything at all against working at “jobs.” Salaries and benefits are nice. But we had a pretty specific idea of what we wanted to do and who we wanted to work with, and we couldn’t assume we’d be able to make all of it happen as someone else’s employees. byline: Can your voice be heard amid those of all the competitors already covering New York? JB: We wouldn’t use the word “competitors.” We’re trying to make content that reflects the way knowledgeable New Yorkers talk to each other. We think readers are smart, and that that’s what they’ll respond to. We don’t have a monopoly on this idea. But we’d like to think of ourselves as among its more radical practitioners. Tom McGeveran: I mean, I want us to beat the New York Times to stories, for sure. But we’re not going to be competing for readers; I expect most of our readers will be people who already regularly read the Times. In fact, you could argue that the conversation we are trying to get going would be impossible without it. If our readers don’t read the Times, they probably won’t know what we’re talking about. But if they only read the Times, they’ll miss too much. This is an ecosystem, really. byline: Is that realistic, though? Standing out among heavy hitters like the Times? And now the Wall Street Journal seems tough, too. JB: Both are fantastically important organizations with the means and institutional wisdom to do what almost no one
Coffee Break Josh Benson and Tom McGeveran at La Esquina Taqueria
one else can in covering America and the world. I don’t think that the Greater New York section [the Journal] and the New York part of the A section [the Times]—and their respective presences online—preclude other outlets from creating a presence in New York City, particularly if those other outlets start with the point of view that there’s a different way of doing things. byline: You could argue that journalism is coalescing around two poles: breaking news and analyzing it. Where does Capital New York fit in? JB: I don’t think we’d ever regard them as separate roles. We will be a news organization, particularly as we grow. But part of being honest—reflecting actual conversation— is saying what we think. So we’ll do that, too. TM: I see no difference. At the current speed of things, if you can’t analyze your own reporting right as you do it, or report your perceptions as you have them, then you’re only doing half the job. byline: You’re journalists first and foremost. How easy is it for you to oversee Capital New York’s business affairs? JB: We’re doing our best impression of businessmen. We’ll have to let you know how it goes. byline: But for now, how do you convince advertisers that Capital New York will give them good bang for their buck? JB: Wait till you get a load of our readers. byline: You’re doing more than selling them on traditional ads, though? JB: The business model is predicated on a high-quality audience. We think the way to win is to have a diverse revenue stream, and that means it can’t just be CPM-based [Ed.: CPM is a unit of measure for display ads that means cost per thousand].
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byline: You've been developing original Web video features for your site that are co-sponsored by advertisers like the 92nd Street Y. What is the editorial interplay between you and the sponsor? JB: We’ll develop the concept on a case-by-case basis— it’s one of the benefits of being small, and of having the luxury of only making partnerships that make sense for us as a brand. We’ll be aggressively transparent about those partnerships. byline: You’ve called Capital New York a platform, as opposed to a news site. What do you mean? TM: The site has social media in its spinal fluid. You can interact with our site, create content for it and easily distribute it across the social web. There’s more to come: microblogging from our readers, the ability for readers to post their own content and calendar their own events. And when we roll these out into events that happen in real life here in New York, it becomes something yet larger. For writers to reach their readers organically where they are in this way is something we think we are ahead on. byline: What’s next? JB: We launched in “beta” this summer, after spending the first half of the year putting it together, and we’re talking to potential investors about the next steps. * Answers edited for clarity.
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RESOURCES FOR JOURNALISTS
THE UNCLICKED A modern look at oldfashioned research.
An experiment: I searched Google for “how to best filter search results.” I got more than 71 million returns in just 0.28 seconds. I’d never make deadline! More and more information is made available every day, much of it online and free. The best most of us can do to survive its storm is to ferret out relevant, reliable data as quickly as possible. Respectfully (and concisely), here are some ways to do just that.
BY KRISTIN FRANCOZ
SOCIAL MEDIA Move over, Gallup: Polls and surveys have some serious competition these days. Personal-status updates from spots like Facebook and Twitter have literally brought the world to your fingertips. Individually or together, these services are capturing the mood of … well … everything. Twitter: In April, the Library of Congress started recording every post, scrawl and scribble tweeted on Twitter. Ever. Use it—or a specialty site like Trendistic—to search the mass of public opinion. Facebook: Since May, it has been possible to search Facebook’s status updates via sites like Openbook, Google and Bing also publish status updates as search results. NEWS There’s nothing an editor hates more than old news, unless you’re using it to write a new version of an old story. That’s easier than ever. There’s no end of ways to sift through old newspaper stories from around the world.
The New York Times: What’s most shocking is how many ways there are to search the NYT’s archives. The Times’s own website search features are pretty functional, but you may have an easier time at another site’s dedicated database. New York City residents get several of these for the price of a library card, including EBESCO, ProQuest and Gale (Cengage). Google News: While society ponders whether it broke the news business, Google News remains a great way to search for information. It’ll give you quick, free access to a variety of far-flung news sources. Need to know if a story’s all played out? Take a gander at the bottom of each search result to find out how many stories there are on similar topics. It can be thousands! FINANCE Whether you want to analyze market trends or check up on market activity from around the world, it’s more and more likely that it’s just a www away.
SeekingAlpha: Beyond providing a home for businessoriented bloggers, SeekingAlpha offers some indispensable The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition: Even research tools. In return for free registration, you can as News Corporation wars with free news aggregators like search through a constantly updated database of corporate Google News, its Wall Street Journal newspaper runs some earnings call transcripts. of the world’s best commercial competitors. The WSJ Pro Edition is its newest. It packages the WSJ together with a DailyStocks: Competition’s stiff these days, with Google version of its Factiva news database to give you access to and Yahoo! Finance setting a high bar for free online some 17,000 sources worldwide. financial data. That may push smaller competitors like DailyStocks to go further with all sorts of market overview and indexing features. 40
NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
"While society ponders whether it broke the news business, Google News remains a great way to search for information."
PUBLIC ACCESS Some information is supposed to be free for all. Like all those stats the government compiles. There are plenty of governmental and nongovernmental ways to find it. New York Public Library: A New York City library card gives you access to the Science, Industry and Business Library. It has several Bloomberg terminals and is home to dozens of other high-priced databases, such as the D&B Million Dollar Database and the Film Literature Index. FedStats: There are so many government stats out there that it can be hard to know where to find what. FedStats offers an answer. It gives you an A-to-Z topic index of links to government sources. For instance, if you want to know about airline punctuality, just follow a link to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. StateData.info: Fifty governments are hard to track, but there are some spots that can help you find state-specific government information. Governmental clubs like the National Governors Association often link to it. And some big federal agencies do too. For instance, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics both have regional sections on their websites.
THE TRIED VS. THE NEW Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style nearly a century ago defined simple rules of good judgment in writing. They can be summed up by George Orwell’s famous remark: “Never use a long word where a short one will do.” But Orwell also said that all rules may need to be broken. These days you have plenty of ways to do just that. The 416-page Associated Press Stylebook has long set the standard for good journalistic print writing. Focusing on Web writing? The newly released 528-page Yahoo! Style Guide may have a different rule for you.
BYLINE 2010 EDITION 41
IN RECOGNITION
SALUTING THE GREAT BILL GALLO BY ANGELICA BERRY ILLUSTRATIONS BY BILL GALLO
Gallo’s dedication to his work has been recognized through the years with numerous awards. And now the New York Press Club is honoring Gallo for his contribution to journalism with the 2010 President’s Award. Herewith, Gallo examines journalism’s future in a series of cartoons, exclusive to byline. “I don’t think people will ever stop reading newspapers,” he says. “A newspaper is in your hand; it’s yours. You can read it, clip and save articles, and it has an unspoken credibility.” Daily Work Bill Gallo in his office at the Daily News
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NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
Photo by Elizabeth Semrai
Bill Gallo, a longtime, famed cartoonist and columnist for New York’s Daily News, discovered his affinity for his craft at a young age. He says his father, Frank, a newspaperman at La Prensa, a publication that served immigrants from Spain, inspired him. “He would take me to his work,” recalls Gallo, “and I loved being there.” Following in his father’s footsteps and carving out his own distinguished career in journalism, Gallo has worked at the Daily News since 1941. “I have the best job in the world,” he says.
NEWSPAPERS STILL HAVE A FIGHTING CHANCE
BYLINE 2010 EDITION 43
A location photographer now has a location.
www.jessewinter.com www.ten10studios.com
KEMPTON AWARDS The Kempton Awards honor the beloved newspaper columnist who captured New York City’s soul and served as its conscience. The City University of New York confers the Murray Kempton Public Service Award upon a professional journalist working for a New York City media outlet whose work best represents the sharp wit and keen distaste for hypocrisy that is the legacy of Murray Kempton (1917–1997). The awards committee is accepting nominations for the 2011 Public Service Award. To nominate a professional journalist for this honor, please visit www.cuny.edu/kempton For more information, please contact Michael Arena University Director for Communications Associate Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism michael.arena@mail.cuny.edu
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Jeter Villacis, a 16-monthold boy named after Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, receives a heart transplant at Montefiore Medical Center. “Little Jeter” had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart and was at risk of suffering a cardiac arrest without the transplant.
We have news for you. There’s always something newsworthy to report from Montefiore Medical Center
Juan Farias leaves Montefiore Medical Center with his children just in time for Father’s Day after a successful heart-liver double transplant. Farias was born with a rare genetic enzyme deficiency in his liver that led to his serious heart disease while in his 20s. There were only 11 heartliver transplants done in the United States last year, and none in the New York area.
and The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) — from exciting medical breakthroughs to gripping stories of lives dramatically changed by modern mediPolice escorted Maryann Steinbock to Montefiore Medical Center through a heavy snowstorm so she could receive a long-awaited liver transplant. Steinbock, who had needed a new liver for 18 months, would have been unable to navigate through the snow without the assistance of the Nassau County and New York City Police. A long-time Mets fan, she was able to throw the first pitch of a Mets game at Citi Field just seven weeks after the surgery.
cine. So, if you want solid medical news to report, let our very informed and responsive Public Relations team help you with regular medical stories. And if you want to explore longer, in-depth pieces or need world-class experts to weigh in on breaking medical news, call us. Anytime. We’re available around the clock.
Montefiore Public Relations Office 718-920-4011
Pediatric liver specialist John Thompson, MD, and mother Nadia Brooks are beaming over ten-month-old Jeremiah Velez after he underwent the first pediatric liver transplant ever done in the Bronx. The procedure was done at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. Jeremiah’s mother brought him to Montefiore’s Transplant Center all the way from upstate Amsterdam.
www.montefiore.org / www.montekids.org