This speaks for itself
This has been posted as a comment on the Pulitzer item. It is authentic, and I thought it should receive more prominence.
From: Buchanan, MargaretOperators are waiting now to take your subscription orders.
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 2:12 PM
To: MCIN-News Users
We received a call from Gannett today that Cincinnati will be recognized as a Gold Medal Newspaper in the Best of Gannett awards to be announced Thursday. We don't have the judge's comments yet, but Phil Currie mentioned we were lauded for work on the data desk, suburban web sites, CincyMOMS and a strong commitment to public interest journalism, specifically coverage of foster care issues.
It will also be announced that Tom Callinan will be recognized with a President's Ring, for many of the same reasons as above.
Congratulations to Tom and the Local Information Center, as well as to all of you in other departments that also contributed to this type of success for the second straight year.
Margaret
posted by Newsache at 4:01 PM
19 Comments:
The apocalypse is upon us.
Does this mean the only journalism awards the Enquirer wins are those awarded by its owner?
Too funny.
Let me get this straight. The Enquirer gets an award for a Web site that encouraged more women to delve into anal sex, and an editor got jewelry for putting the city's entire female population in heat? Is one of the Flynt boys running the show now?
Lower the standards far enough and everyone wins an award. So the next thing must be winning an award for using paper that stays white longer.
Thanks for lecture about standards considering the level of journalism criticism displayed on these posts...this is an example of where Newsache's bitterness as a former employee ruins his legitimate observations.
Thought you might be interested in this. Case of mistaken identity, me thinks. Keep up the great work!
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/pgblog/2008/04/coo-procter-growth-overseas-eclipses.asp#comments
Sorry. Here's the link:
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/pgblog/2008/04/coo-procter-growth-overseas-eclipses.asp#comments
Crap. Check out Keith Reid's P&G blog. Comments on April 7 post are amusing.
His blog at best, is weak - ex: March 5th shows he's unaware of two P&Gers on Disney's board.
And, given how easily he's drawn into defending his work, his professionalism lacks.
For the record, I do not post on Enquirer blogs. I have my say right here. Keith Reid's ill-advised pissing contest is with someone else.
this is further proof, as if any were needed, that every single journalist and journalism organization in america is "award-winning." more than that, it further demands that whiners like newsache stop bellyaching about the enquirer not winning awards. the enquirer's halls are lined with all kinds of awards. who cares? do any of them make it a good newspaper? short of the pulitzers, journalism awards are irrelevant to everyone except journalists.
"Congratulations to Tom and the Local Information Center, as well as to all of you in other departments that also contributed to this type of success for the second straight year."
Uh, should that be "who also contributed" instead of "that also contributed. Just curious. Also, who is Keith Reid?
Callinan's got all the rings he needs now. Next they'll be putting bells on his toes.
Um, Do you have a link to the anal sex story?
All kidding aside, the Enquirer does well with its online presentations. Think about the pressure to try to attain nirvana daily in multimedia, and with the variety of demands on reaching very targeted audiences.
Many newspapers still don't approach the level of experimental work the Enquirer does. Some work, some fail. But there is no doubt about the constant effort being mustered.
Could it be better? That's a process that takes shape with each day. Could there be more polish? Yes, and I would expect the Enquirer one day to move to a fully integrated platform in which more than just a few photos are interspersed with reporter comment (there have been recent examples of this).
But it's not a TV newsroom and has had to develop that kind of culture almost from scratch.
It's traumatic, but it can be very exciting to watch the metamorphosis.
I say give it more time. What is there to lose?
As for Callinan and Towns, seems to me they are getting action out of the troops though admittedly the climate is a tough one for all.
From my own experience I know there is a serious effort being made. Editors are working very long hours to try to position the information center as the best source for news in Cincinnati.
Lots of people hate them for that. And that's a shame.
For the Enquirer's searing, booby prize winning content, go to the Cincymoms site, click on the Sex & Romance subject, then look for a thread labeled "The Other Side." That's what got those Gannett contest judges all lathered up over the paper.
Anon 7.43: Editors are working long hours? Hah! You must be referring to some other newsroom. Most editors do their shift and that's it. There will always be a few who go the extra mile but they are, as I said, few. Look at the ratio of editors to reporters and you will scratch your head wondering what the editors do. One person was just named one of Gannett's supervisors of the year and she doesn't even supervise anyone, she runs an online product cloned from the Indy paper.
As for The Enquirer doing well with its online work, it should be better than many other news sites considering how long it has existed. Something like 12 or so years? It should have been "fully integrated" by now. And it is patting itself on the back for CincyMOMs - something it was ordered to do by corporate and that was already a success somewhere else.
As it now stands, it's search engine is a disaster. Like the print product, it overemphasizes sports. And it's design, depth and storytelling pale next to the real innovators such as the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Tampa Tribune and even special sections published online by smaller sites of newspapers such as the Roanoke Times and Providence Journal.
But that will soon change since corporate is about to stick it in a template matching those already launched in places such as Nashville. Whether that will be better or not remains to be seen.
The point is that Gannett threw Maggie a bone. The paper only won one Best of Gannett category, yet is a Gold Medal paper? How does that happen?
By "getting action" out of troops who are told to produce just what's "good enough." It's easy to get more out of people when you lower standards and when most of those working at the paper are afraid to lose their jobs because they are of an age when they can't quite retire, are invested in living here and would have to take drastic pay cuts to work elsewhere. So, they stick around and produce because that is what they have always done - no matter how bad the management. The place is a revolving door for younger people who see right through what is going on and quickly depart.
Anon 11:14.
Ummmm....I didn't say it wasn't without, er, challenges....
Newsache, where art thou? Senior cloggers as a Local News cover centerpiece. A "Chuck's List" sidebar list about how to spend your tax refund as a Life cover centerpiece. A homer Chamber of Commerce adores the Symphony Business cover story (if an inside page counts as a cover). Lurid dragging through the papers of someone who committed suicide. Guess now that he is dead, he can't sue. Yet more play for the amateur roller derby team that a reporter plays on and blogs about in a blog on the paper's web site. Can all the staffers with hobbies get stories about them and a blog, too? More play for theater awards the theater critic heads up and which allow her to have a say in giving money/awards/scholarships to those she covers. Oh, forgot, this is a Gold Medal newspaper. Do not forsake us now. Get back your former zeal and call the Enquirer to task for lite news, conflicts of interest and sheer laziness.
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