a. fish

Hyperlocal

Who would've predicted - but it's coming I tell ya - globalization begets an age of place. Hyperlocal H20Town blogger Lisa Williams has made a 1000 place blog bet with PressThink's Jay Rosen. Said some naysayer: "Lisa Williams is special.  There are so few of her that hyperlocal will never take off.”

To that comment may I just say: BWAHAHAHAA! I can only guess the doubter a Tom Sawyer protege attempting to kickstart a hyperlocal media movement with an old fasioned double-dog "I betchya can't do it" schoolyard dare.
(See also: Slate's Jack Shafer on How the New York Times Makes Local Papers Dumber. Uh huh.)

Here in San Fran we've seen a quiet rise in the microdailies. First the new Examiner, reduced to "compact" (tabloid) layout, distributed sans charge in subway stop-dotting newsracks; cluttering up the driveways of the tony addresses admired by advertisers everywhere.

Next we see a neighborhood newswire, published by public power activist Steve Moss. Inspired by a study showing a direct correlation between the trust readers had in a publication and the proximity of its focus, Moss created the wire service to be used by niche neighborhood publishers. Place begets trust, he concluded, and the neighborhood newswire was born.

Then the publishers of the East Bay Daily News set up shop here at www.sfdaily.net. Noticing an untapped lower-tier advertising market, they wisely seized what they saw as an opportunity. And this 16-page Monday thru Friday paper did something really evil that kept me coming back for more: they introduced that bloody timesucker of a puzzle, the Sadoku. They publish two - one sinfully easy, the other deceptively difficult - per day. (Bastards.)

But wait - just yesterday, The Marina Times tossed their August issue, expanded to 16 pages (from 10), to my doorstep. The publishers must be catching onto a reader loyalty hook: they premiered the Godzilla Sadoku  - that's right, fill in digits 1 through 9 and letters A through F in every square, row and column. Oh and there's some good local stories to boot.

Time-vaccuum puzzles aside, local media rags represent just about every neighborhood (the Potrero View, Sunset Beacon, Richmond Dispatch, Noe Valley Voice) and niche demographic (El Tecolote, The Haight Beat, Bay Area Business Woman) you could encounter in this city. And unless my eyes are deceiving me, the smaller papers are getting fatter, and their coverage is getting better. Now why is that?

Current.tv's Christoff returns from Mississippi

On MUNI's N train tonight I met Christoff from Current.tv. He was sunburned and red-eyed, having just returned from Mississippi. He was heading home from Current's headquarters, where he and his producer finished up editing two segments which will air on Current tomorrow (Wednesday.) Some tidbits he gave me in conversation on MUNI:

• He and his producer were able to drive down into storm-ravaged Mississippi in a Hertz-rented SUV. They encountered no barriers on their way down last Wednesday, yet they managed to get there three days before FEMA.
• Christoff recounted throwing up (which will be in his "pod" or tv segment) and personally seeing twelve bodies during his time there.
• The two-man reporting crew, who brought Power Bars and bottled water for themselves, gave the first bottled water to survivers they met on the trip.

That Christoff and his producer were able to rent an SUV from Hertz and just wander into this area, and be the first outsiders to greet some of Mississippi's Katrina survivors, should make for some worthwhile alternative tv news. Christoff said the segments will only be viewable on the television portion of the network, and will not be streamed online.

Author J.D. Lasica at Stacy's 12:30 Today

J.D. Lasica, blogger and journalist will signing copies of his book Darknet at Stacy's bookstore at 12:30 today.

Stacy's bookstore is at 581 Market Street. Event copied from today's SF Examiner, print edition.
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UPDATE 8/24/2005: Well he was pretty good. I asked J.D. if he knew of any movement afoot to teach 'Media Literacy' in schools, or if he found any such movement when researching his book. The subject of 'Media Literacy' could encompass anything from DRM issues, all the way to how to read a newspaper, how to differentiate an editorial from a hard news story.

Lasica said he hadn't seen any movement to teach 'Media Literacy'. In fact, he found quite the opposite: there are efforts on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA to warn young people about the legalities of copying. But there were no comprehensive educational efforts on behalf of other groups, with more balanced interests.

If anybody is interested in starting a 'media literacy' educational movement, Lasica said, they may want to contact the American Library Association. One task such a movement could kick off may be development of an online course curriculum to help teachers teach the subject to students.

James Doohan Tribute Podcast - SFGate

UPDATE 8/24/2005: Doohan Tribute podcast is here. Enjoy.

In the print edition of today's Chronicle, it says Jane Ganahl's hilarious story on the wake for Star Trek "Scotty" actor James Doohan, which took place at San Francisco pub Edinburgh Castle, has an accompanying podcast. I can't find it. In fact, the url they list in the paper, sfgate.com/blogs/podcasts, returns a 404.

And on the web edition of the story, there is no mention of a podcast anywhere. I'd like to send it my brother in New York, avid childhood Star Trek fan and often homesick for the bay area.

UPDATE 8/24/2005: Doohan Tribute podcast is here. Enjoy.
UPDATE 8/25/2005: Steve Rhodes was there, and took pictures.
UPDATE 8/26/2005: See count-dante's writup of the event. "Thursday night, Count Dante teamed up with Patrick 'Security' Burger and BDFS drummer Jim 'The Truth' Henderson to form the heavy 'Classic Trek' instrumental trio Savage Curtain and closed the rousing, whisky-soaked tribute to James Doohan aka Montgomery Scott at the Edinburgh Castle Scottish pub in San Francisco."
UPDATE 8/27/2005: My mom writes in with a little family history about this story.

Bay Area Newspapers

Ouch: Double Vision hits the SF Chronicle twice in one week: The San Francisco Chronicle had the same cover photo of an Iraqi sand storm as the New York Times on Tuesday, and shared a Cindy Sheehan story photo with the Oakland Tribune on Wednesday. If papers rely more and more on stringer photographers and wire services such as Associated Press, are there some procedures they could employ to prevent this embarrassment in the future? It seems like the press version of showing up to a cocktail party - only to discover two other guests wearing your dress :(

The San Francisco Examiner is just humming along. Today it expanded beyond a five-day-a-week paper with its Saturday-Sunday edition. Roger from A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books says there may be a weekly local Independent Bookseller's Recommendations feature. The Exam is so different from the Chronicle: it takes a hyperlocal focus on San Francisco, the city, instead of trying to cover the entire bay area; it's a service-oriented paper with "what to do in SF today" sections prominently printed inside the front flap instead of buried inside the Datebook in tiny font. As a reader, I think both papers look better when there are such contrasting alternatives to choose from. (For more on local coverage upping reader trust, see Jack Shafer's Slate piece Why I Don't Trust Readers.)

The Contra Costa Times' editor Chris Lopez keeps a blog. I highly recommend it - Lopez provides a glimpse into every day decisions at the East Bay paper, from the mundane (like a new puzzle they're adding to the Time Out section) to the tough judgement calls behind printing graphic Iraq carnage photos. Lopez constantly asks blog readers for feedback. Kudos to Lopez and the CCTimes for being a good example to the industry; that's a paper which really appears to respect blogs. Lopez gets out in front using new media to nurture reader trust by aggressively soliciting and sharing constructive criticism.
(This is quite a contrast to journalist groups lambasting papers asking for citizen input, as pointed out by Dan Gillmor, here.)

Bloggers, Journalists, Subsets and Journals

Yes, what Don Park said. I mean, duh!

Mr. Park: "This is an old popular topic but I thought I should state my opinion. I don't think bloggers are journalists."
A. Fish: A blogger is not necessarily a journalist. But since a blog is like a journal, it's safe to say bloggers ARE journalers.

Bloggers ⊄ Journalists

Mr. Park: "Journalists who maintain blogs are journalists."
A. Fish: They're journalists...AND journalers.
 

Journalists who maintain blogs ⊂ Journalists

In other words...

Bloggers who are Journalists ⊂ Journalists

CCTimes' Editor has a blog, gives story previews

Chris Lopez, editor of the Contra Costa Times, has a weblog. Last week, Lopez' post Friday's Schedule gave a day-in-the-life peek into the newspaper editor's typical tasks. Last night, Lopez blogged a scoop preview.   

Lopez' post titled That Time of Year about typical May and June stories of government budget decisions shows both cynicism and sweat: "It can get maddening, if not confusing, reading the various stories on government budget plans, and our job as editors is to challenge how the stories are being written and presented so that they are comprehensible and relevant to people's every day lives."

 

When is Grad School worth the cost?

It seems like people have an odd fixation with grad school not as a means to a successful career, but an end in itself. Another frequent pattern are people who explore a career by getting the Master's degree first, then changing their mind with piles of student loan debt. Why not just take a night class or two, or learn on the job?

A city college news writing classmate sent out a link to this article If Your J-School Knows What's Best for You, Check it Out with the comment: "This was too interesting to not share with the group. A rather disheartening perspective on J-school especially and the field of journalism in general."

East Bay is now a two-paper region

East Bay Express, a free weekly, was the only paper dedicated to the entire east bay area (East Bay Area=Contra Costa + Alameda counties). Now Knight Ridder has purchased a free daily chain from the peninsula, and launched the East Bay Daily News which is delivered "to area stores, offices, restaurants, and coffee shops. Knight Ridder plans to ramp up the circulation to 10,000 in a matter of days, according to a statement." - From Editor & Publisher.

Hearst Irony: Tabloids are the new Black

Tabloids are the new Black,
originally uploaded by afish.

(An ad for the SF Examiner, taken at an underground bart/muni station.) Papers across the country and world are converting to Tabloid format. The San Francisco Chronicle still prints on quarter-folded broadsheet.

From what I recall, "Tabloid" used to be synonomous with racy, cheeky "yellow journalism."