Patterico's Pontifications

10/13/2006

Give the L.A. Times Advice

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:02 am



The New York Times reports that the L.A. Times:

is dedicating three investigative reporters and half a dozen editors to find ideas, at home and abroad, for re-engaging the reader, both in print and online. The newspaper’s editor, Dean Baquet, and its new publisher, David Hiller, plan to convene a meeting today to start the effort, which is being called the Manhattan Project. A report is expected in about two months.

One might question why this is being reported by the New York Times, rather than the L.A. Times. In any event, Matt Welch asks at L.A. Times blog Opinion L.A.: “What should the 21st century Manhattan Project produce?”

In other words, it’s your chance to give some advice to the folks at the L.A. Times. Go over and leave some suggestions.

Be polite.

If I could give the paper only one piece of advice, it would be this: expand the web site. Open up every single story to comments and trackbacks, just like a blog post. For a paper that claims to be looking for ways to “re-engag[e]the reader,” this is a no-brainer.

The Web and interactivity are the future. Stop fighting it and embrace it. As a smart guy named Marc Danziger once said:

Transparency, respect, an interest in a mutually beneficial dialog with one’s audience. That’s the future of mass media.

Arrogance, secrecy, and a death-grip on the megaphone is the past.

Let go of the megaphone, L.A. Times editors. Let go.

28 Responses to “Give the L.A. Times Advice”

  1. Everyone in journalism is straddling the fence between old and new. At our small paper, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, moving from a monologue to a dialogue should be easier than it would for the Times. But it’s much slower than I imagined. Then again, all I’ll lose is my next paycheck if the experiment fails.

    Edward Barrera (a394ce)

  2. Name Michael Hiltzik czar of Web interactivity.

    That’s the obvious choice.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  3. Come on people, these guys are not going to change anything. They would rather sink with the ship then write fair and balanced editorials. MSM props up the Dems, to stop that would hurt the liberals big time. They know 50% of the population does not want to read their publications, it’s bias over survival to the bitter end…..

    Gingerguy (e8c778)

  4. They assigned “three investigative reporters and half a dozen editors” to this project? If their circulation (meaning: sales to people who don’t work for them) is declining, I wonder why it didn’t occur to them to seek people from outside of the company to do this work?

    They have, in effect, assigned nine people who haven’t created a product that more people want to buy to tell them how to create a product that more people will want to buy.

    Heck, were I the editor of the Times, our esteemed host is the first person I’d ask to help on this, because he has been the most notable critic of the product they have produced.

    Dana (3e4784)

  5. Dand, you have it nailed. Their agenda is much more important to them than fairness and accuracy
    (Earnings improvement).

    krusher (936813)

  6. My advice to them would be: Tell the truth…all the truth.

    Old Coot (caf903)

  7. 1) Footnote everything.

    2) When you have a ‘source’, give them a codename… and footnote.

    So an article based on a single anonymous source will stick out, and an article with 30 experts behind it will also stick out.

    PS – The live preview is ‘off’ by one character sometimes for some reason. My first line lacked a period until I had hit return and started on the next line.

    Al (2e2489)

  8. The committee should order up a bunch of life preservers and check to see that the launching davits on the lifeboats work–because the Los Angeles Times is one sinking ship.

    I frankly think that the Los Angeles Times is beyond saving–it’s sole useful function(and not very useful at that) is to print a bunch of advertising–sort of like an industrial sized Pennysaver magazine.

    It also currently provides a forum and outlet for a bunch of frustrated editorial writers who are allowed to fill the “news sections” with their blather, biases and prejudices.

    Mike Myers (541a76)

  9. Oops–sorry there “it’s” should have been “its”–maybe I can borrow some of the Times’s proof readers.

    Mike Myers (541a76)

  10. – Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase -“Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”.

    – Does anyone else find it somewhat ironic that every “forestall the inevitable” measure centers on the idea of avoiding simple plain facts and truth.

    – Maybe the fastest way to enlighten them, vis a vis their “real” problem, would be to circulate copies of the “Kings new suit” in the Editorial room.

    – Having the NY Trash “advise” the LA Trash on believability, is like having Maggie Albright negotiate arms agreements. All you’re going to end up with is a-bombs that look like basketballs.

    Big Bang Hunter (9562fb)

  11. Here are some pieces of advice I would give:

    1. Forget any pretentions towards being a national newspaper. The three hour time difference means that you can’t have a decent edition available for the East Coast, so just deal with being a regional paper.

    2. Get rid of the whole Sacramento team and start from scratch. Have someone running the show who is really interested in state politics, not just someone who wants to parlay the gig into a posting to the Washington bureau.

    3. Hire editors who are willing to challenge prima dona reporters and columnists. If something comes across as sloppy, incomplete, or biased, make them re-write it.

    4. Stop treating local issues as if Los Angeles revolves around Downtown and the Westside.

    5. Quit with this notion that “provacative” opinion somehow equates with “interesting” opinion.

    6. Have someone who is willing to be critical of the mainstream media — not just blogs, talk radio, and televison — as the media critic. This might mean that from time to time the media critic has to criticize his or her own paper (horror of horrors!).

    7. Just because the paper was antagonistic towards Latinos in the 1940s and 50s is no reason to treat the first Latino mayor in 100 years with kid gloves. Start looking critically at some of the policies of the Villaragosia Administration, especially since he will probably run for governor in 2010.

    JVW (278d62)

  12. 5. Quit with this notion that “provacative” opinion somehow equates with “interesting” opinion. – JVW

    You’re wrong. No moderate all-news cable opinion show reigns, nor ever will. “All-news cable” doesn’t really exist.

    Talk radio ended “moderate.”

    Blended positions break faith. In a candidate, they’re feebleness or some masquerade.

    We straitjacket to keep from sitting in the end zone. The view there sucks.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  13. My recommendation to the LA Times is: Sell the paper. Cut and run, take what you can get, and don’t look back.

    The guys running the LAT don’t have a chance to turn things around, old dogs don’t learn new tricks.

    Dead tree journalism has run its course, print technology’s day in the sun is over. The future belongs to electronic media, it’s faster, less expensive, and more nimble. It’s also interactive, and thus tends to be self-correcting, so errors don’t get compounded, reinforced, and become ingrained as part of a corporate culture.

    Additionally, the newspaper industry is a major ecological disaster, and has become an impediment to democracy. It’s time to face facts and let a useless and disgraceful public embarrassment die.

    Black Jack (211e83)

  14. 6. Have someone who is willing to be critical of the mainstream media — not just blogs, talk radio, and televison — as the media critic. – JVW

    Good point. Would that work like blogs name-calling rival bloggers to gin up page views?

    They might call out the “scumbags” at the San Jose Mercury-News.

    Appeal to the 6th grader in all of us.

    Speaking of which, any reservations about Michele Malkin or Ann Coulter being too “edgy” is long past.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  15. 4. Stop treating local issues as if Los Angeles revolves around Downtown and the Westside. – JVW

    Alhambrans don’t care about Long Beach schools or downtown renewal.

    LA isn’t like Chicago. Downer’s Grove and Wrigleyville are parts of the same soul.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  16. Our esteemed host suggested:

    If I could give the paper only one piece of advice, it would be this: expand the web site. Open up every single story to comments and trackbacks, just like a blog post. For a paper that claims to be looking for ways to “re-engag[e]the reader,” this is a no-brainer.

    Not sure that I agree with commenting; that becomes just white noise with something as big as the LAT. (Look at the Lost Kos: they get so many commenters, most of whom know ten nouns, five verbs and one adjective, that you can’t follow anything and it just becomes inane.) Trackbacks, on the other hand, would be a great idea: it lets people know who is commenting upon a particular article, and who is using the LAT as source material. Bloggers would be very interested, because it winds up increasing our traffic.

    Newspapers are not blogs, and shouldn’t be or try to be.

    Dana (3e4784)

  17. JVW suggested:

    3. Hire editors who are willing to challenge prima dona reporters and columnists. If something comes across as sloppy, incomplete, or biased, make them re-write it.

    5. Quit with this notion that “provacative” opinion somehow equates with “interesting” opinion.

    Absolutely the best ideas here, because they are ideas which entail a return to journalism. Sloppy writing should never be tolerated, and it is the job of the editor to make sure that junk doesn’t get by.

    As for number 5, dead on target. I’ve seen so many editorials (much more than op-ed pieces) look like they were written without anything more than a superficial acquaintence with the subject, that they were less opinion pieces than expressing the editors’ feelings about something. The editors of some papers (The Philadelphia Inquirer would be the one with which I am most familiar) write things that seem like slap-dash jobs; most don’t know how to not only present a point but answer the obvious objections at the same time. These guys have obviously never, ever, been exposed to actual debating techniques, something that anyone who engages in persuasive writing ought to understand.

    Dana (3e4784)

  18. You honestly think people talk about unsigned LAT editorials like they do marquee columnists?

    O’Reilly may refer to them and blogs lampoon them, but they don’t get Web hits.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  19. The LA Times desperatley needs to return to the good old days of covering the massive LA area and stop trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to be a national paper. No one outside of LA (certainly not outside the golden state)reads the paper. Certainly, folks on the east don’t. Focus on your community. Sorry Dean (Baquet) but the LAT will never be your ole paper, the New York Times. Stop striving to be. You will only keep failing. —MM

    Maggie May (9f387b)

  20. Old Coot (no. 6) is all any ‘news outlet’ should need to know. Do that and they will be the most read paper in the country. Continue on the same course they are on with the NYT and soon no one will read them because they will not exist.

    Scrapiron (71415b)

  21. Yes, Dana, the fact that they turn to newspaper insiders for ideas on how to save their paper illustrates perfectly the siege mentality of the liberal media. It’s the smart, superior LAT intelligentsia against the rubes, and they’ll go down fighting!

    I will save the “investigative” team a lot of time by suggesting that they simply read all their old cancellation letters.

    Patricia (2cc180)

  22. Speaking of which, any reservations about Michele Malkin or Ann Coulter being too “edgy” is long past. — Steve

    Huh?

    Alhambrans don’t care about Long Beach schools or downtown renewal. — Steve

    I’m sure they don’t. But if the LAT wants to be read by residents of Long Beach, they better report on Long Beach events from time to time. Otherwise, they will only be circulated among their ever dwindling subscriber base.

    JVW (278d62)

  23. Replace Baquet with Patterico.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  24. Nothing can say what is “wrong” about and with the LA Times better than the Times Lead article this AM. Once again propaganda masquerading as News. The LAT graciously makes sure that all illegals given all the good news about illegals are totally safe getting instructions on how to apply and receive food stamps. Totally pisses me off and it will sit inside my tiny brain til a picture of a naked super model intervenes. The money paragraph:

    The Orange County strategy has been lauded throughout the state as a way to reach immigrants who are reluctant to get help from the government.

    “They won’t come on their own,” said Jerry Sanders, food bank manager of the nonprofit Community Action Partnership of Orange County in Garden Grove. “They come from countries where they think the government isn’t to be trusted. They figure there’s a catch to free food.”

    Advocates say immigrants, if here illegally, are also worried about being deported if they apply for food stamps. Or they fear jeopardizing a pending application for residency or citizenship. Illegal immigrants can apply on behalf of their minor children here legally.”

    Isn’t that just precious? Sign me up for three year subscription, amigo.

    Howard Veit (28df94)

  25. I totally agree with you, Howard–well, except for the naked supermodel thing.

    Another pandering, moralistic, fakey revolutionary article.

    Patricia (2cc180)

  26. It should not change a thing, we need it has a topic of conversation.

    Gbear (c22f1c)

  27. […] I have suggested that the paper make a direct connection to readers through comments and trackbacks. That’s the best way to re-engage the reader. […]

    Patterico’s Pontifications » Suggestion for L.A. Times Editors: A Column from the Readers’ Representative (421107)


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