Newspapers as "hard copy"

The newspaper lexicon is changing as print struggles to survive — in some form or other.

The Portland Tribune is now calling itself a "daily newspaper” even though the daily edition is entirely on-line.

Paper has nothing to do with The Tribune as a "daily newspaper.” And if more editorial staffers are cut, neither will news.

What was once called its newspaper, printed on real paper, is now called “hard copy” and appears only on Thursdays. Free in green distribution boxes, such a publication was referred to as a "free-distribution" weekly newspaper.

“Hard copy,” on the other hand, was what came out of reporters' typewriters when they finished writing. The reporters gave it to a “copy boy” who would take it to the "copy desk," and eventually a “copy editor.” It never got to the street as “copy.”

With the arrival of the computer, "hard copy" was a print-out of what was on the screen. Often mistakes that eluded writers and editors on the screen, jumped out at them on hard copy. They still do.

Now, courtesy of the Tribune, we all can read “hard copy,” presumably without mistakes. Tribune “hard copy” is available at in those ubiquitous “Hard Copy” boxes.

But I doubt that the boxes will be around much longer. I give them and "hard copy" five years — tops.

Stone throwing — as predicted

Steve Clark was right about Willamette Week throwing stones at Clark's front page puff piece last week about his Portland Tribune going “daily” — on the web.

The Willies went wild with Clark's verbal dance about big changes at the Tribune, where he is president and publisher.

The contrast in tone speaks volumes about the two publications. One is comfortable with itself and where it is in the new Media World. “Smug” might be a better word.

The other is tentative, defensive and spin-prone.

If you read Willamette Week’s snide deconstruction of Clark’s “story,” you’ll figure out which is which.

None of which gets to the issues that both publications must face as print vanishes from the scene. I wrote about some of them in an earlier post.

On the web, every news site is just another URL that has to prove itself.

And pay for it.

For the record, I've bookmarked both sites. Which is more than I can say for The Oregonian, which still comes to my driveway. Old habits die hard.

The Tribune's tricky transition

Trick question time.

The Portland Tribune has:

A) gone from publishing twice a week to being a weekly (published on Thursdays)

B) become a daily

Tribune publisher and president Steve Clark wants us to believe both A) and B) are true.

Last Friday, Clark, top executive of Robert Pamplin Jr’s Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers, wrote a front-page article titled “Tribune announces changes.”

As it appeared on the page, readers might have mistaken it for a news story, but fully the first half turned out to be corporate puffery. Clark’s by-line came at the end. The piece should have been labeled “Publisher’s note,” “To our readers” or some such.

The news describing the “changes” mentioned in the headline appeared in the seventh paragraph after the jump inside the paper.

Moreover, Clark seemed on the defensive. Why else would he take bloggers to task for being prone to “vitriolic negativity” about the Tribune? Why would he feel compelled to anticipate the Willamette Week would “throw stones”?

That said, beyond my critique of the slant and tone of his announcement, Clark won’t find any “negativity” from me, vitriolic or otherwise.

(Disclosure time: You need to know that I am paid by Clark’s Community Newspapers for a column I write in the monthly Southwest Community Connection. I founded The Connection but sold it to Clark nine years ago.)

I agree with Clark that the Tribune has become a valued journalistic asset to Portland. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it has all the virtues he attributes to it in his announcement. It certainly has many of them.

Clark and Pamplin, like so many in the newspaper business, are migrating to the Web, by degrees. Friday’s announcement marks a major leg in the baggage-laden journey. Part of the baggage is the vocabulary of journalism. A key and burdensome word is “daily.” Is an on-line website that tracks breaking news really a “daily”?

It is, but only if readers turn to it each day, as nearly every literate adult once turned to daily newspapers.

Reading habits aren’t so easily transferable from print to computer. For one thing, the competition for attention on-line is intense and wildly distracting. Moreover, the entire on-line medium is in flux. Is a newspaper site going to become a portal to video images and audio feeds? Will moving images simply overwhelm the printed word? What happens to “journalistic objectivity” in the process? (Look to cable TV news for one answer — it tanks. Cue the celebrities! Roll the violent footage! Run the gotcha sound bite!)

The other question mark is revenue. Clark’s decision to drop the Tribune's Tuesday edition cuts distribution and printing costs. But producing an on-line daily, by rights, should increase editorial costs. All Clark says in his announcement is “…we will employ fewer people in some departments.”

He had the chance to say which departments, but he conspicuously didn’t. Specifically, is he cutting editorial? If he were adding reporters — as he should to fill the news hole — he has every reason to tell us.

Reading between the lines we can conclude that the cost cutting on the production/distribution side isn’t going to free up enough revenue to bolster news coverage. The decline in advertising revenue in print isn’t offset by an increase of on-line ad revenue.

That’s the problem plaguing the industry — and journalism in general.

The question we as citizen-readers need to ask is whether the changes will leave us better or worse informed about the world around us.

I believe that, taken as a whole, the changes have the potential to leave us far better off, but only if — and it is a big “if” — we, as readers, take responsibility for seeking out the best, most trustworthy information available.

The journalist’s job is to make it available — and get paid a living wage for the work.

Dwight "Burgerville" Jaynes to the rescue!

Dwight Jaynes is so okay with the Portland Public Schools selling naming rights in exchange for big corporate donations that he’s willing to transform his alma mater, Cleveland High, into “Burgerville High.”

No kidding.

Hyperbole aside, in today's Portland Tribune, Jaynes lauds the Portland School Board’s decision earlier this week to allow the school superintendent free rein in turning over display space at gyms, and any other school facility for that matter, to corporate logos and advertising in exchange for cash. The board's policy is no policy.

As I wrote earlier, those of us in the Coalition for Commercial Free Schools maintain that corporate donations should be acknowledged with simple, one-time recognition and perhaps an unobtrusive plaque. The real reward for the corporations should be an educated work force and citizenry. That’s not a gift but an investment.

In short, the school board desperately needs a policy.

Jaynes, in his sports column in today’s Portland Tribune, says “Baloney” to our views. Apparently he wants the public schools to sell off and transform the public’s facilities into billboards rather than lobby for stable school-funding reform.

You can read more about the sane approach to school funding at Steve Rawley’s blog, More Hockey Less War.

“Burgerville High” huh?

How about this, Dwight, since names mean so little to you, why don’t you and the Tribune cut a deal with the school district on behalf of dear old Burgerville High?

Rumor has it that the school’s locker room toilets could use some serious plumbing work. In exchange for a corporate and personal donation to fix the pipes, you could have your face, as it appears with your column, and the Tribune logo on the inside of toilet stall doors.

Talk about a captive audience.

But why stop there? Sell off your own prominent and hence commercially valuable name to Burgerville, the company, and give the money to Burgerville High.

Henceforth, the former Dwight Jaynes shall be known as “Burgerville Jaynes.”

Editorial blind spots

Editorial writing is, by definition, critical, but that doesn’t mean it is beyond criticism.

I’ve written a few editorials in my time. Among the craft's many challenges are word limits and establishing focus.

But focus and brevity shouldn’t result in tunnel vision.

Two examples:

Yesterday’s issue of The Portland Tribune carries an editorial titled “City needs new naming process.” The editorial board worried over whether Interstate Avenue should be renamed for César Chavez, as some in the Hispanic community have argued.

Why not name some parks after Chavez? the editorial board proposed.

The editorial concluded with these words: “Any naming — or renaming — of public places in Portland should help to better define and build a sense of community, while also serving to hone the contributions of worthy individuals. The city of Portland should have a renaming process that serves these goals better than it does today.”

The big blind spot in the editorial is the city’s selling of naming rights. How can an editorial address the “naming” issue without at least considering the decision to rename Civic Stadium “PGE Park.” And what about the other naming rights the city’s parks bureau is geared up to sell?

Hello?

Second example:

In today’s Oregonian, an editorial urges rapid implementation of the State’s stiffer physical education requirements in the schools. The goal is to address “our childhood obesity epidemic.” Twenty-five percent of Oregon’s eighth graders are “overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, and that rate is on the rise,” the editorial notes.

Then the editorial goes on to say that the new PE law “is only the first step.” And what is the next step? More money for PE and pressuring school boards to implement the program.

End of discussion.

What the editorial writers fail to address is the four to five hours each day that the average child spends in front of screens. During those hours, children expend zero calories and are enticed to eat calorie-laden junk food — a huge contributor to childhood obesity and early on-set diabetes.

It’s fine to bulk up PE in the schools, but the average public school graduate will have spent more time in front of television than in the classroom — including the PE classroom.

Fighting childhood obesity begins at home, but you’d never know it reading the editorial.

Will voters take newspapers' advice and vote for Adkins?

Ruth Adkins, my choice for Portland School Board from our Zone #1, has won endorsements from every major paper: The Oregonian, The Portland Tribune, The Portland Mercury and Willamette Week.

That's a remarkable feat given that she is running against an incumbent, Doug Morgan, who is no slouch. Where Ruth beats Doug is in her passion to involve communities in decision-making and to keep neighborhood schools open.

With a bean-counter's outlook, Doug backed Portland Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips in shutting them down during his tenure.

So now we will find out just what all those endorsements are worth. They can't hurt, but just how much will they help?

One other note about Ruth, who is a Hillsdale neighbor. She was an organizer of our Friday evening peace vigils at Sunset Boulevard and Capitol Highway. And while she could have been out knocking on doors for her campaign these past few weeks, she has reserved Friday evenings to be with us with her anti-war placard in hand.

Hers is to the point. It reads,"NO!"

She knows that money spent on war is money diverted from real social needs, like quality schools.

Her anti-war stance is another reason to vote "YES!" for Ruth.