Friday, November 20, 2009

New blog added to the blogroll

I added a new blog to the blog roll today. The Medium, The Message is published by Christopher Nelson, former writer and copy editor for the N&O until he was laid off in August. Go there for good info on the newspaper business and other media, plus developments at the N&O.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nelson's blog seems to be a good one. More facts, less personal opinion. Much more thought provoking than this one.

Thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, I have deleted McClatchy Watch from my rss reader.

John Altevogt said...

Don't let the door hit ya....

Kevin Gregory said...

John this guy can't stop himself from checking in several times a day and posting comments.

Anonymous said...

I know.

Go to Lavender Disease Clinic, check M-Watch, repeat

Anonymous said...

8:33. Great. Don't want to have a new thought, do you?
Like most of the liberals, you hide behind hate and lies.

Anonymous said...

Quoting Anonymous 8:33 PM:
"I have deleted McClatchy Watch from my rss reader."

Yet you're still posting comments at McClatchy Watch.

Translation: I am the same kind of mindless dolt that's playing an integral part in running what's left of this shit hole company known as MNI into the ground.

Let me guess, you're the typical prototype MNI 60-something-year-old moron who can't even tell me what an RSS reader is because like all MNI hotshots at the top, you are clueless as to what works and what doesn't when it comes to online and the internet, which is why MNI is in the position it's in today.

Conclusion: You're a mindless MNI dolt.

Anonymous said...

7:02
Interesting retort to 8:33. I work in the media business (not MNI) and like to keep up on what out there. 8:33 might be exactly how you describe.

However, when you say "you are clueless as to what works and what doesn't when it comes to online and the internet", you don't say what does work or what MNI does wrong.

I'd like to hear what you think on both those accounts as you seem to insinuate that you know.

Anonymous said...

TO: 8:23

Before I even go a little into why I believe this, all you need to do is look at the MNI newspaper web sites. They are something out of the early 1990s and are entirely 10-15 years behind all around. They are entirely prehistoric. And I do mean entirely.

Just a few things off the top of my head.

The online world is immediate. It's now. It has changed drastically, especially the last 5 years, and will continue to do so. I don't need to tell YOU this, but MNI doesn't understand this FACT and they are still trying to catch up from 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 years ago, let alone the changes from the last 5 years. It's like tossing a cat with one leg onto a fast-moving treadmill.

They do not understand the concept and crucial importance of visuals and the importance of interactivity.

Despite the FACT, yes it's a FACT, that all online numbers improve exponentially with commenting as a feature on columns, stories and links, you've still got employees at the very top, and of course locally within, bickering on whether or not commenting works because God forbid you put your readership's commenting alongside the content of the journalists.

Same goes for the photos and reader-submitted content. This company simply does not embrace the value of the community content and that the community has a voice.

The company's internal content management program/system they are using is something worse than I was using in 1992. From what I understand, their internal developers had been instructed to create something new, but like the mindless morons at the top that are running things, they wanted to create it in-house, as opposed to going outside and having a vendor do it for them. After spending at least 18 months on the initial in-house development stages, it was scrapped. So almost two years of wasted time and resources on developing something that they could have just gotten from a vendor instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, only to scrap the plans anyway. Again, this is the MNI mindset.

I worked within the company for the most miserable 2 1/2 years of my life, following 18 years of online background with major, private and public companies (admittedly none of it before was in the newspaper industry).

They simply do not get it. They are too thickheaded to change the mindset and it will be too late before it's realized. During my short cup of coffee there, I left there knowing that I tried my best to get them to "get it" but they just didn't. Surprise!

Fortunately, I think they're just about realizing it. Unfortunately for those remaining and for the company as a whole, it's my belief that they're probably about 5-7 years too late to even have a chance.

Shortly after I left the company, I returned to my prior employer, a company that's always been successful, a company I should have never left (which I realized thanks to MNI), and a company that "gets it" as far as the online world and how to treat its employees.

The mindset at MNI is prehistoric, they are playing "catch-up" like you wouldn't believe, and not just at the local level either, although the local level leadership makes the top-level leadership look like geniuses - imagine that?!

I can assure you that unless there has been some drastic changes at the very top and local levels (at the top), which I don't believe there has been since I've been there, MNI doesn't have a prayer when it comes to online.

My opinion, but one I'd put a lot of money on.

Anonymous said...

So why don't you actually put your money on it and short the stock?

Anonymous said...

No need to put money on it, the train wreck is a treat to watch from the sidelines already.

What's very telling though is that I'm not seeing a single person come to the defense of McClatchy after reading 7:02's and 9:46's comments.

Could it be because they're 100 percent accurate?