News Friday

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_qz.htm

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First do the News Friday - if you finish that, make sure I have your movie review, the webquest results and the three questions from Wednesday's work.
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NEWS FRIDAY FORMAT

Journalism
Name____________________________________
News Friday


Directions:

§ Each Friday you will complete this in class.

§ You will read your headline first, then your lede. Then tell what kind of lede it is, tell why you chose the story, and then summarize your response to the story. Also, be prepared to answer questions about your story if others in the class ask them.

§ Don't choose from “News in Brief” or similar abbreviated or summarized news stories; choose a full-sized news story. Also, do not choose features, editorials or sports. You may print news stories from the Internet or cut them from newspapers, of course.

§ Fill out this sheet completely. The assignment includes a presentation and the completed work sheet. If you do not have this assignment completed the day we talk about the news in class, you can not earn any points for it. If you are absent on a News Friday day, turn in this sheet as soon as you return.





1. As a reader, what makes this story newsworthy? Explain.









2. Write the lede of the story. What kind of lede is it?





3. Does the lede attribute information to a source? If so, what is the source?





4. Is your lead 30 words or less? If not, explain the reason it’s longer (in your opinion).





5. Basically, what is this story about? Give the main facts:











6. Respond to the story: how does it make you feel, what do you think about it, how does it affect you or someone you know etc. Your response should be about 50 words.

Do Now and Watergate webquest!!!!

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_p.htm


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Tomorrow we will begin the movie All The President's Men. It will take 2-3 class periods. Before we view the film I'd like you to have a little better understanding of the events of Watergate and the impact it had on investigative journalism.

Step 1. Got to this website.

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webquests/stoppress/index.html


Step 2. Click the link for Introduction and read it.


Step 3. Click the link for Task and read it.

Step 4. Read the Process.

This is the link for the chart you will be completing. All of your research will halp you fill in the chart.

It is in the Process page - called Watergate Supplemental Chart.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Do Now and Watergate info.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Do Now

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_f.htm

Do Now and News Friday!!!

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_de.htm


NEWS FRIDAY FORMAT

Journalism
Name____________________________________
News Friday


Directions:

§ Each Friday you will complete this in class.

§ You will read your headline first, then your lede. Then tell what kind of lede it is, tell why you chose the story, and then summarize your response to the story. Also, be prepared to answer questions about your story if others in the class ask them.

§ Don't choose from “News in Brief” or similar abbreviated or summarized news stories; choose a full-sized news story. Also, do not choose features, editorials or sports. You may print news stories from the Internet or cut them from newspapers, of course.

§ Fill out this sheet completely. The assignment includes a presentation and the completed work sheet. If you do not have this assignment completed the day we talk about the news in class, you can not earn any points for it. If you are absent on a News Friday day, turn in this sheet as soon as you return.





1. As a reader, what makes this story newsworthy? Explain.









2. Write the lede of the story. What kind of lede is it?





3. Does the lede attribute information to a source? If so, what is the source?





4. Is your lead 30 words or less? If not, explain the reason it’s longer (in your opinion).





5. Basically, what is this story about? Give the main facts:











6. Respond to the story: how does it make you feel, what do you think about it, how does it affect you or someone you know etc. Your response should be about 50 words.

Do Now

Do Now


http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_c.htm

Do Now and classwork

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/confusables/confusable_b.htm

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Write your Movie Review!

By the end of this period you must have your first three paragraphs written in rough draft form!!!!!!!!!

Opening: Catch the Reader's Attention
Think about how advertisements sell movies: "trailers" show you a few seconds of the movie to get you interested.

When you begin your movie review, make your own "trailer." If you liked the movie, then your trailer should make people want to see it; but if you didn't like it, the trailer should be something that shows why you didn't like it. Don't explain why you liked it or didn't like it; make the reader like or not like the movie by what you describe. Begin your review by retelling an incident or moment from the movie which you think captures the spirit of the movie as you understood it.

Alternative: Begin your review with another kind of story or interesting fact--about one of the star actors, or about the making of the movie, or about the director.

Second Paragraph: Take Care of Business

Near the beginning of the review, you have to tell the reader all the obligatory stuff--the title of the movie, the director, the studio, the main actors, the year it was made (if you watched it on video), the rating. This paragraph tells the reader the things they have to know about the movie. Also, in one sentence or two, you should explain very simply what the movie is all about--not necessarily what happens, but that might work, too, if you can say it in one two sentences.

Third Paragraph: Character and plot summary

What happens in the movie? You shouldn't tell everything that happens--and especially not the ending. But you want to summarize the basic plot of the movie, in more detail than you do in the paragraph above.

One way to do this might be to write a sentence about each main character.

Fourth Paragraph: A Key Moment or Idea

In this paragraph, go into detail about something important that interested you about the movie. If it was a musical, you should say something about the songs. Or if the soundtrack was good, talk about that. Or write more about one character who was really intriguing. Or retell another big moment from the movie and explain why it is important. If you think the "idea" behind a movie was really interesting, explain that idea and talk about it a little bit. In this paragraph, you must go into depth about the movie.

Fifth Paragraph: Evaluate the Movie
Do you recommend it or not? Who will like it (kids or adults)? The most important thing here is that you must also explain why you are making your recommendation.

You must justify your opinion--and that opinion should grow out of what you write in the rest of the review. Give at least two reasons why you liked or didn't like the movie.

Do Now for Thursday April 30

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/subjectverb/subjectverb_01.htm

Do Now and Webquest questions.

Do Now


http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/AP1/ap_b1.htm

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Webquest questions.

1. What is environmental journalism?

2. Why is it important?

3. Find two articles that are environmental journalism and in 10 lines explain their importance/impact.

4. If you could write an environmental article, what would you write about and why?
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Environmental websites

Grist

Orion Magazine

Society of Environmental Journalists

Center for Environmental Journalism

Do Now and Politcal Cartoon link

Do Now.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/AP1/ap_a.htm


POLITICAL CARTOONS

Political cartoon link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15654769

Then click the link to the slideshow for 'The Year in Cartoons'

Look over these political cartoons and answer these questions in your notebook.

* Can you make any connections between what is shown and actual historical events or situations that are being depicted by the cartoonist?

* What purpose do political cartoons serve in journalism today?

* What is a political cartoon and how do they differ from comics?

* What are the elements of political cartoons?

* What can political cartoons teach use about the presidents of the U.S.?

* What is the media trying to communicate by using political cartoon

* Are political cartoons persuasive?

Do Now

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/AP1/ap_a3.htm

Do Now.

Do Now and Article link

Do Now
http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/AP1/


NYTime Article for today

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/a-coffin-a-flag-a-photograph/?scp=1&sq=dover%20air%20force%20base&st=cse

DO NOW - April 7th

AP Style exercises

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/AP1/ap_a1.htm

Do now and the article for Monday 4/6

Do Now
http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom071.htm


Article.
http://poynteronline.org/content/content_view.asp?id=55742&sid=32

Who and Whom

Do Now
http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/whowhom10.htm

This is a good article to help you understand when to use who or whom.

The Rule

“Who” is clearly the subject and “whom” is clearly the object.

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NEWS FRIDAY FORMAT

Journalism Name____________________________________
News Fridays


Directions:

§ On selected Fridays, bring this completed assignment to class.

§ You will read your headline first, then your lede. Then tell what kind of lede it is, tell why you chose the story, and then summarize your response to the story. Also, be prepared to answer questions about your story if others in the class ask them.

§ Glue your news story on the back. You may not choose from “News in Brief” or similar abbreviated or summarized news stories; choose a full-sized news story. Also, do not choose features, editorials or sports. You may print news stories from the Internet or cut them from newspapers, of course.

§ Fill out this sheet completely. The assignment is both oral and to be turned in and is worth 25 points. If you do not have this assignment done on the day we talk about the news in class, you can not earn any points for it. If you are absent on a News Friday day, turn in this sheet as soon as you return.





1. As a reader, which news determinant is most applicable to you? Explain your choice.









2. Circle the lede in your story. What kind of lede is it?





3. Does the lede attribute information to a source? If so, what is the source?





4. Is your lead 30 words or less? If not, explain the reason it’s longer (in your opinion).





5. Basically, what is this story about? Give the main facts:











6. Respond to the story: how does it make you feel, what do you think about it, how does it affect you or someone you know etc. Your response should be about 50 words.

April 2 - Journalistic Scenarios

Assume you are the editor of the student newspaper. Write Yes or No on whether or not you would run the story. Then write five lines defending your answer. Be prepared to discuss your answers in class.

Story:
The school is capping the attendance of students at 5 days a semester.

A student was assaulted in the rest room at your school.

An article containing "profane" words.

An editorial saying the principal is incompetent and should be fired.

An editorial calling for a one-day boycott of classes.

An article rating the teachers from best to worst.

A review of an NC-17 rated movie.

An advertisement for cigarettes.

The Homecoming assembly was delayed because one of the finalists was nervous and threw up.

The acting in the school play was very poor.

A student was suspended for drinking at a school dance.

Do Now - Tuesday 3/31

Do Now editing exercises.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom_051_055_review.htm

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TASK for TODAY!
BIAS in the media. Part 2.

Sir Sam Steps Down!

Hughes Fired From Cabinet.

Last names that begin with letter A-S read the first article. Last names beginning with T-Z read the second.
When finished, jot down a list of words that would describe Hughes, based on the information in front of you.

Do Now -Thursday 3/26

DO NOW

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom061.htm

Tuesday. March 24th.

DO NOW.http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroomall.htm

NY Post opinion page.

NYTimes opinion page.

Baltimore Sun opinion page.

Washington Post opinion page.

Newsday opinion page.

Case Study

Seattle Post Intelligencer
http://www.seattlepi.com/

Read This (From the Huffington Post)

SEATTLE — Patrick Sheldon has been a loyal reader of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer since 1965, when his dad started buying it because he preferred its sports coverage to that of rival Seattle Times.

Will he continue being a loyal reader, now that the P-I exists only as a Web site? Like many of the paper's customers, he says it depends on who writes and what they cover.

"If it's just bloggers, I probably won't," he said, sitting on a ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle.

After 146 years, the P-I's final edition rolled off the presses Tuesday, but a skeleton crew remained in the cavernous newsroom to take part in a journalistic experiment: whether a major newspaper can make money, and consistently produce good stories, as an Internet-only operation. It's the first major U.S. daily paper to switch from print to digital, a step that the P-I's parent company, Hearst Corp., took after it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper.

Seattlepi.com on Tuesday featured many of the same articles that appeared in the final edition, including somber remembrances of days gone by. But it also offered a glimpse of what the site will look like once the content produced by the full staff vanishes, including breaking news updates from crime and political reporters, columns by Seattle luminaries such as U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott and about 150 blogs by readers. Some marquee names, including columnist Joel Connelly and cartoonist David Horsey, will remain on staff, while sports columnists Art Thiel and Jim Moore will freelance for the Web site.

The final edition sold quickly; The Seattle Times, which handled nonnews functions for the P-I under a joint operating agreement that dated to 1983, printed three times as many P-Is as usual. At First and Pike News, in Pike Place Market, the final P-I sold out by 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, even though the newsstand had 600 copies delivered instead of the usual 50. Liberal radio talk show host Ron Reagan, the son of the late president, showed up to buy one for his producer, who lives in New York.

"It's a sad day, but I guess that's the way things go," he said.

Sen. Patty Murray eulogized the paper on the Senate floor, crediting its investigative reporting as the reason she introduced legislation to ban asbestos and to boost the number of FBI agents in the region.

"At the end of the day, newspapers aren't just another business," she said. "For generations, newspaper reporters have been the ones who have done the digging, sat through the meetings and broken the hard stories."

At the P-I, laid-off reporters continued clearing out their desks. Some were still suffering after a night of hard drinking when they showed up Tuesday for their exit interviews.

Among those most skeptical about whether seattlepi.com can thrive with an editorial staff of 20 _ about 130 fewer than the print edition had _ are those who lost their jobs.

"You cannot kill a newsroom and still cover news; we didn't have enough people to cover everything that deserved coverage as it was!" reporter Debera Harrell wrote in a forum for P-I employees at the Columbia Journalism Review's Web site. "In an era where Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie's breastfeeding earn the most hits off our website, maybe real journalists are not needed."

"A staff of 20 can't cover what over 150 reporters and editors covered for the print product," former assistant managing editor Janet Grimley agreed.

Several of the laid-off workers are exploring the idea of creating their own news Web site, possibly in partnership with Seattle public television station KCTS.

The remaining P-I employees say they know what they're up against.

"Seattlepi.com will continue to cover city hall, crime, courts, real estate, development, education, transportation and more," executive producer Michelle Nicolosi wrote in a letter to readers. "I hope you'll pardon our dust for the next few weeks as we launch our new digital news and information Web site."

NYTimes Op-Ed column today

Reply with your thoughts.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/opinion/19kristof.html

The Comma. Wednesday 3/18

First comma exercise. http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/sentences/fragments01.htm

Second comma exercise.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/grammar/comma/seriescomma01.htm

Today's task - Tuesday March 17th.

The hyphen.
We all overuse it, so today we'll work on understanding the correct use of it!

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/hyphens_all.htm

The First Amendment

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

* Free exercise of religion
* Freedom of speech
* Freedom of the Press
* Freedom to peaceably assembly
* Right to petition

Step 1. Select one of the five freedoms

Step 2. Write what you think this particular freedom means, and provide examples

Step 3. Explain to class.

Today's task - Starting our newspaper.

Go here, click the link to the 'primer' and read pages 3-5 and 7-8.


Then visit these high school newspapers websites to answer the questions on the board.

The HiLite

StogaNews

The Falcon

Mr. S

Newsworthy Qualities

Newsworthy Qualities

• Prominence: How well known are the people involved in the story? If the people involved are well known to local readers, or are well known on a national level, readers will be more interested in the news. Think about how things celebrities do are often big news, but if you or your neighbors did the same thing it probably wouldn't be news at all. That’s prominence at work.

• Proximity: Location, location, location. If the event is happening close by, it will impact local readers more than if it is happening across town, or across the world. Watch a local newscast when a tragedy or disaster strikes. Chances are they'll mention if any local people were killed or injured. That’s proximity.

• Timeliness: If something is happening NOW, it has more impact than something that happened yesterday or last week. No one wants to read old news, so start off with the newest development to keep readers interested.

• Oddity/Uniqueness: Think Weekly World News and Ripley's Believe it or Not. If something is unusual, the oddity alone can make it newsworthy, because people want to know why it has happened.

• Consequence: An event or decision with consequence is one that will affect readers' lives in some way. The bigger the impact, the more readers will want to know about it. That's why big businesses laying off workers, construction projects that will cause detours and traffic slowdowns, distracted driving laws, and food recalls are news -- they will make a difference in people's lives, and they need to know how they will be affected.

• Human interest: Human-interest stories appeal to reader's emotions. They may make a reader happy, nostalgic, sad, angry or sympathetic.

Thursday's Do Now

Subject verb agreement.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/subjectverb/subjectverb_01.htm

When you get to screen and it asks you to input an email address please put mine in. asherwood@schools.nyc.gov

Mr. S

March 4 do now.

DO NOW!

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom_011_015_review.htm

March 3rd - Punctuation for News stories.

Go here and take the quiz. Remember to write down the rules for incorrect answers


http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/grammar/punct1.htm

Mr. S

Today's 'Do Now'

Go to the Newsroom101 website and complete this exercise.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom002.htm

REMEMBER TO WRITE DOWN THE RULE FOR EACH INCORRECT ANSWER - WE WILL HAVE A QUIZ TOMORROW THAT INCLUDES EXAMPLES VERY SIMILAR TO BOTH OF THE EXERCISES YOU'VE DONE THIS WEEK.

Mr. S

Videos for news story -

CNN's videos on plane crash.

Now, using the format from the news story handout write a complete news story.

February 24. Style and editing.

Go to the Newsroom 101 website.

You may have to copy and past the link into the web browser.

http://www.newsroom101.com/NR_exercises/newsroom001.htm

In your notebook write the rule given for the correct answers.

Different ways to cover the same news story.

Today we will talk about how different newspapers cover the same story. You will be reading a story that was written by just about every newspaper in America, and you will be commenting on the differences between 3 newspapers' coverage.

First read the NYTimes version here.

Next, read Newsday's version of the same story here.

Lastly, read USA Today's version here.

After you've done this, create a T-chart in your notebook comparing the coverage of each newspaper.

NYTimes Newsday USA Today

How are the
leads different?

What type of quotes
are included?

Reading difficulty.

Today's assignment - 2/13

Writing a news article.

Go to this video and wait to play it until I say.


After viewing the clip 2 times, you will begin to fill out the inverted pyramid sheet. This will be turned into your first news article.

Good luck!

How to Write a News Story.

Here's something very few people realize: Writing news stories isn't particularly difficult. It does take practice and not everyone will be an expert but if you follow the guidelines below you should be able to create effective news items without too much stress.

The Five "W"s and the "H"
This is the crux of all news - you need to know five things:

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.

For example, if you wish to cover a story about a local sports team entering a competition you will need to answer these questions:

Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?
What sport do they play? What is the competition?
Where is the competition? Where is the team normally based?
When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors?
Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all?
How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?

The Inverted Pyramid
This refers to the style of journalism which places the most important facts at the beginning and works "down" from there. Ideally, the first paragraph should contain enough information to give the reader a good overview of the entire story. The rest of the article explains and expands on the beginning.

A good approach is to assume that the story might be cut off at any point due to space limitations. Does the story work if the editor only decides to include the first two paragraphs? If not, re-arrange it so that it does.

The same principle can apply to any type of medium.

More Tips
It's About People
News stories are all about how people are affected. In your sports story, you might spend some time focusing on one or more individuals, or on how the team morale is doing, or how the supporters are feeling.
Have an Angle
Most stories can be presented using a particular angle or "slant". This is a standard technique and isn't necessarily bad - it can help make the purpose of the story clear and give it focus. Examples of angles you could use for your sports story:
"Team Tackles National Competition"
"Big Ask for First-Year Coach"
"Local Team in Need of Funds"
Keep it Objective
You are completely impartial. If there is more than one side to the story, cover them all. Don't use "I" and "me" unless you are quoting someone. Speaking of quoting...
Quote People
For example: "We're really excited about this competition," says coach Bob Dobalina, "It's the highest target we've ever set ourselves".
Don't Get Flowery
Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Don't use lots of heavily descriptive language. When you've finished, go through the entire story and try to remove any words which aren't completely necessary.
Now look at this

Battle Plans for Newspapers NYTimes

See original article here.

February 10, 2009, 12:15 am
Battle Plans for Newspapers
By The Editors

(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Virtually every newspaper in America has gone through waves of staff layoffs and budget cuts as advertisers and subscribers have marched out the door, driven by the move to the Web and, more recently, the economic crisis.

In some cities, midsized metropolitan papers may not survive to year’s end. The owners of the Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer have warned that those papers could shut down if they can’t find buyers soon. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis recently filed for bankruptcy. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News will soon stop home delivery four days of the week to cut operating costs. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers in this country, recently said it would require most of its 31,000 employees to take a week of unpaid leave.

What survival strategies should these dailies adopt? If some papers don’t survive, how will readers get news about the local school board or county executive?


Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia Journalism School Joel Kramer, editor of MinnPost.com Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer magazine Geneva Overholser, Annenberg School of Journalism Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.org Andrew Keen, author Edward M. Fouhy, founding editor of Stateline.org Rick Rodriguez, former editor of The Sacramento Bee
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Define What Will Be Lost
Nicholas Lemann is dean of the Columbia University Journalism School.

In many cities, newspaper readers are already seeing a much thinner, less complete paper than the one they used to read a few years ago. On the future-of-journalism conference circuit, one often hears that this situation fundamentally imperils the Founders’ vision of how American democracy ought to work.

This is too facile. For one thing, in the days when the First Amendment was drafted there wasn’t much journalistic reporting (according to most historians of journalism, the first modern reporter’s interview didn’t take place until 1859).

Be precise about the social function we need to strengthen, and creative and non-doctrinaire about how to strengthen it.
The Founders were probably thinking about printed political arguments when they wrote about freedom of the press. For another, until a few decades ago most big-city newspaper reporters did work more like Hildy Johnson’s in “The Front Page” than like Woodward and Bernstein’s during Watergate. For another, not everything that appears in a newspaper is information you can’t get anywhere else.

So there are two ways to look at the problem. The first is to assume that the way to shore up newsgathering is to shore up newspapers, since the daily paper in most cities is the organization with with the largest staff of reporters and editors.

This can be done in a variety of ways, some involving pure business strategy (charging for content on newspaper Web sites, establishing new sources of revenue, cutting production and distribution costs) and some involving enlisting the help of outsiders. Nonprofit organizations like ProPublica, for example, have started to provide free content to newspapers on subjects they care about.

Alternatively, the gap in independent reporting on matters of public importance left by ailing newspapers could be filled by other organizations. They might be new, Web-based news services, like GlobalPost, or local news organizations, like MinnPost in Minneapolis, or beefed-up versions of existing entities other than newspapers: radio and television stations, alternative weeklies, magazines.

What’s essential right now is that we be precise about the social function we need to strengthen, and creative and non-doctrinaire about how to strengthen it. Reporting does not happen automatically — it takes time, money, and training. It needs a support system. The best local newspapers have been a pretty good one for a generation or two. They may not be any longer.


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Fewer Readers, Paying More
Joel Kramer is chief executive and editor of MinnPost.com. He was editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 1983 to 1991 and publisher and president from 1992 to 1998.

Given the sharp decline in what advertisers will pay to reach eyeballs, I don’t know if there is a way for high-quality journalism to be profitable any more, especially locally. Shifting to the Internet saves costs, but because of the low barrier to entry in Web publishing, the ads sell at a fraction of what print still commands. Meanwhile, readers who paid pocket change for their daily paper, and their children who never paid for a paper, want their news to be free.

That’s why I’ve started a regional journalism Web site based on a not-for-profit model. MinnPost.com sells ads and sponsorships, but much of our revenue comes from annual donations from people who care about serious news coverage of Minnesota. Serious journalism is a community asset, not just a consumer good, and people (and foundations) should support it, as they support museums. We’ll see if that argument persuades enough people.

Publish a newspaper worth $2 a day, the price of a cup of coffee, and $5 on Sunday — and raise the quality.
I do think there is a strategy that might keep a high-quality regional newspaper modestly profitable in the future: Rely much more on revenue from readers. Publish a newspaper worth $2 a day, the price of a cup of coffee, and $5 on Sunday. Raise the quality. Make it more in-depth, more analytical, to complement the immediacy of your free Web site, and do not make that deeper, more insightful coverage available for free on the web. Perhaps make the printed product a tailored mix of sections that appeal to different readers: For $2, you get to pick, say, four sections out of six.

Obviously, circulation would drop. A newspaper that sold 400,000 copies at 50 cents daily and $1.25 on Sunday might sell only 100,000 at four times the price. But there would be a business incentive to keep quality high, because each extra copy sold should increase profit, not subtract from it.

There would still be ads, and the selling proposition would be attractive — here is an audience that really cares about what we’re delivering. But the business would be much less advertising-dependent.

Would this work? I don’t know. I think it has a better chance than going Web-only and charging for the content, and a much better chance than trying to become profitable through Web advertising only. It certainly beats just wringing your hands and cutting staff every year.


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‘Culture of Free’ Is Suicide
Steven Brill founded The American Lawyer magazine, Court TV and Brill’s Content. He is chief executive of Clear-Verified Identity Pass, the fast pass for airport security, and teaches journalism seminars at Yale College and Yale Law School.

For big or small newspapers and most other forms of quality content, there has never been a business model that was not partly supported by readers paying for it. Of course, there are free shoppers, but regional newspapers have always competed effectively against them because advertisers know that readers of freebies are not nearly as engaged in those freebies as they are in the publications that they pay for.

With the current model of free online content, newspapers have essentially turned themselves into shoppers — but, ironically, still with great quality, created by the same culture and people whose work consumers used to pay for. This is complete suicide. Newspapers should, in fact, be more profitable online — because it gets rid of the cost of paper, printing and delivery. This should be the golden age of journalism, delivered without the trucks.

Local papers should charge online because they don’t have as many competitors for the good local reporting they do.
Newspapers bought into the idea that the culture of the Internet is “free,” or maybe they thought initially that online content was just an add-on to attract subscribers, but it hasn’t turned out that way.

Worse, the online advertising model is particularly weak for general interest newspapers. For most advertisers, newspaper sites can’t be as effective as ads placed on search engines or on specifically targeted sites; you can never beat that and it’s foolish to try. What is toxic for newspaper sites is that advertisers like me can get a report on how much was sold online, linked to a site. Newspapers can’t win that contest, and will never win that contest.

So papers have to find a way back to being paid. I think in many ways the prospects may be brighter for papers like the Seattle P.I. or the Star Tribune to charge online, because they don’t have as many content competitors for the good local reporting they do. Local newspapers are the best brands, and people will pay a small amount online to get information — whether it be a zoning board meeting or a Little League game — that they can’t get anywhere else.


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Partner Up
Geneva Overholser is director of the U.S.C. Annenberg School of Journalism and former editor of The Des Moines Register.

We’re likely to see some regional papers close, but the public’s need to know about the size of the city budget, the condition of the county jail, the quality of education in the classroom, the outlook for the local economy won’t end.

Newspapers have to make clear their own reporting from that of community sources, and set standards for selecting its partners.
I wish that newspaper leaders would step back from making indiscriminate staff and news-hole cuts and rethink their focus. First, look around the community to see who is doing good information-gathering and sharing. New Web-only publications may be covering various parts of the community. A consortium of arts organizations may have a reliable events calendar. Television or radio stations may have continued some substantial elements of government news coverage. An alternative weekly may have good reviews of films and theater and concerts. Bloggers may be assembling information from parents at various levels of the local school system and a nonprofit group may be gathering well-researched local health information.

Then ask, what needs are not being met? And what can my paper alone do best? It may be that investigative reporting, coverage of state government, local businesses, religious news and political leaders will make up the paper’s new, more limited profile. This won’t be the complete answer, but it could help editors make smarter decisions about how to allocate reduced resources.

Another necessary step is already taking place in some newspapers — the push to build a networked, collaborative method of providing news and information through print, online and on mobile phones. The aggregation of reporting and information from many sources will be a central function of newspaper companies.

Of course, newspapers have to make clear their own reporting from that of community sources, and set standards for selecting its partners. These changes will be difficult for newspapers which have considered themselves the primary newsgathers, but they may lead to the next chapter of American journalism.


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The Key to Web Success
Craig Newmark is the founder of craigslist.org, a free online classified ad and forum site.

Even though we’re in a period of “creative destruction,” vigorous journalism, particularly investigative journalism, must be preserved. I’m not a journalist, but I’ve been listening to commentators on new media. There clearly are new factors that will shape how I get my news.

First, new media, particularly blogging, and traditional newspapers are already blurring together. Second, some things don’t change. There will always be a need for fact checking and the courage to “speak truth to power” — whether this is being done by new or old media. As a lover of news and Web businesses, I’m seeing some interesting shifts happening.

Participation is the characteristic of good, small hyperlocal sites — as well as big Web enterprises like Wikipedia, Amazon and craigslist.
For example, there is substantial interest in the philanthropic model for news, like ProPublica.org. Meanwhile, Spot.Us is an organization developing a kind of microfinance model for sponsored reporting. What’ll work? No one knows, but we need to experiment.

There are some things we do know. People are most interested in national/global news, and news regarding their immediate community. Two good “hyperlocal” sites — missionlocal.org and oaklandnorth.net — ask people what they want to know about, which may be the key to their (potential) success.

Truth and credibility have been severely eroded in the past eight years, and there’s a broad perception that the press ceased asking difficult questions. Reporters need to keep trying to get answers, and act with a sense of fairness. Perhaps most important is engaging with the public on issues that matter to them.

The aim should be to create a “culture of participation” as Jay Rosen says. Or to paraphrase David Weinberger, a technology thinker, a paper should be perceived as “ours” (the public) not “theirs” (the owners). Participation is the characteristic of good, small hyperlocal sites. It’s also the key to big Web enterprises like Wikipedia, Amazon and even craigslist.


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We’ll Still Need Pros
Andrew Keen is the author of “The Cult of the Amateur.”

While the print newspaper business model is in terminal decline, there is one nugget of encouraging news from the Internet for publishers of local papers. Marshall McLuhan was wrong — the electronic network isn’t, as he prophesized, a global village uniting people together from around the world. Instead, to misquote Tip O’Neill, most of the information on the Internet is local.

We generally go online to get local information — directions to stores, telephone numbers and addresses of local merchants, restaurant reviews, local political news, the weather, the buying and selling of goods, even local social networking. Local information, therefore, is potentially the most valuable product in the new knowledge economy.

Rather than slithering into the swamp of crowd-generated content, smart publishers should focus on their core expertise — the organization and curation of information.
The reasons that local print newspapers can’t currently compete with the Internet are threefold. Firstly, it is a more immediate medium than print — able to continually update and store infinite amounts of information. Secondly, almost all local information on the Internet is free, while most local papers continue to charge for both subscriptions and classifieds. Thirdly, the physical medium of print is, for better or worse, quickly becoming archaic with consumers.

But the end of local print newspapers doesn’t necessarily mean the death of local online content businesses. The problem with the Web 2.0 Internet is that much of its information is either unreliable or simply wrong. That’s because the industry’s traditional business model has been flipped on its head.

Local publishers once employed an editorial staff to organize and curate local information. The Web 2.0 model is represented by Web sites like craigslist, Wikipedia and Yelp that aggregate unedited user-generated-content thereby “disintermediating” professional editors, fact checkers and journalists. The consequence is an anarchy of annoyingly unreliable and disorganized local information.

I am confident that the next big thing on the Internet — Web 3.0 if you like — will be a layer of professionally curated information sitting on top of the amateur Web 2.0 layer. Rather than slithering into the democratic swamp of crowd-generated content, smart local publishers should focus on their core expertise — the organization and curation of information by professionals. To do this, they should emulate Web businesses, like the search-engine Mahalo, that are using social media tools to organize user-generated-content while continuing to employ professional curators.

The new local Web newspaper will depend on self-employed “parochial mavens” whose livings will be based on their intimate knowledge of local merchants, schools and stores. Publishers who can figure out how to use these experts will find a loyal local audience.


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Your Friendly Neighborhood Journalist
Edward M. Fouhy, a veteran journalist, is the founding director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism and founding editor of Stateline.org, a news site that covers state public policy.

It’s hard to detect any big city newsroom angst in the family room where Bob and Maureen Mann publish the three-year-old online Forum of New Hampshire. Nor will you find it in the kitchen where Christine Yeres of Chappaqua, N.Y., presides as co-editor of Newcastlenow.org, a 15-month-old Web site. Instead there’s enthusiasm and delight in good stories.

Both sites are part of the surge in local journalism encouraged by the low barrier to publishing made possible by the digital revolution. While daily newspapers slim down their coverage, lay off journalists and try to survive the move of advertisers to the Internet, citizens around the country are responding by building their own local news sites. These newly minted journalists — though they often don’t call themselves that — are not simply slinging opinions. They understand that local government without credible information simply doesn’t work.

“If we were turning out stories that are sloppy or have mistakes or hadn’t been fact-checked, I don’t think people would read us.”

— Christine Yeres
As Andrew Donohue, executive editor of the widely praised voiceofsandiego.org, says, we aren’t “sitting around in our parent’s basement wearing sweat pants, drinking Diet Cokes and firing off a bunch of opinion blogs.” Donohue, 30, like his co-editor Scott Lewis, 32, is a trained journalist. They have inspired their paid staff of twentysomethings to fill the gap in investigative reporting created when the local daily, The San Diego Union-Tribune, began downsizing.

Ms. Yeres says, “If we were turning out stories that are sloppy or have mistakes or hadn’t been fact- checked, I don’t think people would read us.”

The news that the Manns post is the stuff of small town life: middle school basketball scores and a lengthy report on the deliberations of the school committee. Those are matters that don’t much interest the midsized dailies that sometimes cover the Forum’s four small southern New Hampshire towns.

The Manns and their colleagues work hard to get the facts straight. They publish corrections quickly when they’ve erred and they willingly listen to local politicians who sometimes want to be quoted not for what they said but for what they meant.

None of the operations I visited during a recent survey trip is likely to be confused with a newspaper, even a small one. The sites are niche publications, more like the weeklies that every small town once had.

Economic models? There’s no one size fits all. Advertisers seem to like Newcastlenow in affluent Westchester County but there’s not enough revenue to pay either the editors or contributors; the same is true at the Forum. In San Diego where voiceofsandiego journalists are paid, they use a modified public radio model; memberships for readers willing to contribute for first rate journalism, six figure contributions from philanthropic-minded citizens and grants from local foundations. About 10 percent of the annual $840,000 budget comes from advertisers.

It’s too soon to say if these sites are the answer. But what’s clear is that citizens are inventing a new form of locally based and financed journalism while preserving the values of accuracy, objectivity and independence.


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Endlessly Pursuing New Business Models
Rick Rodriguez is a professor of journalism at Arizona State University and former executive editor of The Sacramento Bee.

Struggling midsized metro papers jeopardize their long-term relevancy by cutting news coverage, especially in fast-growing suburban areas. They’re ceding midsized and smaller advertising to competitors. They’re losing footholds in communities where local coverage matters. They’re curtailing the investigations that make them unique.

And yet, combined newspaper and online readership is greater than ever. That’s worth building on, but costs, salaries and profit expectations will have to be reset and lowered for the long term. If regional metro papers do disappear, other news outlets and niche products will try to fill the void. For a while it’ll be the Wild West in terms of journalistic standards, the rise and fall of old and new enterprises and an endless pursuit of new business models.

Government meetings, for example, will still be covered but in piece-meal ways. What is likely to be missing will be a unifying voice.
Among the best bets for adhering to traditional journalistic standards will be smaller, already-established newspapers that can expand their local influence. Alternative weeklies and ethnic media mostly will survive, and possibly even thrive by specializing in coverage of fields like entertainment or local politics.

University-affiliated papers, too, may play larger roles in coverage beyond their campuses. They may become legislative watchdogs as more newspapers close their state house bureaus. Perhaps they will collaborate with seasoned professionals to do investigative and other public service journalism.
Philanthropic groups have already stepped up to finance nonprofit reporting organizations, and some bloggers are starting to cover local news, which is increasingly ignored by bigger papers.

It will be a vibrant, entrepreneurial but much more fragmented journalism world. Government meetings, for example, will still be covered but in piece-meal ways. What is likely to be missing will be a unifying voice that transcends neighborhoods, city limits and political boundaries. That kind of change would diminish our industry and our democracy.

Jose A. Peña

Jose A. Peña


Example 1:

* The Football team won the game by the stunning kick of Dave Smith scoring field goals which clench the playoff position.

* The intelligence of the great kicker led the game with a field goal which led them won the chance to go to the playoff.

* An amazing field goal that gave the team the opportunity of going to the challenging playoff.

* Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal when tackled, Smith suffered a dislocated ankle.

* After the victory, Smith learned Friday morning that he had been awarded a football scholarship to Iowa State University.


Example 2 :

* After suspicious circumstances the United States Secret Service was investigating the case of false $20 bills.

* The suspicious bills were found to be counterfeit after they were deposited at the Snoqualmie branch of Bank of America.

*

Kevin Castellanos lead

New York Giants kicker scores to pick up the win and take them to the playoffs.

justin sierra's lead

The football team won Friday's game 17-14; but kicker, Dave Smith, was tackled after kicking winning field goal, causing Smith a dislocated ankle.

Kevin Castellanos lead

Within 2 minutes the New York Giants pick up the win against the Patriots to make it to the playoffs.

Leads by Karen Latorre

1. Immediate Identification-
Kicker Dave Smith from the football team The Dreamers just got injured, and now going to get surgery while his team goes to playoffs.

2. Delayed Identification-
A football player from the team The Dreamers got very injured and now is waiting for surgery.

3. Summary-
On Friday afternoon the kicker Dave Smith from The Dreamers football team got very injured in his ankle and has to get surgery.

4. Leads with Flair-
On a amazing sunny Friday afternoon, the kicker Dave Smith, from the football team The Dreamers got very injured, and is in terrible pain!

joellen pimentel lead

Ex 1
1.the Jets lead out a stunning victory which clinched their hold on the playoffs
2. the Jets quarterback Dave smith is injured after scoring winning goal that takes them to the playoffs
3.Dave smith tackled before scoring a 17-14 victory over The Paitriots
4.Star quarterback Dave smith earned football scholarship to Iowa university
5. after a struggeling tied The jets made a sweeping victory over the Paitriots

Lead: Andy Ramon

Immediate Identification-

1)Giants won Fridays game.

Delayed Identification-

2)Player from a football team was injured in Fridays game but led team to victory.

Summary-

3)The kicker Dave Smith from the Giants was injured in Friday's game, but led team to victory.

Leads with Flair

4)On a late Friday night's football game Giants kicker Dave Smith got seriously injured is in need of surgery.

Leads by Leslie Ovando

Example one

Immediate Identification

1- Kicker Dave Smith was injured on Friday’s game where the Giants won and will be going to the playoffs.

Delayed Identification

2- A football player from the Giants lead his team to victory and will be going to the playoffs.

Summary

3- The Giants won the game Friday night allowing them to go to the playoffs.

Leads with Flair

4- Big news believe it or not the Giants are going to the playoffs!

EXAMPLE 1:

1. After scoring the winning goal with 2 seconds on the clock, Smith goes to the playoffs.
2. A player gets seriously hurt when scoring the winning goal 2 seconds on the clock

Jose A. Peña

Example 1:

* The Football team won the game, by the stunning kick of Dave Smith scoring field goals which clench the playoff position.

* Dave Smith lead the game with a honorable victory on the game that gave the team a space on the playoff.

* An amazing field goal that gave the team the opportunity of going to the challenging playoff.

Scarlett Nieves Leads!

Example:

1)Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal within 2 seconds remaining on the clock on Friday’s game and Smith suffered a dislocated ankle.

2)Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal with 2 seconds remaining on the clock.

3)On Friday's game Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal and suffered a dislocated ankle when tackled.

4)Friday's victory meant the team clinched the league title, and will go to the district playoffs, which begin next week.

5)Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal and had been awarded a full-tuition football scholarship to Iowa State University



Example:

1)Five counterfeit $20 bills were passed last week, where two bills were passed at the DECA store, two at the finance window, and one in the cafeteria line which led The United States Secret Service investigating the case to suspect a student at MSHS passed the bills.

2)Five counterfeit $20 bills were passed last week at school which has to "eat" the loss of $100, as the bank doesn't cover loss due to counterfeit bills.



3)The United States Secret Service is investigating the case of bills that were found to be counterfeit after they were deposited at the Snoqualmie branch of Bank of America.

4)Five counterfeit $20 bills were passed last week at school in such a short time is evidence of criminal activity, not just coincidence and were found to be counterfeit after they were deposited at the Snoqualmie branch of Bank of America.

5)The United States Secret Service is investigating the case that so many bills were passed in such a short time is evidence of criminal activity, not just coincidence, said the Secret Service Counterfeiting of bills falls under the Secret Service's jurisdiction.

Video on writing leads.

For those of you having some trouble with writing leads (or ledes) this video might be of some help.

Post your leads in this format - for Feb. 5 class

In the title put your first and last name - then write LEADS.

Example 1.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Example 2

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Your Task after you read the first post. Feb 4 and 5.

Practice writing leads!

Directions: Read the following hypothetical scenarios below. For each example, write five different leads. You may chose from any of the types of leads you know thus far-grammatical, 5W &H, question or quotation. After you have written all five leads, put a star next to the one you think is the best.

Example 1
• The football team won Friday's game 17-14.
• Kicker Dave Smith was tackled after kicking winning field goal.
• Friday's victory meant the team clinched the league title, and will go to the district playoffs, which begin next week.
• Score had been tied 14-14 since halftime.
• Field goal was kicked with 2 seconds remaining on the clock.
• When tackled, Smith suffered a dislocated ankle. The ankle injury requires surgery.
• Smith learned Friday morning that he had been awarded a full-tuition football scholarship to Iowa State University.

Example 2
• Five counterfeit $20 bills were passed last week at school
• The United States Secret Service is investigating the case.
• Two bills were passed at the DECA store, two at the finance window, and one in the cafeteria line.
• The fact that so many bills were passed in such a short time is evidence of criminal activity, not just coincidence, said the Secret Service.
• The bills were found to be counterfeit after they were deposited at the Snoqualmie branch of Bank of America.
• Counterfeiting of bills falls under the Secret Service's jurisdiction. Agents from the Seattle field office responded to the call.
• DECA adviser Bob Morrissey has educated all student store cashiers how to identify counterfeit bills, and the store will now be using special counterfeit detectors on all bills over $20.
• According to Secret Service Agent Moe Monny, "the bills were as sophisticated a forgery as I've seen in my 25 years in the counterfeit division."
• Monny said the Secret Service believes a student at MSHS passed the bills. "Whether the student is working alone, or is part of a larger crime ring, is something we hope to discover through the course of our investigation," Monny said.
• The school has to "eat" the loss of $100, as the bank doesn't cover loss due to counterfeit bills.
• Possession of counterfeit United States obligations (bills) with fraudulent intent is a violation of Title 18, Section 472 of the United States Code and is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to 15 years, or both. Manufacturing counterfeit bills is also a federal crime, punishable by a fine and up to 15 years, or both.

Ledes or Leads? February 4th and 5th.

Writing the lead

Focusing on the lead -- and its 5 Ws and an H -- enables the rest of the news story to fall into place. Once a reporter has finished interviewing and gathering information, it's time to think about how to begin the story. Seems easy, right? Sometimes, the proper lead for a story is obvious. But sometimes, there are several satisfactory ways to begin a story, and the reporter's task is more difficult. Consider the following hypothetical situation.

The Facts
• Flooding closed Mount Si High School for two days this winter
• The Snoqualmie Valley School Board has issued a revised schedule for the rest of the year.
• Instead of extending the school year, the board decided that students must make up the missed days on two days originally scheduled to be Spring Break.

Who is who?
In writing the lead, the reporter must decide which "who" is this story's most important "who" -- students or the board of education. One way to decide is by checking some out some of the qualities that make some stories more "newsworthy" than others (these are not necessarily in order of importance).
Step two/explanation

Newsworthy Qualities

• Prominence: How well known are the people involved in the story? If the people involved are well known to local readers, or are well known on a national level, readers will be more interested in the news. Think about how things celebrities do are often big news, but if you or your neighbors did the same thing it probably wouldn't be news at all. That’s prominence at work.

• Proximity: Location, location, location. If the event is happening close by, it will impact local readers more than if it is happening across town, or across the world. Watch a local newscast when a tragedy or disaster strikes. Chances are they'll mention if any local people were killed or injured. That’s proximity.

• Timeliness: If something is happening NOW, it has more impact than something that happened yesterday or last week. No one wants to read old news, so start off with the newest development to keep readers interested.

• Oddity/Uniqueness: Think Weekly World News and Ripley's Believe it or Not. If something is unusual, the oddity alone can make it newsworthy, because people want to know why it has happened.

• Consequence: An event or decision with consequence is one that will affect readers' lives in some way. The bigger the impact, the more readers will want to know about it. That's why big businesses laying off workers, construction projects that will cause detours and traffic slowdowns, distracted driving laws, and food recalls are news -- they will make a difference in people's lives, and they need to know how they will be affected.

• Human interest: Human-interest stories appeal to reader's emotions. They may make a reader happy, nostalgic, sad, angry or sympathetic.





Step three/putting it together
Once the facts are squared away, break them down into the 5 W's and an H.
• Who: Students
• What: Must make up two additional days of school
• When: During time originally scheduled for Spring Break
• Where: At Mount Si High School
• Why: To make up two missed days of school due to flooding
• How: by attending school

Once the facts are broken down, the lead practically writes itself!

A helpful hint: When writing a lead, start with the W or H that is the most important for the reader to know about, or that will matter the most. Then, the other elements follow in a logical order.
One more helpful hint: The best lead is the one that says the most in a few words (25-30), yet makes its points clearly and doesn't confuse the reader.
OK, one more: Sometimes, one of the W's/H is left out of a lead. This can be a good way to develop the rest of the story-especially if the why or how is long and complex-but those details MUST be in the story somewhere!

What is a lead?

A lead is a simple, clear statement that makes up the first paragraph or two of your story. It advertised what is coming in the story. It is sometimes spelled lede.
What is the first step in writing a lead?
The first step is determining a story's relevance.
How do I determine a story's relevance?
Ask "So what?" or "Who cares?"
What are the six basic questions that every story must answer?
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

How long should a lead be?
Leads should be short, usually fewer than 25 words.
What's an inverted pyramid?

The organization of a news story in which
information is arranged in
descending order of
importance.



What are the different types of leads?
There are many, but what follows are five types of leads:

• Immediate identification: This lead focuses on the "who" when it comes to the six basic questions. Use this approach when someone important is making news. For example:

President George W. Bush ate a cheeseburger and fries with students Friday during a visit to Our High.

• Delayed identification: In this lead, the "who" is not immediately identified by name. Instead, the "who" is identified by an occupation, city or job title. Use this approach when the person involved has little name recognition among readers.

A cafeteria worker at Andrew Jackson High won $2.5 million Friday in the state lottery.

• Summary: The lead in this case is a synopsis of two or more actions. Reporters who deal with several important elements may choose to sum up what happened rather than highlight a specific action. His is one type of lead where a general statement is preferable to a specific action.

• Multiple elements: This lead reports on two or more newsworthy elements. In some stories, choosing one theme is too restrictive. A multiple-element lead allows the reporter to work more information into the first paragraph. (Use sparingly.)

• Leads with flair: Use this type of lead when you want to emphasize novelty. It deviates slightly from the inverted pyramid approach.

What should I avoid in a lead?

There are no hard and fast rules, but remember:

• Too many numbers can bog down a lead. You can tell readers how the numbers will affect them in your lead then provide details later in the story. For example, if prom tickets were $50 per person last year and the price increased to $75 per person this year, your lead could say:

Seniors shouldn't spend that extra $25 dollars on appetizers and dessert for dinner before prom-they'll need it to pay for tickets. The student council voted Friday to raise the price of prom tickets.

• A quote lead may not be the best choice. Quote leads often lack context. The reader doesn't know who is speaking or why it matters.

• Try not to start with dates, times or places … unless those are the most important news. Start with people and what they are doing or have done.

Bad Lead
On Friday, July 15, 2001, three students won a statewide choral competition.

Good Lead
Three Our High juniors took home $500 and top honors Friday in a statewide choral contest.