The future
of journalism in Birmingham begins Oct. 1, when The Birmingham News ends
seven-day publication after 125 years and switches to online all-the-time with
only three days of print.
That has
meant a major change in who will gather the news and write about it in
Birmingham. Centuries of experience have walked out the door, and a leaner, mostly
younger staff will proceed.
Those who
are departing have shown a tremendous level of class, dignity and
professionalism since they were told in mid-June they no longer would have jobs
come Oct. 1. The three reporters whose bylines graced the front page of the
final daily edition of The News have something in common: Gone. Gone. And gone.
In each of the
last two daily editions, a top leader of the new media group has, essentially,
said the departing journalists lacked the “new digital skill set(s)” required to
continue gathering and presenting news for the new company.
No, the
changes to staffing, compensation and working conditions were not a reflection
of our abilities to present news in the new media. It was a bottom-line business
decision.
Those
comments made me think back to the articles I wrote for the paper’s food
section in 2009, and all of the “how-to” cooking videos I had shot to accompany
the text online as part of our new mandate to “think digital.”
I thought
about the package of stories I wrote in 2010 examining and explaining the
prevalence of young killers and homicide victims in Birmingham. The crown jewel
was an interactive montage, which two colleagues and I put together and posted
on al.com.
Here it is: (Killing Years)
Roll over each defendant’s photo and you’ll get a synopsis of the crime and
learn about the victims. Links on some defendants’ photos lead to longer
stories about particularly notorious crimes among this age group.
What skills
were required to put that together? First of all, there was no single source
compiling all the information about homicides in Birmingham and Jefferson
County in the period I examined, 2006-early 2010. I had to build the database
myself, first of defendants then of their victims, drawing details and
cross-referencing from nearly a dozen sources.
The list of
defendants allowed us to know which mug shots to obtain from the Jefferson County
Sheriff’s Department. There were 140 of them. Then I confirmed all of the
defendants’ mugs for accuracy, researched and wrote the text about the crimes
and loaded that into the blogging tool. Same thing with the larger vignettes.
Once the ace designer loaded it all onto the graphic, I had to confirm each was
done accurately and supervise alterations.
The Sunday the
main story ran, I spent the day monitoring the comments on al.com, flagging
those that were inappropriate and interacting with commenters by leading or
directing the conversation in other ways. The next day, a Monday, I was the
first metro news reporter for the paper ever to lead an online chat.
That doesn’t
even bring into account the traditional journalistic skills required such as
the years spent in courtrooms that allowed me to identify the trend and know
the stories that would illustrate the main points. It wasn’t just a matter of knowing
how to put together the research that confirmed an anecdotal suspicion; it was knowing
who best could help put my research into perspective – and them knowing me.
When Gabe
Watson went on trial earlier this year for the Australian honeymoon drowning
case, I spent every waking moment posting multiple unique updates daily on
al.com, dashing upstairs at the courthouse to tweet updates at every break in
the trial (cell phone service was impossible inside the courtroom), participating
in video-update shoots and making sure my articles for the next morning’s paper
would be posted online the evening before, when a sizeable Australian audience
was waking up and looking for a trial update.
In May, I
conceived an elections page for al.com, where we could post relevant
information about candidates months before that information traditionally has
been available in print. This is beyond the routine we did daily: Find out
information, and post it in online and print formats.
Those of us
who have been in the business two or more decades have done nothing but adapt
to changing technology and industry economics. We continued to do so, and do so
effectively, during the transition to online news presentation.
Those of us
who were not invited or who chose not to be part of the future media company
were treated decently. Few layoffs are accompanied by weeks of additional
paychecks and severance afterward, and the company went even farther to help
cushion the blow.
I understand
that the new media group has a sales job to do; change always requires that. It
must convince its customers that this tectonic change is an improvement.
But, as part
of that sales pitch, please don’t even insinuate that the departing reporters
and editors lack the skills to be part of the new journalism. That is unfair.
