Sans Soul

By Kleinheider Posted on March 22, 2009 at 6:14 pm

Former Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez on the current editor’s thoughts on the health of Nashville’s last daily printed publication.

One of the saddest things in Silverman’s piece was his claim that his staff is the best in Tennessee. Not even close. It has lost too many good and talented journalists for that to be true, and that number does NOT include me. Columnists are a dime a dozen. How many names do you still recognize in the newspaper?

The best newspaper staff is the News-Sentinel in Knoxville. The best group of journalists in Tennessee are at NewsChannel 5 here in Nashville.

The bottom line to all of Silverman’s silliness to distract from the obvious is this: he did not quote any newspaper subscriber numbers. They are disastrous. GM execs are making the same contention about their company, while sales were down 53% in February. The American people are not stupid. Neither are Tennesseans. They buy with common sense. They can smell a phony a mile away.

A good newspaper with enough fight and staff to make a difference in people’s lives used to be something every community needed and every journalist wanted to work for.

Now, as Silverman writes, The Tennessean is viable because it makes a profit.

But, folks, it has no soul.

I am so blessed that I am no longer part of the walking dead.

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Tags: 1100 Broadway, Mark Silverman, newspapers, Tim Chavez  

Tennessee’s Four Major Dailies Sharing Content And Coordinating Coverage

By Kleinheider Posted on March 8, 2009 at 9:13 pm

Editor & Publisher has posted a memo from Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy which outlines a loose agreement by Tennessee’s four major daily papers, The Chattanooga Times-Free Press, the Nashville Tennessean, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Sentinel to share content.

The agreement, which began Wednesday of last week, would allow any of the four papers to use any story already published in one of the other papers in full in their print products. Online, however, only a headline and a snippet can be used with a link back to the original story.

According to the memo all stories “should be fully credited to the originating newspaper, with bylines naming writers and newspaper and shirttails or taglines telling how to contact writers.”

Coordination between editorial staffs is also discussed in the memo with each paper designating a “point editor” to coordinate with other papers. Further, individual subject editors are encouraged in the memo to work with their counterparts in the other organizations to exchange story budgets and communicate upcoming story ideas.

In order to share files, photos, etc. a common FTP site “may be established” according to the memo.

This agreement can be seen not only as a cost cutting measure to thin the herd of redundant reporters but also an end run around the Associated Press whose high fees in times of economic decline and industry upheaval have caused many newspaper organizations consternation.

However, the agreement is far from iron clad or even official, as the memo makes clear.

“This is intended to be an informal, handshake deal that any party may terminate at any time. We will endeavor to address any problems that might arise as they come up.”

SEE ALSO:
Enclave
Jack Lail (II)
The Memphis Flyer
MediaVerse
NewsTechZilla
R. Neal
Michael Silence
Grantham Is Talking

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Tags: Associated Press, Chattanooga Free Press, FTP, Knoxville News Sentinel, media consolidation, Memphis Commercial Appeal, newspapers, sharing content, Tennessean