Rocky Mountain News Obituary

The Rocky Mountain News closed its doors Friday, after nearly 150 years of publishing. Scripps was unable to sell the tabloid paper in Denver in a one-month deadline the corporation had set.

Online producers built this 20-minute video about the closing of the paper. It tells the story of what a newspaper means in a community, and to the people who produce it.

It asks a tough question: Can newspaper business models survive in the current economy? And why can't they at least function in some capacity, such as a smaller staff producing an online product? That's a model the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is considering, rather than closing its doors. Note: ABC News has an excellent online and video package on the current state of the newspaper industry.

The News' closing leaves the Post as Denver's only daily newspaper, with the Camera nearby in Boulder.

Juxtapose this story with an earlier blog post about how the San Francisco Examiner viewed Web publishing way back in 1981, when print still ruled the media industry. A lot has changed.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

A Touch of Class

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this inspiring story from a recent high school basketball game. At a time when all we read about are stories on steroids, contract disputes and players gone bad, it's nice to read a piece like this.

It's a great story about sportsmanship and class. And it's another example of how sports can frame life in a way that everyone can relate to.

Look for these kinds of stories when you're reporting and covering your beats. Too often, they're missed.

Facebook Content: Who Owns What?

Update: Facebook has done an "about face" on its content policy since this was first posted. However, I'm leaving this entry posted because of the issue it addressed at the time.

CBS 2 Chicago interviewed some of our Columbia College Chicago Advanced Sports Reporting students on Monday night about the new Facebook content policy.

The policy change has some members nervous because they believe it would allow Facebook to use their content however it wants, even if the member deletes the material or cancels an account. Facebook has said otherwise, but I'm curious how it will actually use the content.

My concern is Facebook's perceived rights to sell content to third parties: My name, age, e-mail address, mailing address and other content that e-marketers would love to get their hands on.

As for what I post to Facebook, not much will change. Outside of my 8th-grade yearbook photo, there's not any incriminating information there. I joined a few humor groups and I'm a fan of a few TV shows and products. That's about as exciting as it gets.

As I've often warned students, friends and colleagues, don't post anything to a social networking site that you wouldn't want your boss, family member or parents to see. Common sense trumps all here.

It amazes me how many people post drunken pictures of themselves, disclose personal information and other material to these sites, and expect no consequences. Job placement firms and hiring managers say they comb these sites often, looking for information about potential job candidates.

Your posts are part of the portrait you paint of yourself. And the audience can be anyone -- a friend, potential employer, etc.

Just be careful what paint brush you use.

Taking Gooooooooaaaaaal! to Another Level

The Guardian newspaper has developed a great resource for Premier League soccer fans. And yes, there are a lot of soccer fans. And they're rabid.

The Guardian's Chalkboards tool is somewhat similar to ESPN’s GameCast, but takes interactivity several steps further.

The database-driven tool allows users to tailor what statistics they want from a specific team and organizes the data into an informational graphic. Users can track a specific player's shots on goal, successful goals, etc., then e-mail the graphics with other fans or imbed them in their blogs. This could be a great resource for settling bar bets.

I took the site for a spin, tracking passing by Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in two 2008 matches against Newcastle United. Look at how much more active he was at home as compared to the road.

There are some problems with the site. It offers imbedded code to post your charts into a blog, but they sometimes don't work. That's why I had to link to the Ronaldo chart rather than imbed it into this blog.

Also, the database downloads are somewhat slow, but the reward is worth it once you've created the chart. You have to be a little patient with the tool as it processes requests. I expect this will improve in weeks to come.

Over the years, I have seen NBA and MLB scouts use similar software packages in charting shots, pitches, etc. for their reports. But this is the first time I’ve seen a publication offer an online, interactive tool that is this sophisticated.

It's worth checking out, even if you're not a soccer nut.

Footnote: The Poynter Institute recently wrote a great piece about this tool as well.

A-Rod Comes Clean ...

Because he really had no other choice, Alex Rodriguez admitted to ESPN's Peter Gammons that he used steroids. Too little, too late. A-Rod took a beating in the media over the weekend, including this headline in the New York Post.

Interesting, too, that he came to ESPN and not Sports Illustrated, which broke the story. A-Rod was well-coached for this interview, knowing exactly when to turn on the emotion. It will be interesting to see how he handles the New York and national media once Spring Training begins.

Online Video Downloads Hit Record Highs

ResourceShelf, a research site run by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy, provides us with an interesting statistic from comScore Video Metrix about online video downloads in December 2008.

Online video downloads in the United States hit 14.3 billion in December 2008, an increase of 13 percent over the previous month.

YouTube downloads contributed largely to the surge.

The analysis doesn't go any deeper, but I'm speculating as to why we saw such a dramatic increase, especially coming off a November 2008 that included heavy election night downloads. What about December drove people to download so much video?