Newspapers

Trib's new innovations guy discovers journalism

Lee Abrams hasn't started yet, but writes another memo in which he gets all enthused thinking of original ideas...that newspaper and TV editors and website producers have been doing all along or tried and moved beyond. This is possibly the most painful example:

LOCAL NEWS: This is THE local news source, but everything seems so generic. "Southside Boy Killed" Where...What street corner?? Touch nerves. Or, the category "Local." Huh? How about breaking it out on the web by NORTHSIDE LOOP AREA SOUTHSIDE WEST SUBURBS SOUTH SUBURBS etc... "Local" without more detail strikes me as old school, as no-one "owns" it like a newspaper/TV/website can. There are ways to take assumption of ownership to an untouchable position of ownership.

Or this:

--SPOOF: Probably too late for this year, but it might be cool for RedEye to do a special front page on April 1. Or complete edition. Oniony spoof. Could create a buzz and they could probably get away with it.

College newspaper editors everywhere are thinking, this is innovation? He also embraces a history feature and doing video of star reporters, like that dinosaur the New York Times already does.


More by Kevin Roderick:
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Sadly for LAT, this might be worst Tribune yet


 

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