Neil Mcintosh, head of editorial development for guardian.co.uk, thinks part of the reason US newspapers are failing is because they haven’t mastered the art of making news more palatable for readers.

Here he is blogging from a conference at USC’s Annenberg school for communication in Los Angeles:

Taking a copy of the LA Times as an example, simply because it’s local and handy and described by one participant as the West coast’s most important news source, you have to say things could be better. For instance, this front page tale about safety checks on US airliners isn’t sure if it’s a human interest, business, aviation or travel story, and ends up being none of the above – at huge length. It sat, on the front page, alongside a long apology for, and probe into, a reporting cock-up on a story about an attack on rapper Tupak Shakur, also delivered at remarkable length.

Both stories were run without the design tricks we’re used to in Europe – big photographs, graphics, breakout panels. Because every angle had to fit inone long run of copy they struggled, structurally. Both were, as a consequence, real chores to read. They show, I’d suggest, that it’s not just the internet that’s driving readers away from print.

Meanwhile, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton thinks US newspapers’ ‘Pulitzer fixation’ is another cause for concern:

…The newspapers’ Pulitzer-chasing is most damaging because it distracts newspapers from their real challenge. Rather than impress colleagues with the seriousness of their reporting, US newspapers need to engage a readership that is drifting off to television and the internet. Pulitzer-winning journalism will win Pulitzers; it won’t save an industry which is experiencing double-digit annual declines in advertising revenue.

[...]The respect of peers is a luxury that US newspapers have enjoyed because, for much of the second half of the 20th century, they were local monopolies. They could afford to be respectable, because they didn’t need to pander to readers. In the UK, by contrast, 12 national dailies are in vicious competition. Editors fear the loss of their jobs, not their honor.

It is not as if the New York Times and Washington Post can magically invigorate themselves by eschewing the Pulitzers. America’s vastness, which mitigates against national newspapers and produces smaller local markets which can only support one title, is an unalterable fact. But, while the Washington Post and other winners may celebrate today, they should recognize a harsh truth: the same monopolies which have allowed a public-service mentality to flourish have also left newspapers unprepared for new competition. These Pulitzers are the totem poles of the newspaper industry; beloved relics of former glory.”

Related:
Pulitzer Wins for Washington Post (BBC)
America’s Pernicious Pulitzers (Gawker via Mediabistro)
Serious Journalism’s Broccoli Complex (Complete Tosh)
Newspapers: Buyers Beware (Forbes via Mediabistro)

Last week, while I was working in the city, I ordered a small chicken salad for lunch. This is what arrived. I was still eating it at 6pm.

(Via Andrea Harner)

Practicing journalism without a license. (Via Mediabistro)

Speaking of local bloggers, I see Brooklyn Parrots now has its own music video!

Related:
City Chronicles (EiNY)

For the past couple of years I have published a fortnightly interview with a different New York blogger in the free newspaper Metro.

During that time I have often marveled at how easily blogs are dismissed, often by clueless reporters and editors, as rabid, ill-informed, poorly written twaddle. True, you don’t have to look hard to find evidence. But often blogs provide much better reporting, especially on single issues, than large media companies.

Take Brownstoner for example, which provides encyclopedic information about Brooklyn real estate. Or Newyorkology, which keeps track of city events. Stuck for somewhere to eat near work? Try Midtown Lunch. Want to know how the city’s bird population is doing, particularly its red tailed hawks? Try City Birder.

And New York’s quality blogs are not just utilitarian. For pure entertainment, there is the ingenious Ironic Sans or one of the city’s many photoblogs like Bluejake, plus quirky sites like Passive Aggressive Notes or The Sartorialist.

All of which is a precursor to Living With Legends: The Hotel Chelsea blog, which made the transition from the screen to dead tree media earlier this year.

When I visited the Chelsea to interview blog authors Ed Harris and Debbie Martin in October 2006, all seemed well. Less than two years later, new management is in charge, residents are being forced out and a New York icon is in serious danger of falling prey to the condominiumization that has swept the island.

It’s possible that they are now documenting the end of the Chelsea.

If you are interested in the hotel, Ed will be taking part in a panel discussion about the history of the Chelsea at the Museum of the City of New York tomorrow, Thursday, at 6.30pm.

Related:
Living With Legends: The Hotel Chelsea (Hotel Chelsea Blog)
Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca (Amazon)
Condominiumization (Google Search for ‘condominiumization’ returns only 1,590 results)

Deal ‘close’ for Mugabe to leave.

I have to admit to being a little suspicious of this video. Can British people really be this stupid? Or did the filmmakers have to interview a lot of people before they could edit together these clips? (Via Wellsy.)

Related:
British Israel Communications & Research Centre
Race in the White House