Most Likely to Succeed

I thought this New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell about how to hire good teachers was really well-done. The article asks the question: "how do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job?"

It's sort of a dry topic but Gladwell makes it interesting by leading in with an anecdote about a pro football scout who is trying to determine how well a promising college QB will fare in the NFL. He then uses that example throughout the piece to draw comparisons about predicting success for future teachers.

On the day of the big football game between the University of Missouri Tigers and the Cowboys of Oklahoma State, a football scout named Dan Shonka sat in his hotel, in Columbia, Missouri, with a portable DVD player. Shonka has worked for three National Football League teams. Before that, he was a football coach, and before that he played linebacker—although, he says, “that was three knee operations and a hundred pounds ago.” Every year, he evaluates somewhere between eight hundred and twelve hundred players around the country, helping professional teams decide whom to choose in the college draft, which means that over the last thirty years he has probably seen as many football games as anyone else in America. In his DVD player was his homework for the evening’s big game—an edited video of the Tigers’ previous contest, against the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Should Google be the Murdoch for the NY Times?

A great piece out of Splice Today addresses the plight of the New York Times in a thoughtful and well-written way.

I'm not sure what Splice Today is, but it's mission statement reads, "To provoke, irritate, delight and confuse readers who are bored or dissatisfied with current online journalism."

Will Google Buy The New York Times?
By Andrew Sargus Klein
DEC 10, 2008, 10:29AM

Excerpt:

A new favorite recipe for salvation that’s kicked around the blogosphere involves none other than Google. The Times has an estimated price tag of $3 to $4 billion. (Rupert Murdoch paid $5 billion for Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal’s parent company.) A fistful of billions, even in this economy, might not be too big of a dent in Google’s bottom line and, it’s argued, the ends would soon pay back the means. The anonymous blogger at Dear John Thain divided his pro-acquisition reasons into four points: it would give Google an even more highly integrated advertising model; if Google distributes the Times, it takes in the paper’s ad revenue while also moving the medium away from dead trees; the Times’ push to personalize content couldn’t be better supported by Google; the Times’ product—the news—is priceless, and it would benefit Google and the rest of us if it stayed available.

Trib's coverage of Gov. Blagojevich's arrest

I've been very impressed today with the Chicago Tribune's coverage of the arrest of their governor. The original breaking news page has been overwritten now, but I liked their style, putting quick updates on top of each other with timestamps as the story unfolded. This is how I think breaking news needs to look online, so I wish we could still see it. They've aparently done a write-through.

I also like that they've dedicated a gallery page to their coverage of the event. It's a good idea to have all the stories related to a specific subject in one place where readers can easily scan the available headlines. I think something like this would be fabulous for our 911 Center coverage, for example.

The last thing I'm pleased to see is some great reporting coming out of a paper who's parent company just declared bankrupcy. This settles the question of newspapers' worth for me.

From David and Ron: A vignette, a column and a rebuttal for our session tomorrow

1. A compact, powerful vignette from the Journal-Sentinel series on drunk driving: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/33618429.html

2. A column by writing guru Roy Peter Clark: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=60290

3. A rebuttal of sorts to Clark by Tim McGuire, former editor of the Mpls paper: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=60293

If you come across a good example of a short and tight but powerful piece, feel free to share it before or at the session.

What makes a good reporter?

I liked this column from the Washington Post's Deborah Howell. It's an important reminder that reporters never break their biggest stories sitting at their desk talking on the telephone. We need to hide in more beverage carts.

A successful experiment in crowdfunding? $400 raised for environmental coverage

Investigative Reporting

I thought this article on Poynter gave an interesting perspective on the future of investigative reporting and local beats, one of the State Journal's cherished traditions.

Are our leaders looking for grant programs to help fund the work of reporters in our newsroom? Might be a better option than continual rounds of buyouts and layoffs until the last reporter turns out the light and shuts the door on government accountability.