editor on the verge » Mission

At a loss for words

Yoni Greenbaum — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:34:09 +0000

So a funny thing happened to me on my way to starting my new job. In addition to everyone in our household (with the exception of our cat, Boo) getting monstrously sick, I managed to lose my bloggers voice. I initially chalked up the occurrence to the toll the flu had taken on my body, mind and spirit. But the more I tried to get back into my writing and figure out what was going on, the more I realized it was more then just the lingering effects of my prolonged illness. What I discovered was that I no longer knew what I wanted to say.

The time that I had taken off from daily writing had left my mind muddied and the clarity that I once possessed regarding the myriad of issues facing newspapers was, for the most part, gone. And the more that I tried to figure out what to do, the more overwhelmed by it I became. Not one to give up, I gave it some more thought and realized that more than anything, I was actually frustrated, annoyed and even a bit dismayed.

See, I truly love this industry. And sure, like anything you love, it has it’s wrinkles and warts in addition to it’s ups and it’s downs, nevertheless you still love it. But increasingly, the industry is under attack. Disappearing print circulation, shrinking advertising and surging costs has left it fighting for its financial survival. In addition, our newsrooms and online operations are being overtly influenced by dinosaurs who are content with seeing their employer struggle and fail and by curmudgeonly young employees who have a warped sense of entitlement and the oft-mistaken belief that they alone have the insight and the answers to change this industry for the better.

Even if you don’t work in a newsroom, you can easily encounter both of these elements online, in the blogosphere.

Look around the Internet, and you’ll find all kinds of media/journalism bloggers. I would imagine (without doing any research) that there are hundreds writing just in the U.S. Some bloggers provide great insight and criticism that is sharp and useful. Other are voracious readers and collectors of data and information, their blogs share great works worthwhile to emulate at your own shop. But, and this might just be because of whom I read, the loudest are the bloggers who complain the most about the industry. These are typically young journalists with a short amount of time at any one job. Their blogs are places for them to publicly whine and throw tantrums in an effort to receive attention and obtain validation for their viewpoints. All too often their posts leave me shaking my head and wanting to grab the authors, give them a smack or two and tell them to wake up and, especially, grow up. But that’s not what this blog is about.

So that’s where I am, struggling for my place and wondering where my voice fits in among those writing about our industry. Maybe I’m over thinking it, maybe I just need to start writing again because I enjoy it. I don’t know for sure, but then again, this post is a start!

NOTE: I’m proud to be participating, along with fellow journalism bloggers from around the world in the Carnival of Journalism. In addition to reading my post please visit the Carnival host site and see what my colleagues are writing about. Not sure what a blog carnival is? Check out this entry on Wikipedia.

I thought I’d share some news instead of my germs

Yoni Greenbaum — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:04:59 +0000

After spending the past week or so battling the flu, it’s great to be feeling coherent enough to be online and blogging. And what makes my return post even more exciting to write is that it actually contains some real news. And that is that I have a new job!

On March 17, I start as Executive Producer of Philly.com. I’m thrilled to be joining such an experienced and dedicated team in a storied newspaper city like Philadelphia.

This is an exciting move for me and really is representative of my thoughts on the current state of our industry. I believe that nowadays, you can divide news organizations into two camps. There are those papers that are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that classified, display advertising and circulation business will return to the days of yore and that their “traditional” approach just needs a minor tweaking. And, then there are the newspapers that believe they can’t wait and hope for what amounts to be a miracle. These newspaper are aggressively carving out a place for themselves in future of our industry, making bold plays and trying new approaches — I believe that Philly is one such place.

Now I know that there will be those of you who will be saying “didn’t you just join Ottaway last year?” Well, you would be right, and although I believe that Ottaway is among those newspaper companies that are not standing still, Ottaway has been put up for sale by its new owners, News Corp. So when Mark Potts and I began talking about my joining the Philly team, it didn’t take long for me to believe that this was the right move at the right time.

So that’s my big news. I hope you can appreciate why I see it as a cause for excitement. I expect to be back to my regularly blogging self by Monday, so stay tuned; the fun’s just starting.

Who’s to blame?

Yoni Greenbaum — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:52:46 +0000

So someone gave me the flu and it has me wrecked. I’ve started a few posts, but just don’t have the energy to see them through. I hope to be back blogging, tweeting and everything else in a few days. Thanks for hanging in there.

“Yes, we’re working on it…”

Yoni Greenbaum — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:54:40 +0000

Technical problems persist. I hope to have a new post up later this evening. Sorry for the interruption and I appreciate your continued support and interest.

Pardon the interruption

Yoni Greenbaum — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:09:51 +0000

My apologies if you have tried to visit my site in the past 16 hours. My hosting company, DreamHost, turned an 8 hour server relocation project into a 16-hour nightmare. And then to add to the situation, my site and connected services didn’t just “come back up” once they were done.

In any case, the site is now back up and everything should be working. In the future, I’ll try to better communicate when these events might be occurring. Thanks for your patience and continued support.

Now open to the general public

Yoni Greenbaum — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:57:35 +0000

For those of you who use Internet Explorer and have visited editor on the verge recently, you know that I have been trying to fix a programming problem that resulted in the site not appearing correctly. Well I am happy to report that thanks to the encouragement of some very smart colleagues and determination on my part, the problem has been fixed and the faulty code has been excised.

Whether you use Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, editor on the verge should now appear correctly for you. If you visited previously and found the problems too distracting to ignore, I urge you to come back and give editor on the verge another look.

Here’s to a happy 2008!

Yoni Greenbaum — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:32 +0000

I want to wish all you Editor on the Verge readers a very happy New Year.

And since the year is just getting started, here’s was you can expect from me in 2008:

I will continue writing at least 5 days a week.
I will not use my blog simply for the dissemination of my del.icio.us feed.
I will speak my mind and shed light on new ideas and issues, regardless of their popularity.
I will attempt to outreach and connect with other bloggers who can inspire and motivate me.
I will continue to embrace and evangelize on technologies that I feel can help the news industry.
I will use Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and dozens of other sites.
I will experiment with new online technologies.
I will keep exploring ways to disseminate my posts.
I will have fun.

So what will you do in 2008?

Now with easier mobile viewing

Yoni Greenbaum — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:17:31 +0000

Some of you may notice that I have removed the flashing Plusmo badge from my site. This shouldn’t be taken as a commentary on Plusmor or the mobile services they offer. Rather, I have uploaded a mobile plugin that will automatically sense your phone’s browser and provide it with the appropriate template. I think this streamlined approach is better for the majority of mobile visitors to this blog. If you disagree or have any comments or suggestions, I’d appreciate hearing from you. And if you never visit this blog from a mobile browser please forgive this interruption.

Remember to check back on Monday for a new post and have a great weekend.