When will newspapers get it?

Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under newspapers

As I do most mornings I spent a portion of my time checking my RSS feeds. Besides the print edition of the NYTimes and NPR it’s how I get most of my news.

So the question is when will newspapers finally understand you can’t take your content from the printed page and just plaster it to your website? The web is a community that thrives on linking and commentary and not cut and paste journalism.

Reading my RSS feed for the Louisville Courier-Journal this headline caught my eye:

Flurry over a photo prompts explanation

Apparently there was an outcry from readers over an image that ran on the sports page after Louisville beat the University of Kentucky in men’s basketball the day before. I couldn’t tell what the photo is about since I can’t seem to find it anywhere on their site. A search of the archives turns up nothing as it wants me to pay for the article with no guarantee the story will include the photo I’m looking for. Browsing through their 4 photo galleries (scroll down to 01/05/08) from the game turns up nothing. This image was good enough to run as their lead on the sports front, but doesn’t find a home in an online gallery of over 100 pics? I see one image that looks like it might be the one, but it comes from the second half and not the first as the article states.

There will be no apology. However, I think an explanation is in order because it encompasses what’s involved in selecting photos to illustrate stories — and what can happen if context is lost on, or not apparent to, the news consumer, which is what I think happened in this instance.

Apparently they also forget about context for their online audience since we have no way of seeing the image that sparked the public editor to write this column and address their readers.

One of their readers get it:

Here’s what makes me mad: writing a long essay about a photo, but not showing it online or providing a link to it. I have no way to make my own judgment, because the C-J isn’t showing me the picture in question. I’m out of town and did not see the original publication…..To my original point… why should readers have to dig up this stuff? See, there’s this thing called the Internet, and it has a feature called “links” by which you can actually show us what you’re writing about. Cool, huh?

Rant off.

Not all is bad in the online world. Check out the new look of the Las Vegas Sun. Refreshing.

2 Responses to “When will newspapers get it?”

m Says:
January 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
hey tim

i think you’re talking about the same thing i read on romenesko this morning… saw that trent nelson’s blog had the photo:

http://www.trenthead.com/?p=1989
Tim Gruber Says:
January 15th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Thanks Melissa….that clears up a lot seeing the picture.

About Tim

Tim believes photographs can touch people in ways our hearts can only understand. Tim is a freelance photographer based in Louisville, KY. He's currently working on a summer long documentary in the KY prison system with his partner Jenn. See his portfolio and newly designed website here. Comments, ideas, or suggestions? Email Tim at timg@timgruber.com

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