After graduating from Columbia University in 2007 with a degree in Urban Studies, Vielkind landed a prestigious job in a windowless basement as a Web “layout monkey.”  “I’m sure everyone in there was a coke dealer besides me,” he said.

Outside of his cold calling skills he was an avid writer for his college newspaper the Columbia daily Spectator. After Google-ing Vielkind in the Columbia daily Spectator I realized that he wasn’t just a writer/news editor. I counted 91 articles in total. From 2003 to 2007 his soul definitely belonged to the Spectator.

Fifteen minutes into his speech it started sounding generic and rehearsed. “I’m going to be very careful because of the blogs last year.” he admitted.  People mindlessly stared at him not asking any question except for the occasional laugh at unfunny jokes.  Then he screamed “Not once! Not once! In any of the interviews that I had did anyone ask me about my GPA!”  I am sure that everyone in there has heard that experience trumps GPA, well maybe except if you’re pursuing a career in mathematics.

So what was different?  He didn’t glamorize his salary, brag about his Ivy League degree or rejoice about working 20 hour days. Although nothing in his speech pointed to quick success in and accolades on every article I was excited! “On election night I woke up at seven and went to bed at three A.M. … that’s 20 hours.”  he said.  At 24-years-old he had worked for three distinguished newspapers and survived “Four rounds of layoffs in the last year.”   he said.

Vielkind has been a reporter/blogger for the the New York Observer since October of last year, and “Feeds the blog about five times a day.” he said.  He writes for the Politicker which is just a really cool name for the politics section. In his recent article titled Patterson: Whatever it Takes, he called Governor David A. Patterson irresponsible, in a subtle not so subtle way.  During his interview with the journalism class he defended his point by saying Governor Patterson “Never intended to become governor.”  He credits the Observer for allowing its reporters/bloggers to put their “sensibilities” and perspective on stories.

Jimmy Vielkind, whose last name translated means many children nine in German, maintained that his ultimate goal is to become a columnist on a community. Currently he’s enrolled in the Urban and Regional Planning graduate program at University at Albany.  Considering the newspaper industry is in decline, obtaining a graduate degree is smart. I personally will do the same because I need a backup plan just in case becoming the Editor-in-chief of The New York Times doesn’t come first.

What I found most interesting was how honest he was about his employment at the Times Union.  He was hired by the Times Union a general assignment / criminal justice reporter right out of college in 2007.  Michael Huber, the Interactive Audience Manager for the Times Union, stood in the classroom while Vielkind compared the polite-natured Times Union to the frank Observer. “The TU is more surface they don’t dig below.” he said.

photo taken by Melissa Brabham

It rained for four hours straight.  New York City was hidden under the drab grey and blue tones that the rain always brought. Starbucks was the only haven. Initially this investigative trip to expose the subtle and blatant influence of popular culture, turned into a realization that popular culture influenced changing trends within our society. As a journalism student it was difficult not to notice that more money and energy went into developing and producing popular culture. On 34^th street alone there were 30 clothing stores but only five newspaper stands. Why is so much emphasis on this popular culture industry?

There are more than 50 Starbucks in New York City but everyone in Manhattan crowded into the small storefront on the corner of Broadway and Grand Street.  The store hummed with voices thick with New York accents and the aroma of fresh brewed coffee filled the air.  Starbucks resembled an office for the modern journalist.  People crammed onto tables with their laptops and PDA’s; constantly updating their Twitter and emailing nonstop. Hands toggled between iPods and cellular phones but no one busied themselves with the neat stack of New York Times newspapers sitting quietly by the counter.

Seated behind a man wearing large Bose headphones attached to his Mac notebook, Serena Netcliff, a recent graduate from City College with a bachelor’s in Communications, explained why print newspapers would soon become obsolete.   “I don’t read actual newspapers,” she said “it’s easier to extract information from the Internet,’”   The man wearing the headphones was reading the Perez Hilton blog.  Was Perez Hilton type of information extraction newspapers were competing with?

The closing of The Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, testifies to the fact that newspapers, as well as the journalism industry, are being threatened by the changing economy.  Erica Petru, a reporter from the Sound News in Seattle, wrote back in March 2009 that “Today marks the end of the 146 year-old newspaper.” 

The business model that newspapers operate on is proving to be less effective in a media driven, hyper-interactive society. Some major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post manage to adapt by providing more online content replete with a lot of consumer interactivity. They promote their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages along with breaking news on the main page.

According to a 2008 study done by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism on the changing newsroom, they cite major metro newspapers experiencing larger cutbacks than smaller newspapers.  To produce a story for a legacy newspaper like the New York Times takes a lot of time and energy.

Just ask New York Times writer Ian Shapira how many hours and how much money went into writing his article about a generational consultant. It took him two days to write his article, gas spent travelling to and from Fairfax, NJ, and spent hours transcribing 3,000 words worth of notes. His story received little reader attention until it was picked up by a Gawker.com blogger. 

In Shapira’s response to the literary thievery from the Gawker blogger he said “but lately they’re making me even more nervous about my precarious career as a newspaper reporter who enjoys, at least for the time being, a salary, a 401(k) and health insurance,”. Shapira was right. The trend from trained investigative journalist to the ubiquitous opinionated blogger continues to weaken the journalism industry.

“The revenue trends we continue to experience simply do not support or require the same number of people,” Robert W. Decherd, the chief executive, wrote in a note to employees according to an article in the New York Times.  

The future of journalism may be a smaller newsroom with less staff but Norman Graham, a senior majoring in journalism at the State University at Albany, predicts that the roles journalists play “are still needed because we still need to get the news and know what’s going on around us,’” In an interview with Matt Baumgartner about his newly launched bog FridayPuppy.com he admitted that he “almost never buys the newspaper anymore,”. Without ever taking a journalism course or intensive writing class during college, Mr. Baumgartner has succeeded in what many professionally trained journalist aim to do; write a successful blog that retains readership.  Shock value and entertainment dominate the news while less popular topics die.

 It’s the inevitable transformation of American society.  For the last 200 years newspapers have served as the watchdog of democracy and corruption.  During the 2008 presidential election people couldn’t wait to buy the collector’s edition paper with Obama’s photo on the cover. And it was to investigative journalist who broke the Watergate scandal.  

The traditional journalist worried about thoroughly investigating their topics and getting reliable sources; whereas the modern journalist seems more consumed competes with changing trends and staying relevant. When asked whether the watchdog role of a journalist will survive Serena Netcliff, the recent City College grad, said “Well maybe it’s time to put the watchdog down,”

There is speculation within the journalism industry that if the investigative hard stories normally produced by newspapers are not exclusive to journalist, than news stories will lack quality.  “In previous downturns, rookie reporters reinvigorated the newsroom; now, there might not be any quality, young journalists to take over.” Joel Kaplan of the Neiman Foundation write in his article titled ‘Damaging Ripple Effects of Newsroom Cutbacks’. 

 In contrast Michael Huber, the Interactive Audience Manager for the Times Union Web site, teaches an upper-level journalist class because it “Keeps me sharp,” He explains that contrast between himself and his students is “A great opportunity to find out  what will happen in the future,”

Who will continue to spend 50 or 75 cents on a newspaper when the stories are free online?  “I read newspapers growing up because…,” York Brabham a 67-year old retired veteran said. “Because that’s what everyone did,”.  But Mr. Brabham is a part of a minority of people who continue to buy newspapers.  The majority according to Sojourner Edmonson-Sealy, a former student at Clark Atlanta University majoring in Fashion merchandising, “Use the Internet religiously,” and “I check my Twitter and Facebook at least…five times a day,”  

 While newspapers are struggling to retain readership and revenues and maintain journalistic integrity, the free and ubiquitous Internet poses new challenges that newspapers have never faced.  It will cost you next to nothing or nothing at all to create Web sites, write blogs, sell products online, make professional connections, create personal branding and produce online articles. The World Wide Web provides a constant flow of fresh and easily accessible content; something that newspapers, even online, are not yet sure of how to match or beat that concept.

John Dvorak, a writer for the Market Watch Web site argued that from a business perspective newspapers do not have an effective barrier to protect them against the Internet. “There are now plenty of news sites to choose from. I would argue that there are too many newspapers,” This period of declining in the newspaper industry is weeding out the weak allowing the stronger well equipped newspapers to survive.  Mr. Brabham contested that “It’s a matter of time before everything goes online,”

In essence the newspaper industry is a reflection of the recession and the inevitable changes that follow.  Papercuts.com will continue to track newspaper closings and jobs will be lost, but the argument is not clear cut so only time will tell.

An hour later the noises inside Starbuck’s have quieted, only broken by an occasional customer laughing loudly. The man wearing the headphones is now on iTunes and the neat stack of New York Times newspapers look a messy.

Photo was taken by Melissa Brabham

While other Times Union bloggers in the business section wrote about marketing trends and rising entrepreneurs in the capital district, Matt Baumgartner blogged about Ronald McDonald and Ducati’s. Within weeks Baumgartner’s blog started to receive more than 45,000 views. 

Michael Huber, the Interactive Audience Manager for the TimesUnion.com, recruited Baumgartner to write for the business section blog since he owns Bombers Burritos Bar and Wolff’s Beirgarten in downtown Albany. Baumgartner, a graduate from Union College with a bachelor’s in Economics and Spanish, had no previous experience writing, except on a blog section of MySpace.

Initially he was contracted to post weekly but Baumgartner wrote daily. Some of his early blogs were strictly business related  but soon Baumgartner started to post controversial, but very popular, topics about strippers and homo milk.  

In one blog titled ‘Grapes’ he writes about getting unintentionally getting drunk the night before while watching a funny newscast about grapes, which is why he did not post his trademark Friday Puppy blog.  One comment read “You don’t owe anyone anything on this blog, take your time,”  “Everything I write I worry about,” Baumgartner said.  But “It’s not my strategy…to push the limit,”.    

 Although he broke the Times Union rules regarding foul language and appropriate topic choices, it was obvious that there was a method to his madness that just worked.  Mr. Huber from the Times Union called it the “Birth of a blog but really the birth of a blogger,”

But after six months of a love-hate relationship with the Times Union, Matt Baumgartner left the TU and created his own blog, Fidaypuppy.com.   The name Friday Puppy was his trademark Friday blog with the Times Union.  Every Friday he would post pictures of people’s dog, or puppy, with a little blurb next to it.  The first FridayPuppy was Lola the dog that lived downstairs from him.

Baumgartner launched Fridaypuppy.com October 2009 and called it “liberating,”.  He said that although the opportunity to have written a Times Union blog was beneficial, writing his own blog without strict guidelines propelled his blogging.  According to the about page of FridayPuppy, he likes vodka, xanax and Fudge Fantasy cookies; and warns about leaving mean comments. And maybe that too much information for some but as Baumgartner explains “people relate to it,” and that they “appreciate the honesty,”.

In one of his recent blogs titled ‘Fear of Public Speaking’ he explains how his recent trip to the University at Albany to speak to a journalism class about his blog made him “want to vomit,”.  It’s ironic that Baumgartner, who “almost never buys a newspaper anymore,”, is speaking to a class of future journalist about his successful blog. He’s far from a trained journalist but has mastered blogging; something that has changed what and how news is now constructed. His advice on what to major in: “ accounting,”.  

Although he manages to blog almost daily, Baumgartner spends a lot of time between his two restaurants. When asked whether he liked blogging or owning a restaurant better, “blogging,” he replied.  Bombers Burritos Bar, located on the corner of Western Avenue and Lark Street, serves wings in a variety of flavors (Baumgartner’s favorite are the Tequila wings), drink specials and of course burritos.  Bombers also has a blog that’s maintained with the help of Pete Corcoran. There are photos of newlyweds and customers celebrating their 21^st birthdays with the infamous Birthday Margarita.  He opened up Bombers in October 1997 with the prize money, $15,000 after taxes, he won playing a Let it Ride game at Turning Stone Casino.

picture taken by Patrick Witty

The Showcase section of the New York Times Web site has a new series by journalist Patrick Witty called ‘But the Name Is Familiar’. He does an audio and visual profile on people with the same names as United States Presidents.   He’s only done one so far.;George Washington.  This modern George Washington is not the cherry-tree-chopping, powdered-wig-wearing  president; but instead he is an inmate serving three years on weapons charges. Witty’s trademark,according to him, will be to photograph these famous named people in a familiar poses that the orginal named people have been in.  I’m interested to see who else shares some famous names. Maybe there will be Kim Kardashians and Colin Powells in the future.

this photo is from sunsblog.com

In a recent article on the Gardian.co.uk Web site Google’s Senior business product manager Josh Cohen is interview about how Google is creeping into the journalism industry.  He insists that Google is not trying to call themsleves journalist.

 ”We will always draw the distinction: we are not journalists. We don’t want to become editors. We understand ourselves as a service or a platform. There is no overarching goal in becoming something like the iTunes of journalism,” he said in the article. Journalist are the watchdogs of the nation, ready with thier pen and paper (and now add a  laptop, camera and iPhone) to write a story. Google is far from being called a watchdog of news and justice .

They are a  news aggregator with really cool tools and software to make a journalists job a little easier. But Google  has a lot of power when it comes to dessiminitaing news and information. Maybe a lot more than legacy newpapers and popula blogs do. Maybe everyone should take notice and follow in Google’s footsteps.  Create a search engine using algorithms to save you time and energy. 

However people use Google religiously to search for things and in a sense it become the way they recieve their news. If you are looking for Hrricane Katrina information, more than likely you wll Google it. Your not going to search thruogh archived articels in the New York Times or look at national weather data. You will Google it.

“Not only journalism, but blogs and other services. And our task is to bring this information to the reader. So ask yourself: Is Twitter journalism? I don’t know. But there is no question that it is part of the dialogue.” Cohen sad. Although Google is not a journalism based sight they are producing journalism 2.0 tools that will become almost neccesary in the future. In the futre maybe the New York Times will have a Times Reader and NYTimes Chrome.

taken from Hunterdon Regional Central High School

After spending two and a half hours reading through Shirkey’s extremely long speech (it was 4000 words) twice, he has cemented himself as a long winded, over analytical, somewhat obsessed internet junkie, possible media guru and media landscape schizophrenic.

He probably used about 1000 examples and 500 book references to conclude that the industry, business model and delivery of journalism are changing, permanently.  Just to be clear saving and improving the journalism industry is very important. It’s how we receive our news and gossip but it’s not worth dwelling “the golden days” because they’re never coming back.

I offer a suggestion.  Instead of counting down to doomsday; start looking to the next generation of people who will run the industry. The younger generation probably doesn’t have a better suggestion to the problems facing the industry but they are less tainted by the slow collapse of the old journalism model.

But his speech was tailored to a specific audience; an audience of professionals that are in the industry looking inside out.  No one wants to listen about the day their jobs are unnecessary and obsolete. As a journalism student it’s not easy to read the eulogy of the journalism industry.

He continues to diagnose the journalism industry but offers up no clear solution; which did not surprise me because there is little that he or anyone else can do to completely save newspapers. However Shirkey did make a few good points throughout his “mini novel”.  “Someone who just wanted a crossword puzzle – why would you next tell them about news in Tegucigalpa?” Shirkey said in his speech at the Neiman Lab at Harvard University. He is right though. The printed newspaper has different sections to read but it can’t compare to the endless random news and non-newsworthy stuff on the Web.

It’s unfortunate that the newspaper audience is getting smaller and advertising revenue is shrinking too. His comment about Best Buy supporting the Baghdad bureau for advertising opportunities was not surprising.  Right now that’s probably how some newspapers are eating. For all we know The New York Times could be covering the Macy’s Day Parade because Macy’s pays for the most advertising space in the newspaper.  

Newspapers will not disappear but become more specialized and elite. It will cost $15 an issue and cover large issue in depth, something like a magazine.  There doesn’t seem like any harm in allowing advertisers support newspapers.  Maybe somewhere down the line it will be. The story about the Boston Globe   priest scandal story should have always been a national issue. But there are plenty of stories that get swept away. For example the flooding in Georgia this past summer was remnant of Hurricane Katrina. But it did not get as much news coverage as the Kanye West and Taylor Swift incident did. 

My remedy is this: the industry will never die as long as there is freedom if the press and a journalist willing to be the watchdog for everyone and anyone with a voice.

According to an article in The New York Times current students ”offer advice on the application process and the institute’s intense workload; others write about quirkier topics, like warm apple pie topped with bacon and hot caramel sauce, falling down the stairs or trying to set a world record in the game of Mattress Dominos,”  Theres probably an added incentive since these bloggers are paid $10 an hour. Not bad for posting your opinion online. 

After visiting the blog, theres obviously is not a specific criteria or subject for posting because topic range from a freshmans experience to a bunch of half-naked guys playing in office chairs.  It seems like a great way to learn about a college campus from actual students and not from a generic brochure with statisctics about the school.  “Blogs can certainly help humanize the process,” the senior dean of admissions,Art Rodriguez, said in an article with The New York Times.  In the near future, spring 2010, blogs will be as common as campus tours.

If MIT is allowing students to post their thoughts and opnions about their alma mater then eventually the “bad” post will leak through. No college campus is great alll the time. If UAlbany started an admissions blog then eventually a post about how bad the dining hall food is or that it snows way too much in Albany would be posted. Having the good mixed in with the bad would give prospective students a more realistic idea of where their $70 application fee is going.

MIT is known  for its intense science and technology programs. Class,study,eat, more studying, sleep and even more studying; that would be my assumption of how MIT students spent their time.  But somewhere in between sleep and studying these students have time to write blogs too! An overachiever of you ask me, but no one is asking me.  Christie Chinea, a senior of MIT,  who writes for the admissions site blog confessed “I didn’t know about the anime club. I would have never guessed that people at M.I.T. are interested in anime. Oh well … +1 on my ‘Why should I go to M.I.T.’ list.” in a recent article in The New York Times.  MIT is onto something big.

This time around Lebrun traveled 150 miles of the Hudson River stopping at only seven key destinations along it. He started at Mount Marcy and ended at end at the Hudson River in Albany. The goal of this trip, Lebrun suggests, is “to see what we can see, good and bad, and take our readers along with us.”   Instead of travelling 18 days by canoe, raft, and power boat Lebrun choose a seven day journey that “The heart is willing to consider a longer journey, but the knees are not.”  he said.

     I commend this man. When I think of the Hudson River the last thing I think of is how massive and dynamic the river is. I don’t wonder how the river has changed in the last 11 years or what interesting things might be happening along the river. Flight 1549, dangerously polluted water, airplane crashes, that’s what I think of.  When I freshman I was on the Crew team and spring practice was downtown on the Hudson River. I remember the water looked opaque and filthy I was more afraid of getting splashed by the tainted water than drowning. Its interesting that he still ventures out to do what joutnalist do:report and write.

“The heart is willing to consider a longer journey, but the knees are not.” – Fred Lebrun

     And Lebrun is probably well aware that the Hudson’s negative reputation but even so he still jumps, at his age he probably slowly slipped in, into a raft to do his journalism.  After looking through the 1998 Hudson River Chronicles I started to wonder how much Lebrun was paid to do this. Being outdoors for hours at a time for 18 days straight could not have been easy.  Unpredictable weather, strange locations and navigating a small raft or boat with a crew of people trying to make their deadlines about the Hudson River chronicles seems more comical.   

     I want the gossip.  Give me an article on how someone lost their camera in Glens Falls because they were goofing around in the raft tipped over causing all their stuff to be lost. That’s not really funny or good gossip but I wanted something else besides an 18-day chronicle of birds and water. More power to Lebrun and his crew but I’m a natural indoorsman or indoorswoman to be politically correct. I’m in my element with a sofa, television and internet.  Maybe this Hudson River Chronicles will change my idea about the tainted Hudson River but until then I’m safe

          After reading the Gawker post by Hamilton Nolan and the Washington Post article by Ian Shapira, it is evident that majority of Nolan’s post was lifted verbatim from Shapira’s article. However, he did add his own original interpretation and insults about the “generational consultant”, Anne Loehr. The direct quotes from the Washington Post’s article were posted in with large red parentheses around them which implied they were actual quotes but Ian Shapira was never attributed as the source of these quotes. What if Pricechopper started labeling their products with Hannaford labels, without letting Hannaford know or even worse not share the profit? That would never go down.  This may seem innocuous mistake but it contributes to the larger problem within the journalism industry of who owns the content.

          What followed was a “blight”, a blog fight, between Shapira, Gabriel Snyder and other news blog sites.  Was Nolan wrong for essentially stealing the Washington Post article? Yes he was wrong. In his response article about Nolan’s thievery, Shapira criticizes how stealing original work undermines real reporting. Real reporting as he puts it is “making me even more nervous about my precarious career as a newspaper reporter who enjoys, at least for the time being, a salary, a 401(k) and health insurance.”   Considering our unstable economy it’s probably not a good idea to lose your job or start looking for a new one.  And bloggers like Nolan seem unsympathetic about preserving a journalist’s job. 

         I counted 440 words total in Nolan’s post and 227 of them were quotes from Shapira’s article. If you did the math, that’s 48 percent of unoriginality. Nolan’s article was short, informative, and funny. He defended his position, mixed in a few insults with actual quotes from the Washington Post article and his post was done. It was not that bad and I actually preferred reading his slightly bitter opinion post compared to Shapira’s longer piece. And that was probably his goal, to attract more traffic, but failed to have journalistic integrity.

       However, Rachel Sklar from Mediaite.com makes a good point that “it’s hardly fair to blame Gawker for a form that has become institutionalized across the blogosphere. (Not to mention all those times that major newspapers picked up stories first broken by blogs without crediting!)” in her post titled “Did Gawker rip off the Washington Post? Yep.”  Even if a newspaper stole a story that originated online, there was probably thorough time and money dedicated to reproducing that same story. The New York Times, for example, covered the Kanye West and Taylor Swift incident at the MTV Video Music Awards a day after it happened.  The Times even posted the video. But the story and video leaked to the Web minutes after it happened. Everyone seen it and read about it before the Times covered it. But throughout the article it is clear where the information was from.

          Then there’s the problem of the newspaper. Blog sites are not afraid to post newsworthy and non-newsworthy stuff, regardless of original reporting. Attribution is not discouraged but not promoted as highly as traffic numbers are. Shapira spent time interviewing Loehr, sat through a two-hour seminar, transcribed 3,000 words of notes and assembling it into a 1,500 word article. The Gawker employee spent about an hour maybe an hour and a half writing that post according to Shapira’s article “The Death of Journalism.” But that is expected because blogs are usually short sweet and to the point, while newspaper articles are longer and more in depth.

       Bill Grueskin of the Columbia Journalism Review pointed out that Hamilton Nolan did provide links in his story to help readers navigate to other sites about the same topic. But two of the eight links were links back to the original article.  Ian Shapira’s article was very long and even if the link was properly placed, I highly doubt the average reader would have taken the time to read the entire 1,500-word article. Was that a slap in the face to all journalists who dedicate time and energy into writing a story or is it time for newspapers to change their business model?

        After sifting through another 1500-word article written by Ian Shapira, “The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition)”, the answer seems like it’s time to change the business model.  If bloggers are going to steal and prominent newspapers do not have an effective method for preventing journalistic piracy, and journalists careers are in jeopardy, than it’s definitely time to change it up  

           If the obvious debate between the Washington Post and Gawker.com was about attribution etiquette, than relevancy and rivalry was the unspoken brawl. According to “Death of Journalism” by Shapira, after initially reading the Gawker post he “was flattered,” And part of that is a journalist goal because if you spend two days writing an article than you want someone to acknowledge it. You want someone to blog about it, comment, say they loved it, or even say they hated it; staying relevant and interesting keeps the journalism industry alive.  But his flattery turned into resentment after his editor convinced him that it was wrong to take it as a compliment. If the news revolution includes more stolen opinion-driven content and less original reporting than “A less cumbersome way for newspapers to head off the threat of blogs would be to beat us to the punch line.”  as Gabriel Snyder from Gawker.com said.