Submitted by PeggyHolman on Thu, 02\/26\/2009 – 11:11am<\/p>\n
Session Reporter: <\/strong> Peggy Holman<\/p>\n Conversationalist 1: <\/strong> Tom Honig<\/p>\n Conversationalist 2: <\/strong> Peggy Holman<\/p>\n Tom Honig, former editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and I spoke on Tuesday, February 24th.\u00a0 After more than 35 years as a journalist, Tom has been doing public relations for the past year.\u00a0 I was struck by the value of his time away from the profession, providing perspective that will serve us all well at the conference. He told me that he misses being part of the fourth estate:<\/p>\n I went to the Newseum about 4-5 months ago.\u00a0 It was the first time I had this crisis of confidence — I\u2019m not one of them anymore.\u00a0 It is difficult for my identity, to not say I\u2019m part of the 4th estate.\u00a0 Attending this conference is my way of fighting back.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t do to sit around and lament what is happening. <\/em><\/p>\n He further reflected on what he is learning about perceptions of journalists:<\/p>\n The time away has been interesting, to read the paper the way others do.\u00a0 I’ve been training people on public relations, how to present something in a way journalists will understand it.\u00a0 People coming through the training fear journalists will get the story wrong. <\/em>The reporters just miss the story. <\/em>They don\u2019t fear accurate journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n We also talked about what he values about the emerging news ecology…<\/p>\n As we moved to online at the Santa Cruz Sentinel, we weren\u2019t innovators, we were close followers of trends.\u00a0 In 2004-05, we embraced multimedia.\u00a0 I bought a digital recorder and a video camera, paying for it myself to play around with it.\u00a0 The goal, was for example, an early thing we did, a series on race in Santa Cruz.\u00a0 We had a Q&A in the paper and a live podcast with the police chief.\u00a0 We were trying to look at the best way through audio and video.\u00a0 That succeeded to present day.\u00a0 For the first time, with our tools, we could do coverage we couldn\u2019t imagine 10-20 years ago.\u00a0 We can compete with the metros.\u00a0 When you have the tools, it can make you competitive.\u00a0 What is frustrating now, you\u2019re cut so much, not getting training or staff size to make use of the tools.<\/em><\/p>\n How journalism is changing…<\/p>\n I think the difficulty of people trying to do things themselves, journalism now is more a team sport now.\u00a0 You need people with different gifts, front end work, storyboarding to figure out the best way to tell a story.\u00a0 I miss the give and take.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t had the wearwithal to do a startup.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll get some ideas, at the conference to do that.<\/em><\/p>\n And what he values about traditional journalism…<\/p>\n How do you really do the reporting to get an accurate story?\u00a0 Not instantly posting something, the values of investigating, learning and explaining and thinking about the import of a story.\u00a0 Crucial values, I see left out of the discussion as things change.<\/p>\n As you go through convulsive change, you have to look at what do you truly need to save? The second part, how do you present complex, information in a way that most people can understand it?\u00a0 Explaining science, economics, travel, politics; how do you manage to present the world as its proceeding in a way that\u2019s understandable and clear?<\/em><\/p>\n After a great conversation, I look forward to meeting Tom in person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Submitted by PeggyHolman on Thu, 02\/26\/2009 – 11:11am Session Reporter: Peggy Holman Conversationalist 1: Tom Honig Conversationalist 2: Peggy Holman Tom Honig, former editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and I spoke on Tuesday, February 24th.\u00a0 After more than 35 … Continue reading
\nWhen I worked with brilliant young people, that know more than I\u2019ll ever know about gizmos and online tools, and page makeup and design, they do not have enough respect for what\u2019s involved in good, basic, accurate, mainstream objective journalism.\u00a0 I think sometimes, one thing I\u2019ve thought about, all of us who are experienced know the situation of coverage of people you don\u2019t agree with and giving them a fair hearing.\u00a0 And being skeptical of those with whom you do agree.\u00a0 Standards of the business.<\/em><\/p>\n