Lofflinradio 4-18, a show about the dying value of originality; Cortez, Watchtower, Ed Robinson, Jack White, Jimmy Cliff, Mr. Coltrane, Ms. Barber

The new world of journalism -- if Rob Curley is right, it will take coffee, shoe leather and genuine love of the stories that make communities live

I wish I could be twenty again.

Not for the reason you're thinking. I wish I could be twenty again because I wish I was fresh faced, full of energy, and entering this brave new world of journalism.

You just did a double-take, which I understand. Old curmudgeons with decades of ink in their veins aren't supposed to be excited about the brave new world of their profession. But last weekend I had the opportunity to hear Rob Curley, chief content officer at the Las Vegas Sun, speak and I was jazzed.

Curley won my attention early by comparing the approach many journalists and journalism teachers take to the old-school approach of baseball purists to the world of statistics. He advocated applying the principles of Bill James to the world of journalism, in other words, he advocated a world based on knowing as opposed to a world based on mythology.

At the Las Vegas Sun, knowing means using data to understand precisely what readers are reading and to tailor journalism to fit their needs.

The example that sticks involves headlines on the Sun Web page. The newsroom keeps tabs on its Web stories on a big, real-time, electronic board. The board tells staffers exactly how many people are reading a story at any time. If they have a story they know deserves an audience, they keep rewriting the headline all day until they hit “the sweet spot” and readership grows.

This is a wonderful idea to a writer. The story is, in this case, not static. It’s dynamic. It exists for more than 24 hours. And somebody cares about who reads it. Somebody works on getting it to an audience.

But, you can also back up from the headline to the story and the reporting. The emphasis, Curley says, is on relevance at the Sun. It’s on meeting the readers' needs. I have preached this in my classes since the day 20-some years ago that I became a teacher. “What does the audience need us to do?” is the mantra. Right. Exactly right. Think about the audience first and last.

The test he likes to give reporters? “Would YOU read this story?” Then, “Would your mother read this story, if your byline wasn’t on it?”

And the Sun, he says, is about two really important goals, goals traditional journalists might find too chauvinistic but I think are just right. The first goal is building a sense of community. He says this is particularly important in Las Vegas, but I think it’s important everywhere. The second is to protect the community. Again, I agree, even though the traditional reporter in me feels a bit queasy about the idea.

He told his audience about the working life of a reporter at the Sun. That’s when I really got excited. He talked about reporters being everywhere, but especially on the street, especially not at their desks working the phones. The paper uses technology to show the readers where the reporters are in the city at any given moment. By my calculation, a reporter typically files five to 10 stories a day at the Sun.

I began to wonder how my students would fare in that environment. Some would flourish but, to be honest, many would not survive the first morning. I don’t think they intend to work that hard once they graduate. They’ve been conditioned by too many sit-coms, too many beer commercials, to see work as a place of cubicles where you play basketball with waste cans and break out the Bud-whatever for spontaneous parties. Boy, will they be surprised.

One student – who is absolutely among the few I think will flourish in that environment – asked, “Well, don’t you think once we graduate and we don’t have to work part-time jobs and do homework, that we will be more able to handle the work?”

No, actually, I don’t. I say that with all due respect. Journalism, especially the journalism of the future, is not a click and paste world. It’s not about Control-C, Control-V. If Rob Curley is right, it’s about shoe leather and gumption, lots of energy, and a sincere interest in people and their communities. I like that. She will, too, if she gets the chance. So will a couple of others. The rest are in for a shock.

Oh, to be twenty again. Maybe I'm the one who should be applying for a job at the Sun... It's about time I had a real job.

--Lofflin

A goofy radio show on how I feel about work... Todd Rundgren to BCR

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April 11, 2012 -- Enjoy:

Border War? Careful what you wish for, especially if seeing your enemy win makes you want to wreck your car on the way home from the game

If you want the Border War back, be careful what you wish for.

The residents of Kansas and Missouri are better off without it, just as they are better off without the real border war.

You know the one. The one where people died. That border war.

If you don’t think the world is better off without this border war, the border war of the basketball court, read this article in the Kansas City Star today. It is truly sad.

It’s about the joy Missouri fans felt watching KU players and fans cry. No, that’s not an exaggeration. That’s literally what the story delivered.

It was a story from a bar. That should tell you plenty. It was a bar frequented, apparently by Missouri fans.

Quotes from the story:

• “We live, die and breathe Missouri athletics, but as soon as we lose, we focus on rooting against Kansas.”
• “After 2008, (When Kansas came from behind to defeat Memphis in the final) I wanted to get in a car wreck on the way home.”
• “Something about Kansas fans crying is really beautiful to me.”

You could find just as many ridiculous comments in an article from a KU bar during the final game of the Big 12 Tournament, which the Missouri Tigers won.

I love sports. Let me rephrase… I love playing sports. I’m ok watching sports but I’d never turn down a chance to play, even during the final game of the NCAA tournament. For me, it would be no contest. Go out and take batting practice with my buddies or watch the two top college teams in the nation. BP, definitely.

But when you think about this Border War thing, you realize it has spawned more stupidity than"Jersey Shore." But, not particularly among players, who just look on it as a big game, a lot on the line, bragging rights… then embrace as the leave the court.

No, the players know it’s just a show. They’re the real participants. They’re the real grapplers. They know the reality of the event belongs to them. They have way more respect for each other than they do for their own loony fans.

How many Kansas players are actually from Kansas?

How many Missouri players are actually from Missouri?

They’re gunslingers. They’re playing on the side that offered the most loot. Not money. No conspiracy theories here. The best opportunity to play, the best coaching, the best fast track to the NBA. They don’t bleed black and gold, crimson and blue or even sacred Carolina blue.

They bleed regular old blood. Their own.

But their fans! They bleed school colors.

Yet, how many of their fans actually went to the university they are willing to support with their lives? Not as many as claim allegiance. And darn few even played intramurals, let alone stepped on the basketball court.

They’re voyeurs. They need this to have allegiance to something that makes them winners sometimes. You read through all the asinine comments under the sports stories – or virtually any other story – in the Kansas City Star and what you see are their impoverished lives.

My problem isn’t with college or professional sports. It’s with fanaticism. It’s with being a fan. It’s with being a watcher, a talker, a boaster… not a player. And the Border War for too long has given meaning to their lives. We’ll all be better off if they have to find meaning someplace else.

--Lofflin