Colin McEnroe is a blogger and writer for the Hartford Courant. Today he gives a sharp-tongued piece of advice to the folks down there, who just recently suffered through another round of massive layoffs, and must be smarting.
He makes some good points. Among them is that a morning newspaper should have a busy newsroom at 11 pm. Staffers should live in the city they cover. McEnroe can’t think of one Courant staffer who actually lives in Hartford! He himself, he admits, is moving out soon too.
He points out that newspaper jobs have become like office work, they lost the romance and urgency and now, reporters and editors want to get home to the suburbs like the rest of us and have a glass of wine and see their kids. But this is death for a newspaper, where ‘an elite strike force full of workaholics and night owls’ is what you need. You can’t just turn in a 9-5 when you’re supposed to have your finger on the pulse of a city.
He also questions the idea of turning print reporters into Internet news writers. “It’s like dressing a guy up in a lion costume and hoping the other lions will accept him” He suggests hiring crack bloggers, with good video editing skills who can freelance and create really well done internet content.
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