ABC News Shuttering In-House Library in Favor of 'Digital Facility' (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

New York Observer ^ | June 4, 2009 | Felix Gillette

[abb]

Once upon a time (at the zenith of 20th century analog media), maintaining an on-site, in-house library crammed full of archived periodicals and rows and rows of hefty, solemn reference books, was all the rage at large media organizations.

In 2009, not so much.

Today, yet another bricks-and-mortar media bibliothèque fell victim to the digital age.

This afternoon, in an email to his staff, David Westin, the president of ABC News, announced that ABC News will be converting its existing research library on the second floor of its 47th street building into a smaller, more cyber-focused "Digital Research Facility."

"Our extensive, hard copy library filled with periodicals and other materials is no longer necessary in the digital age," wrote Mr. Westin. "The time has come to re-shape that library to reflect today’s world."

Back in October of 2008, Mr. Westin sent out a memo to staff, announcing a series of cost-saving maneuvers, including the cancellation of all print subscriptions for magazines and newspapers. Today's announcement would seem to further move the news organization beyond the printed word.

"You will continue to receive the same exceptional service as you have in the past," he added. "But we’re developing, with an outside research consultant, a state of the art research system tailored to our particular needs. When this new system is completed, you will be able to get the information you need and conduct your own searches from your desktop."

Mr. Westin went on to inform his newsroom that the changes will result in a "reduced staff" but that some of the current library staff would be staying on through the transition and "perhaps beyond."

"Once we’re through the transition, we will be donating our current hard copy periodicals to a library in need," he added. "These materials have served us well, and we hope they will do the same for a deserving community."

[abb]

The lock on the door to archives has now been picked.

[abb]

ping

[abb]

http://www.wbur.org/2009/06/05/globe-vote-preview
As Globe Union Vote Looms, A Loud ‘No’ Contingent Remains

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/04/AR2009060402747.html
Pick Your Poison, er, Publisher

http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/the-newspaper-suicide-pact.html
The newspaper suicide pact

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06052009/business/five_hachette_titles_set_sail_for_bonnie_172662.htm?page=0
FIVE HACHETTE TITLES SET SAIL FOR BONNIER SHORES

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200906/1744/
Industry chaos provides reporters with an opportunity to rethink standards

[Glenn]

I’m still a paper person, though I’ve been a computerist for 34 years.

I’ve yet to meet a digital paper method that allows me to read as naturally as I can with a reference book or magazine. My personal computing library is extensive and Amazon loves me for it.

I do subscribe to safaribooks.com and frequently print out chapters of reference material as I need it for any particular product.

I prefer newspaper websites to newspapers because there is no attempt to “deliver” the content of the actual newspaper print.

[abb]

Paper books will be around for as long as mankind, I suspect. But they are less important every day.

Go to any ‘Friends of the Library’ book sale and notice how many reference type books are there - dictionaries, encyclopaedia, textbooks, etc. One sale that I go to won’t even take them in donation any more.

It is my opinion that the web will have a more profound impact on mankind than the invention of movable type.

[savedbygrace]

Digital sources can be . . . . let me see, how to phrase this . . . . modified easily to say whatever the powers-that-be want them to say. Hard copy sources are much more difficult to modify without leaving discernible traces.

[abb]

http://www.magazinedeathpool.com/
Nickelodeon magazine: RIP June 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jun/04/mobilephones-b-of-the-bang

@DW Global Media Forum: African mobile phone reporters

The Voices of Africa project trains journalists to cover their own communities using nothing more than a mobile phone.

[abb]

Digital sources can be . . . . let me see, how to phrase this . . . . modified easily to say whatever the powers-that-be want them to say. Hard copy sources are much more difficult to modify without leaving discernible traces.

But with digitized information, the powers-that-be can never be sure that they got it all changed. There's always that pesky copy that was saved on someone's hard drive somewhere, or on some blog - or on FRee Republic...

[Reeses]

"Once we’re through the transition, we will be donating our current hard copy periodicals to a library in need," he added.

The NY City Pound library?

[abb]

http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13952
ABC News library goes digital

[abb]

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/
Tip: Another round of payroll trims for early July

[Milhous]

Digital sources can be . . . . let me see, how to phrase this . . . . modified easily to say whatever the powers-that-be want them to say. Hard copy sources are much more difficult to modify without leaving discernible traces.

ITYM edited. Although it's theoretically possible to edit unaccessed content without leaving a trace, in reality it's virtually impossible to put the toothpaste back into the tube after content gets accessed and is out in the wild.

For the sake of argument let's estimate 2 billion devices (PCs, cell phones, PDAs, et al) connected to the Inet potentially available to act as receptors for any given content. It can take some time for original content to propagate to even 1,000 of those devices. For instance, it takes days for some Free Republic threads to break 500 views while other threads languish and never make it to 500 views.

All 2,000,000,000 devices contain special memory called cache. Due to the relatively long time it takes to download content, devices first fill their very own cache with a copy of Inet content prior to playing it and/or displaying it.

At that point a copy of content exists in the device's cache. Until the user refreshes. Think about hitting your browser's refresh button to see new followups to a Free Republic thread. Think about the mods deleting a followup and how you can sometimes hit the back button to still see the offending comment in all of its glory.

[Zakeet]

MAGAZINE DEATH POOL

Who will be next?

1. Scientific American -34.78%
   
2. Home -33.08%
   
3. Nickelodeon -32.44%
   
4. Rolling Stone -30.87%
   
5. US News & World Report -30.47%
   
6. Newsweek -30.25%
   
7. Time -29.34%
   
8. The New Republic -28.39
   
9. Sporting News -28.31%
   
10. Blender -28.04%

HOT UP AND COMERS

Fortune -24.69%
Fitness -24.08%
Cycle World -23.67%

More good news from HERE,

[Landru]

"Back in October of 2008, Mr. Westin sent out a memo to staff, announcing a series of cost-saving maneuvers, including the cancellation of all print subscriptions for magazines and newspapers."

Ouch!!

Wonder if Pinch-boy & Associates will retaliate by not watching ABC?
Hey Rupert Murdoch!! A new reality show: Mediots at War?

"...When this new system is completed, you will be able to get the information you need and conduct your own searches from your desktop...Mr. Westin went on to inform his newsroom that the changes will result in a 'reduced staff'..."

HA!!
Yea-yea, progressive. :o)

"...but that some of the current library staff would be staying on through the transition and 'perhaps beyond.'"

Yea, especially the unionized ones.
~eh, Weston? ;^)

[abb]

I think the ability to archive and index with computers is at least as important as the ‘many to many’ interconnectivity of the internet.

[Milhous]

The worst argument I've heard so far came from Walter Isaacson, the former editor of TIME who got this party started in February with his cover story “How to Save Your Newspaper.” ... Isaacson isn't a stupid man. ... - Dan

Some of Isaacson's rationalizations make him look like a stupid man. To wit:

Isaacson used this alternate rationalization: Paid content models are necessary "to protect creativity."

Professors tell me that humanity creates virtually infinite quantities of new art. So much new art that humanity needs gatekeepers to keep massive amounts of creativity in check in order to exalt only the best.

OTOH my profs neglect to tell me how every soul celebrates its own unique notion of "best."

To hell with the "mass mind."

[abb]

The solution to all this is simple: Big Newspaper should petition the US Patent Office to copyright the English Language. Problem solved!!

[MrEdd]

You think your joking...

[abb]

I know you’ve seen me post on this. Back in the early 30s, Big Newspaper tried (and succeeded for a time) to prevent radio from broadcasting news. It was called the Biltmore Agreement.

See page 27

http://books.google.com/books?id=PkXTrh4eDlcC

[MrEdd]

Sounds good. even a used copy is 64 bucks though. I’ll have to see if the college library can get it.

[abb]

LOL! I’ve delayed getting it for that reason, too. I’m thinking library, too.

[martin_fierro]

"Oh Noes! What will I read now??"

[abb]

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Desperation Drives Colaboration

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/fair-syndication-consortium-news-orgs-new-way-to-confront-google/#more-5727

Series: The Chicago Meeting
Fair Syndication Consortium: News orgs’ new way to confront Google?

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003980858
SPECIAL REPORT: Facing Pay Cuts, Furloughs to Avoid Layoffs

[Milhous]

From a related link:

just 14 percent of newspapers' cash operating costs, on average, is devoted to content creation, while about 70 percent of costs are devoted to printing, distribution and corporate functions. The remaining 16 percent of costs are related to advertising sales. - Jeff

Over the years dinomedia deathwatching enabled me to perceive America's recording industry as refiners pitching product oozing out of a relatively few vinyl factories. Now it turns out that newsprint pitches physical paper product from a few pulp mills. It's all about paying union guys to deliver it.

(Yet another news story delivered on a first name basis noted. ROTFL.)

[abb]

The similarities are striking. Big Newspaper, like Big Music were monopoly distribution/marketing systems. And when you can control the distribution, marketing turns into an order-taking function. No ‘selling’ is required.

[Landru]

"I think the ability to archive and index with computers is at least as important as the ‘many to many’ interconnectivity of the internet."

Of course, I'd agree with your take.

But, abb?
Isn't this something any entity, so heavily dependent upon information past & present such as a rag, to have done yearrrrrrs ago?

I mean I did PT work in college at a large local bank preparing documents for microfilming so later the stuff could be easily digitized.

I'm not exactly a spring chicken, either. LOL

[abb]

Brings to mind the old Tracey/Hepburn movie “Desk Set,” doesn’t it?

[abb]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/04/why-the-music-licensing-model-wont-save-newspapers/
Why the music-licensing model won’t save newspapers

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25293711-7582,00.html
Google dubbed internet parasite by WSJ editor

[abb]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/pink_paper_gives_out_pink_slip.html
Layoffs at the Observer

[abb]

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/278505-FCC_Finds_More_Analog_Signal_Loss_Than_Initially_Predicted.php
FCC Finds More Analog Signal Loss Than Initially Predicted
355 stations now losing more than 2% of their former analog audience

[RayChuang88]

I think what ABC is talking about is to digitize old books and periodicals and put then online in an internal system so they can be read on a computer. Using the latest version of Adobe Reader, these digitized pages can be indexed for fast searching.

This is not the first time the Walt Disney Company did this--ESPN has essentially digitized their entire videotape library so films and old videotape recordings can be brought up in a matter of seconds.