Today marks a new beginning for San Jose Inside. We have formed an alliance with Metro Newspapers, Boulevards, NBC11, Topix and the Los Gatos Observer that will create a comprehensive digital-age system to deliver local news, information and opinion, and provide citizen journalists an outlet to bring matters to the attention of the community and discuss issues of importance to residents of San Jose and Silicon Valley.
We have watched with increasing concern as the new owners of the Mercury News, Denver-based MediaNews, have hacked and cut the once-great paper, reducing it to its present pathetic state. The reduction of their editorial and writing staff to a minimal level, with more cuts on the way, has left the community without a reliable information and news source. The mother corporation obviously calls the shots there and they have shown that serving the public good comes a distant second to their quest to maximize profits. That hiss you hear in the background is the MediaNews corporate vacuum cleaner sucking money out of San Jose and delivering it to Denver to pay the interest on their recently downgraded bonds.
And what about their giving back something to improve life in the city? Forget about it. The days of Knight Ridder’s philanthropy are gone for good.
The new ownership and “redesign” of the Mercury News have been a disaster for our citizens. The paper barely acknowledges local issues, and on national and international news, it is hardly competitive with the likes of the New York Times or even the Chronicle. The Merc’s efforts to move from print to Internet-based delivery has been marred by equally bad planning. Their site is easily the slowest, most difficult news site to navigate in the country and not worth the effort required.
What happened to the Merc is best described by former editor Susan Goldberg who bailed out for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. According to the Peninsula Press Club article, she told her staff at the Merc when it was forced into a sale by greedy Knight Ridder shareholders:
The turmoil could end pretty well, she said at a meeting, if the McClatchy chain bought the Mercury News — or “we could be sold to Singleton [MediaNews], and that would suck.”
While waiting for the Merc to die from its terminal illness, we are moving ahead to put together our “Virtual Valley Network.” San Jose Inside’s part in the new alliance will be to further develop our site for citizen journalism and create more opportunities for good old-fashioned blogging. All the regular San Jose Inside writers will continue to publish columns on their usual days and we will be joined by a list of others, including Metro’s Gary Singh and Dan Pulcrano (see his first column today on our home page). Other content will be added in the coming weeks, including items from the Metro’s “Fly” column (the first one is on our home page) and the unique cartoons by DeCinzo. We will also have more guest columns from journalists and leaders in San Jose politics, business, education and culture and a new site design. Everything will be open to you, our readers and bloggers, to add your views or engage in conversations with others interested in the issues. We invite you to use San Jose Inside to make your voice heard.
Now it’s your turn. We would like to hear from you about what content and features you would like to see us add or develop. Use all the space you need below to tell us your thoughts.
Sell outs!
Jack, this sounds very exciting. I’ll need some time to digest all the changes and you are so right about Media News. But I ultimately hold McClatchy responsible. They are the ones who cast off the Merc into the hands of an entity that would quickly achieve total demolition of what was once a decent paper. It is truly despicable and I’m glad to see that Media News is encountering financial issues as a result of their reckless buying binge.
Eugene #3, you forgot to mention the horrible BART-to-SJ cost overruns that you recently mentioned on your email list. VTA still has not updated this page:
http://www.vta.org/studies/vtp2035/transit.html
Expect next an abundance of advertising on the top and bottom banners and side bars, long loading times waiting for doubleclick and casalemedia to link, lots and lots of cookies.
Jack—Sounds like a great plan; am anxiously awaiting the execution. But it still is remarkable that so many people consider the “good old” Murky News a great paper. My SF friends, when visiting, just shake their heads and smirk as they flip through the endless ads and funky writing. Anything interesting was always off the wire. Please make a list of the “hardhitting investigative reporting” ever done by the Murk. Go way back in time. Phil Trounstein, in his old once a year satire on local politics, roasted the paper about its “extensive” science section, i.e., none. But they quickly fixed it—gave it a page after he mocked them. (But he and Prof Terry, in their
attempt at a book, and an investigation into who runs San Jose—couldn’t find out for sure.)
The fact that so many SJI bloggers think they lost something when the Murk began decomposing says a lot about how easily SJ is satisfied. Another bit of insight into why it is preoccupied and adrift, and never focussed—let along exciting. George Green
Before we rush to celebrate Susan Goldberg’s insight, let us remember that she did her bit to push away long time subscribers who were part of the largest demographic segment that supported the Merc.
It is interesting to me how many did notice, and commented on, her willingness to print disparaging labels (with no rebuttal allowed) for only one demographic segment.
Here are just a few of the labels she permitted to slap her largest segment of readership: WASP, non-Hispanic white, gringo, anglo, cracker, white trash, goober, Wonder Bread, white-bread. and guerrito. None of these disparaging labels alone is a problem, but taken together, Goldberg’s pattern of disparagement provides a vivid lesson in what not to do to build readership.
To have a broad-based, large readership, it just may be important not to disparage your readership.
PS: Steve Wright was no better. In the context of an opinion piece on 2/23/07 urging all of us to support parcel taxes for schools, he decreed that Polish-Americans and Italian-Americans are now “what today we call Anglos.” Well, that should get more Polish & Italian votes for school taxes, and more Polish & Italian readers for the Mercury News.
#3 Eugene, you’re giving it 3 years? I think it’s more like 3 months at this rate.
Congratulations, this is a huge win for the citizens of San Jose. This is the musical equivalent of going to a concert featuring The Osmonds, The DeFranco Family, The Jacksons, Andy Gibb, David Cassidy, ABBA and Tony Orlando & Dawn. Sweeeeeet!!!!
Hugh #6:
Thanks for the addenda. I was in a hurry to leave for my day job. I’ll be more than prepared for that this evening, with expanded coverage on VTA’s latest cost overruns for the BART project this weekend.
Does this mean that SJI is heading to Second Life and that we’ll soon be able to have our own avatars?
Oye, #1: I received this today from a Mexican friend. Is this you?
A Mexican man marries a Muslim woman.
The next year, the two have a new baby.
The nurse brings over a lovely, healthy, brand new baby.
“Congratulations,” says the nurse to the new parents.
She asks “What are you going to name this precious child?”
The parents explain they want both cultures to be a part of their child’s name, but have not yet decided on one.
“Well “, the nurse says, “can I give you a suggestion”,
“Sure” says the mother and the father,
Why don’t you name it “ALLAH CHINGADA”
#7
There will be some subtly placed advertising areas in the new design. There will be no popups or anything excessive. We are very sensitive to load times and our focus will be the issue-oriented content and quick navigation.
Congratulations SJI! I would love to see something on books, films, plays, and events. We could have some awesome discussions and share opinions on the newest books, films, plays, and even restaurants!
There are also some great issues that the paper never discusses, and some wonderful citizens that serve on Boards and Commissions who could educate us on everything from Human Rights to Sunshine. The possibilities are ENDLESS!
My only concern is that the Mercury News, up until recently, allowed their blog to become a forum for some serious hate speech. I hope SJI will keep that in mind and is prepared to disallow that on SJI, as some of these whackos find their way over here!
The Merc has to be the slowest and ugliest website around. Has anybody at the Merc noticed? The new comment system is equally bad: one account required to read the article and another account for posting comments. Hard to believe the Merc has any connection to Silicon Valley with such a poor website.
In today’s Chronicle, there’s an op ed piece entitled, “The Long Goodbye,” that makes a lot of good points about the slow death of newspapers.
“It’s an industry with a wasting disease that will rob us of essential benefits that we have forgotten how to appreciate.” And, “Coverage will trend toward local-lite-ignoring the world, avoiding uncomfortable positions and only paying serious attention to the community issues that sell.”
“I worry about the quality of debate. I worry about the truth. I worry about the community’s ability to examine itself. I worry about the abuse of power when nobody is watching…” (Peggy Drexler)
——————————————
The MERC should have presented the truth about the new city hall. The truth would have stopped its construction, and the tactics and corruption of the Gonzales Administration would have been exposed far earlier. Frankly, I believe that our city’s currently troubles would be half of what they are today if the Mercury News had fulfilled its vital role as a vanguard and custodian.
Pete campbell
Eugene Bradley,
Suddenly there is a big discrepancy between what San Francisco BART consultants say the “tunneling costs” are to tunnel underground downtown vs. what VTA Santa Clara County claim the cost to tunnel are?
San Francisco is considering extending their underground BART tunnel downtown an additional 1.9 miles. San Jose is considering a 4.9 mile tunnel under downtown San Jose. San Jose has to go deeper (70 feet) to go under the Guadalupe Creek.
San Francisco claims the cost to be $1billion dollars per mile, per BART consultants. San Jose is estimating their cost at approx. half that amount per mile to tunnel.
Tuesday March 4, 2008 in the Mercury News and reading Barry Whitts`s article and comments from Scott Knies, execuative director of San Jose Downtown, and Hans Larson, the cities deputy transportation director talk about …“the future of the 16.1 mile, $4.7 billion project… the tunnel portion is 4.9 miles long in San Jose and using San Francisco BART cost per mile at $1 billion per mile puts the tunneling in San Jose at $4.9 billion, again just for the tunnel portion.
How can the tunneling cost be $4.9 billion and the total cost for 16.1 miles be $4.7 billion?? Barry, Scott and Hans need to check their numbers again.
Excuse me but the numbers don`t work.
Wow! DeCinzo! Cool!
“There are also some great issues that the paper never discusses, and some wonderful citizens that serve on Boards and Commissions who could educate us on everything from Human Rights to Sunshine. The possibilities are ENDLESS!”
I agree with Kathleen, as a former Parks Commissioner I can say there are lots of issues that never see the light of day that the community should be aware of.
Good eye, #9.
It seems only one demographic is fair game for not only the woman in question but the media as a whole.
European Americans had better start connecting the dots to see the bigger picture.
Pete, you are so right!! Excellent point about the City Hall, and with a little thought, so many more sneaky stupidities. Pushing on with your idea, so much of what San Jose is not is because of what the Murk is and was: no truth, untruth, and nothing but purposeful misdirection and confusion. And as for philanthropy, let’s have a long list of the Ridders’ generosity, with memorable effect and impact. Not a Bob Kieve to be found anywhere in the organization at any time.
George Green
A very interesting piece on the decline of newspaper journalism by someone who “got out in time.”
http://www.esquire.com/print-this/essay/david-simon-0308
#15, Jack said: “There will be some subtly placed advertising areas in the new design.” Subtly by whose definition, Jack? Hell, there goes the neighborhood.
#17—how ironic—the paper of the alleged “Capital of Silicon Valley” has such a bogus website. Ooh, that’ll make everyone want to rush to it. It needs to go along with the newspaper.
I agree with #20—DiCinzo is the BEST!
Singh and Pulcrano? Ugh.
There are a lot of authors here that can compete with them, who write for free.
When do the griffiti removers get rid of the Knight Ridder sign that looms over our city.
Is plastic recycleable? They might get rid of the snake in the park as well. Let’s start from scratch allready! It’s a constant reminder of what politicions can get away with in the name of governance.
We could replace it with a sculpture of Mayor Reed and 2500 Vietnamese protesters.
The mhc Plaza could become the Alvarado summer home for deserving relatives.
That noise I’ve just heard is the San Francicso chronicle landing on my front porch.
Have a great day!
Little Chingon
How about sports coverage of San Jose’s teams beyond the Sharks. Sure I am biased toward the San Jose Giants. But the Stealth, Earthquakes and SaberCats all get short changed compared to the team from SF and Oakland.
Congratulations to SJI on forming the new alliance. It is certainly needed, given how the Merc is turning in to mush. At its current death spiral rate, I predict within 3 years, the Merc will cease to exist. It means anyone without a computer who wants local San Jose news will have to depend on the Chronicle or KLIV. San Jose is on the road to being the largest city in North America without a daily paper.
In the spirit of citizen journalism: here is a report on the fact that a Sunshine Law proposal for VTA will be presented to their Board of Directors at their meeting this evening in San Jose:
EVENT: March 2008 VTA Board Meeting
WHEN: TONIGHT @ 6:00pm (closed session is at 5:30pm)
WHERE: County Supervisors’ Chambers, 70 W. Hedding Street, San Jose. Accessible from the 61, 62, 66, 180, and 181 bus lines, and near
Civic Center light rail station.
MORE INFO:
http://www.vta.org/inside/boards/packets/2008/03_mar/index.html
Make your voice heard on these key topics at tonight’s VTA Board meeting:
* the 10% salary increase proposal for General Counsel Gifford (Agenda Item 5)
* Our Sunshine Law proposal for open government (Agenda item 10)
* VTP 2035, VTA’s long-range transit and highway plan (Agenda item 25)
* VTA’s Hydrogen bus program and its bad performance (Agenda Item 8 or Agenda Item 30A)
Remember: ANYONE CAN ATTEND AND SPEAK OUT at all VTA Board and other meetings. Make sure to fill out the blue speakers’ card at the table at the back of the Auditorium. Note the agenda item you want to speak up on. Give the completed card to one of the VTA Board
secretaries near the stage.
Some tips for making your voice heard at VTA Board meetings:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/DIY/speakout.html
Can’t make it to tonight’s VTA Board meeting? There are other ways to make your voice heard to VTA’s decision makers:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/DIY/vtaboard.html
and for contacting VTA General Manager Michael Burns:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/DIY/index.html#vtagm
Make sure to ask for a written response, and send a copy of your response to our group for our records.
If you care, BE THERE!
George #11: what about The Carpenters?
I would like to make a suggestion if I may.
With the new additions to this blog there should be more posting from the readers. The present method of displaying recent posts, the 10 “Most Recent Comments”, is occasionally inadequate, and, more than likely, will be inadequate as more posts are added in the future. It would be nice if this section would just list what threads have recently received new posts.
Then rather than having, for example, 10 posts to the same thread listed in “Most Recent Comments”, only 1 item needs to be displayed, which would be the thread name. This way it is easy to keep track of new posts to 10 different threads rather than having one thread overwhelming the “Most Recent Comments” section.
Individuals interested in a particular subject will now know a new comment has been added and can go to the thread and read the new posts.
#21-Helen Chapman, I would love for people like you to educate us on the projects, or issues your commissions and committees are working on. Thank you for volunteering to make SJ a better place! Luckily, we’ve had some very informed people on SJI teaching us about Bart, and the VTA. Otherwise, I’d be completely in the dark!
#28- That is a great idea!
Jack, I forgot to add that I’d really like to see a pet section that offers advice, resources, keeps the public informed of new legislation, adoption events held by shelters and rescuers, low cost shot, micro chipping, and other low cost Vet services, valuable things like that. While I enjoy reading columns with positive stories about people and their pets, they don’t offer anything of substance to people who need help with pets, or who are interested in other animal issues.
will you be adding ads like the back of metro sex trade ads? That would sure spice things up!
I also like #28’s suggestion. It seems a lot of threads lose steam as soon as they drop off the front page here.
#30:Sex ads are to Metro as Fry’s, Macy’s, and Western Appliance ads are to The Murky News.
So, what’s the line on what ads we’ll be getting under the new junta?
Editor,
You have a bug in your software for the Blog. The thread, A Needless Battle, has received new posts. However, only the first 500 posts are displayed.
#33 Blue Fox
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We are working on it.
Apologies to everyone.
#s 30 and 32
Sorry to disappoint you but you won’t be seeing those ads here. You’ll have to keep looking at the print edition of the Metro every week.
Blue Fox
The problem on “A Needless Battle” is fixed thanks to Ryan, the tech genius at new partner Boulevards. You can now view all the comments. Thanks again for letting us know.
#36 Jack,
Thanks. We certainly do not want to miss anything about “Little Saigon” since so little has been said about this subject.
Mr. Van Zandt,
This is my first time posting. My suggestion is that you set some ground rules on how people can treat other posters. I think Mr. Warner touched on that a bit. If you are going to let people attack the writers of columns and let posters harass people they don’t agree with, well your blog will be filled with the same hecklers, and brow beaters you already have. Good people who want to have intelligent conversations will leave your blog, or be driven out by this kind of behavior.
My two cents.
#27 Johnmichael, you are correct about the Carpenters. Richard Carpenter is an excellent arranger and pianist. He is also a good singer and songwriter. Karen Carpenter was an excellent drummer and a fantastic singer. I believe she was an alto with a three octave range. I’m not too sure about the technical aspects, but as far as clarity and quality of her voice, I rank her with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.
Kathleen #29 and Jack,
I agree with Carl S., “Tolerance and kindness towards those who oppose our views is a good thing”. Attitude is everything.
The scoop on this weekend’s latest staff cuts at the Merc straight from the horse’s mouth:
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8501518
#40- Richard Zappelli, I agree 100%.
You got it wrong, Jack #35—I think those ads diminish the credibility of the Metro, though I understand that $$$ is what keeps it in print.
Someone sent me this article, and I thought it was pertinent to what San Jose Inside is trying to do with it’s new merger and program. The thing that bothers me is that when you ‘Google someone’s name, everything that has been posted about that person is readily available for viewing by anyone.
http://www.davickservices.com/standing_up_to_cyber_bullies.htm
Pete Campbell – I know you have recently been the victim of a cyberbully – you might find this article interesting.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I have read them all and we will take them into consideration as we develop the new plan. I would love to have a weekly sports thread going (like we had in the old days for a while) and definitely a place where movies, plays and arts events can be discussed. The aim is to get as many different things in the mix as possible.
We will be taking a stand against cyberbullies too. There are one or two of them that appear from time to time on this site who are on a very short leash and may get themselves banned. Intellectual challenges are fine but personal ones are not. If anyone notices anything along these lines sneaking through, please bring it to my attention.
Again, thanks to you all for your good wishes and great ideas. This is the way a blog is supposed to work! Please keep the ideas coming and feel free to email me directly if you have questions, problems or want to propose writing a guest column on something.
To All Registered Users
Our daily email notification system is currently down and we will have it going again as soon as possible.
Thanks for your patience.
I, too, like poster #9, above, would appreciate it if the writers would be more thoughtful when choosing appellations. I understand that labels are not only helpful, but unavoidable if we are to think and communicate clearly. However, when used carelessly, they are no longer discriptive, they are insulting. Nothing moves readers faster to the next channel than being insulted. Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion. Good luck to you.