Jim Romenesko�s media news site -- once considered an jittery, gossip-heavy addiction for journalists, but now in the post-Gawker world seen as a virtual oak tree of olde worlde journalistic constraint and standards -- has taken some hits late, including this body shove along from an apocalyptic Howell Raines. The deposed New York Times executive editor brands Romenesko as, yes, just some other print-bred dinosaur, one world Health Organization doesn't quite get that the on-line revolution he helped ussher in will eventually advertize him to the side of meat as well.
Then the site's redesign launched this week. The New York Observer's Matt Haber compared his reaction to the awkward moment when you recognise an familiarity has had her breasts done. Gawker itself asked simply, �Is this the end of our fighter? Eh.� Media theorist and NYU prof Jay Rosen Twittered: �Re-designs are hard, number 1 reactions treacherous. But Poynter�s new design leaves Romenesko lost in a sea of type. Hate it.� He elaborated in another twirp: �What I meant is that on all four-spot sides the site wants to zero me away from Jim�s space.�
Rosen was on to something. It seems the site�s very popularity became an proceeds. Romenesko is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit, Florida-based school that trains journalists and promotes journalistic and media integrity, and the biggest audience on the Poynter site is Romenesko's. You can�t blame Poynter for nerve-racking to purchase its one star to benefit the site as a whole. As Poynter Online's director, Bill Mitchell, explained in an e-mail:
Romenesko is the most popular page on Poynter Online, and we heard from some users that they had difficulty finding his page from elsewhere on the site. That prompted us to include ROMENESKO in the main seafaring across the top of pages. To encourage traffic in the other counseling, we included on Jim�s page the same functionality to access content by most late published, most e-mailed, etc.
Romenesko himself added, over the phone:
People complain that Poynter is trying to move them off the site. And they are -- our stats bear witness that the majority of people go to my part and don�t move off of it, and obviously we want people to explore the other parts of the situation. ... There�s Al�s Morning Meeting which has a TV focus, only I think it�s of interest to all journalists. I think it would be great if my readers constitute him too.
I also like the new conversations that we�ve added to the new design. There�s a Romenesko conversation going on on that point now, a new chat board. People can put up, and I post items and readers are welcome to reply or initiate something unexampled. There�s so much in that respect, really, at that place are columns by the faculty and staff... Poynter Online is more than Romenesko, although my self would want to think it�s not.
Poynter's Mitchell has assured readers that he's hearing to the criticism and will make changes (e's already increased the headline sizes). And it's true that every redesign is hated at first. Still, with its busier page, this ane is going away to submit some acquiring used to -- on a day crammed with other things to do, you in truth just want that gumption of urgency and focus that Romenesko (like whatever good web log) delivers.
But in that respect are knottier problems for Romenesko. He's been criticized, bizarrely, for continuing to post the overwhelmingly bad news that spews forth from journalistic quarters. Blogger Justin McLachlan noted a �backlash against the industry-wide death rattles he seems fond of publishing.� He over that the younger generation of journalists were turn away from the land site. And he railed against Romenesko for not offering some solutions himself: �The news business is collapsing around us, mostly because people like Romenesko sit around wringing their men and wailful what was instead of innovating the way we do our jobs and the products we create.�
On the earphone, Romenesko sounded perplexed by all the shoot-the-messenger material:
Some days are depressing. There was one day in particular that it seemed all I was doing was posting about layoffs, budget cuts and buyouts, and so on. But I think I have to do that. I can�t ignore it when a newsroom shrinks by 25%. I can�t look aside. Some readers complain that it�s all gloom and doom. I read on Twitter that some people are boycotting my site because they say it�s too negative. ... Of class Twitter allows only cxl characters, only the sensory faculty I get is that they don�t want to read the negative. People will post my link and say, "Warning, it�s a Romenesko link, enter at your own risk of exposure." But you know, it's a historic time in the business and I think I have to document it.
Even in the good times, journalists tend to be constitutionally negative and grumpy, possessed with gradations of status in their perpetually castled profession. With his quick reactions but sober, well-nigh clinical approach, Romenesko has always been their staring pulse-taker. The current tarradiddle of journalism is non pretty -- and neither is the Poynter redesign -- but we motive him to keep relation it, and we should keep reading.
-- Maria Russo
