The kid that TV news execs just can’t get enough of is moving up the ladder himself. Brian Stelter, who aggregates news about TV news, is leaving his mediabistro.com blog, TVNewser. As of July 23, he’ll be at nytimes.com, helping to shape its media news coverage. (Here’s the announcement on mediabistro, linked from his blog.)
I chatted with him this morning about what he’ll be doing at the Times. He had some interesting thoughts on the new roles blogs might have in disseminating the news. And in the spirit of the unorthodox, we thought we’d run parts of my instant-message conversation with Brian, who lists his screen name, “thebump,” on his blog as a way to reach him. Bear with me through the typos and AIM slang to get a slice of life for someone whose fingertips are seemingly always on the keyboard:
lfrola (12:01:14 PM):hey brian, this is Leann Frola — I’m an editor for Poynter Online (www.poynter.org). I just saw that you were going to be on board at the nytimes and wondered if you’d mind telling me a little bit more about what it is you hope to do there
thebump went away at 12:24:27 PM.
thebump (12:47:33 PM):Hello, I’d be happy to try. I may not have all the answers you’re looking for though!
lfrola (12:47:54 PM):hey! thanks for getting back to me
lfrola (12:48:27 PM):no problem!
lfrola (12:49:02 PM):first of all congratulations! that’s awesome — you just graduated not too long ago, right?
thebump (12:49:24 PM):Thanks. That’s right — back on May 24
lfrola (12:49:52 PM):so when do you start at the times?
thebump (12:50:15 PM):July 23
lfrola (12:50:38 PM):are you goign to work in the building?
thebump (12:50:55 PM):Yes, I’ll be moving to NYC
lfrola (12:51:26 PM):where do you live now?
thebump (12:51:33 PM):In Towson, Maryland, where I went to school
lfrola (12:52:05 PM):that’s not too bad of a move then…are you excited for NYC?
lfrola (12:52:50 PM):i just graduated too, and i think that’d be awesome for having things to do at least
thebump (12:52:53 PM):Absolutely. Yeah
lfrola (12:53:10 PM):what exactly are you going to be doing at the times?
lfrola (12:53:20 PM):and how will it be diff from what you’re doing now?
thebump (12:57:47 PM):I’ll be helping shape the Times’ media coverage on the web
thebump (12:58:24 PM):The Times is doing a number of intriguing things online — I’m a regular reader of their blogs
thebump (12:58:48 PM):Hopefully I’ll add to their already impressive stable of online content
lfrola (12:59:26 PM):when you say media coverage — do you mean their coverage of news about the news?
lfrola (12:59:36 PM):in the way that you do now?
thebump (12:59:53 PM):Yes. On TVNewser, I found myself frequently linking to the media reporting by The Times
thebump (1:01:51 PM):Their reporting is already second to none, and I’ll be bringing my web sensibility to help integrate what they do
lfrola (1:02:29 PM):are you going to be keeping up your blog as well?
thebump (1:02:45 PM):No, I’ll be leaving TVNewser on July 20
thebump (1:02:53 PM):mediabistro will be hiring a new editor for it
lfrola (1:03:10 PM):oh ok. do you have any idea who will be taking it over?
thebump (1:03:17 PM):No
lfrola (1:04:15 PM):can you tell me a little more about what you’ll be doing at the times when you say shaping coverage — will you still be aggregating, or will you be sort of an editor that shapes coverage or a reporter…
lfrola (1:04:36 PM):or maybe it doesn’t fit neatly into one of those thigns, but just a bit more specific?
thebump (1:04:43 PM):I really can’t say yet, because that’s something we’re going to figure out later this summer
thebump (1:05:40 PM):(sorry!)
lfrola (1:06:35 PM):it’s ok! i understand
lfrola (1:07:33 PM):what are some of the things you’d like to do?
lfrola (1:07:39 PM):maybe that would work better?
lfrola (1:10:01 PM):brian?
thebump (1:11:40 PM):Sorry — girlfriend on phone —
lfrola (1:11:58 PM):oh np!
thebump (1:11:56 PM):Hmm, so what would I like to do
lfrola (1:12:17 PM):yes
lfrola (1:12:24 PM):i’m curious
thebump (1:13:11 PM):Well I think of blogs primarily as a publishing tool
thebump (1:13:37 PM):I’ve wondered how we can use these tools in new ways
thebump (1:13:54 PM):I’ve tried to do that with TVNewser — and I think at The Times I’ll continue to do that
thebump (1:14:23 PM):The immediacy and intimacy of blogs is appealing, but so are the standards of The New York Times
thebump (1:14:28 PM):That’s why it’s a great fit for me
lfrola (1:14:53 PM):what do you mean by publishing tool?
lfrola (1:15:51 PM):in what way is that their primary purpose?
thebump (1:18:41 PM):I think of blogs as a new way to publish
thebump (1:19:08 PM):They’re not just a way to spout opinions or break news, they are publishing tools. And I’m glad that newspapers are harnessing them
lfrola (1:20:56 PM):what thoughts do you have on the balance between immediacy and standards — especially at a place like the Times, which has high standards
thebump (1:21:52 PM):I like everything I’ve heard the Times editors say about the subject —
thebump (1:22:04 PM):For instance, just a few weeks ago Bill Keller said:
thebump (1:22:11 PM):“We can’t let our reverence for quality become a straitjacket in new media. The web environment is different… We can offer guidance but we cannot insist on the same control we exercise over print.”
thebump (1:23:10 PM):I’ve always been a blogger on the side of quality, not immediacy. I think it’s smart that The Times is recognizing that the standards on the web may be different — not lower, but different.
lfrola (1:23:42 PM):if not lower, then different in what way?
thebump (1:24:20 PM):Perhaps the biggest difference between print and web is the news hole. Online, it’s infinite
thebump (1:24:45 PM):That doesn’t mean you try to fill an infinite news hole. But it means you may be able to file a 1,000 word piece instead of a 500 word one
thebump (1:25:12 PM):I’m being vague because I don’t know if that’s what I’ll be doing at The Times. Hopefully what I do will evolve along with the newspaper
lfrola (1:26:45 PM):You mentioned that the Times was doing some cool new things with its blogs — what has caught your eye?
thebump (1:28:29 PM):Some of them are really more than blogs — in particular, I like The Caucus, about the 08 election; DealBook, about mergers and acquisitions; and The Lede, “notes on the news.” They’re also launching an exciting project called City Room in the Metro department
lfrola (1:29:01 PM):can you tell me a little more about it?
thebump (1:30:04 PM):Here’s the announcement: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/03/new_times_metro_website_to_pro_1.html
thebump (1:30:14 PM):It’s “a new online project to cover the five boroughs”
lfrola (1:30:37 PM):great, thanks; I’ll check it out
lfrola (1:31:30 PM):do you know if you’ll be working on a new blog or helping to shape existing ones?
thebump (1:31:33 PM):I can’t say, I don’t know.
lfrola (1:32:01 PM):that’s ok
lfrola (1:32:50 PM):i’m still curious about the standards you were talking about — that seems to be a question i hear people talking about all the time — how to balance immediacy with accuracy for breaking-news style blogs — could you tell me a little bit more on what you think about this?
lfrola (1:33:19 PM):it’s true that the news hole is different, but it still seems like this is an issue no matter what
thebump (1:33:37 PM):I’d rather defer to The Times, because I haven’t discussed that in detail yet
lfrola (1:34:06 PM):well, how do you handle it for your own blog?
thebump (1:34:24 PM):I effort to confirm any news I post
thebump (1:34:42 PM):For instance, when I broke the news that MSNBC was firing Don Imus — I called every source I had at NBC before running it
thebump (1:35:02 PM):No story is worth losing all your credibility over
lfrola (1:36:03 PM):what ways do you think blogs can take advantage of not having a news hole?
thebump (1:36:41 PM):Posting primary source material — transcripts, press releases — is one way
thebump (1:36:53 PM):Time will tell whether that’s appropriate for newspapers to do
thebump (1:37:01 PM):But certainly blogs provide a platform for that
lfrola (1:37:28 PM):any other ways?
thebump (1:42:40 PM):Sorry, lot of phone calls
thebump (1:43:01 PM):During press conferences, announcing a new anchor for example, I like to live-blog — basically publish a running transcript of the call
thebump (1:43:19 PM):Again, whether that’s something I’ll keep doing is up in the air. But that’s another way for blogs to go in depth
lfrola (2:08:42 PM):hey, sorry about that
lfrola (2:08:50 PM):i just grabbed lunch
thebump (2:08:43 PM):No problem
lfrola (2:08:59 PM):that’s interesting that you do that at press conferences
lfrola (2:09:14 PM):when you say that you publish a transcript of the call — what do you mean by call
thebump (2:09:27 PM):When I’m on a conference call
lfrola (2:09:43 PM):oh ok
lfrola (2:10:53 PM):another thing i was curious about, and I understand if this is something you can’t answer yet either,
lfrola (2:11:06 PM):will you be shaping covering on media in general, or still focusing on tv news
thebump (2:11:18 PM):I can’t say / don’t know yet.
lfrola (2:11:38 PM):ok…
What else am I missing? Can you add anything else?
thebump (2:12:06 PM):I think that’s about all I can say
lfrola (2:12:38 PM):
i’m sorry i thought of one more thing — last question i promise
lfrola (2:13:27 PM):what issues do you expect will be dominating coverage of the media in the future? any predictions?
thebump (2:15:16 PM):No grand predictions, but one trend I’d like to cover is the migration of content to the internet
thebump (2:15:37 PM):Especially television content — I watch a lot of TV, but I don’t watch it with a remote control anymore, I watch it on my computer
thebump (2:15:44 PM):That movement is going to be interesting to cover
lfrola (2:18:01 PM):hey, well thanks so much for talking with me
lfrola (2:18:07 PM):i appreciate it
Content between time stamps 12:53:20 PM and 12:57:47 PM and after 2:18:07 PM has been edited.
