Newspapers in Transition with LA Times Reporter Kevin Roderick

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Veteran reporter and author Kevin Roderick talks about saving the Los Angeles Times, how daily newspapers can leverage social media and how institutions are grappling with the news media vacuum created by the Web.

Native Angeleno Kevin Roderick spent 25 years as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, authored two books about Los Angeles, publishes LAObserved.com and serves as the editor-in-chief of the UCLA online newsroom.

Show Notes:

3:17 – Kevin Roderick discusses the challenges facing The Los Angeles Times, how the only daily newspapers in the US nation’s second largest market might regain its relevancy and community-based journalism as an alternative to ad-supported media.

7:07 – Kevin Roderick on which editorial news beats at the Los Angeles Times have the greatest likelihood of success, competing with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Nikki Finke on the entertainment business news beat and the challenges of providing depth of coverage in the future.

11:38 – Kevin Roderick on how newspapers can compete with Wikipedia and news aggregators, the differences between news and feature coverage, The Los Angeles Times recent efforts to map the geography of the city and what that says about the newspaper’s grasp of Los Angeles.

16:36 — Kevin Roderick compares the now defunct data desk at the Los Angeles Times to their failed political polling department.

20:42 – Kevin Roderick on hyper local media.

22:44 – Kevin Roderick on the Michael Hiltzik sock puppeting scandal, how The Los Angeles Times dealt with it, and whether or not that decision was just.

25:51 – Kevin Roderick on Pasadena Now, their outsourcing reporting to India via Craigslist Bangalore [correction] and whether or not the current economy represents an opportunity for news media upstarts to displace entrenched brands.

27:34 – Kevin Roderick on niche new media outlets like Daily Candy and the dangers of a polarized news media landscape.

31:21 – Kevin Roderick on the lessons institutions are learning with respect to negotiating their way through the world of new media and social media communications, and how UCLA specifically is integrating these emerging channels into their outreach efforts.

33:39 – End

Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash