Chat Details

TWT Executive Editor John Solomon 07-01-08

This chat will begin at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, July 1, 2008.

Welcome to our Live Chat with John Solomon, executive editor of The Washington Times.

Transcript

1. • John, who inspired you to become a journalist? How did you get into the business? Thanks! by
   • Answer: Thanks for your questions today. I look forward to talking with you about the many exciting strategies we're pursuing here at The Washington Times. From our new Web site to our new electronic edition of the paper, we're now positioned to serve a global audience. If you haven't checked us out recently, please do so. We're breaking big stories like the recent series on drug experiments being conducted on veterans. We're having an impact on the dialog in Washington and the nation. And we're creating new products designed to make it easier for you the readers to access the news you want, when you want and where you want. So welcome to the new Washington Times. by John Solomon
   • Answer: I was born into a household full of cops. My Dad is a police chief and my brother is a detective. So I was instilled at a young age to explore, investigate and press for answers. Their inquiring minds pressed to solve crimes. I wanted to do the same for the public, pressing for answers and stories that people needed to know in order to make informed decisions about family, business, government and politics. My first mentors at the UPI and AP wire services instilled in me a desire to get the stories that others had overlooked or had gone untold, setting me on a course to be an investigative reporter. Now I have the great fortune to help lead a newsroom that has distinguished itself for a quarter century by breaking big stories and speaking truth to power. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. by John Solomon
2. • Congratulations on the new format. What kind of reception is the new front Sunday section getting? by
   • Answer: Mike, thanks for the question and your attention to our changes. Our new Sunday format, which wraps our traditional newspaper inside a photo-cover magazine, has gotten strong reviews in just its fourth week of existence. The photo cover gives people who don't currently read the paper on Sunday a reason to look at us anew when in the grocery store. Some of the compelling early photos have caught the attention of photo resellers worldwide. And the content of the magazine has been agenda-driving, with great investigative stories documenting the humanitarian crisis of abused women in Pakistan, the extraordinary success of a school violence reduction program in Milwaukee and prosecutors' efforts to use a little-known provision of law to try to punish people for crimes that were not considered by their jury of peers. Early sales have been encouraging and we think our readership will grow as they learn more about this product. It's a unique Sunday read designed to provide Times' readers with deep, probing information they can't get anywhere else and which informs the public debate. Also, our new Solutions Commentary section has had incredible success attracting such top thinkers as Attorney General Mukasey, House Speaker Pelosi, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and think tank leaders Ed Fuelner and John Podesta to engage our readers in crafting solutions to today's global problems. by John Solomon
3. • Good afternoon Mr. Solomon, My name is Jacquie and I am the mayor of the Donne Travels community on the Washington Times and I have a couple of questions based on your resume as a writer. 1. I would be interested to know what you feel the online future of journalism to be? I look forward to reading your chat. --Jacquie Kubin by
   • Answer: Jacquie, first let me thank you for your work as one of our first mayors in the new online communities section of our Web site. The very work you're doing exemplifies the exciting opportunity the Digital Era presents the newspaper industry. While many colleagues in the profession lament this era as the potential death knell for newspapers, I see it as one of the great liberation moments for the news industry. We've been freed from the limitations of two-dimensional story telling on paper and can now tell stories in four dimensions -- print, Web, video and audio. That means we can take the reader along with us on most news experiences. Readers can now experience the news and interact with it. It also means the Times can reach millions more readers outside the Washington metro area with products like the new e-edition, which delivers an exact replica of the print edition to you email inbox where ever you live. And it means you, the reader, can choose the news you want to read when you want to read it. You can also engage the newspaper and its products, exploring online communities such as your own that are run by civilians who moderate a deep discussion on news topics. Our new News Themes product on the Web home page also lets people subscribe to narrow, constantly updated streams of news on the topics, people, places and events that most interest them. These are things we couldn't do just a few short years ago. by John Solomon
4. • Mr. Solomon, are you a native Washingtonian? If not, where were you born and raised? by
   • Answer: Hey there Ms. Vicki. By the way, I love your military advice column "Dear Ms. Vicki" in our Thursday "Plugged In" section and our Sunday magazine. I, like so many of my neighbors, have been adopted by the nation's capital. I was born in Connecticut, went to college and started my professional career in Milwaukee starting in 1984 and finally came to Washington in 1991. by John Solomon
5. • Also from Jacquie Kubin: Would you consider yourself to be a blogger? by
   • Answer: That's a great question. I always consider myself a journalist first, meaning that whether I write or edit a story, give a speech, chat online or talk on radio/TV that I try to uphold the four journalistic values of accuracy, precision, fairness and balance. So for me blogging or chatting like this is another form of journalism that allows me to reach readers online. But I still want to abide by those core values. Now let me turn the question around a bit: do I think bloggers can practice journalism? The answer is yes -- in some cases. There are many good bloggers who manage to report on facts in a balanced, fair, accurate and precise manner that are committing a form of journalism. There are also many bloggers who simply give opinion or write for the purpose or influencing -- or inflaming -- public opinion. The trick for 21st century readers is to discern between the two. One of the biggest concerns I have today is that the line between factual reporting/blogging and opinion-mongering has blurred and that readers too often are lured into believing something they read online even though it may not have a factual basis. by John Solomon
6. • Mr. Solomon, I'm Vicki Johnson. I write the Dear Ms. Vicki column. Mr. Solomon, the Washington Times has changed tremendously. I'm always getting compliments from readers. Did you have a vision that inspired this change? What was it? Lastly Mr. Solomon, my two son's play football for the University of Kentucky. They want you to pledge your support for UK football this fall! by
   • Answer: One of the great things about the transformation of the Washington Times these last few months is that it has been a group effort, started by our president and publisher Tom McDevitt and carried out by an extraordinary team of workers up and down the company. From the printing presses and loading docks to the newsroom and ad department, folks here are striving to create a new suite of news products that better serve our readers. That transformation is centered around some core principles. One is that we create products that let readers take control of their own news experience, choosing the news that most interests them and the best way to access it. Secondly, we recognize that the marketplace is now clogged with lots of "commodity" news fed by the wires through Google and Yahoo and 24-hour television. Our goal is to create a suite of products with completely original, enterprising news, analysis and opinion that you can't read or watch anywhere else. We want to dig for the facts, insight and news that matters at the dinner table at home, the water cooler at the office and the executive decision table inside the halls of power. by John Solomon
7. • Good afternoon, Mr. Solomon; I'm the new Mayor for the Civil War Community, hoping to bring the same interest to the web site as we enjoyed so many years in print. I'm curious, if you want to answer this one, what has been the public's reaction to the overall changes? I ask because I confess all I've heard are negatives. I know any change is risky, but so much at one time seems to have overwhelmed some of our long time print readers. Thanks much, Martha M. Boltz by
   • Answer: Any time you make change certain people are going to be upset. But the overwhelming evidence is that the changes we've made are having a big, positive impact. Web readership has nearly doubled this year on the new WashingtonTimes.com. Ad revenues are up over last year even as the rest of the industry is in decline. And the print edition is breaking some of the biggest stories in the industry, from the stories about Barack Obama's flip-flops and the caustic race comments of his pastor to John McCain's ties to foreign lobbyist and the recent joint project that documented how veterans were being used by the VA to test drugs, sometimes without being told in a timely manner about all of the consequences. We're having impact and informing the public debate with stories that can't be found anywhere else. I hope that is satisfying to our readership. by John Solomon
8. • I'd like to piggy-back off Donne_Tempo's question about the future of online journalism: Arthur Salzberger said a couple of years ago that he didn't know if there would be a print edition of the NYT in 5 years. As print advertising revenues fall, and newspapers/magazines take the heat, in what tangible way do you foresee the print industry evolving to make revenues from their online ventures? And do you foresee reputable print brands eventually becoming an online-only presence? If so, what do you think the timeline looks like for this? by
   • Answer: I, for one, believe the print newspaper is here to stay for a long time but that it is essential for news companies to reach their readers through multiple channels. You can't be a newspaper-only business and survive. Every great newspaper company needs to make the transformation to a multimedia, multi-channeled news company to thrive in the 21st century. That's why we recently created a new Web site that showcases video, databases, interactive Web tools and social networking tools centered around the news. We reach millions more people a month through that channel. We also recently built a radio/TV studio so that our unique brand of reporting can be translated to radio and TV and our reporters and editors now make dozens of appearances on TV and radio shows each week. Our new e-edition allows Washington Times fans get an exact replica of the print edition delivered to their email inbox where ever they live. All of these changes help our company to thrive and our readership to grow. And at the end of the day, we still print a daily and weekly newspaper that serves a very important, stable and engaged audience. by John Solomon
9. • John, thanks for joining us in Live Chats today, and thanks also to our readers and the mayors of our new Communities section who participated in the conversation. Any final thoughts? by
   • Answer: Folks, thanks for all the great questions and I look forward to chatting with you again soon. Please keep an eye on The Times. If you haven't looked at our products recently, please give us a second look. Our enterprising reporting is impacting the presidential campaign and prompting congressional investigations. Our new products are allowing readers from Baghdad to Kalamazoo to access our content. We've created several new video shows on our Web site, including the popular "Two Guys in a Newsroom" that airs Monday through Friday at lunchtime. And our new Plugged in Section gives you a deeper read on subjects that matter to you. So put a couple of quarters in a box and read our newly redesigned print edition the next time you see it. Subscribe to the new e-edition if you're outside Washington. And hop on our new Web site whenever you can to stay in touch with The Times' distinctive news report and columnists. by John Solomon