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News :: Media |
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New Buzz In Local Media |
Current rating: 0 |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
17 Feb 2003
Modified: 06:23:12 PM |
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Daily Illini looks to offer replacement for defunct CU Cityview's niche as local alternative weekly |
Ads in today's (17 Feb.) Daily Illini announced meetings (7:30 pm both this evening, 17 Feb. and on Tuesday, 18 Feb. at the University YMCA on Wright Street) for those interested in working on a revised "Buzz". The DI will be converting it's Buzz Thursday entertainment, arts and life-style pull-out, currently included in that day's DI, into a stand-alone "alternative community newspaper," apparently taking advantage of the hole left in the community media scene left by the collapse of the CU Cityview at the New Year.
The renovated Buzz would enter into a market that includes The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center's monthly Public i, several weekly ad papers, numerous local art scene papers that appear irregularly, and at least one aborning proposal by Optimist/Octopus/Cityview vets. The DI announcement stated that some positions would be paid, with "many other" unpaid positions.
Many Indymedia vets will generally view more media in the community as a good idea, in general terms, but the real bottom line will be how much a paper that starts off very campus-oriented will be able to cover the diverse community off-campus that often gets short-shrift in the pages of the DI in terms of coverage and accuracy. Those who choose to write for the new Buzz should keep in mind that the Public i offers an excellent venue for stories that don't quite "fit" in the new Buzz, whatever direction it takes.
Those seeking more info should contact marycory (at) illinimedia.com |
Comments
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by Paul
paul (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
17 Feb 2003
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I agree with ML's sentiment that more media is better, but I would be careful getting involved in a Illini Media run paper that had both paid and unpaid positions.
My chief concern would be about who makes decision and how they are made. If a few people are paid to "run" the paper while volunteers do the scut work of actually writing, distributing and the other tasks of getting a paper out, then where's the incentive to volunteer?
While I'm all for more media, my primary desire is to see more participatory and democratic media. If you're going to pour your labor and love into a media project you ought to have a say equal to others who do the same.
Further, the more cynical side to me doesn't expect to see anything but a pale imitation of "mainstream" commercial dailies like you find in most major cities. Just like how the Planet is a pale imitation of commercial "modern rock" stations like Q101 in Chicago.
The Illini Media company, like the IMC, is a non-profit, and by being relieved of having to make a return on investment like Saga expects with its radio stations, and as it expected of the Cityview. Therefore Illini Media could take up the challenge and use its capital resources (that are more siginficant than the IMC's) to bring a weekly that actually reflects the community, rather than fulfills a market niche.
That's the challenge, but Illini Media's track record doesn't inspire much hope in me that they're up to the challenge.
I would encourage anyone who wants to dedicate her volunteer hours into seeing a real arts and alternative newspaper to come to the IMC and get involved in the public i. That's where real community media is happening. |
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by JQ
jq (nospam) wildhunt.org (verified) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
Modified: 07:37:16 AM |
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I guess I am going to state the unpopular here, but as much as I see a lot of potential for this Buzz project to be a dud, I am excited, as a local arts writer, to see an opportunity to get arts coverage out there again. I think the Public I is a terrific alternative resource in the community for news that does not really get out there but its only once a month. That is little to no help in getting coverage out there for all the myriad arts events that happen every week in this community, not to mention that the arts is just one small corner of all the Public I attempts to cover. Personally, I just want to get more coverage out there for our local arts and support the scene. I do that by writing articles and trying to get them pulished somewhere they will be seen, accessable, timely and have an impact. The Buzz may offer that opportunity once again that was lost when the Cityview closed. The Public I has a very limited number of pages to work with, runs only once a month, and the arts and music bits end up in the back behind the news. That's how it should be, in my opinion. What the Public I offers that all other print resources in this town don't is an alternative look at local and world news and its what it does best. The arts and music scene here really need a paper (or two) dedicated to the arts and music. It is a major cog in keeping the scene turning and vibrant. Just my two cents worth. |
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by Paul
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
Modified: 09:51:28 AM |
JQ, I appreciate your perspective on arts coverage, but it's a mistake to assume that the public i is inherently monthly and can only have the number of pages it has now.
These limits on the public i come from two places -- number of volunteers, and the amount of funding. If more people came forward with donations of volunteer time and money then the public i could publish a bigger paper more frequently.
But, yes, with the current level of funding and the current staff, the public i can't easily be any bigger or more frequent.
I'm not predicting that the new Buzz is going to suck, but I do question how open and broad it's coverage will be, and further, how much say volunteers will have in how it's run. For all it's faults the Cityview succeeded primarily due to the people who ran it and their local commitment -- Arts editor Jenny Southlynn stuck with the paper from the very start. This isn't luck.
But the Octopus/Cityview also suffered from personnel cuts, and poor and often cutthroat management. These things really threatened the strength of its coverage.
So to hear about another weekly, that in structure and execution is just like the DI and every other weekly doesn't inspire me to think we'll gain much more than what we currently have with the Buzz.
I don't mean to be down on students, but that's who will run this new weekly. And perhaps a few enlightened undergrads have a real commitment to this community. But by-and-large most Illini Media folks are counting their days to graduation, so they can fly this coop. Forgive me if that doesn't inspire confidence.
Want to see a real arts weekly with real commitment to this community? I say come to the IMC, where volunteers can have full say in how things happen and can have a real stake in the outcome.
People didn't think a new monthly alternative paper would survive. Now they say the public I can't do arts coverage. Well, that's true if the people who care don't even try. |
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Volunteers Vs. Paid Staff |
by Clint Popetz
clint (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
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> I agree with ML's sentiment that more media is better, but I would be
> careful getting involved in a Illini Media run paper that had both
> paid and unpaid positions.
>
> My chief concern would be about who makes decision and how they are
> made. If a few people are paid to "run" the paper while volunteers do
> the scut work of actually writing, distributing and the other tasks of
> getting a paper out, then where's the incentive to volunteer?
As the current IMC Radio News structure points out, the existence of
paid staff does not neccesarily imply an undemocratic decsision making
structure. As you know, producing weekly media is hard, and having paid
staff to make sure loose ends are tied up and to coordinate volunteers
can be a great thing...witness the number of people contributing to IMC
Radio News since our hiring of a paid coordinator. Ditto for places
like the Common Ground Food Co-op and WEFT, which is primarily run by
volunteers but which would fall to pieces without paid staff. Of
course, your point about decision making is well taken, and the Buzz may
not opt for the "paid staff and volunteers have equal say" model that
WEFT/IMC/CGFC uses.
> I would encourage anyone who wants to dedicate her volunteer hours
> into seeing a real arts and alternative newspaper to come to the IMC
> and get involved in the public i. That's where real community media is
> happening.
Agreed.
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by AJ Michel
lowhug (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
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Well, let's hope the 'new' Buzz writes better headlines than the one on page 5 of today's DI: "IMC to fill void left by CityView." I started reading it to see if it was about the Public I, and was disappointed that it was about Illini Media Company. |
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by Paul
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
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Clint -- point taken. I don't mean to imply that a mixed paid and volunteer staff is inherently unequal. However, within the media industry this is almost always the case. There, volunteers are usually called interns, but it amounts to the same.
And make no doubt, the Illini Media Company is part of the mainstream media industry -- there's nothing alternative about it. It runs with a typical top-down hierarchy. Boards of Directors, Managers and Directors rule the day and the people doing the work don't get any official vote, though I'm sure there's give and take. Given that, the probability that the new Buzz will be run any differently is pretty damn low.
Is it really such a great opportunity to write arts pieces for free for a paid student editor who's there just to polish up her resume to become an intern at some bigger Chicago publication? Who will likely have the power to unilaterally edit or kill articles that aren't advertiser friendly or maybe just aren't her thing?
Where can I sign up for that? |
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by JQ
jq (nospam) wildhunt.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
Modified: 01:58:39 PM |
"Want to see a real arts weekly with real commitment to this community? I say come to the IMC, where volunteers can have full say in how things happen and can have a real stake in the outcome."
I do want to see this and would be interested in joining a project, a group of people attempting to attain this. The Public I does not have the arts and music scene as its main focus however, and never has. Nothing wrong with that, it fills a gap in local coverage that had been neglected up until its inception in many ways. However, I, personally, am not interested in joining an already existant project that has its own goals and trying to turn them to my goals and then put in an amazing amount of hours trying to get the thing together. I don't really think it can be done without paid staff, unless someone comes forward who can afford to work at a paid job little or not at all and has a burning passion to give all their time and sweat to such a project. If something happens at the Public I to prove me wrong, wonderful. In the meantime, like most folks, I have a full time job and dozens of community commitments. Sometimes, people just want to turn in articles or do what they can in the time they have, not run the whole thing. WIth a paid co-ordinator I could see the best of both worlds coming together, something like the radio project set up, perhaps. Anyway, we just aren't going to agree and that's fine. I don't think the Buzz is going to turn into a community godsend, but if it becomes a resource the community can use to promote itself and talk to each other in any way, flaws and all, I am for it until something better comes along. Without paid staff, I don't think an arts and entertainment rag is possible. Again, I'll be very, very happy to admit it if and when something comes forth to prove me wrong.
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Confusion And Alienation, Already |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
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AJ is right. The headline threw me a little also, but the rest of the article points out that there is little else in it to confuse the DI's way of doing things with the IMC's.
It seems that the DI told the current paid staff that they are out of a job three issues earlier than they had made a commitment to, using this new "opportunity" as a way to clean house of the current Buzz staff. So the "new" Buzz is starting off where the old Cityview ended, with little or no respect for their paid staff. It was even stated that they aren't "out of a job," they just need to "reapply" for their old jobs. Then it said that there will be "new editors" so it looks like the old editors shouldn't waste their time reapplying for their old jobs.
Kinda makes you wonder how they will treat the unpaid volunteers, don't ya know? |
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The Thought Just Occurred To Me |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Feb 2003
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Do you suppose they purposefully used the "IMC" in the headline in the hopes of suckering people into somehow confusing us, Independent Media, with them to get students to volunteer to work for the new Buzz?
Hey folks, remember you can only be truly independent at UC IMC. And we don't require clips or writing samples, just the article that you want to work on getting published.
PS I really laughed at the closing comment to the article by Buzz's sales manager (has he already reapplied and got his old job back or is it like at the Cityview, where the sales person was the only one who kept her job?) that somehow the new Buzz would be edgier and more "alternative" than the old Buzz. I guess the DI has somehow redefined "alternative" to mean something cool, but which still won't alienate your advertisers. |
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Re: New Buzz In Local Media |
by wyld
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -1
18 Feb 2003
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yes, the IMC has been the name of the company that publishes Buzz for several years, and they probably just used that in the headline to confuse you |
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