Thursday, February 26, 2009

Swartz introduces new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz


          

 Jon Swartz, Writer for USA TODAY, delivers an article about the new changes that are expected to come from Yahoo since the appointment of a new CEO, Carol Bartz. The summary lede introduces Bartz in an interesting way while delivering significant news, saying that CFO Blake Jorgensen is leaving as a result of new CEOBartz. Swartz does an effective job at neutrally describing the effects of Bartz, but uses words such as "hard-charging"  and "direct manner" to describe Bartz demonstrate a tone that Swartz uses to relay Bartz.           

I think the title is slightly misleading, however, as "Yahoo CFO leaving as new CEO prepares shake-up" makes it seem as if the article will talk all about the CFO's departure. The article, instead, is all about the changes that Yahoo will undergo in order to correct "Yahoo's flagging financial performance and stock price."

            Swartz does not really get any sources for the article, but instead pulls most of his information from Bartz's blog posts. His only direct source is Kevin Lee, the CEO of Didit, a company that does work with Yahoo. I don't think I would have chosen Lee as a source, as his pertinence to the issue is not very clear to me. 

            At the end of the article, I am left feeling that the tone is skeptical of Bartz's abilities in bringing Yahoo the success and change that she promised.

2 comments:

  1. I think the things you critiqued are really important to getting to the heart of the piece. Since Swartz does not use hard sources it makes the reader less likely to pay attention to what he is saying.

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  2. I agree that I would have liked to have heard about the contributions that the former CEO made to the company throughout his career.

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