Bloomberg finds a contrite banker, John Reed the former CEO of Citigroup who merged it with Sandy Weill's Travelers in the late 1990s to create a financial supermarket, one that a decade later would have the distinction of being a third-owned by Uncle Sam. Reed calls for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall division of banking and trading. — Couldn't...
Journalism
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Columbia Journalism Review
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Friday Links: A Contrite Banker, Pay to Play, Gutting SOX
6 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm -
Unscientific America Meets Denialism
6 Nov 2009 | 3:36 pmMichael Specter and Chris Mooney agree that the United States is full of people who just don’t get science, and that this is a dangerous situation. In fact, they agree about a lot of things. They are the respective authors of the similarly titled Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives,... -
The Dangers of Disaster Reporting
6 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pmBy now, members of the national press have descended on Fort Hood, Texas to tell the story of the worst soldier-on-soldier massacre in U.S. military history. Their job will be fraught with professional and emotional pitfalls. One of the biggest, and the one that poses the greatest potential danger at this point, concerns the “why” of the rampage that left... -
Another Reason Not to Rush to Judgment
6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmHere’s another reason to be wary about jumping to conclusions about the shooting at Fort Hood: Bill Sparkman. Sparkman is the part-time Census employee whose body was found near a cemetery in rural southeastern Kentucky on Sept. 12, a rope tied around his neck and the word “Fed” scrawled on his chest. Coming in the wake of... -
Jumping to Confusion
6 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pmIt’s been just over twenty-four hours since Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood—more than enough time, clearly, for our pundits to begin opining on what it all means. And though those interpretations are varied, there is one headline that could apply to nearly all of them: Tragic Massacre Vindicates My Pre-existing Political Convictions....
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Poynter Online
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Ex-Unity Pres.: NAHJ, NABJ, AAJA, NAJA Should Not Merge
21 Oct 2009 | 4:18 amWhen the National Association of Hispanic Journalists announced earlier this month that it had a $300,000 budget shortfall, people began tweeting the news and expressing concern over the group's financial woes. One NAHJ member, Mo Krochmal, tweeted that the shortfall is an indication that "at some point, minority journalists orgs are going to have to merge to save funds."But Rafael Olmeda, former Unity president who stepped down from his leadership role last week, disagrees. He tweeted a response to Krochmal, who he knows from NAHJ: "The minority journalism orgs do not need to merge any more… -
Outburst at Obama Prompts Discussion about Covering Cultural Divides
16 Oct 2009 | 10:21 amRemember before the Summer of 2009, when we were still living in post-racial America? Between the arrest of Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. in July, and Joe Wilson's "You Lie" comment during Obama's health care speech last month, it's tough to figure out how to have a productiveconversation about race, whether in the news media or in a classroom.Philip Rucker of The Washington Post illustrated this idea recently when traveling along the road that divides Wilson's (mostly white) district and Democratic Rep. James E. Clyburn's (mostly black) district. Rucker found that views on… -
Solo Operator of Native American Times Passes One-Year Mark
9 Sep 2009 | 3:55 pmWhen Lisa Snell left her job as a graphic artist in 2007, she didn't expect that a year later she would become the managing editor and owner of a Native American paper. The job demands almost 100 hours of Snell's week and requires her to juggle the roles of designer, writer, editor, online publisher and more -- all without getting paid. But Snell, who just celebrated her one-year anniversary at the paper, says the experience has been both personally and professionally gratifying. Publishing the paper, she said, has been a meaningful way to give back to the greater Native American community. -
What Does the Future of Diversity Look Like?
14 Aug 2009 | 8:51 amWhither goes diversity in the age of layoffs?Even in this season of conventions featuring journalists of color, the question seems overshadowed by the rising ranks of the unemployed. People who have spent decades advocating for justice, fairness and accuracy in U.S. newsrooms are preoccupied with cutting staffs, rethinking coverage, or knitting their own parachutes.And in the enterprising universe of dotcoms dotting the landscape of journalism's uncertain future, the spirit of diversity is taking a beating. So we're left to ponder a different question with new urgency: What does diversity… -
CNN's Klein on Breaking News: 'Being First is Overrated'
7 Aug 2009 | 1:04 pmMichael Jackson's death rocked the world of journalism as much as it rocked his global fan base. A non-traditional media outlet, TMZ, broke the story while mainstream media held off announcing his death for well over an hour.At the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Tampa on Thursday, media stalwarts discussed the dust-up that left many journalists wondering about media credibility and competition. KNBC-TV anchor Beverly White of Los Angeles moderated the panel, which was titled "Beat It, Bad or Dangerous? What Michael Jackson's Death Tells Us about Media Competition and…
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BuzzMachine
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Gadget of the Month Club
6 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pmHey, Verizon (& Google & Apple & Dell & BestBuy….). I want to try the Droid but I am already in indentured servitude to AT&T for my iPhone (and have no particular desire to lose it). As much of a gadget geek as I am (I’m no Leo Laporte – my wife would’t let me be – but I do love the darned things), it’s still just not worth the $2,600 commitment to get another phone, even if Michael Arrington is having orgasms over it. I’ve been arguing on This Week in Google that what I want is a Gadget (or Phone) of the Month Club. Let me… -
Tough love for media
6 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pmHere in a bit more friendly video format is the keynote I gave to the Munich Media Days (in English) a week ago, which I linked to earlier. I decided to be blunt and tough and tell them I was worried about the protectionist talk I’ve been hearing from Germany and that they need to have hard discussions about the change that will waft over there from here. Carta also put up a transcript. Jeff Jarvis: “Google is not an enemy, Google is a model” from Carta on Vimeo. -
The temporary web
4 Nov 2009 | 8:03 amI’m fretting about forgetting things, not just because I’m getting older (on top of middle-aged surgery and its inconveniences and a dicky ticker I now have sciatica; I am a parody of age). I’m fretting about us all forgetting things because we’re using Twitter. Twitter is temporary. Streams are fleeting. If the future of the web after the page and the site and SEO is streams – and I believe at least part of it will be – then we risk losing information, ideas, and the permanent points – the permalinks – around which we used to coalesce. In this… -
Podcast mania
3 Nov 2009 | 6:41 amPodcasts, podcasts, everywhere….. This month’s MediaTalkUSA for the Guardian is up with guests Jay Rosen of NYU and Michael Tomasky of the Guardian. We talk about Politico’s rear-guard action against the Washington Post with its new local service; the election; the White House and Fox; and government support of journalism. Subscribe via iTunes Download mp3 Podcast feed URL Here’s the latest This Week in Google with Leo Laporte and Gina Trapani (in which she announces her new book about Wave) But that’s not all… I was also privileged to be a guest on last… -
The future of news is entrepreneurial
1 Nov 2009 | 9:24 amThe future of news is entrepreneurial. There’s a lot in that statement. It says: The future of news is not institutional… The news of tomorrow has yet to be built…. The structure – the ecosystem – of news will not be dominated by a few corporations but likely will be made up of networks of many startups performing specialized functions based on the opportunities they see in the market…. Who does journalism, why and how will change…. The skills of journalists will change (to include business)…. We don’t yet know what the market will demand…
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Media Matters for America - Latest Items
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Karl Frisch: Media Matters: The right-wing media's election analysis just ain't that good
6 Nov 2009 | 5:12 pmBack in 2001, conservative media figures were adamant. Democratic Party victories at the ballot boxes during the off-year elections had little national significance. Fox News contributor Dick Morris said at the time, "[I]f you have a Republican president, people are going to vote Democrat, and if you have a Democrat president, they're going to vote Republicans." Proffering further spin of the GOP losses, Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke said, "We have no way of knowing" how the 2001 outcome would affect the 2002 midterms, a sentiment echoed by conservative writer Michael Barone, who… -
Greg Lewis: The Friday Rush: For conservatives, $400 million buys defeat at the ballot box
6 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pmIf you're a masochist, like me, then I know exactly where you were last Sunday morning: in front of your television, eyes fixed to Rush Limbaugh's 30-minute tee-ball interview, courtesy of Fox News Sunday and Chris Wallace. If you're a regular listener of The Rush Limbaugh Show -- or, better yet, a regular reader of Media Matters' Limbaugh Wire -- then you probably recognized that every morsel Limbaugh fed to ratings-hungry Wallace on the subject of Obama's destruction of the economy was just a regurgitation of what Rush passes off as compelling radio on a daily basis. But aside from… -
Media continue to misrepresent abortion provisions in health reform bill
6 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pmMedia figures continue to falsely claim that a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the House health care reform bill would only have the effect of prohibiting government money from being used to pay for abortions, echoing a myth previously advanced about a proposed amendment to a prior version of that legislation. In fact, language in the current House bill already segregates federal money so it cannot be used directly to fund abortions, and the proposed amendment would effectively ban abortion coverage for some who have it now. Media advance false, misleading claims on abortion language,… -
Right-wing media respond to Fort Hood shooting by attacking American Muslims
6 Nov 2009 | 12:18 pmRight-wing media figures have used the shooting at Fort Hood as an excuse to attack Islam and American Muslims in particular, with Debbie Schlussel, for example, urging readers to think of the alleged shooter "whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military." Additionally, commentators have blamed the shooting on "political correctness," with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggesting the implementation of "special debriefings" for Muslim American soldiers to prevent future attacks.Right-wing media respond to attack by demonizing Muslims Schulssel: Think of Hasan… -
Farah falsely claimed official "confirm[ed]" WND falsehood that alleged shooter "advised Obama transition"
6 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pmWorldNetDaily CEO and editor-in-chief Joseph Farah claimed that WND's false report that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan "advised" the "Obama transition" -- previously debunked by Media Matters for America -- had been subsequently "confirm[ed]" by an official with the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) at George Washington University, which had listed Hasan as a member of its Presidential Transition Task Force "Event Participants." But the updated article reported only that the official confirmed that the Hasan listed as a "participant" was the alleged shooter, not that he had…
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Topix: Journalism News
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Azad for responsible role of media
6 Nov 2009 | 11:06 pmBSS, Dhaka Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad on Thursday said the mass media would have to play more responsible role in upholding the peoples rights. -
And for your journalistic ethical edification, we present ... Jayson Blair
6 Nov 2009 | 6:36 pmThe historic campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., has offered instruction in journalism for well over a century a ' but probably never quite like this. -
Shoe-throwing journo releases book
6 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm'Why did I have to sacrifice my life for the cause of justice?' Jarnail Singh, the journalist who hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram [ Images ] last April, has written a book on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. -
Ask AP: Polluted water, neutralizing nuclear waste
6 Nov 2009 | 9:38 amInstead of figuring out where to put nuclear waste, why can't we just find a way to neutralize it so it's no longer hazardous? Curiosity about what to do with nuclear waste inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news. -
Noted journalist Prabhash Joshi dies
6 Nov 2009 | 5:11 amIndia Gazette Friday 6th November, 2009 New Delhi, Nov 6 : Noted journalist Prabhash Joshi died of a heart attack here last night.
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Big News Network
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Latin American Leaders Seek to Rein in Media, Press Group Says
6 Nov 2009 | 7:03 pmBUENOS AIRES (AP) Populist leaders in Latin America are increasingly making legal and political moves to silence their critics in the media, the president of the -
Security Council Press Statement on Elections in Afghanistan
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pmThe members of the Security Council acknowledged the conclusion of the electoral process in 2009 following the decision of the Independent Electoral Commission of Afghanistan to declare President [ -
Danish journalism student held in Iran
6 Nov 2009 | 5:49 pmJAMES ROBINSON IRANIAN AUTHORITIES are believed to be holding a Danish journalism student arrested in a crackdown on foreign reporters. Niels Krogsgaard (31) was reported missing on Wednesday after at... -
Darfur groups press US to get tough with Turkey over Bashir trip
6 Nov 2009 | 5:44 pmPresident Bashir of Sudan, who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Darfur, is scheduled to arrive Sunday in Turkey for an Islamic conference. Darfur groups want Bashir arrested. -
Top local news stories of the week
6 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm1. Friends say victim tried to leave boyfriend before grisly murder Franklin County prosecutor Bob Parks announced there has been an arrest in connection to the killing of a woman found dead in an ap...
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NYT: Open
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Behind the Code: Times APIs
4 Nov 2009 | 12:36 pmNYTimes.com developer Nick Thuesen recently chatted with the Yahoo Developer Network about his work with Times APIs, TimesPeople and more. -
First 5,000 Tags Released to the Linked Data Cloud
29 Oct 2009 | 1:07 pmToday we are pleased to announce the launch of http://data.nytimes.com and the release of 5,000 person name subject headings as Linked Open Data published under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. -
Yahoo Open Hack NYC
13 Oct 2009 | 1:02 pmYahoo's Open Hack Day NYC has come and gone. I'm happy to say it was one of the best "hack" conferences I've ever attended. -
YQL + NYT = Easy Times APIs
7 Oct 2009 | 10:56 amNow you can access Times APIs with Yahoo Query Language. -
Show Me the Code: NYT Trender
29 Sep 2009 | 11:25 amThis is the first in a series of posts featuring demo applications that will help you learn how to use Times APIs. We'll look at NYT Trender, which showcases the Times Article Search API.
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The Linchpen
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Ideas for visiting Virginia Commonwealth University graduate journalism class
22 Oct 2009 | 10:00 pmI’ll be trekking down to Richmond, the capitol of the commonwealth I now call home, to speak with a graduate-level online journalism class on Friday evening. My esteemed Publish2 colleague (and all-around awesome dude) Ryan Sholin was not able to attend and I’ve been invited to discuss what we do, how journalism is changing and whatever other topics can fit into the session. Maybe I’ll even throw in some of the ol’ tips. As would be expected, I posed a question on Twitter about what I should discuss. ckanal: @greglinch Awesome, congrats! Twitter, personal branding +… -
Videojournalism brain dump: Some advice I’ve picked up over the past few years
10 Aug 2009 | 5:02 pmPoynter College Fellows win again, this time on video. Seriously, that e-mail group is inspiring me. And, yes, I was asked directly. I don’t just randomly spout off like this. Ok, not THIS much. Thanks #pcf09 kids. This is in response to a request for advice on teaching a video workshop for high school journalists [Update: to clarify, they already have some video recording and editing experience]. One earlier point I made in the thread was about Web vs. TV. And with that... Ok, so in general, mostly big-picture tips for videojournalism. Quick follow-up, I shouldn’t have said… -
Poynter fellows’ e-mail thread: Response to a “social media” question
6 Aug 2009 | 5:11 pmOne of my fellow former fellows asked our pcf09 Google Group about social media, singling me out near the end of her message. After I wrote this response (sent 6:33 p.m. CT), I thought “sharing is caring,” so here you go! Whoa, I kinda feel on the spot. Well, um… I’m going to cop out and defer to some smarter people/sites/articles except to say that I think some of the most important things to understand, for this group of already amazing storytellers and journalists, are the fundamentals of what’s changed/how things continue to change in news/media/journalism… -
Dallas Morning News mid-internship recap and John F. Kennedy project introduction
21 Jul 2009 | 8:34 pmI can’t believe my Dallas Morning News internship is more than half over. It’s been great so far, specifically because of the freedom and opportunities I’ve been afforded. Here’s are some highlights so far (Update: now with links!): I'm standing outside the Dallas Morning News building. Working on a newsroom social media strategy, best practices and how-to guide with Travis Hudson (more on this in a future post) Reporting, including a front page story on the DTV transition and following the story of an abandoned newborn Managing the Facebook page Occasionally… -
Announcing the beta launch of Multimedia Standards
13 Jul 2009 | 5:31 amAfter some teasing on Twitter (with the recently neglected #multimediastandards hashtag), we’re now ready to announce the beta launch of Multimedia Standards! The site was created by 13 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Miami as part of Rich Beckman’s spring 2009 Seminar in Visual Storytelling class. It’s built on WordPress using a heavily modified Branford Magazine theme. The main feature is an interactive grid, which includes audio clips from the interviews with an awesome group of multimedia professionals, built with PHP, JavaScript and Flash (for…
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Blogslot
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Downs and Ups
4 Nov 2009 | 7:43 amThis sentence from my own paper contains an obvious problem:About 10 p.m. on July 9, Gary Condit and his lawyer met lead Detective Ralph Durant in the dimly lit parking lot behind the Giant supermarket on Wisconsin Avenue near the National Cathedral. Cooler heads had prevailed, and Condit had agreed to give a DNA sample.Durant's title is detective, and so he's Detective Ralph Durant, but in this instance the article was not using his title -- it was simply pointing out that he was the lead detective on the case. The discrete units here are lead detective and Ralph Durant, not lead and… -
You Can Write, but You Can't Edit
2 Nov 2009 | 9:54 amNot Regina Spektor's best effort by a long shot, but, hey, she was nice enough to attempt a theme song for us. Off-topic, she has some truly amazing stuff. -
If You Libel, You May Be Liable
29 Oct 2009 | 8:09 amA publisher says -- and news outlets are repeating -- that the release of a tell-all book about the NBA by Tim Donaghy, the former referee who ended up in prison after a betting scandal, was canceled because of "concerns over potential liability."The concept that the Triumph Books representative had in mind, I believe, was "libel."Because "liable" and "libel" sound a lot alike, people seem to confuse them, or at least think they're related. It's not uncommon to hear a copy editor say something like "If we say he was arrested for murder, we'll be liable!"The words are not related,… -
Say, Say, Say
28 Oct 2009 | 8:16 amYou can't say something outrageous. Well, you can, but that would mean something else. You can say something is outrageous, or you can call something outrageous. Or, in the headline shortcut that someone at Reuters or Google or somewhere abused, Iraq bombings can be 'outrageous,' Obama says.And as for the pirate headline, well, that degree of "says" abuse is a new one on me.As we tweet and RSS and SMS and MMS and try to broadcast news to ever-tinier devices, of course, every character is sacred, but there is a baseline of literacy below which reputable publishers should not stoop, and the… -
Wish I'd Thought of That
21 Oct 2009 | 10:05 pmIf you're not reading the Fake AP Stylebook on Twitter, you've missed the following helpful pointers:Capitalize titles when they precede a name. Ex., King Kong, Captain Crunch, Count Dracula, Kid Rock.Words that substitute for Ted Nugent are capitalized. Ex. Ten Fingers of Doom, Motor City Madman, Mr. Wango Tango, The NugeUse quotation marks to express skepticism: Cher’s “Farewell Tour,” Creed’s “Best Album,” Jay Leno’s “comedy.”The word "boner” is not capitalized, regardless of size.Dr Pepper doesn't have a period in it. An easy way to remember this is 'Doctors are dudes…
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PBS: MediaShift
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Speculative Fiction Novelists Find Success with Online Donations
6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amOver the years, many authors have tried versions of the online donation model, with mixed results. But one specific genre of writers, speculative fiction, seems to be experiencing a moderate level of success. Back in 2000, Stephen King became one of the first major authors to offer a book online using an "honor system" to solicit donations. The book was called "The Plant," and was based on a series of chapbooks King had sent around to his friends in the '80s. He placed the first chapter in various downloadable formats on his website, and downloaders were expected to donate $1 by mail or… -
Hossein Derakhshan's Arrest: One Year Later
5 Nov 2009 | 3:28 pmIt's been over a year now since the arrest of Hossein Derakhshan, popularly known as Hoder. Ever since he wrote the first Persian-language blogging guide in November 2001, he has helped pioneer the Iranian blogging community while living in his adopted home of Toronto. (Derakhshan is a dual citizen of Iran and Canada.) However, beginning in 2006, Derakhshan's views started changing. He called for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and engaged in personal attacks against people that he disagreed with politically. He was even sued for libel by another Iranian in September 2007. A year later, he… -
FT's Long Room Uses Velvet Rope Approach to Online Community
5 Nov 2009 | 11:43 amWhat determines a successful community? The number of unique visitors or page views? The number of comments? Those metrics can be important, but there are also qualitative aspects to consider. Are the discussions on your site respectful and insightful? Are members deriving value from the community? Or are you hosting flame wars that lack intelligence and decorum? In order to create a community of quality, perhaps it makes sense to cut down on quantity, and create an exclusive members-only structure. Few media companies have done a better job of building this kind of exclusive community than… -
@FakeAPStylebook Editors Explain Their Overnight Success on Twitter
4 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pmFor anyone who has suffered through reading the entire AP Stylebook for a journalism class, there's a cathartic release when reading the dry wit of the @FakeAPStylebook feed on Twitter. It combines parody of the journalism usage bible with funny repartee and the absurd. That mix has brought amazing success to the people behind the feed: more than 40,000 followers in 15 days, plus they've scored a literary agent for a book deal. Here are some of my favorite recent tweets from @FakeAPStylebook: > STAR WARS Episodes IV-VI are to be referred to as "The Original Trilogy." Episodes I-III are not… -
10 Projects that Help Citizens Become Government Watchdogs
3 Nov 2009 | 1:42 pmWith the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office -- and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates. Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use "the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens." Below are 10 innovative government transparency projects that employ powerful…
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E-Media Tidbits
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Fort Hood Shooting Shows How Twitter, Lists Can be Used for Breaking News
6 Nov 2009 | 11:22 amRELATED "Covering the Fort Hood Shootings, A Day Later," Al Tompkins Days after Twitter Lists were introduced to the public, the shootings at Fort Hood on Thursday showed the power of this feature to cover a major news event in real-time.News organizations quickly created a trusted set of Twitter Lists to follow developments out of Texas. Lists from The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times were among the first. Others were not far behind curating their own lists, like CNN, the Dallas Morning News and The Washington Post. Lists proved a new way to follow breaking… -
New Hampshire Suit Challenges Mortgage Blogger's Use of Anonymous Sources
5 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amThe New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that calls into question the legal protections available to independent Web sites that cover news.The case involves mortgage lender Implode-Explode, a Las Vegas-based site launched in 2007 that publishes stories about the meltdown of the mortgage industry. The court did not make a final decision on the case Wednesday, but one of its options could be to send the case back to the lower court for further review and litigation on specific points of law. RELATED "Scrappy Mortgage Blogger Fights Bad Court Ruling," Columbia… -
How The New York Times, Others Are Experimenting with Augmented Reality
4 Nov 2009 | 10:15 amJournalists and publishers are exploring ways to use the emerging technology known as Augmented Reality in their work.Augmented Reality, or AR, is "layering digital information onto the physical world," in the words of New York Times Creative Technologist Michael Young. The most common AR apps today live on "smart" handheld devices like the iPhone or ones using Google's Android platform.Someone will, say, point their smartphone's camera toward a big office building and see what restaurants and shops are available in the lobby, or point down a street to see what subway stations are available… -
New Google Analytics Tools Make it Easier for News Orgs to Track Metrics
2 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pmJust in time for the holidays, Google has announced some potentially valuable new additions to its free Web metrics suite, Google Analytics. Among the highlights: better metrics from mobile devices, more flexible goal setting and tracking, automated and custom metric alerts and more precise tracking of individual visitor behavior.The new tools build on what the company describes as its "enterprise-class" features that were first introduced late last year and include: advanced segmentation, custom reports, site search analytics and motion charts.Google Customer Solutions Engineer, Vinoaj… -
How Journalists Can Use Twitter Lists to Customize, Discover and Curate
29 Oct 2009 | 7:07 amJournalists, take note: Twitter is about to introduce a highly anticipated feature that will add a whole new experience to the social networking service. As early as this week, Twitter Lists will be introduced to the general public. They're now available only to a select group of beta users. [UPDATE: TechCrunch reports that a full rollout is underway and all users could have access by Friday.] HOW TO MAKE TWITTER LISTS Creating lists is simple. Start with any user's Twitter page, click the "Lists" button above the timeline and choose "New list." Give the list a name and decide whether it will…
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Eat Sleep Publish
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New Cooperatives
28 Oct 2009 | 2:46 pmFrom Romenesko: The Chicago News Cooperative (CNC) Wednesday announced that the Chicago Tribune’s leading City Hall reporter has joined the staff of the new multi-platform news venture that will offer public service reporting about Chicago for the New York Times, the city’s public television station and on the Internet. The idea of similarly structured freelance cooperatives was briefly floated last night at The Pitch as well. It could be a workable structure, building content and selling it to multiple buyers in multiple media formats. -
Newspaper circulation, a visual reference
27 Oct 2009 | 11:28 amVery interesting chart of circulation at several major newspapers over the past few decades. The site I got the image from is loading suuuuper slow, probably because they got linked for Daring Fireball, so for now I’ve uploaded the image here: It is apparently a very bad idea to be the Los Angeles Times. -
The Pitch is tomorrow – Freelance edition
26 Oct 2009 | 1:21 pmTuesday, October 27th, from 7:30 – 9:30pm, we’ll be gathering at Lucid Jazz Club in the U-district in Seattle for drinks and good conversation. The topic of tomorrow’s Pitch is simple: Will all journalists become freelancers? New organizations are already finding it much harder to justify full time staff for what amounts to part-time profit. As our industry-wide dive into digital continues, and news organizations learn to compete with leaner, meaner content producers, something’s gotta give. It might well be the career. I can see a future where very few people land… -
Free Book Experiment
22 Oct 2009 | 11:18 amHave you seen Cory Doctorow’s Free Book experiment (redux)? Cory is offering another free book, with an interesting philosophical approach: For this project, I’ve taken an oath to lose no money. That means that my capital expenditures have to be as low as possible. In the ideal world, every object I make available will either cost nothing to produce or will be physically instantiated only after it has been ordered and paid for. The question is: would he make more money if he just sold everything? Probably not. -
What I thought about publishing in 2006
20 Oct 2009 | 5:25 pmSurprisingly good read, given that I wrote it. Now, that has changed – big news portals like Google and Yahoo!, coupled with millions of blogs and untold thousands of specialized newsfeeds from sites like the New York Times have put practically everything at the fingertips of the average browser. The problem is that there’s so much stuff to go through on an everyday basis that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for people to slog through it just for the few choice gems. So the average user doesn’t. And news becomes a business of aggregation. This is why sites like BoingBoing, Slashdot,…
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Editor and Publisher
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Visit 'E&P' Blogs Today for News, Video, Comments, and Analysis!
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmDo it now. -
GateHouse Media Improves Margins in Q3; Revenue Declines Moderate
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmGateHouse Media reported total revenue on a same-store basis fell 14.9% to $144.9 million in Q3 year-over -- a sequential improvement over previous quarters. In Q2, the Fairport, N.Y. chain reported that total revenue was down 15.2% and in Q1 it fell 16.3%. -
Media Report for Hours That Fort Hood Suspect Dead -- Turns Out He's Alive!
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmBlack eye for press? Authorities said immediately after the shootings that they had killed the suspected shooter, but later in the evening they recanted and said that he was alive and in stable condition at a hospital, watched by a guard. -
Multi-Platform 'Content Room' Puts Journos in New Roles
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmIn Iowa, Gazette Communications is experimenting with a central "content room" of reporters and editors who provide content for print, TV and online. "There is a pull and push, and I think that is probably healthy," says Becky Lutgen Gardner, senior director of information content. "When it comes to breaking news, spot news, it's easy to translate across all of the mediums." -
Spanish-language Weekly Launches in Boston
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmA group of Latino journalists in Massachusetts has launched a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper.
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contentious.com
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links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 11:36 pmMusic – Jim O’Rourke, Once an Insider, Worked Alone and on the Outside for ‘The Visitor’ – NYTimes.com "Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists… -
links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 11:04 pmMusic – Jim O’Rourke, Once an Insider, Worked Alone and on the Outside for ‘The Visitor’ – NYTimes.com "Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists… -
links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pmMusic – Jim O’Rourke, Once an Insider, Worked Alone and on the Outside for ‘The Visitor’ – NYTimes.com "Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists… -
links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pmFour Keys To Fun BayCHI Slides 100n081109 Nicole Lazzaro, XEODesign: "Often ignored by usability, neuroscience now proves that emotion deeply connects decision making and performance. Emotions also coordinate the actions between people. Therefore the next design challenge for desktop and cloud applications is not making a UI "easy," but rather making it more emotional and social. The trick is that emotions and social experiences cannot be designed directly. This presentation covers how the choices in games craft player emotions to increase engagement." (tags: games… -
links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pmMusic – Jim O’Rourke, Once an Insider, Worked Alone and on the Outside for ‘The Visitor’ – NYTimes.com "Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists…
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DigiDave - Journalism is a Process, Not a Product
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Lessons in Web Development – Good, Fast and Cheap: Pick Two
12 Oct 2009 | 11:15 amWhenever people ask me about the process of building a website, here’s how I explain their choices: “There is good, fast and cheap — you get to pick two.” Spot.Us has quietly started development again. I’ll be putting up sketches of a much needed re-design on the Spot.Us blog soon, but you can see a sneak peek at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Lauren Rabaino. Looking back at what has almost been a full year of work, this is the part of building something from the ground up that plays to one of my strengths. It comes down to project management, weighing… -
Video Roundup Cause I Can’t Sleep
5 Oct 2009 | 10:25 pmWhat do you do when you can’t sleep? Clay Shirky on Internet Issues Facing Newspapers Clay Shirky describes the changing news landscape that has put accountability journalism at risk, and outlines a “journalistic ecosystem” that is needed to preserve essential watchdog role. Tina Brown On The Future Of Journalism Tina Brown, founder of The Daily Beast, tells Katie Couric she expects a new golden age of journalism as the era of online media matures. Watch more at @KatieCouric on CBSNews.com. Governor in ads promoting newspapers Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is featured in a… -
Dear Warren Hellman
25 Sep 2009 | 11:58 amDear Warren You already know the setup: Today the Bay Area media scene just gained an 800lb gorilla. The news broke last night by the Bay Guardian was known by some a little earlier and had been expected for months. Details from The New York Times and Paid Content. Steve Katz and Alan Mutter chime in as well. Let me be the first blogger to tip my hat to you. Major kudos. There are a lot of folks with as much money as you – but they don’t give it back to their community the way you have. Nobody can argue that giving 5 million to start a nonprofit news organization is anything but… -
Spot.Us Expands to L.A. with Annenberg and a 10-month State of the Spot
22 Sep 2009 | 9:10 amFirst: The big news. Spot.Us is expanding to Los Angeles and we are doing so with USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism. Needless to say, we are very excited about the opportunities and possibilities. The main Spot.Us homepage will aggregate pitches from both the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles regions. You can go to Subdomains to find pitches specific to those regions: la.spot.us and sfbay.spot.us. As many know, I grew up in Los Angeles (Hamilton High School anyone?) so this is a bit of a home coming for me. I will remain up north running the Bay Area Spot.Us – but will be working… -
Public Media Collaborative Event: Social Media for Social Action and East Bay Blogger Camp
17 Sep 2009 | 8:00 amThere is something brewing in the Bay Area. Public Media Collaborative. Our Wiki Our Facebook What has grown out of a dinner with some social media friends has turned into an adhoc service organization. While I already have my plate full – this has been a side project I am growing more passionate about. It helps Spot.Us (I’m not 100% altruistic here) but I genuinely believe in being part of a larger community. Journalism is a big part of my life. But so is the Bay Area. So are civic organizations. So are people who want to be empowered. And that’s why I think the Public…
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Newspaper Death Watch
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East Valley Tribune to Shut Down
5 Nov 2009 | 11:36 amNearly a year to the day after announcing a radical strategy to cut back from daily to four-times-per-week frequency, the East Valley Tribune of suburban Phoenix is finally pulling the plug. Unless a buyer emerges with a reasonable bid, the paper will shut down at the end of the year, publishing its last print edition on December 30. About 140 employees will lose their jobs. We’ve covered the Tribune’s twists and turns in previous entries, and there’s nothing particularly new to say about the situation. The Tribune has been operating under a cloud since it cut 40% of its… -
The Future of Journalism, Part IV
3 Nov 2009 | 6:19 amImplicit in the hand-wringing over the death of news organizations (one guest on last week’s Hobson & Holtz Report podcast wondered if PR professionals should even bother tracking newspaper coverage any more) is the concern that good journalism will vanish from the Earth. We’ve always argued that the problem with newspapers today isn’t that they have no value, it’s that they no longer have a sustainable business model. The need for good journalism hasn’t changed but good journalism needs to find new ways to support itself. Check out two new resources in this area. Jeff Jarvis… -
Skate Save for Canada’s National Post
30 Oct 2009 | 1:11 pmJust minutes ago, an Ontario judge allowed Canwest Global Communications to save the hemorrhaging National Post by moving it the paper into a group with its other dailies. Why Canwest wants to do this is not clear. Today was set to be the end of the line for Post a conservative broadsheet tabloid that has shouldered much of the blame for parent Canwest Global’s financial troubles. The Post has apparently been losing prodigious amounts of money – 139 million Canadian dollars over the last seven years – but has also had a curious booster effect on Canwest’s other properties by… -
Surveying the Wreckage
27 Oct 2009 | 5:53 amMedia-watchers are interpreting yesterday’s horrifying Audit Bureau of Control audit numbers that show newspaper circulation falling at an accelerating rate. Alan Mutter takes calculator in hand and figures that readership is at historic lows. “Newspaper circulation now is lower than the 41.1 million papers sold in 1940, the earliest date for which records are published,” he writes. In those days about 31 percent of the population read a newspaper. Today, it’s less than 13%. Mutter’s analysis draws quite a few comments, several of whom quibble with his math. -
ABC Circ Report: How Low Can It Go?
26 Oct 2009 | 2:13 pmCirculation at major metro daily newspapers fell at more than twice the rate of last year’s record declines, although extenuating circumstances may be partly to blame. Audit Bureau of Control (ABC) numbers released today showed that daily newspaper circulation plunged 10.6% for the six months ended Sept. 30 compared to the same period a year ago. Sunday circulation was off 7.5%. In the same period a year ago, average daily circulation fell 4.6%, while Sunday papers were down 4.9%. Only one newspaper – The Wall Street Journal - showed an increase in circulation and it was a meager…
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The Journalism Iconoclast
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What’s competition these days, anyway?
14 Oct 2009 | 7:17 pmOver at Wired Journalist’s someone asked what to put online first and what to hold for print. He mentioned that staffers were worried about the competition getting ahold of their scoops. Here is my response: Online everyone is a competitor and no one is a competitor. As in, what you view as your competition has radically shifted. A kid on your block can now be your competition. In the same token, however, that kid can collaborate with you. The Web is about being social and forming webs of connections. In that sense, just as anyone can be your competitor, anyone can also help you. If you… -
Paying for news has to be easy on consumers
24 Sep 2009 | 7:46 amDoes the Star Tribune’s new Access Vikings Premium sound easy to you? But in addition to the info, registrants have to accept the site’s e-mailed FYI Newsletter and FYI Offers. The offers can be customized, it looks like, but choosing from various categories. [By this point I would be pulling back.] Then they can pick from nearly two dozen e-mails; thoughtfully, three have been pre-checked—AM and PM Updates, Deals+Steals/Thrifty advice—meaning registrants have to uncheck them if they don’t the daily updates. Others range from zoned news to the Pet Central Newsletter. When I dug… -
Entrepreneurs can change the world
23 Sep 2009 | 7:00 amLet’s change the world. -
Thoughts on why micropayments are a dangerous delusion
22 Sep 2009 | 2:33 pmMathew Ingram has a post over at The Nieman Journalism Lab asking if micropayments are the holy grail or a dangerous delusion? I think the answer is obvious. Micropayments will not work for news. Why not? I don’t believe there is a market — News is one of those things that I think macropayments make a lot more sense for. There are certain news outlets that I value a lot more than others. I suspect I’m not alone. The issue isn’t that people aren’t willing to pay for news-related products, but rather the issue is that it will be tough to get people to pay for a… -
Journalism needs a down and dirty revolution
9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 pmA lot of businesses could benefit from the I like to call the down and dirty principles. Down and dirty says you should never make something that your users don’t care about. Down and dirty means focusing on return on investment. It means admitting that we don’t have unlimited time, money or staff resources. Once we realize that we have limited resources, we’ll focus on maximizing our resources to produce the best overall product. The core of down and dirty is incredibly simple: How can we maximize time, money and staff resources? Instead of saying, “If we only had…
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Wired Journalists
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Twitter Lists on the Fort Hood Shooting
A story from Poynter on the @FtHoodShootings account, as well as the multiple lists created within hours of the shooting that helped aggregate news: http://ow.ly/zUFR In breaking news situations, Twitter is usually the first place I go to get information. I had been perusing a few news organizations' list features just a couple hours before, and the Fort Hood incident clearly demonstrated to me that these lists have serious news potential beyond being just another fad. Thoughts? -
Extended mobile web best practices guidelines could prove pretty useful for news sites
The W3C, the international body that formulates web standards, has come up with a set of extended mobile web best practices guidelines, that could prove particularly handy to news sites because of the range of content they deliver to different kinds of mobile devices. Cross-posting from my blog: Full entry here, along with related links. -
Confessions of a curmudgeon: Why I used to mock Twitter, and what changed my mind
(Cross-posted from here.) I admit it -- I can be a curmudgeon sometimes. I'm rarely the first to jump on a technological bandwagon. I didn't own a CD player until 1995, nor a DVD player until 2002. I didn't register a Twitter account until June 1, 2009, after one of the school districts I cover started using it to distribute information, and I didn't make a single post of my own until July 27. Here are a few of the reasons I dismissed Twitter at first -- and a few of the things that changed my mind. REASONS I DISMISSED IT 1. The name. No, this wasn't a big factor, but it probably didn't help… -
New e-book for multimedia journalists
Following on from my series of blogs back in August I have put together a 32 page e-book for people starting out in multimedia journalism. It's called 6x6 and features 6 handy tips to improve your game in 6 key areas: video, audio, storytelling, business, branding & making things happen. It's totally free and doesn't require registration - so click on the button below to check it out! -
Halloween savings, mommy dearest style
You won't believe what this mother does to save on Halloween. See more On The Cheap videos here
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Holovaty.com
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EveryBlock acquisition and me
I'm excited to announce some huge news. EveryBlock, the project I've led for the last two years, has been acquired by MSNBC.com. The main details are at the EveryBlock blog, but I wanted to mention a few other things here on my personal site, to try to anticipate questions. First, this has no impact whatsoever on my involvement with Django. MSNBC.com is half-owned by Microsoft (although it's a separate company), so I expect plenty of Microsoft jokes -- but that's all they are: jokes. I'm not going to start developing things with Microsoft technologies; EveryBlock is not going to be converted… -
The definitive, two-part answer to "is data journalism?"
It's a hot topic among journalists right now: Is data journalism? Is it journalism to publish a raw database? Here, at last, is the definitive, two-part answer: 1. Who cares? 2. I hope my competitors waste their time arguing about this as long as possible. -
Django tip: Caching and two-phased template rendering
We've launched user accounts at EveryBlock, and we faced the interesting problem of needing to cache entire pages except for the "You're logged in as [username]" bit at the top of the page. For example, the Chicago homepage takes a nontrivial amount of time to generate and doesn't change often -- which means we want to cache it -- but at the same time, we need to display the dynamic bit in the upper right: One solution would be to pull in the username info dynamically via Ajax. This way, you could cache the entire page and rely on the client to pull in the username bits. The downsides are… -
Looking toward EveryBlock’s future
It's been a year and a half now since I've started working on EveryBlock, and I'm still having the time of my life. Starting from scratch in July 2007, our team of six has built a one-of-a-kind local news site that now serves 11 cities and makes more than a hundred distinct types of local information useful to people. By all measures, from passionate user feedback to press coverage to traffic numbers to influence on other projects, the site is a success, and we're incredibly proud of our work. Thanks to our out-of-the-ordinary funding — a generous grant from Knight Foundation — our team… -
Announcing the Django Book, second edition
I'm excited to announce that I'm working on a second edition of the Django Book. The first edition, which I cowrote with Jacob Kaplan-Moss, was published in print by Apress more than a year ago, and, sadly, it's become out of date. It covers Django version 0.96, and many of the examples don't work with the current version, 1.0. Fortunately, now that Django has reached 1.0 and is committed to backwards compatibility, this book will have a much longer shelf life. :-) At this point, I've rewritten/edited the first three chapters and published the drafts for free online, as we did the first time…
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Innovation in College Media
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Google Wave first impressions
3 Nov 2009 | 11:44 amWave - e-mail for the 21st century, or something As part of my duty as the self-appointed new software guinea pig for college media, I was able to finagle an invitation to Google Wave from Andrew Spittle, one of the CoPress team (@andrewspittle on Twitter) and check out this "revolutionary" tool. There were a couple of sessions at the National College Media Convention about Wave, but I was presenting during those times, so I missed them. Anyway, I've been using Wave for about half a day now, and I'm a little underwhelmed. For a good overview of some of the potential of Wave, this ReadWriteWeb… -
links for 2009-11-03
3 Nov 2009 | 8:02 amCoPress Pushes Innovation, Shows Value of Open-Source Platforms Thorough article about CoPress from Poynter. (tags: Media&Journalism copress collegemedia) Instant speech feedback: Get used to it: SteveOuting.com Steve Outing spoke at the National College Media Convention, and writes about the instant feedback via Twitter. (tags: Technology twitter publicspeaking) Reflections of a Newsosaur: Wild guesses won't solve journalism crisis "It’s time for editors, publishers, academics and foundations to pony up for serious, in depth and disciplined study of what consumers want, what… -
Pacemaker winners
2 Nov 2009 | 7:41 amThe collegiate Online Pacemakers were announced this weekend in Austin at the National College Media Convention. I am pleased to report that dennews.com, the Daily Eastern News' web site, was among the winners (as was OUDaily, pictured above). Lots of good sites to check out for ideas and inspiration. Congrats to all the winners and finalists. -
Filling in the Gaps
31 Oct 2009 | 10:00 amCollege media wire service U-Wire has been experiencing some glitches as of late. Seattle University's Spectator reported about a week ago that the service, which is free for college newspapers, temporarily suspended its print operations. It's Web site, which is currently down, stopped updating headlines and sending out daily news e-mails earlier this month. It's Twitter feed hasn't been updated since Oct. 9. U-Wire is basically the student equivalent of the Associated Press, giving its more than 800 member publications access to reprint stories from other college media outlets. The… -
Teaching moderating comments – Poynter live chat
29 Oct 2009 | 11:35 amLogan Aimone, director of ACP/NSPA, led a live chat for the Poynter Institute about teaching moderating online comments, a topic that comes up about every six months or so. There was some great discussion in the chat, which is archived here: How Do I Teach Online Comment Moderation?
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Institute for Analytic Journalism
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Philip Meyer Awards - Call for Entries
15 Oct 2009 | 10:24 pmThe deadline for applications for the Philip Meyer Award is approaching. Established in 2005, the award was created to honor Philip Meyer’s pioneering efforts to utilize social science research methods to foster better journalism. The postmark deadline for entries is October 31, 2009. The contest recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities and other social science tools in creative ways that lead to journalism vital to the community. Three awards are given annually: * $500 for 1st place * $300 for 2nd place… -
Could World of Warcraft be the new War and Peace?
2 Oct 2009 | 2:18 pmFrom the Nieman Foundation "Storyboard": Could World of Warcraft be the new War and Peace? Whether Pacman or Halo first introduced you to video games, calling them “high art” might stretch the sensibilities. But boardwalk nickelodeons led to movies like The Godfather—could a similarly radical transformation be underway with games? Narrative journalism draws many of its core principles from novels, films, and short stories. Elements like character development, scene-setting, and a narrative arc work whether the tale is true or made up. Games, however, are different. “There… -
UPDATED: Inflation Conversion Factors for Dollars 1774 to Estimated 2019
30 Sep 2009 | 5:08 pmHere at the IAJ, we have long been a fan -- and user -- of Prof. Robert Sahr's "Inflation Conversion Factors" web site and tools. We were snoozing at the switch a bit and didn't notice that Sahr updated the site in early June 2009. Check it out: it's filled with both PDF and Excel data/tools to calculate the comparative costs of most anything from 1774 to 2019. The site also includes some fun data: The charts on the following topics are available either by scrolling down or by selecting the appropriate link: Price levels… -
More insights into how and why journos can't deal with data
30 Sep 2009 | 12:26 pmThis tip comes from our friend Stephan Russ-Mohl, of the European Journalism Observatory. Darned Statistics by Stephan Russ-Mohl European Journalism Observatory, September 26, 2009 Many journalists face difficulties in dealing with statistics, and frequently lack the competence to present quantitative information to their publics in easy-to-grasp language. This is nothing new, as most journalism textbooks contain tips on how to deal adequately with numbers and percentages. Thus far, these remain rules of thumb. Three U.S. researchers – Coy Callison, Rhonda Gibson and Dolf… -
Wondering what the prez is doing???
19 Sep 2009 | 3:47 pmWe don't know how long this one's been around, but kudos to the gang at the WashPost for taking a concept/tool somewhat on the margin and putting it to good use for both reporters and readers. See http://projects.washingtonpost.com/potus-tracker/ Jobs by SimplyHired POTUS Tracker Analyzing Obama's schedule Advanced Search » ANALYSIS CALENDAR View Event List By: ISSUE TYPE ATTENDEES LOCATION Every day President Obama meets with key members of his administration, Congress, foreign dignitaries, interest groups and regular citizens. Use our interactive…
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Invisible Inkling
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My advice to journalism students
23 Oct 2009 | 12:26 pmI’ve been through most of this before, either in blog posts or in person, whenever I get the chance to talk with journalism students, but it’s worth repeating. A few tweets this week seem to have proved that, so I’m putting this updated compendium of my advice together for posterity. My advice to journalism students starts with this: Blog. That doesn’t mean you have to blog about journalism, or build a rabid political audience, or chronicle every step the Googles and Twitters and Apples of the world take. It just means that you maintain a Web site where you write on a… -
The diaspora of information
13 Oct 2009 | 8:32 amGiven: Dan Gillmor famously stated (and I’m paraphrasing from memory): “My readers know more than I do.” I like to take it an order of magnitude up into the branches of the tree, along these lines: “The diaspora of information (having been set free by the Web, mostly) knows infinitely more than I do.” So here are a few links to some of the latest advances in what I think of as the tools, techniques, and tricks to surfacing the valuable information out there in the diaspora. How Yelp deals with everybody getting four stars (on average) Published at… -
Grad school update
12 Oct 2009 | 4:02 amRemember when I went to graduate school at San Jose State University to get an M.S. in Mass Communications? Well, I finished. Here’s the proof, which arrived in the mail a few days ago: PreviouslyGrad school update: I think I’m doneSpartans, you rock my worldSuzanne Yada recommends you grow a pair -
ONA09 debrief and the swagger
6 Oct 2009 | 12:24 pmWell, it’s been a pretty awesome week. I spent most of last Thursday through Sunday at the 2009 Online News Association conference in San Francisco, and if you follow me on Twitter or spotted a short post on my blog over the weekend, you know that Publish2, my current employer, was honored with a rather pleasant award on Saturday night at the Online Journalism Awards. And earlier that day, I helped lead an unconference session on “Context and the Coming Link Economy,” which turned out to be one of my favorite conversations of the weekend, with help from Matt Thompson, Elaine… -
Publish2 Wins Gannett Foundation Award For Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism
5 Oct 2009 | 8:00 amAt the Online Journalism Awards banquet this Saturday, Publish2 had the honor of receiving the first Gannett Foundation Award For Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism. Here’s our big thank you to all the journalists that made our success possible. PreviouslyONA09 debrief and the swaggerThe avatar problemPublish2 acquires Wired Journalists
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Random Mumblings
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Comment management draws lots of comments
6 Nov 2009 | 4:58 amI had a great time doing a Webinar at the Poynter Institute on Thursday with Howard Finberg and a big assist from Elaine Kramer, who manages the Associated Press Managing Editors' Online Credibility Roundtables. Our topic was management of online comments and Michele McLellan has some thoughts about it.Coincidentially, online comments on the knoxnews.com Web site and the APME Roundtable on Comments are the focus of a long piece by Frank Carlson in Wednesday's edition of Metro Pulse, an alternative and entertainment weekly in Knoxville. Knoxville area blogger Say Uncle has some thoughts about… -
Ethics in journalism's digital age
3 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amI'm talking to a group of faculty members at Hampton University this afternoon about journalism ethics in the digital world.. As part of preparing for that talk, I rounded up some journalism ethics links that I thought others might also enjoy. (Special hat tip to Steve Buttry and Bob Steele for their help.)[You reporters] should have printed what he meant, not what he said. -- Earl Bush, press aide to Richard Daley (more quotes here) Ethics of social media for journalists | Save the Media Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics SPJ Ethic Blog: Code Words Society of… -
Halloween 2009
1 Nov 2009 | 7:17 amHalloween jack-o-lanterns this year. Hallowween decorations from earlier years. -
Hauling a tool chest of ideas back from Missouri
31 Oct 2009 | 3:11 pmThe speed version of the better part of last week during my stay in Saint Louis. My hotel was just across the street from the arch, but, unfortunately, I never made it to it.Here are some resources and thought-starters from the Associated Press Managing Editors "Inspiration Starts Here" conference.Amy Webb did a rapid fire presentation on trends to watch. Val Hoeppner leveraged off Webb's list of trends with a blog post with a list of cool resources and tools of particular interest to journalists and another set of resources was added to the APME09 twitter stream by the Journalists… -
Newspaper becomes the story in comment case
28 Oct 2009 | 11:29 amSome of the coverage of the federal subpoena for information about a commenter on the Knoxnews.com Web site. Jack McElroy: KNS turns commenter info over to FBI Say Uncle: Saying dumb things on the internet The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press: Death threats spur release of web commenter's identity
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Journerdism
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Giz Explains: Android, and How It Will Take Over the World
6 Nov 2009 | 6:59 pmA great background on the revolutionary platform. -
10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists
5 Nov 2009 | 10:35 am"Twitter’s new Lists feature is all the rage right now. There are probably already millions of lists, and that number is growing by the minute (or second). So what are people using all these lists for? Are people creating lists just for the sake of creating lists? Savvy individuals are looking for ways to use lists to further their personal/professional agendas, and while we are all still learning how to harness the power of this new feature, here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing." -
MSN Relaunches With Focus On Social And Local
4 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm"Significantly, the Microsoft unit is also launching a new MSN Local Edition, which will exist as a stand-alone Web site, but also feature prominently on the relaunched MSN home page. The renewed focus on local content resulted from internal MSN research, which found that such content -- from local news and events to weather and sports -- was "the Number 1 unmet need online," according to Lisa Gurry, senior director at MSN. Likewise, consumers who were surveyed said they wanted less clutter and easier access to information and services they care about, which MSN took into consideration when… -
Is It Really A Problem That 'Only' 31 Newspapers Sent Reporters To The World Series?
4 Nov 2009 | 10:11 pm"Earlier this year, we had a discussion on the changing nature of sports beat reporting in the internet era, and one of the points we made is that there really is an awful lot of overlap and duplication in effort in some cases (such as the NY media). And yet, as pointed out by Jay Rosen old school baseball reporter Murray Chass is complaining that about half of the newspapers that have baseball beat writers did not sent a reporter to the World Series this year, calling it a "sign of a dying industry." Apparently there are 60 newspapers in America that have beat reporters who travel with the… -
LEAKED: Microsoft Courier Tablet User Interface Details
4 Nov 2009 | 5:48 pm"Two still mythical tablet devices, the Microsoft Courier and the Apple Tablet, are probably the hottest and most coveted devices that do not yet officially exist. To further fuel the anticipatory gadget lust, Gizmodo has scored an in-depth look at the former’s user interface and overall design. As we were clued into by earlier leaks, the Infinite Journal is the key metaphor for Courier. It’s like an enormous notebook for collecting pretty much any kind of content: clippings from the web, your own notes, diagrams and drawings, photos from the on-board camera, etc. Each item gets a…
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sans serif
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PRABHASH JOSHI, A HINDI TITAN, IS NO MORE
5 Nov 2009 | 9:29 pmsans serif records with deep regret the passing away of the veteran Hindi editor and a fearless voice against media malfeasance, Prabhash Joshi, in New Delhi on Friday morning. He was 72 years old. Founder editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta published by the Indian Express group, Joshi was a key member of the inner circle of the paper’s fiesty proprietor, Ramnath Goenka. Equally proficient in English, Joshi served as resident editor of the Express in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Delhi. Joshi had lately taken on a lead role against the selling of editorial space for advertisers by rapacious… -
There’s a new ism in town, and it’s Arnab-ism
5 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amThe Indian government’s “Operation Green Hunt” to track down Maoists—described by prime minister Manmohan Singh as the “gravest internal threat facing India”—is the flavour of the season in newspapers, magazines, and on TV stations. In reporting from the ground; publishing long essays; interviewing key players in studios; debating the whys and the wherefores of various aspects of the promised assault; throwing light on the situation in the tribal belt, the media, it would appear, is doing its job. Is it, or is it just “manufacturing consent for… -
How come Mario Garcia didn’t redesign this one?
4 Nov 2009 | 2:58 amVijaya Karnataka, the largest selling Kannada newspaper owned by The Times of India group and edited by Visweshwar Bhat, has undergone a redesign. Above is the front page of the first edition of the relaunched issue; below is yesterday’s front page. This is the second revamp of the paper after ToI acquired the Bangalore-based paper four years ago, and the double-deck masthead comes just months after the City’s oldest newspaper, Deccan Herald, went for a similar double-deck masthead. A wider column-width in the new design allows for wider front page pointer ads on column one,… -
Guess who monetised editorial space first?
1 Nov 2009 | 10:06 pm“Paid News”—editorial space being sold for a fee, without revealing to news consumers that it is an advertisement—is suddenly all the rage, with the Magsaysay Award-winning journalist P. Sainath weighing in on the issue. In just the last week, the Foundation for Media Professionals (FMP) has conducted a seminar on the topic*; the communist party leader Prakash Karat has dropped some pearls of wisdom; The Hindu has editorially commented on the issue and warned of a follow-up editorial; and media-watchers like B.V. Rao, formerly of the Indian Express, Star News and Zee… -
Will India’s greatest questioner raise his hand?
31 Oct 2009 | 2:36 amStephen J. Dubner, the journalist who co-authored Freakonomics with the economist Steven D. Levitt, writes on his blog that the most interesting question thrown in the run-up to their new book, SuperFreakonomics, has come from an (unnamed) Indian journalist. In fact, the blog post is titled: “The greatest question ever asked?” The question: “You state that your book is based on one fundamental assumption about human nature: people respond to incentives. Which is another way of saying that people are basically selfish. Take someone like Jesus Christ. What was his…
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Adrian Monck
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e.tv plans Africa news channel | News24 [del.icio.us]
5 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pme.tv has plans for a new continental news service for Africa, which will be named eNews Africa. The broadcaster is understood to be working on plans for its second television news channel, which will include specific news agencies from across the continent. -
Living The Dream | Zen Traveler [del.icio.us]
5 Nov 2009 | 11:42 am[G]rowing up I dreamed of being an Air Force fighter pilot. My adolescent career path had me attending the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, which ... was the most efficient way of getting me into the cockpit of an F-16. When it came time to start getting my ducks in order ... I did not. I chose to listen to people around me stating that it was almost impossible to get in, that my grades were not up to par, that I wasn't doing enough extracurricular "stuff", or that the odds were too long. In the end I walked away from my dreams of being a pilot. ...years later when I… -
Social Isolation and New Technology | Pew Internet & American Life Project [del.icio.us]
5 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am"This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks." -
What The Woman Lived | Economic Principals [del.icio.us]
2 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm"Reinhart enumerates three worries about the present situation: the tendency to declare premature victory versus the tendency of spending to fall; delaying the re-liquefaction of banks, and general complacency about the rest of the world, particularly emerging markets. In China, for example, credit has been expanding at an annual rate of forty percent or even fifty percent; it’s hard to do that for any length of time without running into problems.. “It’s always a surprise when it happens,” says Reinhart “There’s always a plausible story about why it’s different this… -
The trade collapse: The role of product quality | vox [del.icio.us]
2 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm[C]ountries specialised in high quality exports are expected to suffer more in times of crises but should also recover faster. This has important implications regarding policies in rich countries that promote specialisation in higher-quality product ladders. While this form of specialisation can isolate part of domestic production from competition from the South, it also implies greater volatility, as such exports are more responsive to the world business cycle.
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Random Mumblings
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Comment management draws lots of comments
6 Nov 2009 | 4:58 amI had a great time doing a Webinar at the Poynter Institute on Thursday with Howard Finberg and a big assist from Elaine Kramer, who manages the Associated Press Managing Editors' Online Credibility Roundtables. Our topic was management of online comments and Michele McLellan has some thoughts about it.Coincidentially, online comments on the knoxnews.com Web site and the APME Roundtable on Comments are the focus of a long piece by Frank Carlson in Wednesday's edition of Metro Pulse, an alternative and entertainment weekly in Knoxville. Knoxville area blogger Say Uncle has some thoughts about… -
Ethics in journalism's digital age
3 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amI'm talking to a group of faculty members at Hampton University this afternoon about journalism ethics in the digital world.. As part of preparing for that talk, I rounded up some journalism ethics links that I thought others might also enjoy. (Special hat tip to Steve Buttry and Bob Steele for their help.)[You reporters] should have printed what he meant, not what he said. -- Earl Bush, press aide to Richard Daley (more quotes here) Ethics of social media for journalists | Save the Media Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics SPJ Ethic Blog: Code Words Society of… -
Halloween 2009
1 Nov 2009 | 7:17 amHalloween jack-o-lanterns this year. Hallowween decorations from earlier years. -
Hauling a tool chest of ideas back from Missouri
31 Oct 2009 | 3:11 pmThe speed version of the better part of last week during my stay in Saint Louis. My hotel was just across the street from the arch, but, unfortunately, I never made it to it.Here are some resources and thought-starters from the Associated Press Managing Editors "Inspiration Starts Here" conference.Amy Webb did a rapid fire presentation on trends to watch. Val Hoeppner leveraged off Webb's list of trends with a blog post with a list of cool resources and tools of particular interest to journalists and another set of resources was added to the APME09 twitter stream by the Journalists… -
Newspaper becomes the story in comment case
28 Oct 2009 | 11:29 amSome of the coverage of the federal subpoena for information about a commenter on the Knoxnews.com Web site. Jack McElroy: KNS turns commenter info over to FBI Say Uncle: Saying dumb things on the internet The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press: Death threats spur release of web commenter's identity
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Telegraph: Shane Richmond
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Bong! Big Ben is on Twitter
6 Nov 2009 | 9:42 amBig Ben is on Twitter. It does exactly what you’d expect: every hour it tweets a number of “bongs” to tell you what time it is. This will no doubt further convince Nicholas Lezard that Twitter is boring and pointless but I think it’s amusing. Lots of other people do too, apparently. Almost 7,000 people are [...] -
The bootleg, I mean Bluebeat Beatles
6 Nov 2009 | 8:20 amBluebeat, says their website, ‘transmits simulated live musical performances’. They use ‘psycho-acoustic simulation’ to reproduce the sound, and so they are exempt from the same rights restrictions that have kept the Beatles and AC/DC out of the iTunes catalogues for all these years. EMI and other record companies, not surprisingly, disagree, and are suing Bluebeat, [...] -
Here's something to do if you're bored and Twitter-obsessed
6 Nov 2009 | 3:18 amI confess: I have no idea why a PR company in Dublin wants to crowdsource a list of all active Twitter users in England in a 72-hour burn. But if that sort of thing floats your boat, you have just over 3 hours left to get yourself listed. Tweet the following, replacing the place name [...] -
Just what is BlueBeat up to?
5 Nov 2009 | 9:45 amI still can’t figure what’s going on behind BlueBeat.com, the MP3 store that is being sued by EMI this week after offering The Beatles’ albums as digital downloads. The Beatles are, famously, not available in MP3 form, though they have made a nod to the digital era this week by announcing the release of their [...] -
Haynes manuals come to the iPhone
5 Nov 2009 | 4:01 amLast week I wrote about the military augmented reality version of the Haynes manual, this week the civilian version turns up in the iPhone app store. The app, made by mobile developers Gourmet Pixel with Haynes, has a lot to be said for it. The tips and instructions are general in nature rather than the focus [...]
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MediaShift Idea Lab
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I Wouldn't Want to Belong to Any Twitter List That Would Have Me as a Member
6 Nov 2009 | 8:26 amNetworks are funny. As soon as they get big enough to have a lot of value, it gets harder to separate the signal from the noise. That's obvious enough -- just ask anyone using AT&T in an area densely populated with bandwidth-hogging iPhone users like me. Or ask any Twitter user. But with the launch of Twitter Lists in recent days, it's now theoretically easier for users, news organizations, bloggers, and companies to create little tributaries off the main river of news. Bu building these subsets out of the main stream, you can find tweets from a group of users, which means a news… -
Kicking Off the Grant Process With Monitoring and Evaluation
5 Nov 2009 | 7:27 amWe at the Jefferson Institute began our experience as a 2009 Knight News Challenge winner with one of the more exciting and misunderstood elements of the grant cycle: monitoring and evaluation (M&E). When done properly, M&E begins with the grantee setting out clearly the objectives of the grant, the activities necessary to achieve the objectives, and the resources applied to make these activities happen. So, for example, blogging for Idea Lab is an activity. An objective might be to create a thriving community, or to help guide the way for community news in transition. For our Knight… -
The New Era of Media Development, Part III
31 Oct 2009 | 9:06 amSpend your money wisely: this is the mandate given to program officers of philanthropic, government, and multilateral donor organizations. Each year they are given a certain budget, and they are expected to use that money as effectively as possible to further the objectives of their program. But how do these individuals gauge the impact of their investments? How can they cooperate with other donors to seek holistic solutions to complex problems? And to what extent should they be preparing for the likely challenges of the future, or focusing on the urgent problems of today? In part one of this… -
Hyper-Local a Hot Topic at All Russia Media Forum
30 Oct 2009 | 9:01 amThe SochiReporter team recently presented our project at the 14th All Russia Media Forum, held in Dagomys, Sochi, in late September. This annual forum for Russian print and online media is organized by the Russian Union of Journalists. Among the participants this year were more than 1,000 journalists from local and regional Russian newspapers, as well as European and U.S. editors. The gathering discussed many global issues, such as the decline of trust in the press, measures of responsibility in journalism, and the social weight of the printed word. There were discussion groups, creativity… -
DocumentCloud Going Open Source Every Step of the Way
29 Oct 2009 | 2:01 pmWhat does it mean to work on a project where open-source principles are written into the founding contract? A little over a month after receiving a 2009 Knight News Challenge grant, DocumentCloud released its first open-source component. The system, called CloudCrowd, performs the distributed computing that helps process the vast quantities of documents that will eventually be stored in DocumentCloud. It might seem premature to be releasing code so early -- in the past some Knight grantees have chosen to wait until the end of their grant -- but the larger part of open-source is community, not…
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MultimediaShooter
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10 Projects you MUST see, NOW!
In no particular order as they all kick major ass. 1.THE COAL WAR: FIGHTING TO SAVE A MOUNTAIN AND ITS PEOPLE by Chad A. Stevens One woman. One mountain. One last chance. Set among a backdrop of one million acres of decapitated mountains blown up by the coal industry, one woman fights to save one of ... -
Stories from the Aftermath of Infamy
Face to Face from [I]ndependentLens This is just a beautiful presentation. Powerful portraits and strong interviews. Thanks for the inspiration. December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001: two days that changed the world forever. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States were ... -
MediaStorm Behind The Scenes
Of course the stories produced by the students are fantastic, but I especially love to look behind the curtain. Not to be missed. Behind the Scenes by Maisie Crow MediaStorm intern Maisie Crow takes us behind the scenes of the MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, to see six participants join the MediaStorm ... -
Must Hear, BLINK, Walter Murch, Radio Lab, NOW
This week, we ask a question that we thought was a no-brainer: why do we blink? Film editor Walter Murch tells us about a strange discovery he made years ago while working on The Conversation – could something as small as a blink actually be the trick of his ... -
Inspiration: Nacho Corbella, Multimedia Journalist
I stumble across Nacho's work after looking at the Stunning UNC News21 Project, Powering a Nation. I was impressed with his video contribution called Roping The Wind, a solid, visually stunning video. Now have a look at his thesis project It's called Faces of the Crisis and it's about the Economic downturn focused ...
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News Videographer
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VideoWTF?
5 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pmHere’s a cool new site to ask and answer questions about video: VideoWTF? The site has great functionality. Anyone can post questions, answer other people’s questions, rank them, tag them, etc. It seems like there are some really knowledgeable people contributing to this site. Check out this one. I learned something new! a VideoWTF? -
Where the hell have I been?
17 Oct 2009 | 10:10 amRegular readers may have noticed recently I haven’t been writing regularly. You may be wondering what’s going on! Or maybe not. But I’ll tell you anyways. For the past month, I’ve been getting accustomed to my new job! I was hired on Sept. 21 at Neighborhood Media, a company that runs online-only hyper-local news publications. I am fully responsible for all of the content on two of the sites: InstantnewsWestU.com and InstantnewsBellaire.com. I’ve been getting accustomed to my new beat and trying to figure out the best time management strategies to get out all the… -
News, sports videos driving hits at Miami Herald
17 Oct 2009 | 9:18 amHere’s my second tidbit of the week, drawn from the Yahoo NewspaperVideo Group. Someone asked whether other newspapers had scaled back their video offerings. Chuck Fadely talked about what he and his colleagues have done at the Miami Herald: Hard news and sports drive our video traffic. We’ve abandoned the feel-good features that used to be the newspaper stock-in-trade. Never in a million years did I expect (or want) to be emulating TV, but that’s what we’re doing and that’s what works to get traffic. Depressing but whatever keeps us alive at this point is good… -
Devastating news for Las Vegas solo VJs
16 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amThe Las Vegas Sun pulled the plug on 702.tv! The project, described as “a Las Vegas-based news and entertainment video Web site and television program,” has been canceled after only four months, and a number of staff members either laid off or reassigned. Norm Clarke, a columnist for the competing Las Vegas Review-Journal, first reported that half a dozen videographers were laid off on Tuesday. Clarke gleaned at least some of his information from postings on Facebook and Twitter. I wrote a critique of 702.tv when it first came out. It’s shocking that they pulled the plug… -
Honduras and the Hidden Hunger
17 Sep 2009 | 4:59 amTracy Boyer is finished with her epic project documenting malnutrition in Honduras. She has produced a comprehensive multimedia project that includes text, photos, audio, video and an interactive graphic. First off, I was easily able to get through each segment and understand its contents. I learned things along the way and remained interested. The behind-the-scenes story Tracy tells about producing the piece is just as interesting. On-site production was extremely difficult during this project. Due to the Honduran political coup that unfolded during my stay, the government shut off power…
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Newspaper Next
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How newspapers are thinking about paid online content
3 Nov 2009 | 6:11 amCharging for access to digital content has sparked one of the biggest debates within the newspaper industry. The idea seems to gain momentum whenever another news organization announces it is taking steps to move from free to paid content online. Newspaper executives are eager to know what their peers in other organizations are doing. What are the current practices in generating revenue from digital content? What are the various pay models? Are they successful? What approaches are news organizations taking to issues like site registration, electronic editions and tracking original content… -
A united industry-wide classified brand
29 Oct 2009 | 1:59 pmMARK MULHOLLAND | Without a doubt, much of the current crises in newspaper revenue can be traced to the loss of the classified franchise to craigslist.com and other non-newspaper classified sites. Within crisis, however, there may be opportunity. Now more than ever before, newspapers throughout North America have the motivation and the circumstance to create a single classified platform to rival non-newspaper sites - through better leveraging of technology; superior user experience; and a powerful, unified national brand. In May 2009, the American Press Institute produced a report designed to… -
Profiles in paid content: TidesSportsExtra
27 Oct 2009 | 10:06 amMARY PESKIN | Eager to know what paid content strategies are being launched in other organizations? We checked in with a few dozen newspaper Web sites to find out how they're faring behind online pay walls. Starting today, we'll begin profiling paid content initiatives. You can download the complete list of Paid Content Profiles. We hope you will join in the conversation and add to the list. Our ongoing research into online revenue strategies shows that many news organizations are considering charging for content online, and they're exploring a number of different pay models. TideSportsExtra… -
Partnerships
21 Oct 2009 | 7:34 amParticipants in API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference (Sept. 13-15) worked in small discussion groups to tackle a number of topics related to monetizing content. One group looked at partnerships and collaboration. Here are their observations and recommendations: INDUSTRY COLLABORATION • News organizations need clear legal guidelines. What third-party collaborations are allowed? NAA is lobbying the Justice Department to expedite business reviews of collaborative and joint-venture proposals. • Partnerships should embrace standards and be based on open agreements and open systems. -
The value of content
14 Oct 2009 | 1:15 pmMARY GLICK | Here are the recommendations of a small group of news executives who met during API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference (Sept. 13-15) to tackle the issue of content value and what consumers might be willing to pay for. What are the most important action items for news organizations to take? • Research • Product Development • Test, fail, test again • Buy/partner technology instead of building it What new policies, standards, best practices need to be adopted in order to move forward in this area? • Stop talking and start doing. • Accept good enough to get…
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paulconley
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A tale of two audiences
5 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amI visited the campus of Northwestern University a few weeks ago to do some recruiting for a client. Things worked out OK. I met a few interesting students. And at least one of them may get a job out of it.But the overall experience of my day on campus was a bit disconcerting, as has often been the case when I visit with academics and students.And, with one notable exception, things were disconcerting in the same way they've been for years now.The more things change ...First, let me mention the exception.For the first time in the five years or so that I've been visiting with students, every… -
Is the revolution over?
21 Sep 2009 | 9:51 amI've written a few times this summer about my growing sense of Web 2.0 ennui -- this feeling I have that as B2B publishing bounces back from the recession, things just aren't as interesting as they were a year or so ago.And I'm beginning to get a sense of why:The revolution is ending.For a decade or so now the world of journalism has been one of ceaseless change and challenge. Consider, if you will, just some of the major technologies and practices we've adopted: external links, blogging platforms, mobile delivery, slideshows, podcasting, database reporting, RSS, email newsletters, Webcasts,… -
A little bit about writing very little
16 Sep 2009 | 1:54 pmI've been so busy lately that this blog has gone without an update for weeks at a time.I apologize to anyone who is still taking the time to check this site or their RSS reader for something new from me.Today is no different. I'm swamped...working far from home at a client's office, living in a hotel and missing my family.But earlier today someone asked my thoughts for an article about creating content for mobile devices. I responded via email. And it occurred to me that this was an opportunity to do two things.1. Suggest that people check out the most interesting new site in the media world… -
People, Prophets and Publishing
3 Aug 2009 | 2:00 pmTwice last week I learned about developments that sent me into frantic, obsessive pondering about the future of B2B media.Odds are you saw those same stories. Odds are you too have contemplated their significance.Both of these developments are about the technology of how news makes it way to us. And these particular stories made their way to me through other people using technology -- just as is often the case these days. Technology flagged the news. A person then used technology to notify me directly. And I used technology to discuss what I'd heard.But somehow the experience left me feeling… -
New-Wave News
26 Jun 2009 | 9:24 amI'm having one of those moments where I need to blog as a way to organize my thoughts. Longtime readers know that much of what I write here is less than perfectly organized. In a sense, blogging has become part of the act of thinking. This blog is less a place to share my opinions than it is a place to explore them.So with that said -- bear with me.I have no idea where this blog post is heading.Earlier this week I found myself obsessing over a single line in a lengthy post by fellow B2B blogger Dan Blank. Dan was writing about how his company, Reed Business, was using Twitter. It's a good…
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Photojournalism From A Student's Eye
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Life after Journalism: Chad Pilster
4 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pmWhen I was in my first semester at San Jose State, I was given an assignment to interview a photojournalist and learn a bit about their background and how they broke in to the field. I had always meant to continue to add interviews of other photographers, but hadn’t gotten around to it (except for one interview, which was later lost when the recorder I used blew up). Today, I pick things up where I left off, literally, with a second interview with Chad Pilster. In the time between posts, Chad has left Daytona Beach News-Journal. Like many journalists, Chad has used the skills that… -
Linda Vista Hospital
25 Sep 2009 | 1:50 amThough I grew up in Los Angeles, I never really explored it. Sure I went up and down the beach and hiked through the Santa Monica Mountains, but I can count on one hand the number of times that I explored Los Angeles east of Koreatown (aside from Dodger games and interning at the Rafu Shimpo). Now that I am back, I have been making a point of exploring more of the city I call home. One of my latest excursions was to the Linda Vista Hospital in Boyle Heights. Why visit a hospital you ask? Because it is abandoned of course. The hospital was closed in 1990, but is used as a filming… -
Job Search Tools
4 Sep 2009 | 9:33 amTwo days ago, Angela Grant wrote a post about her favorite job search tool, Indeed.com. Having been on the job hunt for some months myself (though no longer, I am happy to say), I thought I would share how I went about canvassing the job market. Similar to Angela, I did make use of the advanced searches on Indeed. However, instead of signing up for email alerts, I subscribed to the RSS feed for that particular search. I repeated this process for searches on Journalism Jobs, Idealist.org, Craigslist and a few other job boards. I found this to be easier than email alerts because my inbox does… -
AAJA 2009 Photos
15 Aug 2009 | 7:33 amPhotos by Derek Sijder and Daniel Sato -
Union Oyster House
14 Aug 2009 | 6:09 amThe Union Oyster House is the nation’s oldest continuously operating restaurant having first opened its doors in 1826. Audio by Yowei Shaw
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PJNet
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SoCon10 Social Media Conference Registration Open
21 Oct 2009 | 2:19 pmSoCon10, our annual social media, social networking unconference scheduled for January 29-30, 2010, is now open for registration. Our conference space maximum at Kennesaw State University is 300 participants and last year we hit that number and had to shut down registrations early. Don’t miss out, register now. Here are some details or go here for the complete program: For only $99.90, you get the whole SoCon10 experience, plus three meals. First you get a Big Eating, Big Thinking Networking Dinner on Friday night at Maggiano’s from 7:30 – 11:30pm. On Saturday, you get an all day… -
FTC Wants Your Input on Journalism Sustainability
18 Oct 2009 | 10:10 amThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is planning a Public Workshop/Roundtable on December 1-2, 2009 entitled: From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? Your comments are invited. Federal Trade Commission Chairman John Liebowitz says by “…bringing together stakeholders — bloggers, journalists, economists, university faculty — who have thought about this issue, we might be able to come up with some ideas about what policy makers or lawmakers might think about doing, or refraining from doing, going forward.” The full details are here. -
Gourmet Succumbs to Bean Counter Diet
5 Oct 2009 | 1:09 pmAfter the announcement that the bean counters would no longer publish Gourmet Magazine, my wife sent me an email with the subject line: End of the world as we know it And the text: Just saw that Gourmet is ceasing publication, a victim of the times. Sigh. Thirty years of her loyalty ends with this brush off as written in the New York Times: In an interview at Condé Nast headquarters Monday morning, the chief executive Charles H. Townsend explained why he had made the cuts he had. The simple answer: the magazines were losing money. “We will not be in that position after today — we won’t… -
Time to Get ‘Connected’ with Social Networking Research
4 Oct 2009 | 7:13 pmEver since I started talking about the network weaver concept, the idea of social networks has intrigued me. It is time now for me to dive deep into the pool. So far I have had my foot in the water with the likes of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and his concept of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen and, of course, there is Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky. Next before the heavy duty research is Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. It was reviewed… -
Knight Releases Community, Information, Democracy Report
2 Oct 2009 | 11:55 amThe Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy releases its report today in Washington DC, setting a vision for healthy, informed, democratic communities. The Commission report has 15 policy measures “to help Americans meet their local information needs.” They include: Recommendation 1: Direct media policy toward innovation,competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism. Recommendation 2: Increase support for public service media aimed at meeting community information needs. Recommendation 3:…
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Publishing 2.0
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High-End Brand Publishers Need to Sell Scalable Premium Ad Solutions, Not Commodity Ad Space
26 Oct 2009 | 9:26 amNewspaper online advertising has not benefited greatly from the recent upswing in online ad spending, according to the New York Times and most of the recent newspaper company quarterly results. This is no surprise because most newspaper websites sell SPACE for commodity advertising — display ads and classifieds — and thus are hard pressed to compete with ad networks that specialize in selling commodity ad space by the megaton (or giving it away for free, in the case of Craigslist). Back when newspapers where the only game in town for ad space, they could charge whatever they… -
Content Doesn’t Matter Without the Package
16 Sep 2009 | 8:25 pmIn response to the launch of Google’s Fast Flip, I observed that Google is correctly focused on creating a new user interface for news, when most media companies are not. A lot of people responded that Fast Flip is not an innovative or effective UI for news — which may be true, but that misses the point entirely. It doesn’t matter so much whether Google succeeds or fails with this particular experiment. What matters is that they are trying to solve the right problem. The challenge for media companies is not to figure out what to do with their content — content in and… -
What Google Understands About the Future of News and Publishing That Publishers Do Not
14 Sep 2009 | 5:37 pmGoogle knows a lot about the future of news — more than many publishers. It’s evident in Google’s new product, Fast Flip, which allows news consumers to “flip” through news stories. What’s striking about Fast Flip is that Google is innovating precisely where publishers used to lead innovation. Fast Flip is a new package for news. The publishing business has always been about packaging content. Newspapers. Magazines. Newsletters In digital media, on the web, the news package is now a function of software — which is why Google is innovating precisely… -
The Briefing: Start at Y Combinator, finish at EveryBlock
17 Aug 2009 | 1:54 pmIt was a busy Monday morning in two corners of the hacker journalist community: EveryBlock is acquired by MSNBC, and Y Combinator announces a “request for startups” to address that whole “future of journalism” question hanging out there in the open air. Want to catch up? Start here: Msnbc.com acquires local news Web site MSNBC.com | August 17, 2009 Ryan Sholin says: MSNBC acquires Everyblock. This brief includes a reminder that they bought Newsvine some time ago. Not a bad stable of news sites to have around. Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, msnbc, Adrian… -
What I Read Today: Facebook Buys FriendFeed Edition
10 Aug 2009 | 5:17 pmWhy Facebook Wants FriendFeed GigaOm | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: Om Malik calls it “the problem of plenty.” Facebook is trying to solve it by acquiring FriendFeed. Will news orgs compete? Facebook Takes FriendFeed To Take On Twitter TechCrunch | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: M&A, as always, is driven by startups building what incumbents should have but couldn’t. karaswisher: Now That There’s FaceFeed, Does That Make Twoogle More Inevitable?: http://bit.ly/fET9I Twitter | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: Winner – Best FF/Facbook Post Title mathewi:…
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Recovering Journalist
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When Presses Roll Less, Execs Spin More
27 Oct 2009 | 9:08 amNewsosaur Alan Mutter calls the double-digit drop in the latest newspaper circulation figures "devastating." Content Bridges' Ken Doctor's adjective of choice is "breathtaking." Poynter's Rick Edmonds goes with "extraordinary."Meanwhile, at the San Francisco Chronicle, whose 25.8 percent daily circulation drop over the past year was more than double the rest of the industry's and the steepest of all major papers, publisher Frank Vega says things are going according to plan.Huh?Vega can spin all he wants—something about the remaining… -
Twitter and Breaking News
18 Oct 2009 | 4:44 pmTwitter can be maddening in many ways, a cacophony of voices with a lousy signal-to-noise ratio—does anybody really care what somebody else had for breakfast?But one thing that Twitter excels in is breaking news. Its broadcast, real-time, 140-character headline nature makes it a perfect vehicle for the latest news, whether it's being generated by on-the-spot observers (or participants) and retweeted far and wide, or whether it's being used by news organizations to blast out their latest headlines.The latter seems a slamdunk use of Twitter by news organizations—it's just a… -
Wise Words, Worth Reading
1 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pmI haven't blogged much lately because, well, I got tired of repeating myself. How much more can be said about how the media landscape is changing, and how traditional media companies are missing the boat? At this point it seems better to just let the situation play out. So I've been holding my fire. Besides, I've been busy with GrowthSpur, trying to find solutions to the problems with the media that I've been railing about for years.But there are a couple of great pieces today from other commentators about what's going on in the media business, and I wanted to point… -
World Wide Whoops
8 Sep 2009 | 8:54 pmTip for media sites: If you start a new feature, be sure to lock up the URL for it before you launch it. That prevents domain squatters from grabbing away the newly named feature's Web address, and that in turn makes it harder to defend a trademark or to promote the feature under its own domain name. Pretty elementary stuff, and this sort of thing is standard operating procedure at most Web companies (who also know to grab the xxxsucks.com variant of any trademark or URL). But media sites, always casual about trademarking new features, often seem to miss this little detail.Case in… -
Bill Wyman Speaks Truth to Power
13 Aug 2009 | 3:08 pmMillions of words have been spilled over the past couple of years about what's wrong in the news business (many of them on this blog). But if you want to read a few thousand words that explain the state of play with superb clarity and brutal frankness, check out Bill Wyman's just-posted two-part series exploring why the news business is in the mess it's in today. It's thoughtful and probing and justly critical of the people who lead (and work in) news organizations.Among many other things, Wyman explains well why many of the more simplistic proposed fixes (charging for…
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Reflections of a Newsosaur
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Chicago news co-op starts on a shoestring
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amWhile the editors of some notable non-profit news startups pull down hefty six-figure salaries, the founding editor of the Chicago News Cooperative says his pay will be a single digit for the next 12 months: $0. That low, low introductory salary in part is testimony to the dedication of co-op founder James O’Shea, a lifelong Chicago newsman who had a brief tour as editor of the tempest-tossed -
Pay walls never may come at some papers
3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am<!--StartFragment--> The resolve to charge for most interactive content is dissolving at some newspapers, potentially thwarting the plans of other publishers who still hope to erect pay walls on their sites. Despite determined statements by several publishers earlier this year that they intended to make consumers pay for the valuable content newspapers have given away for more than a decade, -
Wild guesses won’t solve journalism crisis
30 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am<!--StartFragment--> The Harvard conference tasked with finding new business models for journalism had the impossible mission yesterday of trying to solve a problem no one had the language to describe, the tools to measure or the skills to fix. In other words, the conference resembled the primitive study of physics before Isaac Newton invented modern calculus at the tender age of 23. Absent -
Harvard hoedown ponder$ making $ in new$
29 Oct 2009 | 2:28 am<!--StartFragment--> Some 50 of the foremost thinkers about journalism have been invited to Harvard University today to ponder no less a problem than this: “How to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century.” The event commences at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to adjourn at 2:30 p.m., so I guess the organizers are pretty high on the capabilities of the crowd. Or afraid -
Newspaper circ stats: Murkier than ever
28 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am<!--StartFragment--> At a time newspapers ought be striving to earn the confidence of their remaining advertisers, they are reporting not just record low circulation numbers but also the murkiest figures ever. The historic 10.6% drop in circulation reported on Monday would have been trouble enough for the ailing newspaper industry. But publishers managed to make matters worse by taking
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20 headlines from the reading list
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Giz Explains: Android, and How It Will Take Over the World [del.icio.us]
6 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pmA great background on the revolutionary platform. -
The DVcam blockbuster film marketed by you
6 Nov 2009 | 6:27 am -
Speculative Fiction Novelists Find Success with Online Donations
6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amOver the years, many authors have tried versions of the online donation model, with mixed results. But one specific genre of writers, speculative fiction, seems to be experiencing a moderate level of success. Back in 2000, Stephen King became one of the first major authors to offer a book online using an "honor system" to solicit donations. The book was called "The Plant," and was based on a series of chapbooks King had sent around to his friends in the '80s. He placed the first chapter in various downloadable formats on his website, and downloaders were expected to donate $1 by mail or… -
Collision Theory - creative debates
5 Nov 2009 | 5:45 pm -
Steps, missteps in Fort Hood shootings coverage
5 Nov 2009 | 4:41 pm(All times central. For another look at what happened, try the Google news timeline view.) 1:30 p.m. A gunman opens fire on soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. 2:10 p.m. MSNBC posts a story and sends a breaking news alert about the shooting. CNN did the same at 2:30 p.m. Original reports said seven people were killed and at least 12 were injured by at least two gunmen. 2:40 p.m. The Austin American-Statesman creates a dedicated Twitter account, @fthoodshootings. (The account was briefly suspended, but is back. Ten hours later, it has more than 3,300 followers.) 3:45 p.m. Lt. Gen. Robert Cone says…
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Robb Montgomery
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Interviewing Mario Garcia, Ph.D. in Prague
3 Nov 2009 | 11:29 pmPrague: Interviewing Mario Garicia and teaching visual journalism techniques with him and Jördis Guzman Bulla of the... { Robb Montgomery } -
Filming new journalism documentary films in Egypt
18 Oct 2009 | 8:02 amCairo: This week I am producing a new documentary film about the Egypt Media Development Program (A USAID funded... { Robb Montgomery } -
The Complete Guide to Video Blogging - October 2009
9 Oct 2009 | 11:21 amLeah Betancourt publishes a complete guide to video blogging on Mashable and interviews Robb Montgomery about the... { Robb Montgomery } -
Lessons from the multimedia training tour: Week two
8 Oct 2009 | 5:08 pmYou can help others out by considering sharing a link to next event: Camp VJ London - Oct. 26-29.... { Robb Montgomery } -
Visit the future of journalism - the 2015 newsroom in Prague
21 Sep 2009 | 9:17 amThe 10 week new media training tour depart soon and will feature a two day visit to the site of journalism’s most... { Robb Montgomery }
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robcurley.com
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World Series of Poker coverage from the Las Vegas Sun
5 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pmI’ve started and stopped writing probably five or six blogs over the last few months, but just couldn’t find the time or focus to finish them. Lots of reasons for that, but the bottom line is that I sure wish I would have. I have always prided myself on being a “glass-half-full” kind-of-guy — and any way you slice it, the Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas Weekly and Greenspun Interactive crews have created some of the coolest and most interactive new-era local journalism I’ve ever seen over the last few months. Because of that, someone needs to not only be… -
Friday Night Lights in a city known for a different kind of lights
23 Aug 2009 | 9:13 pmI have always had a soft spot in my heart for high school football. Back in Kansas, I covered the Osage City Indians for my high school newspaper, The Pow Wow. Yes, it’s still called that, and no, it doesn’t have a proper Web site. I helped put myself through college at Emporia State University while writing football gamers for the newspaper I had wanted to work at since I was in the third grade — The Topeka Capital-Journal. And once I got into “new media,” that love of high school sports continued. Sometimes the high school sports coverage we produced found an… -
Looking for interns for the Fall
11 Aug 2009 | 6:50 pmThis is basically a re-post of a blog that I wrote last Spring, and the reason for the re-post is simple: We’re looking for a few talented interns to join our team for the Fall and through the Winter. Greenspun Interactive is looking for interns who want to get real-world, practical experience with coverage of local news and business, and entertainment (yes, that means The Strip, the celebrity side of Las Vegas and our city’s crazy club scene). What does that really mean? It means we’re looking for at least a couple of people to help us on the news side of lasvegassun.com,… -
UFC: Las Vegas’ major-league sports franchise
3 Aug 2009 | 7:15 pmWhen our team at Greenspun Interactive was trying to figure out our sports strategy for the then-very-new Las Vegas Sun website in the summer of 2008, we knew we were dealing with a much different market than we had at previous newspapers. But one thing was clear: Former kusports.com editor Andy Samuelson knew we needed to cover Ultimate Fighting Championship — better known simply as just the UFC. I knew nothing about UFC at the time, and what I did know had me raising my eyebrows. Now that I’ve been living in Las Vegas for a year, I understand it a little more. And I really do… -
A couple of interesting videos from 702.tv
21 Jul 2009 | 7:17 pmThis past week, the crew at 702.tv produced two videos (well, they produced a ton of videos, but two I wanted to share on my blog) that I think will interest folks outside of Las Vegas. It seems like for as long as I can remember people think our team has been pushing the envelope. Well, to be honest, when you typically work at a newspaper, it doesn’t take a whole lot to push things. :) But we posted a video (that also ran on our over-the-air television show) that even made me queasy. The title of the video says it all: Live Lobster Sushi. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for…
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Romenesko
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Google Books launches a digitized magazine stand
6 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pmNew York Observer Google is scanning entire issues of magazines -- ads and all. Some titles are decades old, so "it's kind of like heading into your parents' attic and checking out all the yellowing LIFE issues, only online," writes Gillian Reagan. -
Will Jayson Blair be delivering his ethics lecture on Fox News this weekend?
6 Nov 2009 | 2:18 pmNationalJournal.com It's a busy weekend for the disgraced former New York Times reporter: He's the featured speaker at this afternoon's Washington and Lee University journalism ethics forum, and he's Chris Wallace's guest on "Fox News Sunday." || Note to Ed Wasserman: How about sending (or posting) a transcript of Blair's W&L speech? -
WP brings back old weather map after readers complain
6 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pmWashington Post Among the many reader complaints about the Post's design changes, none have been louder than those reacting to the new weather layout and the smaller map, says ombud Andrew Alexander. The original map returns next week. -
Latino journalists launch New England's seventh Spanish-language newspaper
6 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pmBoston Globe El Tiempo de Boston began publishing last week as a free paper that focuses on communities with large Latino populations. It's edited by Maximo Torres, 60, former city editor of Boston's oldest Spanish-language paper, El Mundo. -
Obama has off-the-record lunch with journalists at WH
6 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pmPolitico The guest list for today's event: David Gergen, Chris Cillizza, Jon Meacham, Howard Fineman, Cynthia Tucker, Mike Allen, Mara Liasson, Josh Marshall, David Brooks, Andrew Rosenthal, and Gail Collins.
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SeanBlanda.com
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BarCamp NewsInnovation 2, What should change?
13 Oct 2009 | 2:28 pmIt’s been a little over five months since BarCamp NewsInnovation, and that has given us plenty of time to mull over the event’s successes and failures. BCNI Godfather Jason Kristufek has already weighted in, and I have a similar question to ask the BCNI community: what should change from last year’s event? Last year’s BarCamp in Philly was wonderful from a networking and the “Hey, I know you on Twitter!” angle. It was also fascinating to give attention to members of our community who don’t normally get to occupy center stage. CoPress presented to… -
Introducing eMedia Vitals: your media textbook
13 Aug 2009 | 10:30 amIts high time I explain what I have been up to. I, along with Rob O’Regan and the rest of Vital Business Media, have been busy launching the first editorial product of the company: eMedia Vitals. In short, eMedia Vitals is a site dedicated to helping online publishers and I think most of readers of this blog will find something of value there. The idea is not to cover layoffs or daily media gossip. Instead we aim to aggregate and report on the topics that can make your media product better and more profitable. Less chatter about what to do in this ever changing media landscape, and more… -
I got a job + Technically Philly update
10 Jun 2009 | 9:18 amI swear there is a reason why I have been so quiet. Well, actually make that “reasons.” One, TechnicallyPhilly is doing as well as any of us could hope when it comes to traffic and community response, so we are making our first moves towards monetization with the slow rollout of our advertising infrastructure. This has been both an exciting and frightening prospect as it is now time to see if we are all as smart as we hope we are. Of course, as we surmised at BCNI, ads are just the first and easiest baby step, and there are many more ideas in the pipeline that I will be certain to… -
BCNIPhilly rocked.
30 Apr 2009 | 4:19 pmBrian James Kirk, Christopher Wink and I presenting about TechnicallyPhilly.com. Picture taken by Adam Hemphill. Before I comment at all about BCNIPhilly I’d like to thank the countless people involved. The people who manned the desk, floated around the floors, helped handle food, helped run the schedule and all of the hundred other tasks. You all rock. Thank You. It was just as the event was closing down that I was approached by one of the participants. “Sean, I just want to say that I’ve really enjoyed this event. And, most of this year, I have been feeling a… -
6 people I’d like to see at BarCamp NewsInnovation Philadelphia
10 Mar 2009 | 7:31 amBCNI Philly is a little over a month away and planning has been kicking into high gear. My friend and programming whiz Major Highfield has been on the look out for sponsors (know somebody? drop him a line), I’ve been all around Philadelphia passing out flyers, and the planned attendance is nearly over 100. I thank everyone who has shown support or offered to volunteer so far, but as I have been trolling the Web I’ve come across a few names I don’t see on my registered attendees list. Below are 6 people I’d like to see attend who haven’t registered. If you know…
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Megan Taylor: Web Journalist
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Harris Field Contaminated / Norwood News
22 Oct 2009 | 12:06 pmHarris Field Contaminated Heavy metals have been discovered at Harris Field in Bedford Park during the park’s reconstruction, the Norwood News has learned. Published October 22, 2009, front page of the Norwood News. Skills: Reporting, Writing Medium: Text Post from: Megan Taylor: Web JournalistHarris Field Contaminated / Norwood News -
Can Programmers, Journalists Get Along in One Newsroom? / PBS MediaShift
19 Oct 2009 | 7:01 pmCan Programmers, Journalists Get Along in One Newsroom? How do you merge the culture of the programming environment with the culture of the newsroom? “You need to go do what you’re being asked to build,” he [Matt Waite] said. “Spend a night on the sports copy desk taking high school football scores and you’ll get an idea of what a football score taking app should do, no matter what the editor is telling you.” Similarly, journalists would do well to sit with a programmer and watch their ideas get turned into an app. Published October 19, 2009. Skills:… -
Harris Field Contamination Slows Construction / Bronx News Network
9 Oct 2009 | 5:54 pmHarris Field Contamination Slows Construction The discovery of heavy metals contamination during construction at Harris Field in Bedford Park has slowed progress and put the project over budget, according to city’s Parks Department. Published October 9, 2009. Skills: Reporting, Writing Medium: Text Post from: Megan Taylor: Web JournalistHarris Field Contamination Slows Construction / Bronx News Network -
The Art of Attraction / MediaStorm Workshop
8 Oct 2009 | 8:07 pmThe Art of Attraction New York street performers Tic and Tac began their careers at the age of seven, break-dancing in the subways. In The Art of Attraction, Tic and Tac catapult themselves into New York’s iconic home of street-artists, Washington Square Park, where they pull crowds and big money with their neck-crushing acrobatics. My role in this project was as a volunteer, transcribing all the audio. Produced September 19 – 25, 2009. Skills: Transcribing Medium: Text, Audio Post from: Megan Taylor: Web JournalistThe Art of Attraction / MediaStorm Workshop -
I caught the bug at a MediaStorm Workshop
8 Oct 2009 | 7:52 pmI should say, I re-caught the bug. From September 19 – 25, I spent most of my time volunteering for MediaStorm’s Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop. I teamed up with Paolo Black, Melissa Pracht, Scott Lituchy and MediaStorm Producer Bob Sacha to tell a story about two young men who have made a career out of street entertainment. My role was to transcribe all the audio that was collected during shows and interviews. I got to sit in on training sessions and lectures, and watch the MediaStorm team work their magic. And it was absolutely magical. Talking the story over with the…
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SteveOuting.com
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Why I think ‘block level’ news, data is important
6 Nov 2009 | 9:22 pmEarlier today Howard Weaver tweeted the following, which I can’t answer in 140 characters (!) so I’ll respond here. … “Why do people (@steveouting et al) keep saying ‘block level’ info is best premium opportunity? Seems *most* likely to be citizen generated.” –@howardweaver I don’t recall saying it’s the “best” premium online content opportunity, though I think it’s important. Why? Because I don’t know what’s going on with my neighbors, other than the ones I know or who are friends. No business, media,… -
So what exactly is newspaper web ‘premium’ content? Please tell me
5 Nov 2009 | 9:12 amSo, it appears that we’ve passed the point within the newspaper industry of utter panic and all the publishers will not be colluding (ahem… I mean cooperating) to put most of their websites’ content behind pay walls. At least that CEO/publisher-group insanity is over — I hope. Instead, the meme within the industry is something I’ve long supported: Let’s keep most of our news content online free, so that we don’t lose advertisers and high reader numbers, and maintain our “googlejuice,” but let’s create more “premium”… -
My College Media convention slides
30 Oct 2009 | 10:09 pmSome folks who attended my “Why now is the best time ever to go into journalism!” keynote talk at the National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas, on Friday asked how to get a copy of my presentation. A PDF version (big file!) is here. -
Instant speech feedback: Get used to it
30 Oct 2009 | 9:58 pmI’m sure this will be mainstream across many professions before long, but for now it’s mostly limited to technology and media conferences. I’m talking about how speakers now get feedback from their audience as soon as they finish talking, via tweets from audience members posted immediately to Twitter. Overall, it’s a positive development that can benefit speakers — though something to get used to, and the speaker might take a few lumps. Friday morning I gave a keynote talk on the third day of the National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas. It’s been… -
The Nook: A smart bricks-&-mortar digital strategy
27 Oct 2009 | 10:08 amA new, and very large, Barnes & Noble bookstore opened here in Boulder, Colorado, recently, replacing a smaller store half a block away. I’ve wondered since construction started how the giant bookstore chain could justify a larger store when more and more we’ll be seeing people buying and reading books on digital tablets like Amazon’s Kindle. Wouldn’t smaller bookstores be in our future, not bigger ones? With the announcement of B&N’s Nook e-reader device to compete with the Kindle, now I understand. The Nook digital strategy supports the…
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Strange Attractor
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Cars: There’s an app for that
4 Nov 2009 | 6:12 amSuw and I are taking two weeks off. Most of the time, we’ll be here in London enjoying a holi-stay. I might engage in some deep-thought blogging after recovering from a really too busy 2009. In the meantime, I’ll just engage in a little light coolhunting. Someone recently was picking my brain about the future of in-car technology. I think that one of the knock-on effects of the iPhone is that people will expect apps and add-on services in a wider range of consumer electronics. Cars will not just have on-board computers to manage the engine but also on-board computers to navigate,… -
Researchers determine mainstream online journalism still mainstream
30 Oct 2009 | 6:04 amIn a shocking (possibly only to the researchers) conclusion, a study of major media online journalism newsrooms in the UK has discovered that they follow a relatively narrow mainstream agenda. I think that is a fair summary of an interview on Radio 4 with Dr Natalie Fenton from Goldsmith University Media Research Centre in London speaking about her book New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. From the synopsis on Radio 4, “Dr Natalie Fenton from Goldsmith’s University in London, … argues that instead of democratising information, the internet has… -
Plain English fail
25 Oct 2009 | 9:17 amI wrote a post about jargon the other day, and in the comments someone asked me what I thought the worst bit of social media jargon was. I realised then that individual terms, even quite jargon-y ones, can be used in such a way that they can easily be understood because of the context. Equally, terms that by themselves don’t seem too bad can be brought together in a such a concoction that they immediately lose all meaning. I discovered such an example today, via John Moore (via someone who Tweeted it). John blogs about the Dachis Group’s attempt to explain what they mean when they… -
links for 2009-10-23
23 Oct 2009 | 4:30 amLinkedIn Best Practices For Business | e-Strategy Internet Marketing Blog Suw: A bunch of ideas for how to get the best out of LinkedIn. (tags: linkedin careers careerdevelopment networking business clients socialnetworking tips) -
links for 2009-10-22
22 Oct 2009 | 4:30 amTweetStats :: Graphin' Your Stats Suw: Twitter statistics in glorious technocolour infographics. Says I tweet twice as much as I used to… not sure that can be right! (tags: twitter tweetstats statistics metrics measurement socialnetworking graphs infographics) Comcast's Twitter Team Coaching Salesforce.com — Twitter CRM — InformationWeek Suw: Salesforce plugin helps businesses monitor Twitter for customer complaints and to address them in a timely manner - and we all know time is of the essence on Twitter. Sounds like a good idea. (tags: salesforce twitter crm…
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Teaching Online Journalism
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Rethinking journalism education
31 Oct 2009 | 8:00 amA new journalism concentration at New York University promises to take an innovative approach to j-school: Studio 20 expects all applicants to have a keen interest in journalism and improving it, a strong command of written English, a devotion to high standards in reportage and verification, and a familiarity with creative uses of the World Wide Web. It also requires applicants to have obtained competence in at least one of the following three skill sets: Capturing audio and editing it, or Video recording, production and editing, or Web skills (which could be production, design and coding, or… -
Augmented reality apps: A business model
7 Oct 2009 | 7:04 amOne key to selling advertising is your ability to assure the advertiser that people will see his or her ad. One of the problems with Web sites — especially news Web sites — is that they have so many pages. The chances that someone will see an ad (if it appears on just one page) are lousy. One key to news and information in the 21st century is user participation. Think YouTube. Think Wikipedia. Augmented reality lets you hold up your phone (or other mobile device) and see information about what is right in front of you in the world. So I was thinking about advertising, audience… -
RGMP handout server outages
5 Oct 2009 | 7:27 amA number of you e-mailed me (thank you!) about difficulties in accessing the PDF of the complete Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Profiency. I am happy to report that the guide is definitely online and available. There have been a couple of server outages (the Web server went offline), but rest assured, this will always be corrected within a day or two at the most (on a weekend, it might not be fixed until Monday). -
Playing with dynamic mapping
3 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pmAbove you should see a map of the location of the ONA09 hotel. It is fully zoomable — it’s a full-feeatured Google Maps embed. Try it out. This was done with the WP-Geo plug-in for WordPress, which we learned to use in the session titled “Dynamic Content Mapping.” Here is the PowerPoint for this session. -
Seeking a business model for journalism
29 Sep 2009 | 6:12 amI came across this chart on a blog authored by three Australian business scholars: The original comes from Steven Johnson’s presentation at SXSW earlier this year, and when I followed the link to his post, I remembered reading it. But I guess I didn’t really spend much time on the chart that time around; I didn’t remember the chart at all. Now I’m thinking it’s a pretty neat representation of this “ecosystem” of news and information. Tim Kastelle points out that “the functions that seem to make money in these type of systems are aggregating and…
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The Evolving Newsroom
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Keywords in blue – adding usability to print
5 Nov 2009 | 1:49 pmInteresting to see what web designers come up with when they tackle a newspaper redesign. I liked this post from the people at Information Architects. They talk about pitching to redesign a German newspaper and some of the ideas they came up for it. They didn’t win the job, but learned a lot from the exercise. Their pitch focused on taking the web concept of usability and using it in print. Their aim was to: “Make the paper more usable, think cross media instead of separate media, while using the strength of the paper (pictures, info graphics, nice text) to the max… Make a… -
Bring it on: wireless electricity
29 Oct 2009 | 2:51 am -
Simon Willison on Guardian crowdsourcing
28 Oct 2009 | 2:54 am -
Maps show how transport shrinks the world
27 Oct 2009 | 1:51 pmNew Scientist has published some beautiful maps exploring which are the remotest places on earth – given how much international transport we have available to us. The maps are based on a model which calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water. The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also considers how factors like altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel. Plotted onto a map, the results throw up surprises. First, less than 10% of the… -
A look back at Guardian crowdsourcing project
26 Oct 2009 | 4:58 pmI meant to point to this ages ago but somehow it got buried in ‘Drafts’ and time marched on. Earlier this year the Guardian in the UK turned heads when it used crowdsourcing to sift through mountains of documentation about MPs’ expenses and expense claims. The story, about questionable expense claims made by MPs, was broken by The Daily Telegraph and rumbled on for months. Neiman Labs wrote a great post about ‘four lessons’ learned from the experiment, which was turned around very quickly. They talked to developer Simon Willison (who visited NZ in 2008 to speak…
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Local Onliner
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Angie’s List Adds First ‘National’ Vertical: Classic & Custom Cars
6 Nov 2009 | 10:10 amFollowing the success of eBay Motors with special classic and custom car restoration verticals, other sites have pitched their own tents to get a piece of the $2 billion annual business, including AutoTrader and The New York Times. Now comes Angie’s List. Angie’s List, based in Indianapolis and boasting over one million members, actually has some street cred in the auto world by sponsoring the Indy 500. It says the classic/custom car restoration category is worth $2 billion a year. “Custom and classic car owners will go to the ends of the Earth to find the one person who can bring their… -
Village Voice Rebrands National Network; Focuses on Cross Media
5 Nov 2009 | 11:41 amVillage Voice Media, the large media company that includes 14 alternative weeklies, is rebranding its national network that includes 50 alt weeklies, as the name shifts from Ruxton Media to Voice Media Group. As part of the rebranding, It is also refocusing national advertisers on its cross media appeal, which delivers entertainment-centric young urbanites via its print properties, 100 online destination sites and verticals, email and txt messages. It also provides advertisers with local reps that can appear at fairs, special events etc. Village Voice Media COO and President Scott Tobias, who… -
The Angry Plumber: ‘Don’t Misappropriate My Online Listing!’
5 Nov 2009 | 10:29 amA flurry of business lead services have cropped up, each a variation on the model that has been successfully developed by ServiceMagic and others. They basically provide a directory, information, leads and marketing services. One of the new crop of lead services is HelpHive in Seattle, which recently launched and was profiled here. It provides a basic directory. It also provides several tiers of SMB services (including customizeable home pages, leads, SEO, multiple ways of contacting businesses, and free video). HelpHive, however, has inadvertently brewed some controversy by putting in a… -
MSN’s Cyrus Krohn: The New Local Focus
4 Nov 2009 | 3:18 pmMicrosoft ‘s MSN has been a good hodgepodge that gets 100 million users a month. But it hasn’t had a serious redo for ten years. So the question posed to a new team brought in to redo the site was: how do you make the site standout and really help users? Site leader Scott Moore and Cyrus Krohn, a top lieutenant, had previously worked together at Yahoo and even teamed on a business plan for a local news product. Reunited by Microsoft, they looked over their options and one thing always stood out: local. “Our research shows that local is the number one unmet need, regardless of… -
Marchex Dives into Self-Serve
4 Nov 2009 | 11:08 amSelf-serve ad solutions aren’t a major part of the ad universe today. A recent BIA Kelsey survey found few companies selling more than 10 percent of their SMB advertising via online. But self-serve meets of the needs of certain online-oriented categories. And for economic reasons, of course – they are far cheaper to execute than premise sales — they remain the Holy Grail for pushing SMB sales. Marchex, a sales facilitator for local advertising, has read the writing on the wall and today, announced a suite of self-serve products. “Historically, we’ve worked with directory…
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The Scoop
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The FEC’s Disclosure Data Catalog
28 Oct 2009 | 7:44 amThe good folks at the Federal Election Commission launched a disclosure data catalog recently, continuing the federal government data catalog trend. And while there are few (if any) people better at explaining campaign finance data than the FEC’s Bob Biersack, the data catalog is a work in progress and has room for improvement. It should be noted that the FEC has been giving away campaign finance data in bulk form since 1979, and has remained admirably consistent in its approach. Text files stored on FTP servers still work quite well, thank you, and while that system could use some… -
One Way to Encourage Innovation
24 Jul 2009 | 8:02 amInnovation. We’re told over and over (often by people who don’t actually do much more than talk, but that’s another story) that our industry needs it. So, you ask, how I can get me some of that innovation stuff? In my experience, there’s only so much that a single person (or a small group of people) can do inside a larger organization to develop new ideas and see them thrive. You need help, often from the very structures that new ideas might seem to be challenging. So here’s an idea: reward innovation with concrete responses. Yesterday, J-Lab at American… -
IRE’s Role in a National Data Catalog
15 Jul 2009 | 3:45 pmThe folks at Sunlight today announced an effort to build a catalog for national and state datasets, going beyond what Data.gov is doing at the federal level. It’s a worthy effort, and as Clay Johnson notes in the blog post, they’re inviting participation because they are definitely going to need the help. I say that not to denigrate the good folks there, but because the universe of data is so varied that it makes Data.gov’s organizational system look like the Library of Congress. That’s where Investigative Reporters and Editors can help, I believe. For those who read… -
The Fundamental Training Need
25 Jun 2009 | 6:45 pmIt’s good to see recent writings on the importance of training and skill development for journalists. One of the common responses to such entreaties is exemplified in this comment, which includes this plea: “I understand the need to bolster one’s skill set. But what happened to the days when we actually, you know, worried about reporting rather than slavishly trying to master every piece of technology?” If only that was the real problem. The real problem is the way that we as journalists manage information, because that determines so much else: the kinds of stories… -
The Case Against Teaching Access
2 Jun 2009 | 4:26 pmI’ve been at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University since last week, talking to faculty members about using data management and analysis tools (spreadsheets, databases, mapping) in their courses. When they asked me to provide some training on Excel and Access, I agreed, but asked for the chance to make a case for teaching any database but Access to students. Specifically, I suggested that universities and training organizations like IRE teach SQLite, which has the advantages of being cross-platform and accessible via a Firefox add-on. My class this semester at George…
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VideoJournalism
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What do you expect from news?
16 Oct 2009 | 9:18 amHere’s a survey you might want to check out on the thinknews blog. Are you looking for news about your community…your world…mindless drivel to pass the time? Take a few minutes and click on the survey … co-contributer Kathleen Newell and I are curious what the audience wants (not just what the pros think they want). -
The now and the next generation…
15 Oct 2009 | 7:08 amIt’s interesting listening to the next generation of passionate journalists. One of my students left for Mississippi a month or so back…very frustrated and concerned about what kind of jobs would be waiting for her when she graduates. Plus I spent a weekend right after that in the company of Amanda Emily, new media geek from Spokane, WA. She is the transition generation…those who are living through the chaos of what journalism used to be and what it is morphing into (whatever the heck that is…). Both Amanda and – oh heck, may as well name her – Catie Lau… -
Randomness…
15 Oct 2009 | 6:11 amWhat a weird thing to wake up to…does it have any significance? -
The Studio Assignment
12 Oct 2009 | 3:06 amWith the studio really up and running, I want to expand the possibilities. Last spring I gave out an abbreviated form of this lesson – which didn’t quite work cause of technical issues in the control room. This year advanced students will produce a talk show as the major part of their second quarter grade. I’ve posted the entire assignment on The VJ Classroom and will post the individual forms there soon. The lesson is meant to teach students Technology – how to use the control room lights, mikes, cameras, editing Teamwork – they must collaborate and work… -
Additions to the blogroll….
12 Oct 2009 | 2:25 amIt has been an eternity since I did much with the old blogroll and I found a couple of sites thanks to teachj. First is Digidave – Journalism is a Process, Not a Product. Some cool videos and more. And AR&D – Reinventing Local Media has some great tips on standups and making them more relevant to a mutlimedia audience. Nothing like late night web surfing to open up one’s eyes.
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Waitin' On a Moment - by Tim Gruber | NYC Photographer
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A New Website for this NYC Photographer
6 Nov 2009 | 9:20 amFor awhile I’ve had a redesign of my website NYC Photographer Tim Gruber in mind. I’ve spent the last couple weeks working to make it happen. In studying my website analytics I realized I needed to improve my average time on site and my bounce rate. The bounce rate is the number of people who land on your website and then quickly bounce off again. Not what you want. You want your viewers to stick around and get to know you and your work. So in this latest redesign I wanted the design to aide in making the site stickier. Meaning making it easier for a visitor to stick around. On my… -
Scream of a Surfer
3 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pmJenn and I love to go on walks. For us walks are therapeutic. It gives us time to hash out a lot of ideas. Sometimes those ideas die quickly(our minds cook up some crazy ideas) and other times we have ideas that actually stick. Most of all it’s nice to get away from the computer and just give your mind a little time to recharge. Depending on my mood I’ll bring a camera with me or if I’m lazy I’ll just wing it with my iPhone. On Saturday I was feeling lazy but Jenn brought her camera and of course the day you don’t bring your camera you come across a kid with a… -
Hello Married Life
30 Oct 2009 | 6:26 pmPardon my lack of posts recently, but between marrying my best friend, Jenn Ackerman, a honeymoon, and a lot of good ole life I’ve been pretty busy. Photo by Jim Korpi Many thanks to Jim and the rest of our talented and wonderful friends; Kainaz Amaria, Chad Stevens, Matt Eich, and Sonya Hebert who all provided us with such a poignant and beautiful documentation of our day. As a photographer you couldn’t ask for a better gift. Thank you all so much! Further Reading: On Assignment: The Bahamas (1) More on your photographic voice and vision (0) First comes love then comes marriage… -
Rebecca Norris Webb: Ideas From Start to Finish
17 Sep 2009 | 6:59 amSlowly getting back into blogging and catching up on old drafts I have in my WordPress folder. Sadly it seems like the link to the original article by Rebecca Norris Webb was killed, but I still think it’s worth sharing. As a freelance photographer this is the kind of thing I need to be reminded of every now and then. Sometimes you need to push the tedious tasks aside and get out there and make some pictures. No matter how busy and preoccupied I would become over the course of this project with the many, many tasks connected with it – editing film, writing grants, visiting editors… -
On Assignment: The Bahamas
8 Aug 2009 | 5:51 pmSorry for the lack of recent updates. Between freelance assignments, shopping my book around to editors, and snapping photos for myself my time in NYC has kept me busy. I’m in the Bahamas for the month of August on assignment. I’ll post more when time permits, but most likely don’t look for any updates until September. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Further Reading: Hello Married Life (4) More on your photographic voice and vision (0) First comes love then comes marriage (15) Recent Photos from October (0) Recent Work from Sept-Oct (0)
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yelvington.com
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Technology wants to be used (a look at the Nook)
21 Oct 2009 | 5:55 amI have seen the future, or more precisely, little pieces of the future protruding into the present. Barnes &Nobel has unwrapped its e-reader, dubbed "Nook," which is intentionally crippled by its corporate masters. But it won't stay that way. Here's how it's crippled: There's no Web browser. I get it. The Nook connects to download books and periodicals from B&N's online store through AT&T's 3G digital wireless phone network. The cost of that service is included in the purchase price (and in B&N's bookselling business model). AT&T is already hurting from high 3G usage by… -
Much ado about nothing
19 Oct 2009 | 5:39 pmThere is a great disturbance in the Force today; lots of 140-character mini-rants about CJR's "The Reconstruction of American Journalism" by Len Downie and Michael Shudson. Apparently no one is happy. Some of the reactions are puzzling, apparently aimed at some other enemy, sort of like the way people rant about an imaginary grandma-killing Obama at a health-care town hall meeting. There is no radicalism in this report. It's not a Luddite screed, nor a call to revolution. It is, as Jan Schaffer observes, a mile wide and an inch deep. After an exhaustive survey it leads us to a recommendation… -
Seven keys to building healthy online community
20 Sep 2009 | 7:18 amI've been running successful online communities since the mid-1980s when I first got a modem, discovered bulletin boards, and wound up running one. Over the years I've discovered a few things about how to do it right. Here are seven keys to the kingdom: Make it a priority. Quit whining that it's so much trouble to deal with commenting and community interaction. That's why they call it work. Be glad you have a chance to do it. Community interaction should not be a marginal part of your online effort. Social interaction is a powerful basic human need. The Internet is a social medium. -
Seven simple thoughts about the Mobile Web
31 Aug 2009 | 8:45 amI've simplified my thinking about the Mobile Web. After years of hating everything about cellphone companies, subscription "plans," half-baked "standards," slow connections, crappy phone software and inept vendors, it's all becoming clear: There is no Mobile Web. There is only one Web, and it is the real Web. All the pseudo-Webs and WAP-services and walled-garden fakery are dead. Mobility is about interests and utility, not technology. Feeding your crappy old shovelware website is not a mobile strategy. Easy mobile access to the entire Web opens a broad field of opportunity. Pursue it. Your… -
Original sin? I don't think so, but ....
30 Aug 2009 | 7:45 amHoward Owens' declaration that the original sin of newspapers was "Keeping online units tethered to the mother ship" is the subject of much chatter this morning. Having been on more than one side of that question, and having been one of the originals, I categorically reject the notion of any "original sin." Unless, of course, you think inaction is a sin. Those who were in the vast center of gravity in newspaper journalism simply came to work and did their print-focused jobs every day. They were not change agents. They were not inventors. They believed -- rightly -- that their role as…
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The Innovation Journalism Blog
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IAMCR Conference 2010: The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems
2 Nov 2009 | 6:10 pmInnovation Journalism and the concepts of innovation communication systems and attention work are being addressed by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) World Conference in Braga Portugal (2010) on “Communication and Citizenship: Rethinking Crisis and Change".IAMCR is the worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research. It was founded in 1957 and is present in 40 countries today.The Journalism Research & Education Section of the IAMCR is inviting people to submit research papers to the conference within five… -
Innovation Journalism Course at the University of Jyväskylä
20 Oct 2009 | 10:35 amThe University of Jyväskylä in Finland is running a course in Innovation Journalism this autumn. The course is headed by Turo Uskali, fmr visiting researcher at the Injo center here at Stanford:JOUS026 Innovation Journalism and Innovations in Journalism University of Jyväskylä, Finland10.9.-1.12.2009, ToB 216Turo Uskali, Ph DThe course is all about innovations and innovations in journalism. In these challenging financial and environmental times, new ideas, concepts, tools, methods, and innovations are needed in societies in many different levels; also in news business and… -
Innovation Journalism Fellowships 2010
15 Oct 2009 | 4:03 pmWe are now in the process of launching the Innovation Journalism Fellowships 2010. Read more about it on the Stanford Injo web.David Nordfors is co-founder and executive director of the VINNOVA-Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism at Stanford University. He coined the concept of "Innovation Journalism" in 2003. -
1st Nordic Conference on Injo, Helsinki 25 Sep
17 Sep 2009 | 8:48 amThe 1st Nordic Conference on Innovation Journalism will be taking place at the Communications Research Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland on Sep 25. It is supported by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation and Sitra, who are funding the Finnish Innovation Journalism initiative. These are the funding organizations who have made it possible for Finnish journalists and researchers to come to theVINNOVA-Stanford research center of innovation journalism.I will be keynoting the conference, so if you are going I will see you there! The conference program and registration is available on the conference… -
Innovation Journalism Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia - Sep 3
25 Aug 2009 | 10:10 amThe yearly regional innovation journalism conference in Slovenia takes place on Sep 3. There are are grants for covering the participation for journalists from the Balkan region. Others are welcome to the conference, but need to cover their own costs.The conference is co-organized by Vibacom, who are running the Slovenian Innovation Journalism initiative, and EJC, the European Journalism Center in Maastricht.I will be participating in the conference over video, I hope to see you there!See the call below for applicants to the funded spots:Journalists, editors, communicators and media employees…
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Reporters Committee News
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Student journalists wage battle for H1N1 death certificates
Journalism students at the University of Southern California are waging a battle to obtain the death certificates of individuals who have died from the H1N1 virus, the school's online news site Neon . . . -
Obama administration publicly endorses shield bill
The Obama administration today released a letter that supports revised legislation pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee that broadly defines the definition of a journalist in a proposed federal . . . -
Oklahoma pharmacist's murder trial can be televised, judge rules
An Oklahoma County judge will allow television stations to broadcast the murder trial of a pharmacist charged with killing a teenager who was allegedly attempting to rob his store. District Judge . . . -
Virginia drops plan for anonymous juries
The Virginia Supreme Court has withdrawn a controversial proposal that would have automatically withheld the identities of jurors in all criminal cases, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Several . . . -
Pennsylvania high court overturns $3.5m defamation verdict
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a $3.5 million defamation verdict against Wilkes-Barre's The Citizens' Voice and ordered a new trial after finding the original trial may have . . .
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Journalism.org:
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At 40, 'Sesame Street' is in a constant state of renewal
6 Nov 2009 | 5:41 am -
Jayson Blair: Offering His Views On Making Up News
6 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am -
Tucker's hiring for new site
6 Nov 2009 | 5:37 am -
Onion, Comedy Central team on show
6 Nov 2009 | 5:36 am -
Why Sesame Street still counts
6 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am
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Lost Remote
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"A blog that’s associated with a major, legitimate organization… would be, I think, treated..."
5 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm““A blog that’s associated with a major, legitimate organization… would be, I think, treated differently than an individual blogger who’s using his or her right of free expression to say whatever he thinks. So the presence of an editor, as an example. You know, an editor that’s not your mom.”” - Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s derogatory over-generalization of independent bloggers compared to big media bloggers. I’m on the record criticizing Google for imposing “blog” labels on neighborhood news blogs while not adding the same labels to newspaper blogs. (Google has now asked… -
Which social sites drive traffic? Depends on who you ask: ...
5 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pmWhich social sites drive traffic? Depends on who you ask: ChicagoTribune.com says 10 percent of its traffic originates from social sharing sites — much of it from Digg, which says it plans to roll out new features to showcase local stories. Meanwhile, StarTribune.com says it’s seeing less than a percent of its traffic from social sites. Such is the social state of affairs these days. -
NBC Local sites report strong growth
5 Nov 2009 | 4:07 pmNBC Local sites report strong growth: Unique visitors went from 6 million a year ago to 12 million in October. -
"(Local content) is the number one unmet need online."
4 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am“(Local content) is the number one unmet need online.” - Lisa Gurry, senior director at MSN, commenting about the brand new MSN.com, which includes prominent integration of local news, weather, events and traffic. -
Redesigns launching at Belo, Meredith TV sites: Belo TV sites,...
3 Nov 2009 | 2:10 pmRedesigns launching at Belo, Meredith TV sites: Belo TV sites, like AZFamily.com above, are rolling out a new design powered by Broadcast Interactive. Meredith sites, like KPHO.com above, have just debuted a new look via Internet Broadcasting.
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National Press Photographers Assoc.
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White House Endorses Federal Shield Law For Journalists
6 Nov 2009 | 6:54 amA letter signed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday is the Obama administration's first public presidential endorsement of a federal shield law for journalists. -
Next Free NPPA-PhotoShelter Webinar Set For November 18
6 Nov 2009 | 6:19 amNPPA has partnered with PhotoShelter to bring its members and exclusive series of five free Webinars for visual journalists, and the second Webinar is coming up on November 18. "Get Found: Search Engine Optimization for Photography Web Sites" will be hosted online by PhotoShelter founder Allen Murabayashi. -
"Navigating The Downturn" Panel In Austin, November 11
3 Nov 2009 | 4:11 amAn NPPA "Navigating The Downturn" panel discussion will be held at the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. The panelists, who are former newspaper and magazine staff photographers, will talk about maintaining a client base during an economic downturn. The event is free and open to the public. -
Month-Long November Election For NPPA's New Board Of Directors
1 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pmNPPA's new national Board of Directors will be elected during a month-long period of online voting that will run through November, and the candidates biographies and campaign statements are online and available for review and voting is open. At the same time, members in NPPA's six odd-numbered regions will elect local leaders to the re-named and slightly re-tasked positions of Regional Chair and Associate Chair. -
Obama Makes Midnight Flight To Dover To Honor Returning War Dead
29 Oct 2009 | 6:06 amThe president who just this April lifted an 18-year-ban on photographing the dignified return of the flag-draped remains of soldiers killed in battle overseas himself stood this morning, on a dark and cold tarmac, at Dover Air Force Base and was photographed saluting the body of U.S. Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin, 29, as it was carried off an Air Force C-17.
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Online Journalism Blog
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Clay Shirky on Twitter and the social media revolution
6 Nov 2009 | 7:47 pmHere’s a great interview with Clay Shirky by GRITtv’s Laura Flanders. Clay Shirky talks about the power of digital networking, and how social media can do everything from cause revolutions to create whole new political parties when done right. The simplicity of Twitter, of course, is its genius. It has the power to do so much by doing so little. But that’s not the only thing that’s simple about Twitter. The service itself was only intended to share 140-character messages with the world. Its significance is its evolution. Everything from @replying and retweeting to using hashes and… -
Online journalism lesson #7: maps
6 Nov 2009 | 8:02 amHere’s the 7th lesson from my year 2 undergraduate module in Online Journalism, where I look at a range of examples of mapping in journalism, as well as the broader idea of image maps (the rest of the series can be found here): Interactive Maps and Image Maps View more presentations from Paul Bradshaw. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. -
Local Blog impact on Local Democracy: Somerton Town Council
6 Nov 2009 | 1:12 amLocal Bloggers are beginning to produce a few good examples of effective scrutiny of Local Councils. In this piece David Keen, who is a Vicar in Yeovil and writes regularly for my Wardman Wire political site, gives an account of a local controversy in the Somerset town of Somerton, which has lead to a number of resignations from the Town Council. Further, some national commentators are beginning to notice that local blogs have a place in building a better political culture in the UK. Over to David … Blogging, Volunteers, and Local Democracy Somerton is about 12 miles north of Yeovil,… -
Five factors that foster innovation in the online newsroom
5 Nov 2009 | 6:35 amI recently heard a newspaper chief editor say something quite shocking. I attended a meeting arranged by the Norwegian consortium New Media Network where the chief editor of the second biggest national tabloid in Norway, Dagbladet, was to give a speech. And believe it or not, chief editor of Dagbladet, Anne Aasheim, said: “I have been a media executive for 20 years now and I must say; it’s more fun today than ever before!” More fun today than ever before? Everybody at the meeting knew that Dagbladet has suffered massive losses in recent years – much more than their… -
Guardian makes its comments accessible, SEO friendly and mobile friendly all in one go!
5 Nov 2009 | 12:45 amThe Guardian has changed its user-generated comment system – moving from a client-side system to a server-side one. (This story was first published here, where you can read a bit more of the background.) With the old system, once you loaded a story, some javascript would go off and look up readers’ comments and display them. This wasn’t terribly accessible – if you couldn’t or didn’t run javascript, you couldn’t see the comments. It was also bad for SEO, as search engines couldn’t run the javascript (so couldn’t see the comments). And if…
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Common Sense Journalism
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Convergence Conference: Thursday quick hits
6 Nov 2009 | 6:40 amQuickly wrapping up some other interesting sessions:Thom Baggerman, Capital had an interesting two-part presentation, first what is the archetype of a good multimedia site and second how is that being carried out by newspapers and in cases where there is newspaper and TV co-ownership in a market. His initial observations:• People want control over their media• Convergence requires "tool-neutral" storytellersHis archetype is the Las Vegas Sun. Because it is an insert in the larger Review, the Sun's been able to concentrate on the Web. "I have not seen many other sites that offer up their… -
Convergence Conference: All things Canadian
6 Nov 2009 | 6:04 amCatching up on some things from Thursday's sessions, who would have thought we'd have so much about Canada? Good stuff, and it points out how we need to broaden our research perspectives (yes, folks, consider that a pitch to contribute articles to The Convergence Newsletter).In separate presentations Kim Kierans, King's College and Marc Edge, Sam Houston State took at look at the Canadian media landscape and concluded that the amount of consolidation there is becoming dangerous to democracy.Edge went so far as to say that "If you want to see the future of media convergence, look north."They… -
Convergence Conference: Newspapers in Second Life
5 Nov 2009 | 2:57 pmAndrea Guzman just finished a fascinating session on research into newspapers in Second Life (example, the Herald).She was trying to do a content analysis on the papers. I won't get into all the details, which look a lot better in graphs anyhow. But I did take away one thing that I think is worthy of note: There can be difficult methodological issues. Guzman, for instance, explained how she had to go through two pilot studies just to begin to get to acceptable levels of intercoder agreement. And even then, some of the stats were less than ideal.Why are such issues surrounding virtual reality… -
Convergnce Conference: Michigan as ground zero
5 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pmDennis Jeffers, Carol McGinnis, Lori Brost, Sean Baker, Central MichiganWide variations, but one commonality – online, radio sites are a dead zone.Why Michigan? Diverse media. Among worst economies in the nation, so media having to take more drastic steps.Urban Dailies – canaries I the coal mine? Jeffers thinks so to some extent.Gannett went to the Thursday/Friday/Sunday home delivery; seven-day e-edition; 24/7 Web site model.Both (Newhouse) Made Ann Arbor Web only, is following the Gannett model in places like Flint and Saginaw, and is restructuring others.• The focus has shifted to… -
Convergence Converence: Twiter Feed
5 Nov 2009 | 11:26 amThe Twitter Feed for the Convergence Conference is using the hashtag #cconf09
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CyberJournalist.net
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New site ‘Netted’ by the Webbys
Netted is a new daily email produced by the folks behind the Webbys, “a free daily newsletter where they’ll share the latest, coolest, and most useful things they’ve discovered online” -
Interactive: How Barack Obama Won the White House
This interactive map shows how Barack Obama Won the White House one year ago. -
How Do You Feel a Year After President Obama’s Election?
Cool interactive features on nytimes.com asking, “What One Word Best Describes How You Feel a Year After President Obama’s Election?” This page updates with the most popular choices from NYTimes.com readers. -
Nonprofit news venture Texas Tribune to launch
Evan Smith, the longtime editor of Texas Monthly, is launching the Texas Tribune, a non-profit news operation that has hired 11 journalists at competitive salaries. Howard Kurtz reports: The fledgling operation has raised an impressive $3.6 million, with $1 million coming from Smith’s pal, venture capitalist John Thornton. “It actually started, as much as my life does, out [...] -
St. Louis Globe-Democrat Returning As Free Online News Site
PaidContent reports: “The St. Louis Globe-Democrat—dead for 23 years—is coming back to life as a free news site. www.globe-democrat.com is slated to launch Dec. 8, according to an announcement by Dan Rositano, who runs a St. Louis IT company for small businesses; he describes himself on Linked In as president and CEO of the Globe-Democrat [...]
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Editors Weblog
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Newspapers and social media sites. What works?
6 Nov 2009 | 7:46 amSelf-promotion is a tricky business. Over the past couple years, social networking has made it much easier (and cheaper) to get your name out there to the public. Most of the time anyway. The use of social media for promotion had really began to pick up in the world of publishing, but to what extent? BBC just recently announced that they will be appointing a Social Media Editor in the near future. And a new article from the Newspaper Association of America explores the extent to which particular bookmarking and social networking sites increase page traffic… -
AP to help build mobile apps for publishers
6 Nov 2009 | 7:30 amThe Associated Press and Verve Wireless are teaming up to provide a 'white label' mobile app builder for publishers. The service will allow publishers to create a customized mobile platform for their products, based on the AP mobile app. The offer is aimed at smaller publications that don't have the resources to develop their own mobile application Jeff Litvack, AP's general manager of mobile and emerging products, said, "Building an app from scratch is time consuming and costly, there are numerous things to consider, and we want AP member news outlets to leverage what we've learned from our… -
Changes and fixes to new US journalism shield law
6 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amThe "Free Flow of Information Act of 2009" is a a piece of legislation currently being worked out in the American Senate, and is aimed at both protecting journalists and national security interests by specifying under what conditions a journalist should be compelled to disclose a confidential source.The main problems facing this act have apparently been worked out by the Specter-Schumer amendment.First, the 'open-ended analysis' the court is supposed to undergo to determine whether to compel disclosure has been replaced with a 'more balanced and appropriate' process; The Attorney General must… -
Murdoch's paywall plans could attract anti-trust regulation
6 Nov 2009 | 6:15 amIn a recent conference call with several reporters on New Corp's quarterly earnings, Rupert Murdoch admitted to problems and delays in implementing a universal paywall for his news agencies (the delay being "with everything").However, exactly how News Corp plans to go about charging for content has become a suspect issue. It is widely accepted that if paid online news content is to work, all or nearly all providers would have to start charging at the same time. Because of this, News Corp has begun talking to other news sources about its plans to start charging, thus raising concerns… -
Trinity Mirror update: Further 17 editorial jobs set to go
6 Nov 2009 | 5:58 amFollowing intense speculation that the Trinity Mirror is set to open up another round of redundancies, the division yesterday confirmed further cut backs, putting some 17 editorial jobs at risk, the Guardian has reported.Trinity Mirror Merseyside publishes two dailies - the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Daily Post - and 14 weeklies including the Southport Visiter, Formby Times, Crosby Herald and Skelmersdale Advertiser. A spokesman for the division commented: "The changes reflect the pressures all parts of the media sector are currently experiencing due to the ongoing economic downturn,"…
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Extra! Extra!
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No Action On Shield Law....Again
Despite a widely accepted compromise bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee was once again unable to consider the Free Flow of Information Act, which grants qualified protection for journalists and their sources from government overreach. That bill, and one already passed in the House March 31, was scheduled for the regular Thursday business meeting, but was again tabled after legislators on both sides said they needed to take a harder look at the new language. -
Brill: Most Users Won't Notice as Sites Start Testing Paid Content
Sometime in the next month or so, between five and 15 online publishers will start testing Journalism Online’s system for paid content. Around year’s end, they’ll start charging users to access some content on their sites. But the vast majority of users will not notice anything, said Steven Brill. Most people talk about paid content as "pay walls." Brill, co-founder of Journalism Online, likens it to a gradually deepening pool. -
Murdoch's plan for web pay walls 'raises questions of anti-trust law'
Questions over competition in the media industry have been raised by Rupert Murdoch’s admission that News Corporation is talking to other organizations about its plans to introduce web charging, according to a competition law specialist. Murdoch, meanwhile, this week admitted that it is proving harder than expected to introduce charges for readers browsing his newspaper websites and that News Corp may miss a target of next June for the introduction of so-called "pay walls." -
Pioneer Press workers vote to begin concession negotiations
A few months after Star Tribune workers agreed to givebacks in bankruptcy, Pioneer Press Newspaper Guild members voted Wednesday to open discussions with management seeking similar cuts. According to a Guild memo, after a "spirited" meeting, union members "narrowly approved" talks with the company. You’d expect such, ahem, spirit after management’s opening offer of a 7% pay cut, then a freeze, plus no merit pay or extra night wages. -
Better-Than-Expected Profit Is Reported by News Corp.
The News Corporation reported an unexpected rise in profit on Wednesday, driven by its cable channels, particularly Fox News, and its movie studio. Most of its businesses, on the other hand — particularly broadcast television and newspapers — posted declines in the first quarter in both revenue and operating income. Over all, News Corporation’s net income was $571 million for the quarter, or 22 cents a share, up 11% from a year ago.
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Media news, UK and world media comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
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Viz Comic takes over the Guardian
6 Nov 2009 | 4:25 pmOn the occasion of its 30th birthday, Britain's fourth or fifth funniest comic does its business - Warf! Warf! – all over our pages. Click the images on the right of the story for our exclusive Viz stripsThis month sees the 30th anniversary of "the magazine that's not as funny as it used to be". Viz, Chris Donald's foul-mouthed comic, evolved from a 12-page fanzine hawked around Newcastle's pubs into one of the country's highest-selling titles, shifting over a million copies an issue with celebrity fans ranging from David Bowie to Simon Bates. Since that 1990 peak, sales have declined to… -
Tim Dowling: By the hair on my chinny-chin-chin
6 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pmLook, I'm not growing a beard for fun, you know. It's because my face hurts after being assaulted in the streetI am walking around the park, lost in a fog of preoccupation, when I run into someone I know. "Hey," he says. "Nice beard."My first instinct is to ask "Where?" but then I realise he means me. "It's not a beard," I tell him, feeling my face uncertainly.The whole thing began a few weeks ago, after I got punched in the mouth by a 15-year-old in the street. I was left with a messy, rectangular wound above my lip; the imprint, I think, of a… -
A peek at the diary of Prince Edward | Marina Hyde
6 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pm'It's great to be able to carry on my father's work, as the torch of crass insensitivity is passed on to the next generation'It can't be long now before the Duke of Edinburgh's award is renamed the Earl of Wessex's award. It's great to be able to carry on my father's work, as the torch of crass insensitivity is passed on to the next generation. Typically, though, some wilfully misunderstood my comment about the upside to a teenager's death while on an expedition. I just pointed out that the risk of death is thrilling, as though the young people are foolhardy innocents keen to join the… -
The Measure: Hot or not? David Beckham, Eva Green, The Gadsdens, Whitney Houston and Katie Price | Fashion
6 Nov 2009 | 4:10 pmThree cheers for beards and blackberry crumble, thumbs down for whingeing Whitney and Katie Price's Barbie-style armsGoing upBeards Getting a bad rap, but what's all the fuss about? Beckham hasn't looked this hot in ages. Especially with the sunglassesBoarding schools With Eva Green as a headmistress in Cracks, and St Trinian's part II, we've come over all prefect-likeThe Gadsdens New band alert. The Sailor Song is heaven. Head to Myspace, quickest-smartestBlackberry and apple crumble With lashings of custard. This is our new season tea-time treat – try saying that with a… -
An Equal Voice: Andrew Motion's Remembrance Day poem
6 Nov 2009 | 4:06 pmIn this 'found poem' for Remembrance Day, Andrew Motion stitches together the words of several generations of shellshocked soldiers from the first world war to the presentDoctors, historians and other experts have documented the effects of shellshock – thanks to them, we know that the term covers a multitude of ailments, and is the result of far more than just shells going off. But, as Ben Shephard wrote in his history of medical psychiatry, the people who have suffered from it have often been too ill to speak. They have been left out of the record. I wanted to…
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Depth Reporting
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Trade in your clunker data for new data
6 Nov 2009 | 8:59 amYou can download data on 677,081 cars traded in the Cash for Clunkers program from Cars.gov. The AP has already analyzed it and found that one in seven of the new vehicles purchased in exchange get only a few miles per gallon more than the so-called clunkers:The single most common swap — which occurred more than 8,200 times — involved Ford F150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based… -
Tens of thousands of military Social Security numbers published on Library of Congress Web site
5 Nov 2009 | 7:19 amUntil this week, you could find the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of current and former soldiers, sailors and airmen on the Web site of the Library of Congress. This included Social Security numbers for a former operational commander for Iraq, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, a former vice chief of Naval Operations, a former director of the National Security Agency -- and Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. The Social Security numbers were in online versions of the Congressional Record… -
#depth on Twitter
27 Jun 2009 | 9:05 amYou can find links I used to share more often on this blog by searching for the #depth hashtag on Twitter. -
Follow me on Twitter, Delicious and Google Reader
20 Jun 2009 | 9:03 amIf you’re interested in the kinds of things that interest me on this blog, you can follow me on Twitter, Delicious and Google Reader. I serve an unsteady stream of links that often never make it here. All have RSS feeds you can subscribe to independent of Depth Reporting. My latest updates to those services are also available on Depth Reporting’s right rail. There’s some cross-posting going on, so forgive me for the dupes. -
Visualizing U.S. Supreme Court ideology
18 Jun 2009 | 7:28 amThe Ideological History of the Supreme Court, 1937-2007, is a nice visualization designed by Alex Lundry that uses scores developed by two political scientists to measure where the justices have stood on an “ideological continuum” from liberal to conservative. You can download the visualization in spreadsheet form, play with it and see how it was done. Boiling a judge’s judicial philosophy down to a score is a tricky business, and not everyone likes it. You can get a flavor of that by reading The Distorting Slant of Quantitative Studies of Judging, by a law professor. [via…
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mymediamusings
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History is Ours – 101 Free Historical Moments on YouTube
4 Nov 2009 | 10:19 amWhy is the internet so cool? Well, aside from unlimited free porn, there is basically an unlimited education out there for anyone willing to put in the time. Example? Check out this link to 101 great moments in history currently available on YouTube http://www.onlinedegree.net/101-historical-moments-you-can-relive-on-youtube/ Fireside chat, anyone? Posted via email from My Media Musings -
PicTranslator Another Example of Holding the Future in Your Hand
29 Oct 2009 | 12:11 pmNearly every day, I read something or use something that makes me feel like I am living in those sci-fi novels I read as a kid. Sure, we still don't have flying cars but some of the things we have are so damn cool. While PicTranslator isn't exactly earth-shattering technology, just the fact that it exists and can be used by anyone with an iPhone is certainly cool: Snap a picture of any menu in question and have it translated on the spot. Priced at 99 cents, this iPhone application captures text from users’ photos and translates it. In addition to menus, it can handle any form of… -
Songite, Google GPS and the Battle of Free vs. Paid
28 Oct 2009 | 11:12 amEvery time you turn around someone is using the internet to provide you with free content that you previously paid for to privilege of consuming. From Hulu to HuffPo one wonders if there could possibly be anyone left who thinks "free" content isn't a business. Two great examples today. First is Songite, the rebirth of Songerize, a simple site where you type in the name of any song and then it finds the song and plays it for you, free. Sure, it might not solve all your music needs but it is a whole lot cheaper than the $.99 you'd spend on iTunes to quell a musical… -
Star Wars Fan Re-Make – Great Idea Allowed to Live. So Far…
27 Oct 2009 | 8:54 amOne of the more interesting grey areas in the super-grey world of copyright is the realm of fan-created homages to the original. From filthy Harry Potter fan-fic featuring Hermione in positions never imagined by JK herself to any number of spoof videos, these creations are often a true sign of an existing work's popularity. At the same time, we read over and over again how rights-holders try to stamp out these sorts of efforts. It seems deeply counter-productive but that arguments tends to fall of deaf ears as lawyers rack up fees. So, it is super-cool to see that LucasFilms seems to… -
Job Idea – Internet Curator
26 Oct 2009 | 2:14 pmA recent article in the NYT points out that a big part of the success of the DVD-rental outfit, Redbox, has to do with lack of selection: "…at the end of a long supermarket slog, the consumer doesn’t want to browse for half an hour. Redbox doesn’t really want you to browse, either; it wants a quick decision, and the focus on newer releases helps. “We found that as we narrowed the selection, mostly things people are aware of from advertising and marketing campaigns — big celebrities, big box-office titles — that’s what people wanted,” Lowe adds." This is a great…
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JOUR M02
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The L.A. Herald Examiner -- 20 Years Gone
2 Nov 2009 | 12:26 amNov. 2 is the 20th anniversary of the closing of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. See http://herex0.tripod.com/See also 20 years ago: 'So Long, L.A.!' -
Sam Zell: No Newspapers Can Survive
28 Oct 2009 | 6:02 pmWhen posed with the question of whether or not he regrets his Tribune deal, Sam Zell admitted, "It's certainly the most amount of money I ever lost in a single deal." He goes on to say that the entire newspaper industry, including Tribune, has seen a crash in revenue, and that "nobody can survive." -- Silicon Alley Insider -
Video: Inventing LA -- The Chandlers and their Times
23 Oct 2009 | 5:09 pmThe film chronicles the epic saga of the most powerful family in Los Angeles history: the Chandlers. For four generations, they wielded unique influence through their newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. [Click to VIEW] -
News Co-op Gets Chicago Launch
23 Oct 2009 | 4:08 pm -
This Just In -- I'll Now Work My Own Prompter
15 Oct 2009 | 1:34 amThe day's news may soon rest in the hands -- and quite possibly on the feet -- of newscasters at WTTG, Channel 5, in Washington.In a bid to save money, the station is planning to reassign the technicians who operate the electronic prompters that feed scripted news copy to the anchors while they're on the air. Instead, the station wants its anchors to do the job themselves.WTTG, known as Fox5, intends to train its newscasters to operate prompters using a series of hand levers and foot pedals, all while they're reading the news as it scrolls by.Some at the station worry that such a…
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OUPblog » Media
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Happy Belated 40th Birthday To The Internet!
3 Nov 2009 | 11:18 amDennis Baron is Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Illinois. His book, A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution, looks at the evolution of communication technology, from pencils to pixels. In this post, also posted on Baron’s personal blog The Web of Language, he looks at an the 40th birthday of the internet. I began writing this online message 40 years to the minute when the internet went live. At 7:00 pm on Oct. 29, 1969 UCLA computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock, who organized the internet’s first day, had one of his programmers, Charley… -
All Politics is Not Local
3 Nov 2009 | 5:09 amElvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at local elections. See his previous OUPblogs here. As we follow the NJ and VA gubernatorial races, and the special election for the 23rd congressional district in New York (NY23), the debate has… -
Afghanistan and Vietnam: On Presidents and Pitfalls
27 Oct 2009 | 8:14 amHarm de Blij is the John A. Hannah Professor of Geography at Michigan State University. The author of more than 30 books he is an honorary life member of the National Geographic Society and was for seven years the Geography Editor on ABC’s Good Morning America. His most recent book, The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization’s Rough Landscape, he reveals the rugged contours of our world that keep all but 3% of “mobals” stationary in the country where they were born. He argues that where we start our journey has much to do with our destiny, and thus with our chances of… -
Sarah Palin Goes Rogue in New York
27 Oct 2009 | 6:31 amElvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Sarah Palin. See his previous OUPblogs here. Last Thursday, former Governor of Alaska endorsed Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, over Republican Party candidate, Dede Scozzafava, in New… -
National Book Award Contest: Win Prizes!
23 Oct 2009 | 9:18 amPurdy, Publicity Director The National Book Award nominees were announced earlier this week. Kudos to all nominees, especially to our friends & compatriots at the nominated University Presses. I am glad to see the great good wisdom of the nominating committee at the NBAs. Congratulations aside, it is tradition here in the OUP publicity dept to host a little friendly contest to see who can pick the most NBA winners. This year I am inviting our blog readers to join the fray and send me your picks. Details below. Please note there is a point system in this contest. Correct picks in Fiction…
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Principled Profit
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Breaking: No Vote to be Taken on Medicare-for-All
6 Nov 2009 | 4:43 pmThis just in: Proponents of single-payer health care, a/k/a Medicare for All–the system used by almost every developed country in the world–will not get our promised floor vote after all. If I were in Congress right now, I’d vote no. The bill has gotten weaker, more complicated, and more expensive with every turn. As I understand it, it is a giveaway to big insurers and might actually leave fewer people insured than we have now. A travesty! President Obama–WHERE is the “change” you promised so loudly one year ago? As The Who sang in my very favorite song,… -
Social Responsibility: A Global Virtual Summit–Q&A with John Gerstner/Discount Offer
2 Nov 2009 | 6:54 amWhat motivated you to organize this conference? You could say this was an alignment of some stars that had been orbiting for quite awhile. First, social responsibility (or sustainability, corporate citizenship and green) is a topic I’m very interested in, going back to when I was Manager of Environmental & Safety Communication at John Deere about 10 years ago. Next, I credit Rick Sauter, Communitelligence Vice President, who had initiated talks with Cisco about partnering on a conference. When the topic of social responsibility came up, there was an mutual a ha moment. Six months… -
With Social Media, I Can Cross Time Tunnels to the Distant Past
31 Oct 2009 | 2:18 pmThirty-one years ago, the housemate with whom I’d found an apartment moved out, and I invited a poet friend of mine to take his place. We shared that apartment for several months, until he, too, moved on, and another friend moved in. Today, I went to see that poet friend for the first time since around 1980. We’d been completely out of touch–but about a year ago, a mutual friend tracked my wife down on Facebook. Turns out that mutual friend also convinced my old housemate to join Facebook, where we found each other a month or so ago. The friend who moved in after him stayed… -
Negroponte/Quadir: How Laptops and Cell Phones Attack Systemic Poverty in Developing Countries
28 Oct 2009 | 11:38 amHorace Mann, founding President of Antioch College, famously said “Be ashamed to die until you have won one victory for humanity.” Neither Nicholas Negroponte nor Iqbal Quadir will ever have to worry about shaming themselves in front of Horace Mann’s ghost. These two M.I.T. professors have both made substantial contributions in developing countries, bringing life-changing technology to villages that don’t even have electricity or running water. Negroponte is the key mover behind One Laptop Per Child, an initiative to develop and distribute rugged but cheap (like $100… -
Two Keys to Energy Sustainability Through Clean Renewable Energy
27 Oct 2009 | 9:06 amGreat article, “100% Renewables by 2030 for Less Than Fossil Power: A Case is Made,” by Stacy Feldman on SolveClimate.com (a site new to me). Go read it, then come back here! Stacy is absolutely correct that we have the keys to solving both the carbon and energy crises, with safe, sustainable renewable technology–and that neither renewable but unsustainable and highly polluting biomass, nor non-renewable, highly dangerous, highly centralized nuclear are NOT viable long-term solutions. One key is decentralizing energy generation. When power is generated at or near the place…
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Global Features
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Industrialised World Intransigence on CO2 emissions dooms Climate Negotiations
6 Nov 2009 | 6:11 am -
Opposition to EDL Rally in Leeds, UK
4 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm -
BusinessEurope conference disturbed by climate activists
4 Nov 2009 | 10:51 am -
Squatting ban in the Netherlands approaching
23 Oct 2009 | 5:42 pm -
Venezuela: Demarcation without land, criminalization and death for indigenous struggle
22 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pm
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Media: Greenslade | guardian.co.uk
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Roy Greenslade: Rothermere rejected freesheet deal with Norwegian publisher
6 Nov 2009 | 8:58 amLord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail & General Trust, once rejected launching a free newspaper in partnership with the Norwegian media conglomerate Schibsted because, supposedly, he had no faith in freesheets. Schibsted's then chief executive, Kjell Aamot, said he suggested the idea while the men were sharing a cab with a French media executive "a few years ago."Aamot, now retired, revealed this fascinating tidbit at a recent Norwegian media conference, reports the reliable Norwegian-based blogger Kristine Lowe.She quotes Aamot as saying (on the Kampanje website): "I asked him if he… -
Roy Greenslade: Guardian has not talked to Murdoch about paywalls
6 Nov 2009 | 3:56 amWhen I posted yesterday on the remarkable candour of Rupert Murdoch in admitting that he was holding discussions with Telegraph Media Group about website paywalls, some commenters suggested that The Guardian might be involved too.Aware of the fact that the paper had already issued a statement saying it would not charge for news content, I was about to respond with a definite "no". However, it's always better to check. So I did.The unequivocal answer: Guardian Media Group has not been party to any discussions with Murdoch or any other publisher about erecting paywalls. This morning I replied… -
Roy Greenslade: PCC ruling clears Daily Mail of discrimination
6 Nov 2009 | 3:37 amThe Press Complaints Commission has today issued a significant adjudication that illustrates the fine line that must be drawn between a newspaper's freedom to be offensive and whether that offensiveness constitutes discrimination.The case involves the Daily Mail and the renowned blogger Iain Dale, who complained to the PCC about an item in the paper's Ephraim Hardcastle diary column, published on 30 September.Dale argued that its references to him as gay were discriminatory and therefore in breach of the editors' code of practice. But the commission did not agree, and did not uphold his… -
Roy Greenslade: Graph shows lengthy decline of US papers
6 Nov 2009 | 1:28 amTo understand the 20-year circulation decline of the leading US newspapers - and the rise of the Wall Street Journal - see this graph. The comments are interesting too because they show, rightly, that there is no simple correlation between most of the sales falls and the rise of the internet. Source: THE AWLUS press and publishingNewspapersMedia downturnRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
Roy Greenslade: Employees assume ownership of a Scottish weekly
5 Nov 2009 | 5:44 amThe West Highland Free Press is laying claim to being the first newspaper in Britain to be owned by its employees.From last week, 10 of its staff officially became shareholders in the trust that now owns the weekly, which is renowned for its forthright independent coverage of affairs in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.Managing director Paul Wood explained that it had taken 18 months to arrange the transfer of ownership, making the paper a very small-scale employee-owned organisation of the John Lewis Partnership variety.It is not really an example of worker control, but the move is…
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blog maverick
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Adding Facebook and Twitter Followers – A Little One on One ?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:39 amI was thinking of ideas on how to add twitter and/or facebook fan page followers. I dont have a real need to have to do so. I was just curious about ways to do so. Think of it as one of those things my minds wanders off to while Im working out. One thing that poppedup as what I thought was a decent idea was the idea of rewarding those who refer and/or generate followers to my pages on twitter (@mcuban), or on FAcebook (/markcuban) a unique page where they were the only person approved to have access and for some period of time, they would have exclusive access for questions and answers. So… -
Keyboards, Phones and NetBooks
6 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amSome people wondered why I stayed with my Sidekick despite still not getting my contacts back and all the troubles the network had. The answer is easy. They keyboard is so above any beyond any other phone, I can type a good 50 words per minute on it. (Its amazing how fast my thumbs are on this thing) Which in turn allows me to answer emails quickly and accurately. I dont lose any productivity when Im on my Sidekick compared to sitting in front of my desktop or full sized laptop. To me, thats money in the bank. Thats not to say I never stray and try new phones and alternatives. I do. … -
A Great Business Idea = The Email of the Day
4 Nov 2009 | 8:01 amI got this email today. Of course Im being marginally facetious about the following idea. Why only marginally ? Because all he has to do is find one sucker to say yes. Enjoy. I have an idea to solve all of Americas problems, just as all great ideas are really very simple so is this. I am self made, retired, age 45 and financially independant. I will sell this idea for $5,000,000. When you learn of this plan, you will be shocked at how simple and effective it will be. I want a cashiers check up front and I will give you the idea once it is cleared. I have it written on an index… -
Sports Ratings Records and what it tells us about the internet
29 Oct 2009 | 12:21 pmhave you seen sports ratings lately ? Just this week: The NBA on TNT had its highest ratings in TWENTY SIX YEARS . Versus had its highest rated regular season NHL game EVER. The first game of the World Series was the highest rated in 5 years. The NFL was setting records on cable and achieving viewing levels not seen in TWENTY YEARS !. College Football ratings are killing it as well. But wait there is more. TV viewing is up considerably in each of the last several years. We can even look at the box office for movies and the fact that the industry is seeing a theatrical revival. The… -
Its Mavs Time !
26 Oct 2009 | 3:12 pmI am so firedup for this season to start. No predictions other than to say I think we are much better than last year and if we can stay healthy…. And of course off the court, we are always trying to do new fun things that create fun and value for our fans. From the new amazing VideoBoard (largest and highest resolution indoor board in the world !), to the new soundsystem, because great sound matters ! And as always , we have lower ticket prices and great season ticket deals available. Some even include All Star and Event tickets as well . Mavs.com has all the scoop. You will also…
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JOURNALISM.CO.UK
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Half-price student tickets at ‘Will We Have News for You?’ event
6 Nov 2009 | 9:55 amWe’re informed a few tickets are still going for next Tuesday’s ‘Will We Have News for You?’ a Media Society night at the BBC; details below: 5:00pm, Tuesday 10 November 2009, BBC TV Centre Wood Lane, W12, Full price £10; students £5 Nick Pollard (former head of Sky News) Mary Hockaday (head of multimedia newsroom, BBC) Jonathan Munro (ITN) Jonathan Levy (editor, General Election Sky News ) Stephen Cole (presenter, Al Jazeera English[tbc]) Contact: Mutesa Sithole – mutesasithole [at] googlemail.com Similar Posts: Live coverage dominates media’s… -
Did you lose your newspaper job? Help us with our survey
6 Nov 2009 | 9:45 amA call to all journalists who have left newspaper jobs: Journalism.co.uk’s survey in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) continues. We’ve had a good response so far, but we still need more data to make for a more informed study. Since we launched the project, even more UK redundancies have been announced; this week, for example, 17 were cut by Trinity Mirror (this time in Merseyside). Please help us by re-tweeting, blogging and forwarding the survey links to people you think may have been affected by the newspaper jobs cull sweeping Britain. We want to… -
Did you lose your newspaper job? Help us with our survey
6 Nov 2009 | 9:07 amA call to all journalists who have left newspaper jobs: Journalism.co.uk’s survey in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan) continues. We’ve had a good response so far, but we still need more data to make for a more informed study. Since we launched the project, even more UK redundancies have been announced; this week, for example, 17 were cut by Trinity Mirror (this time in Merseyside). Please help us by re-tweeting, blogging and forwarding the survey links to people you think may have been affected by the newspaper jobs cull sweeping Britain. We want to… -
David Cameron to give Hugo Young lecture
6 Nov 2009 | 8:07 amConservative leader David Cameron is to give the sixth annual Hugo Young memorial lecture on Tuesday 10 November, the Scott Trust has announced. The lecture remembers the late Hugo Young, the Guardian’s senior political commentator and former chairman of the Scott Trust, who died in 2003. Last year Young’s papers were published in a book, extracts of which appeared on the Guardian. ‘His columns were like icebergs. Readers saw a sunlit tip of crystal argument. They may have guessed, but they never truly knew or saw, what lay beneath,’ wrote the Guardian editor Alan… -
Twenty-four great new jobs this week on Journalism.co.uk
6 Nov 2009 | 6:13 amIt’s been a busy week for us this week with the following twenty-four great new jobs all having been posted on Journalism.co.uk’s jobs board: Communications officer With a communications qualification, experience of working with partner organisations and dispersed groups of people and some knowledge of agriculture for the NFU’s Campaign for the Farmed Environment Salary: £23,625 – £30,478 pro-rata NFU Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England >>more Technical editor – Mountain Biking UK We are looking for a passionate technical editor to work on Mountain Biking…
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One Man & His Blog
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Facing The Future of Journalism (and liking it)
6 Nov 2009 | 7:46 amI've gone a bit quiet, haven't I? Sorry about that, but I've been busy, holidaying and sick, but not necessarily in that order. One element of the busyness was this:Yes, I was back in Cardiff to guest lecture to this year's crop of postgraduate journalism students. And an interesting experience it was, too. This bunch seemed to be more aware of social media and the changes in journalism than those of a year ago. There were some good challenging questions from them about entrepreneurial journalism, and a couple of them came to talk to me afterwards about their own plans and ideas for… -
links for 2009-11-03
3 Nov 2009 | 12:30 amHivelogic - Podcasting Equipment Guide (2009) Good classification of gear based on your level of experience / commitment to podcasting (tags: audio podcast podcasting recording software advice podcasts equipment hardware) -
#media140 : Hemlock & AudioBoo
26 Oct 2009 | 9:38 amHemlock is an open-source environment for building social applications, with a gaming focus. There's a showcase of uses on the site.AudioBoo - a low coast, efficient way of generating audio reports. The platform collects pictures, geodata and so on at the time of recording, and pushes it into a social, connected, embeddable environment. Currently, it's on the iPhone, with Android and web versions coming soon. And they're adding an API which will allow others to build clients. Podcasting was too complicated, suggests SEO MArk Rock. The idea of AudioBoo was to make audio publishing as easy… -
#media140 : Information is Beautiful.
26 Oct 2009 | 9:19 amDavid McCandless (@mccandelish) has a book coming out. He didn't beat around the bush about that. He showed us the UK and US editions. But he's also interested in the growing visual literacy of the population through the growth of the web. If you come into the social space trying to sell something "you're a bit of a dick, really". What you can do is bring a gift - interestingness. If you're interesting, you'll get followed and you'll get retweeted. And the most interesting gift is the revealing gift. (This is a really hard session to liveblog, BTW. It's all about great, fascinating… -
#media140 : Show Me The Money - Bernard Desarnauts
26 Oct 2009 | 8:54 amLast keynote of the day: Bernard Desarnauts of Glam Media and Tinker.com talking (in theory) about where the money is.Media is every-fragmenting. Blogs are growing as are social networks. Traffic is fragmenting around topics, and traditional sites are drawing a small and smaller amount of people's time. The traditional places where advertisers spent money are becoming less and less relevant. So, the answer is distributed media - go where the audience is. And that's brought them 12m uniques worldwide - by focusing on mid to long tail.Tinker - instead of following people, you follow…
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Zero Percent Idle
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MICA’s Brown Center was a great venue for TEDx MidAtlantic
5 Nov 2009 | 4:53 pmI’ve driven past, or under it nearly a hundred times, but today was the first time I had the opportunity to spend time inside The Brown Center, the glass-curtained building with the thrusting overhang that opened on the MICA campus a few years back. All I can say is: Wow. Modern spaces can often be cold and odd and, while The Brown Center is certainly quirky, it fits in nicely on MICA’s semi-urban campus, reflecting from the outside and providing amazing vistas from the inside. The building sometimes appears mirrored, sometimes clear. Clouds and church reflected in the glass wall. -
Tom Stoppard on writing, via Scott Simon at today’s TEDx MidAtlantic
5 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pmIt had been years since I’d thought of this beautiful passage about writing until I heard Scott Simon quote it this morning at TEDx MidAtlantic. It comes from the amazing play The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard: “Words… They’re innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they’re no good any more… I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones… -
NaNoWriMo inspiration: Laura Lippman
3 Nov 2009 | 5:27 pmMaybe it’s because we used to work for the same newspaper. Or maybe it’s because she nails the details of Baltimore in her books. Or maybe it’s because the woman can write the hell out of a book and leave you wondering how she does it. Whatever, I’m a fanboy, a homer. So here’s summa Baltimore’s pride and joy, Laura Lippman. -
“He’s a writer looking for inspiration…”
2 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pmWho remembers this great movie about finding the writer’s muse? -
It’s a Mad Men world
2 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pmHere’s a not-quite-so-random thought following last night’s penultimate episode of Season 3 of Mad Men: What if the next episode jumps as far forward in the timeline as is normally reserved for a new season? Why? Last night’s episode was both a hard ending (Don, crushed and defeated) and a beginning (The real 1960s that got underway following the death of a president). But the problem is, picking up a week or even a month after the events of the last episode is too soon to accommodate the massive changes to come, both in society and in Ossining. So, my prediction, based on…
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Beat the Press
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Same Store Sales Mean Less When There are Fewer Stores
6 Nov 2009 | 3:36 amWhy do reporters and analysts always fail to take note of the fact that there are fewer stores this year than last year? This is important when we compare same store sales, because the stores that have survived over the year now have a larger share of retail business. In a normal year there is growth in the number of stores year to year, so flat same store sales would be consistent with rising total retail stores. With many chains having closed stores in the last year and many smaller stores having gone out of business, flat same store sales would imply a decline in total retail sales. -
Why Does the Government Spend So Much More on Peter Peterson Than It Does On Poor Children?
6 Nov 2009 | 3:18 amIt probably has something to do with the fact the billionaire investment banker owns lots of government bonds on which he collects interest. (Okay, I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing that he does own bonds.) The interest that a billionaire like Peterson collects on government bonds would almost certainly exceed by a huge amount payments for poor children for items like health care or child care. Is this an injustice? Perhaps, but most people would consider the fact that Peterson paid for the bonds to be an important factor in the discussion. In the same vein, where does Steven… -
When Fannie Mae Sells Tax Credits to Goldman Sachs, Taxpayers Lose
6 Nov 2009 | 2:16 amFannie Mae is losing money, therefore it owes no taxes. However, it does have tax credits on its books. Enter the geniuses at Goldman Sachs. They want to buy the tax breaks from Fannie so that they can put them to good use. The Post mentions this proposal in the context of a report on Fannie's 3rd quarter losses. It notes a Treasury Department analysis showing that any gains to Fannie from the sale will be offset by a loss of tax revenue to the Treasury. Actually, this does not require much analysis and the government will be a guaranteed loser on this deal. Goldman does not pay $1.00 for… -
Why Does the Post Never Report on Job Loss from Defense Spending?
5 Nov 2009 | 2:57 amThe Post told readers this morning that critics of measures to limit global warming warn that legislation could be:"a job-killer in states dependent on manufacturing and natural resources." While the risk of job loss associated with measures to limit global warming have been frequently mentioned in the Post and elsewhere in the media, the same economic models that show job loss from these measures would show much larger job loss associated with the increases in defense spending that we have seen this decade. Nonetheless, there has been virtually no discussion of job loss associated with… -
Cash for Clunkers Pushes Up Used Car Prices
4 Nov 2009 | 9:37 amI was waited to see if anyone would notice. USA Today gets the prize. It was pretty much inevitable that there would be a rise in used car prices following the C4C program. If you require that 900,000 trade-ins get destroyed rather than being resold, this has to create somewhat of a shortage in the used car market. It's remarkable that no one seemed to have noticed (there were big jumps in used car prices in the CPI for both August and September). --Dean Baker
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College Media Matters
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Arizona Wildcat Editorials Demand Justice for Stolen News
6 Nov 2009 | 3:58 amThe Arizona Daily Wildcat is rightfully demanding justice for the recent theft of 10,000 copies of the paper. In a pair of spirited editorials aimed at the alleged culprits (a campus fraternity) and those who did not do much to investigate it (campus police), Wildcat anger leaps off the Web page. – A portion of the editorial taking the police to task, which includes a kick-a** starter phrase: – “Someone stole the news, and the University of Arizona Police Department hasn’t done much to find the culprits. . . . After Spanish homework carrying the names of UA students and… -
CoPress Lands on Poynter, Becomes a Power-Player
3 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pmCreative, innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborate, and cross-pollinate. Those are five of the many tech-drenched words a new Poynter piece uses to describe the impressive-beyond-belief CoPress. It is an online network of student journalists and Web junkies who are providing tips, tools, and entire online platforms for student media outlets (SMOs) looking to up their Web games. – The roughly one-year-old organization promotes a student-first, open-source philosophy- attempting to persuade students to TAKE CONTROL of their own online destinies instead of being controlled by the… -
Student Journalist Spotlight: Jonathan Anderson, Ultimate College Press Freedom Fighter, UW-Milwaukee
2 Nov 2009 | 12:19 amJonathan Anderson is a terrific journalist. He has the records to prove it- most of which he requested himself. Simply put, Anderson is the ultimate college press freedom fighter. He may not be Braveheart, but he’s the epitome of Mel Gibson’s famous scream. – As the student journo extraordinaire at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee says, “The fundamental idea of freedom of information is immensely inspiring to me.”His legwork has become inspiring to others. The former top editor and current special projects editor at The UWM Post recently earned the Student… -
College Media Year in Review, 2008-2009
29 Oct 2009 | 8:46 pm“On a Sunday evening in early February, Daily Tar Heel staffers at the University of North Carolina were dealing with the usual stresses of a looming print deadline. And then the bomb dropped. Or at least the threat of one, which forced the evacuation of a few campus buildings, including the student union that houses the paper’s newsroom…” – So begins my look back at the year that was in collegemediatopia. The latest issue of College Media Review features my retrospective on all-things influential, controversial, innovative, and just-plain wacky in the world of… -
Schools Fight Back!: James Madison Charges Student Journalists, Butler Sues Student Blogger
28 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pmAt James Madison University, it started with a peeping tom- an alleged creep watching girls in dorm showers. It’s now ending with administrative idiocy. A student reporter with The Breeze, JMU’s campus newspaper, went to a JMU dorm recently to speak with students about a reported shower stalker. An RA became nervous and asked the reporter to leave. The Breeze EIC came by as back-up. So did the hall director. Now, as the paper and the Student Press Law Center report, the EIC and reporter are being charged with “trespassing, disorderly conduct and non-compliance with an…
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Old Media, New Tricks
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The Google Wave news community
3 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pmIf you are one of the lucky few who scored a Google Wave account, you’ve probably logged in, fumbled around a bit, probably were impressed by the instant nature of it — and you probably got annoyed relatively quickly at Wave’s slowness. If you have enough friends or colleagues who have invites, you might have gotten a peek at Wave’s potential as a collaboration tool. For journalists, collaboration with the public on news events is the (Google) wave of the future. I wrote about Wave’s potential for journalism for Media Bullseye. If you don’t know what Wave is,… -
Video: On the importance of content curation
2 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amHere’s a quick video I did for Bryan Person at LiveWorld when I was at the BlogWorld Expo 2009 (#bwe09). It’s geared mostly at brands curating their streams, but there are some ideas journalists can take away from it, I think. Enjoy: - Daniel B. Honigman -
Talking Lifestreaming on ‘The Kevin Sablan Show’
18 Oct 2009 | 8:53 amI was hanging out with Jon Lansner out at BlogWorld a couple of days ago when we decided to, as an homage to our mutual friend Kevin Sablan, record a podcast in his honor. We talked lifestreaming and storystreaming, but didn’t make fun of Kevin as much as I would have liked. Go figure. Kevin: This one is for you. - Daniel B. Honigman (with Jon Lansner) -
New Tricks: Storystreaming addressed in my lifestreaming white paper
14 Oct 2009 | 11:42 amI recently wrote a white paper on lifestreaming for Weber Shandwick. In it, I discuss what a lifestream is, how brands can take advantage of lifestreaming platforms, but also how journalists and editors can take advantage of storystreaming and eventstreaming, and what types of newsy content can be streamed. In addition to the Austin American-Statesman’s recent storystreaming efforts, the St. Paul Pioneer Press has also been using Posterous in some recent crowdsourced journalism projects: “Minnesota Sports Heaven” and “Snow Shots.” The journalism-related portion… -
New Tricks: Set up a YouTube account and customize your channel
6 Oct 2009 | 5:34 amWhether you’re a freelancer looking to get your work out there, or whether you’re a blogger at a mainstream media publication looking for an easy way to get your video content on the web, you’ll probably want to create a YouTube account to start a branded channel. Here are some quick YouTube how-tos: How to sign up for YouTube 1. Go to http://youtube.com and click the “Create Account” link that appears in the top right corner of the page. 2. Enter your desired username, as well as the rest of the information on the page. 3. Once you receive the confirmation e-mail and…
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Reportr.net
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Leonard Brody on thinking like an entrepreneur
5 Nov 2009 | 2:03 pmLeonard Brody’s keynote address to Connect ‘09 is well worth a watch. In his talk at the even for tech start-ups and innovators, organised by the BC Innovation Council, he outlines how we are in an age where innovation, entrepreneurial and technology are creating new opportunities. There are some lessons for the media here. (Via Techvibes) -
UBC journalism students report on Vancouver
31 Oct 2009 | 9:56 amPlease join me in congratulating my journalism students on the first edition of this academic year of our online publication, TheThunderbird.ca. My colleagues and myself at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism have been working with our grad students on stories from their beats in Vancouver. It was their first major assignment of the semester. This week was crunch time, with Thursday being an intense day of final edits and online production. The student uncovered a range of issues, from plans to open an illegal crack cocaine smoking space to the beetle decimating Vancouver lawns. There are… -
Award-winning Spanish news site Soitu.es closes
27 Oct 2009 | 6:35 pmJust a few weeks ago, the Spanish Soitu.es news site was praised for its “where core ideas come through as confident innovation and mesh with traditional journalism to create a fresh and distinctive package”. The words came from the judges at the Online News Association awards, where Soitu.es was, for a second year running, as an example of excellence in online journalism. But the pioneering news site is closing down. In a story titled, Hasta la vista y gracias, founder Gumersindo LaFuente talked about how Soitu.es had became a victim of the financial crisis. LaFuente explained… -
links for 2009-10-26
26 Oct 2009 | 5:13 pmMedia in Canada – keeping media and marketing execs up to speed on the Canadian media scene Circulation at Canadian dailies declines, with National Post down 20% and the Globe down 8.4%: (tags: Canada media newspapers circulation) CBC News – Canada – Biggest change in history of CBC News: What it means to you CBC News editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire on the "biggest change in history of CBC News": (tags: TV Canada CBC News journalism) BBC NEWS | Technology | End of an era for early websites The end of GeoCities, "a fascinating experiment in the pre-industrial… -
The U2 webcast on YouTube and the creation of social capital
26 Oct 2009 | 12:55 pmLike countless others, I watched at least some of the webcast on YouTube of the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl. It made me think of the only time I have seen U2 play live, more than 20 years ago at the Milton Keynes Bowl in Britain. Back then, to reach a global audience of millions would have required the collaboration of national TV networks. Today, all you need is YouTube. But it was still a one-to-many broadcast. The significance of the U2 webcast was less the webcast itself, but the integration of Twitter into the YouTube page. This added a real-time, social dimension to the concert,…
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Kyle Jameson
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Welcome
18 Oct 2009 | 8:28 amBlah.
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News After Newspapers
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Texas Tribune: an impressive launch that feels web-native
3 Nov 2009 | 6:42 amThe Texas Tribune lifts off this morning in Austin — there’s an election today — offering not only a slew of innovative features but also a unique content-sharing plan, by which the state’s legacy media can freely publish any content generated by the Tribune and dip into its multi-faceted information databases. Tribune CEO and editor Evan Smith took me on a tour through the site last night, showing off what he and a staff of just 16 (plus some outside help from Austin design group FlashBang) have put together in just three months of ramp-up time. Smith points out that Trib (as… -
Newspapers take a bus plunge: circulation plummets 10.6 percent
26 Oct 2009 | 3:02 pmIt’s hard to put a good face on this kind of news; in fact, it reminds me of the old “bus plunge” meme. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) reports that newspaper circulation for the six months ending Sept. 30 dropped 10.6 percent from the same period in 2008 (7.5 percent on Sundays). And this is an accelerating trend. Here are the results for the three previous six-month reporting periods (in each case, versus the same period one year earlier): — Oct. 1, 2008-Mar. 31, 2009: down 7.1 percent on weekdays, down 5.3% on Sundays— Apr. 1, 2008-Sept. 30, 2008: down 4.6 percent on… -
Has newspaper advertising reached rock bottom? Probably not.
22 Sep 2009 | 10:59 amDuring the last few months, as newspaper stock prices rebounded somewhat from their lowest points, and as newspaper execs suggested, in conjunction with second quarter results, that having made all the cuts they did, they would be in good shape “once advertising rebounds,” I found myself nevertheless thinking the same thoughts as the crystal ball-gazers consulted by the New York Times who said that the bottom, for newspaper advertising revenue, had not yet been reached.The good news is that the third quarter of 2009 won’t be quite as bad as the second: the consensus is that revenue will… -
Can newspaper publishers survive this revenue freefall? Perhaps, if they embrace a digital future.
31 Aug 2009 | 9:41 amWithout the fanfare that accompanied the recent release of its online readership data, the NAA quietly posted last week its latest compilation of quarterly revenue data for U.S. daily newspapers, in a data set it has maintained for 50 years. The latest figures, for the second quarter, show an alarming drop of 30.15 percent in print revenue and 15.90 percent in online revenue versus the same period in 2008. Despite signs elsewhere that the recession may have bottomed out, these figures are even worse than the first quarter results (declines of 29.70 percent in print and 13.40 percent online). -
NAA/Nielsen stats show newspapers own less than 1 percent of U.S. online audience page views, time spent
5 Aug 2009 | 6:04 pmThe NAA has issued another of its regular updates on the state of the U.S. daily newspaper Web audience. As usual, the numbers, sourced from Nielsen Online, sound impressive: Newspaper Web sites attracted more than 70.3 million unique visitors in June (35.9 percent of all Internet users), according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America. Newspaper Web site visitors generated 3.5 billion page views during the month, spending 2.7 billion minutes browsing the sites over more than 597 million total sessions. NAA mentions that Nielsen has changed…
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Recovering Journalist
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When Presses Roll Less, Execs Spin More
27 Oct 2009 | 9:08 amNewsosaur Alan Mutter calls the double-digit drop in the latest newspaper circulation figures "devastating." Content Bridges' Ken Doctor's adjective of choice is "breathtaking." Poynter's Rick Edmonds goes with "extraordinary."Meanwhile, at the San Francisco Chronicle, whose 25.8 percent daily circulation drop over the past year was more than double the rest of the industry's and the steepest of all major papers, publisher Frank Vega says things are going according to plan.Huh?Vega can spin all he wants—something about the remaining… -
Twitter and Breaking News
18 Oct 2009 | 4:44 pmTwitter can be maddening in many ways, a cacophony of voices with a lousy signal-to-noise ratio—does anybody really care what somebody else had for breakfast?But one thing that Twitter excels in is breaking news. Its broadcast, real-time, 140-character headline nature makes it a perfect vehicle for the latest news, whether it's being generated by on-the-spot observers (or participants) and retweeted far and wide, or whether it's being used by news organizations to blast out their latest headlines.The latter seems a slamdunk use of Twitter by news organizations—it's just a… -
Wise Words, Worth Reading
1 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pmI haven't blogged much lately because, well, I got tired of repeating myself. How much more can be said about how the media landscape is changing, and how traditional media companies are missing the boat? At this point it seems better to just let the situation play out. So I've been holding my fire. Besides, I've been busy with GrowthSpur, trying to find solutions to the problems with the media that I've been railing about for years.But there are a couple of great pieces today from other commentators about what's going on in the media business, and I wanted to point to… -
World Wide Whoops
8 Sep 2009 | 8:54 pmTip for media sites: If you start a new feature, be sure to lock up the URL for it before you launch it. That prevents domain squatters from grabbing away the newly named feature's Web address, and that in turn makes it harder to defend a trademark or to promote the feature under its own domain name. Pretty elementary stuff, and this sort of thing is standard operating procedure at most Web companies (who also know to grab the xxxsucks.com variant of any trademark or URL). But media sites, always casual about trademarking new features, often seem to miss this little detail.Case in… -
Bill Wyman Speaks Truth to Power
13 Aug 2009 | 3:08 pmMillions of words have been spilled over the past couple of years about what's wrong in the news business (many of them on this blog). But if you want to read a few thousand words that explain the state of play with superb clarity and brutal frankness, check out Bill Wyman's just-posted two-part series exploring why the news business is in the mess it's in today. It's thoughtful and probing and justly critical of the people who lead (and work in) news organizations.Among many other things, Wyman explains well why many of the more simplistic proposed fixes (charging…
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Mark Coughlan
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Currently Watching: Special Forrrces
1 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pmSome light relief. -
Currently watching: Clay Shirky, how social media can make history
25 Oct 2009 | 12:17 pmSocial not technological… -
Augmented Reality Usage by US Postal
22 Jul 2009 | 6:32 amI’ve a quiet fascination with augmented reality since TEDx Dublin. Here’s one of the best uses I’ve since for it, from the US Postal Service. Brilliant, creative, functional. -
The [L]Ink Pen – 20/7/2009
20 Jul 2009 | 1:01 pmJesus, I’m busy lately. [L]ink Pen - What the future will look like for journalists How the press responded to the NotW phone-hacking story. Irish Election coverage of An Bord Snip Nua Print isn’t dead. Creative and Innovative. Yes please. -
Adam Curtis – Century of Self (Ep. 1 of 4)
14 Jul 2009 | 1:21 pmVery lefty but worth watching., if you haven’t yet. It’s 58 minutes long, so have your lunch prepared beforehand. Props to Gav for the link.
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Topix.net Weblog
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Stay Connected with the Topix Toolbar
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmToday, Topix launched its new community toolbar, powered by Conduit. Never miss a reply to your comments. Stay on top of the latest news for your town. Grab the most popular headlines and Top Stories. Right in your browser. Already... -
Sparta Tennessee Cop Investigated for Fake Subpoena
25 Sep 2009 | 4:32 pmWe really love local news. We see ourselves at Topix as part of the local ecosystem of news and community, especially in towns which have a lot of usage (We have nearly a million daily page views in Tennessee, mainly... -
Topix launches local news iPhone app
11 Sep 2009 | 11:35 amToday, Topix launched its first iPhone app, the Topix Aura. With in-depth coverage nationwide, Topix Aura dynamically updates local information based on your GPS location or saved ZIP code. You can easily browse a stream of the latest local information,... -
Thumbs Up for Topix at SXSW
20 Aug 2009 | 12:42 pmIt’s that time again. Time to cast your vote, make yourself heard, and decide the agenda for the 2010 SXSW Interactive Conference. Last year, Chris Tolles moderated a lively panel on User Generated Content. LA Weekly wrote a great... -
"Daily Telegraph" Modern as Namesake
19 Aug 2009 | 4:16 pmAn article in the Daily Telegraph, making the "what's all this, then?" argument that the "social media revolution is going nowhere". came my way on Twitter via Andrew Keen. The author makes a bunch of vaguely arguable points, damns the...
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Emily Ingram
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ONA09: “What if I’m not going?”
The Online News Association's 2009 conference is about to kick off. ... And it's already taken over my Twitter feed. Not going to this year's conference? No worries. You can catch free livestreams of the conference's keynote speakers: Twitter CEO Evan Williams - Friday, 9 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. Central Technology journalist Leo Laporte - ... -
Week 5: Add portfolio materials and install plugins
This post is the fifth in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the first, second, third and fourth posts if you missed them. Check back next week for more. It's Week 5 ... -
Week 4: Put up your resume in HTML and PDF formats
Apologies for the delay, folks, but after a bit of a holiday break, I'm back. This post is the fourth in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the first, second and ... -
Week 3: Write first blog post and About page
This post is the third in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the first and second posts if you missed them. Check back next week for more. This week you're going to ... -
Week 2: Find a theme, install it and customize it
This post is the second in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the kickoff post if you missed it. Check back next week for more. So, now that you've done everything that's ...
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Metaprinter
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Free Webinar via ComScore – State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q3 2009
5 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amAs it pertains to media news, the following is a great way to learn more about consumer sentiment and economic trends. I tune in to better gauge how e-commerce can help my customers and where they should be directing their ad spending (print, web, mobile, direct mail, etc..). State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q3 2009 Date November 12, 2009 Location United States Speaker comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni Session Time 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT Description You are cordially invited to join comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni as he presents a quarterly review of the state of the U.S. -
Columbia Journalism School Prizes and Programs 11-2009
4 Nov 2009 | 9:35 amHere are some prizes and continuing education programs at Columbia that I would like to alert you about. 1. When Veterans Come Home: A Workshop for Working Journalists The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism is collaborating with the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma and the Carter Center Mental Health Program to offer a workshop on “When Veterans Come Home: A Workshop for Working Journalists” on Jan. 7-9, 2010 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga. The workshop will address the special challenges facing local and regional news organizations seeking to improve their coverage of… -
Columbia J-School Presents Advanced Google Docs & Cloud Computing for Journalists
15 Oct 2009 | 7:09 amColumbia Journalism School presents a new webcast/call-in show on Thursday, noon-1 pm ET. You can listen live via phone or web; you can also catch the recording via the web and iTunes – details below and at http://bit.ly/columbiajdocs see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/2cOTeG Advanced Google Docs, Cloud Computing for Journalists: Get the latest tips and tricks about Google Docs, the suite of web-based, collaborative computing services that many journalists are using these days – http://docs.google.com. Learn best practices as well as new features. We will also address… -
Where was Google all this time? – Great story about information dissemination
9 Oct 2009 | 10:50 amWilliam Kamkwamba recounts his mission to overcome famine and poverty in his village by building a windmill from a picture in a library book. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c -
Coumbia Journalism School Webcast – Think Like a Newsroom Manager
7 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pmThe Columbia Graduate School of Journalism presents a special webcast to talk about the Case Method, a powerful new tool available for journalism teachers, to help them train students to think like newsroom managers and industry leaders. Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 1-2 pm ET (see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/wY15O ) Listen live, or later to a recording: http://bit.ly/columbiajcm (you can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link) Or call-in to listen and/or talk to them at +1-646-915-9583 Send your questions/comments via e-mail to sree@sree.net (subject = webcast) of via…
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Metaprinter
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Free Webinar via ComScore – State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q3 2009
5 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amAs it pertains to media news, the following is a great way to learn more about consumer sentiment and economic trends. I tune in to better gauge how e-commerce can help my customers and where they should be directing their ad spending (print, web, mobile, direct mail, etc..). State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q3 2009 Date November 12, 2009 Location United States Speaker comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni Session Time 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT Description You are cordially invited to join comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni as he presents a quarterly review of the state of the U.S. -
Columbia Journalism School Prizes and Programs 11-2009
4 Nov 2009 | 9:35 amHere are some prizes and continuing education programs at Columbia that I would like to alert you about. 1. When Veterans Come Home: A Workshop for Working Journalists The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism is collaborating with the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma and the Carter Center Mental Health Program to offer a workshop on “When Veterans Come Home: A Workshop for Working Journalists” on Jan. 7-9, 2010 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga. The workshop will address the special challenges facing local and regional news organizations seeking to improve their coverage of… -
Columbia J-School Presents Advanced Google Docs & Cloud Computing for Journalists
15 Oct 2009 | 7:09 amColumbia Journalism School presents a new webcast/call-in show on Thursday, noon-1 pm ET. You can listen live via phone or web; you can also catch the recording via the web and iTunes – details below and at http://bit.ly/columbiajdocs see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/2cOTeG Advanced Google Docs, Cloud Computing for Journalists: Get the latest tips and tricks about Google Docs, the suite of web-based, collaborative computing services that many journalists are using these days – http://docs.google.com. Learn best practices as well as new features. We will also address… -
Where was Google all this time? – Great story about information dissemination
9 Oct 2009 | 10:50 amWilliam Kamkwamba recounts his mission to overcome famine and poverty in his village by building a windmill from a picture in a library book. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c -
Coumbia Journalism School Webcast – Think Like a Newsroom Manager
7 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pmThe Columbia Graduate School of Journalism presents a special webcast to talk about the Case Method, a powerful new tool available for journalism teachers, to help them train students to think like newsroom managers and industry leaders. Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 1-2 pm ET (see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/wY15O ) Listen live, or later to a recording: http://bit.ly/columbiajcm (you can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link) Or call-in to listen and/or talk to them at +1-646-915-9583 Send your questions/comments via e-mail to sree@sree.net (subject = webcast) of via…
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Themediaisdying
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themediaisdying: Charleston Post and Courier announce more layoffs : http://tr.im/ElFd #CHS
6 Nov 2009 | 10:32 amthemediaisdying: Charleston Post and Courier announce more layoffs : http://tr.im/ElFd #CHS -
themediaisdying: Purpose Driven Connection magazine has closed : http://bit.ly/pPbHY
4 Nov 2009 | 3:47 pmthemediaisdying: Purpose Driven Connection magazine has closed : http://bit.ly/pPbHY -
themediaisdying: NICE! Google launches create and Share custom News sections : http://bit.ly/17QQh7
4 Nov 2009 | 3:44 pmthemediaisdying: NICE! Google launches create and Share custom News sections : http://bit.ly/17QQh7 -
themediaisdying: MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT? : Amazon.com pays WSJ $6 for $15 subscription to WSJ on the Kindle. (RT @kenli729)
4 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pmthemediaisdying: MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT? : Amazon.com pays WSJ $6 for $15 subscription to WSJ on the Kindle. (RT @kenli729) -
themediaisdying: GOT TIPS, JOBS, CVS, RESUMES? Send them to mediaisdying@gmail.com - also please check out / RT @themediaishuntn + @themediaishirin (jobs)
4 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pmthemediaisdying: GOT TIPS, JOBS, CVS, RESUMES? Send them to mediaisdying@gmail.com - also please check out / RT @themediaishuntn + @themediaishirin (jobs)
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The Media Manager
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Jay Rosen: 10 points about social media
5 Nov 2009 | 9:58 amThe communications scholar Jay Rosen from New York University addressed an Australian conference today on social media. He sent along his speech via Skype but provided a list of themes on Tumblr beforehand.Rosen is always engaging, fairly much a fellow who has turned the corner on conventional media, and thoughtful enough to not lord it over those who need to come along.Here are his bons mots in brief:"1. Audience atomization has been overcome. (Link)2. Open systems don’t work like closed systems. (Link)3. The sources go direct. (Dave Winer)4. When the people formerly known as the… -
Journalism 2.0: Digital next step, quality
5 Nov 2009 | 9:49 amMark Briggs posts on the inevitable reflection bound for digital journalism, now that most everyone is trying it. He echoes the concerns many have had in the last year or so --- that simply trying your hand at digital journalism wasn't going to be enough, that at some point the issue of quality needed to be addressed.But Briggs, in a discussion with others on his Journalism 2.0 site, notes that the "ready, fire, aim" approach was in some respects necessary to get some activity. Now that people get it, they need to get it right.A colleague suggested to him that quality could be assessed in a… -
Does Twitter make a journalist more valuable?
5 Nov 2009 | 9:39 amOn The Media Blog, Chris Elliott suggests there might be a link between the online circulation successes of a newsroom and the number of its journalists who use Twitter.It is a convenient argument to suggest Twitter is a waste of time, but as Elliott argues, even if it is, "time has never been so well wasted." Moreover he observes a correlation between newsroom audience growth and newsroom Twitter use.He suggests that using Twitter as an instrument for distribution and solicitation of content is of great value to a brand, and he believes the value of a journalist increases as one enters the… -
INMA's Earl Wilkinson: The focal points for newspapers
5 Nov 2009 | 3:30 amThe executive director of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association identifies priorities he perceives before the good times roll again.They include learning how to make the transformation, how to develop stronger customer relations management, audience engagement, greater marketing and now-hidden assets.Earl Wilkinson believes these are attributes in need of attention before the good times roll again. The environment is such that it's possible to focus on these matters in challenging times to simply make momentum for the stronger times ahead. -
Social media not isolating Americans: Pew report
5 Nov 2009 | 12:04 amThe conventional wisdom is that the more we are wired, the more we are insular --- that the social networks are actually anti-social in consequence.But a report indicates Americans aren't as isolated as one might assume in their activities on cellphones and social networks. The extent of social isolation hasn't changed since 1985.The Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey says Americans have a narrower field of discussion overall, but those in social networks or on cellphones actually have expanded their base of contacts.Cellphones and social media have enhanced engagement.Nor do…
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Nieman Journalism Lab
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Links on Twitter: Exclusivity and community at the Financial Times, slideshow of Gawker Media’s offices, Google’s magazine newsstand
6 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pmHow exclusivity built a community at the FT’s finance blog, which gets 500k monthly uniques http://tr.im/EkF2 » The new newsroom: Great slideshow of Gawker Media’s “steampunk” offices http://tr.im/EkLb (HT @carr2n) » The new Chicago News Co-Op needs much more funding to cover costs. Editor paying himself $0 in first year http://tr.im/EkU3 » In Twitter lists, @megangarber sees a “codification of the media’s increasing openness to…collaboration” http://tr.im/ElQk » Off the record: TPM publisher Josh Marshall lunched with Obama and other… -
Welcome to Davis, Calif.: Six lessons from the world’s best local wiki
6 Nov 2009 | 6:54 amAh, Davis: home of 60,000 people, 30,000 students, 188 sunny days a year, a 16 percent bike commute mode share and the busiest local wiki in the world. If I were Omaha World-Herald Publisher Terry Kroeger, I’d be booking my post-holiday flight immediately. As Gina reported here last week, Omaha’s employee-owned metro daily just bought WikiCity, an Omaha-based Web startup that wants to provide mini-Wikipedias for every city in the country. Creating a cheap platform for evergreen, user-generated local Web content has been tried, um, once or twice before. But with some notable… -
Google News embraces self-identification of content
5 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pmSome online-only news organizations were upset when Google News began attaching a “(blog)” label to their content two months ago. Others, like me, complained the label was outdated and inconsistently applied. Now Google News is asking publishers to label themselves. In an update to its -
Links on Twitter: Obama administration’s support for shield law, Talking Points Memo’s new NewsStream, New York Times as light beams
5 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pmObama administration, supporting shield law, says definition of a journalist has been “much improved” http://tr.im/Eh10 (PDF) » Is Google indexing comments on your site? How The Guardian made its comments system SEO-friendly http://tr.im/EeG4 » RT @niemanstory: Stripping story to the bone: a look at Wired’s “Cutthroat Capitalism” http://bit.ly/VSsoG » RT @joshtpm: New feature: TPM NewsStream http://bit.ly/1WPcd1 autoupdating, all network, best of TPM, w/topic areas » The New York Times visualized as light beams on a multitouch table… or… -
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions the news consumer of the future
4 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pmFor all the bluster about Google as an enemy of the news industry, you might be surprised to learn that Eric Schmidt, the company’s CEO, is kind of a triumphalist for mainstream media, big newspapers, and print. He took questions from reporters this afternoon at Google’s offices in Cambridge, and I asked him, among other things, why Google News had recently begun attaching a “(blog)” label to some news sources — a move I criticized last month. Schmidt resorted to bringing up bloggers’ moms: Me: A very small question. Google News very recently added a label for…
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State of the Fourth Estate
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[Moment of Silence] EV Tribune
3 Nov 2009 | 7:13 pmBorn in Boston, but I went to high school in Phoenix, so always watch the market closely. Not to mention, it’s also the employer of one of my cousins and closest family members (the ying to my new media yang). Moment of silence, for the East Valley Tribune. -
A Free Newspaper Passes the Post
30 Oct 2009 | 7:04 amFrom Reuters yesterday evening: Metro US, the leading free daily newspaper, has become the 5th largest circulated newspaper in the country according to newly released circulation statistics. With a US circulation of 590,553 daily copies according to the most recent Certified Audit of Circulation report, Metro US newspaper (New York, Philadelphia, and Boston) has effectively pulled ahead of the Washington Post to reach this position. Washingtonian’s have the Express, so they may not be completely familiar with Metro, but its functionally the same and has reach in a few extra cities. -
[Quote of the Day] Why Newspapers are like the Titanic
27 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm“The best analogy I can think of is — have you ever heard of the Titanic Fallacy?” he asked. We hadn’t. “What was the critical flaw to the Titanic?” We tried to answer: Poor construction? Not enough life boats? Crashing into stuff? “A captain trying to set a world speed record through an iceberg field?” he said, shaking his head. “Even if the Titanic came in safely to New York Harbor, it was still doomed,” he said. “Twelve years earlier, two brothers invented the airplane.” ~NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. via Mediaite -
[Morning Treat] Stewart Explains Net Neutrality
27 Oct 2009 | 4:10 amWhat’s Net Neutrality? My answer: legislation/ideal that says the people who control the wires that let you log-on the Internet have shouldn’t have any say in what – or the speed in which – you download any kind of content. Stewart’s answer: much funnier; involves an inappropriately placed Unicorn horn. -
Weekend Treat: Fake AP Stylebook on Twitter
23 Oct 2009 | 9:49 am[Stuff] My Dad Says is pretty funny. FakeAPStylebook is funnier: H/t: Gawker
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Nieman Journalism Lab
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Links on Twitter: Exclusivity and community at the Financial Times, slideshow of Gawker Media’s offices, Google’s magazine newsstand
6 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pmHow exclusivity built a community at the FT’s finance blog, which gets 500k monthly uniques http://tr.im/EkF2 » The new newsroom: Great slideshow of Gawker Media’s “steampunk” offices http://tr.im/EkLb (HT @carr2n) » The new Chicago News Co-Op needs much more funding to cover costs. Editor paying himself $0 in first year http://tr.im/EkU3 » In Twitter lists, @megangarber sees a “codification of the media’s increasing openness to…collaboration” http://tr.im/ElQk » Off the record: TPM publisher Josh Marshall lunched with Obama and other… -
Welcome to Davis, Calif.: Six lessons from the world’s best local wiki
6 Nov 2009 | 6:54 amAh, Davis: home of 60,000 people, 30,000 students, 188 sunny days a year, a 16 percent bike commute mode share and the busiest local wiki in the world. If I were Omaha World-Herald Publisher Terry Kroeger, I’d be booking my post-holiday flight immediately. As Gina reported here last week, Omaha’s employee-owned metro daily just bought WikiCity, an Omaha-based Web startup that wants to provide mini-Wikipedias for every city in the country. Creating a cheap platform for evergreen, user-generated local Web content has been tried, um, once or twice before. But with some notable… -
Google News embraces self-identification of content
5 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pmSome online-only news organizations were upset when Google News began attaching a “(blog)” label to their content two months ago. Others, like me, complained the label was outdated and inconsistently applied. Now Google News is asking publishers to label themselves. In an update to its -
Links on Twitter: Obama administration’s support for shield law, Talking Points Memo’s new NewsStream, New York Times as light beams
5 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pmObama administration, supporting shield law, says definition of a journalist has been “much improved” http://tr.im/Eh10 (PDF) » Is Google indexing comments on your site? How The Guardian made its comments system SEO-friendly http://tr.im/EeG4 » RT @niemanstory: Stripping story to the bone: a look at Wired’s “Cutthroat Capitalism” http://bit.ly/VSsoG » RT @joshtpm: New feature: TPM NewsStream http://bit.ly/1WPcd1 autoupdating, all network, best of TPM, w/topic areas » The New York Times visualized as light beams on a multitouch table… or… -
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions the news consumer of the future
4 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pmFor all the bluster about Google as an enemy of the news industry, you might be surprised to learn that Eric Schmidt, the company’s CEO, is kind of a triumphalist for mainstream media, big newspapers, and print. He took questions from reporters this afternoon at Google’s offices in Cambridge, and I asked him, among other things, why Google News had recently begun attaching a “(blog)” label to some news sources — a move I criticized last month. Schmidt resorted to bringing up bloggers’ moms: Me: A very small question. Google News very recently added a label for…
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UWIRE College Media Beat
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College Media Beat Temporarily On Hold- Check Out College Media Matters
27 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pmCollege Media Beat is temporarily on hold. Check out the latest news from Dan about all-things college media at College Media Matters. -
Editor Reflects on Recent Battles with Student Government
19 Oct 2009 | 2:57 amIn a reflective new post on her personal blog, Whit editor in chief Emily Kostic at Rowan University outlines her seesaw mentality toward the paper’s recent gung-ho coverage and editorializing about the school’s student government. – In her words: Over the past month, The Whit . . . has published several controversial stories about our Student Government Association. It got heated. The Montclarion (the college newspaper at Montclair State University who has been in legal battles with their SGA over similar issues as ours) published an editorial supporting us. -
Daily Californian: “Let’s Talk About Sex”
19 Oct 2009 | 2:40 amIn a recent editorial, the senior editorial board of The Daily Californian, the independent student newspaper at UC-Berkeley, tsk-tsked both parties involved in Towson University’s Towerlight sex column controversy. According to the write-up, student press freedom, not sex, was the real issue at stake in the “Bed Post” dispute- and the Towerlight editor’s resignation and the Towson president’s financial threats undercut that freedom dramatically for the entire country to see. – One portion of the editorial stated: – Though the pressure on [the former… -
Pulitzer Winner: Michigan Daily is the Best Journalism Education Anyone Can Have
11 Oct 2009 | 12:32 pmIn a new video clip, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, reflects on his Michigan Daily days. According to Robinson, who served as a co-editor in chief of the paper 35 years ago: “I’ve always said The Michigan Daily is the best journalism education that anyone could ever have. It was the certainly the best I could ever have. I learned about the craft of journalism, but I also learned about the passion and the commitment and the sense of a mission that ultimately drew a lot of us into journalism and sustained us throughout… -
College Media Links: Anger Over Sex and Call for Equality
8 Oct 2009 | 11:49 amStudent editor resigns over sex column: The Towerlight at Towson University is in serious flux because of Lux, the pseudonymous writer behind the sex column “The Bed Post.” Recent columns have divided the editorial team, incensed the university president, and is causing a media ruckus now that the editor in chief has quit (?!) in the wake of increasing administrative anger. This Baltimore Sun editorial especially says it all: “There may indeed be little journalistic value in “The Bed Post” . . . Aside from its questionable taste, it violated many of the…
