How to Add Meaning,Context to Census Data about Minorities

17.08.2010 - 17:10
The Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon recently invited me to Portland, Ore., with an unusual request: Lead a panel discussion to help us understand who we are as a community.When I was a reporter for The Oregonian, I covered this nonprofit and often relied on it for sources. My race and ethni [...]

Use Authentic Experiences,not Formulas,to Talk about Race,not Formulas

23.07.2010 - 17:24
Watching and reading news reports about race in America is a depressing endeavor. Just this week, race has dominated the headlines, from racism in the ranks of the tea party to USDA's Shirley Sherrod being dragged through the mud based on an edited video being posted on a prominent conservative blog [...]

How Social Media Can Help Journalists Reach Ethnically Diverse Groups

15.07.2010 - 06:05
The Pew Research Center released a report last week that confirms what Cristina Fernández-Pereda of El País and Natalie Hopkinson of The Root have known all along: Latinos and blacks lead all other racial and ethnic groups when it comes to texting and Twitter.Remember the digital divide, the gap b [...]

CNN Producer:Audiences Want Religion News,but Journalists Reluctant to Cover it

11.06.2010 - 16:27
When I called CNN Producer Eric Marrapodi last week to ask him about the network's new Belief Blog, he was driving around Louisiana helping to cover the Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- and seeing signs that religion is often the untold story behind today's biggest news. Literally. "It's the sign on the [...]

'Date-Rape Column' Prompts Talk about Students Publishing Controversial Content Responsibly

30.04.2010 - 14:06
In the age of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, it's easy to get lulled into believing that gender issues are no longer as controversial as those of race or sexual orientation.It took one 500-word column in The Eagle, American University's independent student newspaper, to disabuse us of that notion [...]

Percentage of Minorities is Higher Than Last Time Newsrooms Were This Size

15.04.2010 - 14:14
The findings from this year's annual American Society of News Editors census reflect an all too familiar trend: diversity in the nation's newsrooms is declining.From 2008 to 2009, the number of full-time minority journalists dropped from 6,300 to 5,500, a decrease of 12.6 percent. Overall, newsrooms [...]

David Mills' Career Renews Attention to How Race Affects the Way We Tell Stories

14.04.2010 - 18:09
I teach a graduate course on race issues in reporting at American University and had long planned to focus one of my recent class sessions on a New York Times article titled, "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story'" The piece, which was part of the Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "How Race is Lived i [...]

Ombudsman Says NPR Reporters Need to Look Harder for Female Sources

07.04.2010 - 20:55
When National Public Radio Ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote about gender imbalance among NPR's sources and commentators last week, she made a bold claim: "The network is not as diverse on air as it would like to think." Shepard, with the help of two NPR interns, spent a little over a year collecting d [...]

Boyd Memoir Tells of Race,Politics,Plagiarism at The New York Times

16.03.2010 - 17:23
Robin D. Stone asked for a show of hands. Who, she asked a group of about three dozen students at Michigan State University, had heard of New York Times plagiarist Jayson Blair' A dozen hands went up. She then asked who had heard of Gerald M. Boyd, his managing editor at the time. No one stirred.She [...]

As Hollywood Prepares for Oscars,a Final Word on Colorless Vanity Fair

04.03.2010 - 21:29
Gold statuettes, red carpets and blue Na'vi will mark this weekend's Oscars, but the top-nominated films and actors unfortunately have something in common with a recent controversial Vanity Fair cover: They lack color.Outside of the nominations connected to "Precious: Based on a Novel by Sapphire," [...]

Media Call Out Women's Hockey Team for 'Debutante Ball'

02.03.2010 - 21:53
Journalists who are dismissive of women's sport, or who treat it like a slightly humorous oddity (kind of like water-skiing squirrels and other kicker stories) often rely on hackneyed sexist stereotypes. Cheap shots are easy, so it's no surprise when the old boys of sports rely on them. It's the jou [...]

Woods:'We Miss the Normal Part of People's Lives' When Covering Diversity

29.01.2010 - 17:14
I've been writing and teaching about diversity, race and ethnicity for more than 15 years -- about as long as Keith Woods has been at The Poynter Institute. His "Untold Stories" seminar shaped the way I reported on undercovered communities, and became the model on which I built a class on covering r [...]

Events,Not Enterprise,Driving Most Stories about Hispanics

14.12.2009 - 21:05
An editor's most predictable question to a reporter is: Does your story have a news peg' Events drive news coverage. They always have.But something clearly has changed, forcing events, breaking news or the story of the day to drive the narrative more than ever.When I arrived at the Houston Chronicle [...]

Reporters Share Different Takes on Treatment of Race in Woods,Salahi Coverage

11.12.2009 - 18:33
For better or worse, Tiger Woods and Tareq Salahi have captivated the news media as much as, if not more than, the troop surge in Afghanistan and the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.   Beyond tabloid headlines and blond wives, the philandering golf legend and half of the White Hous [...]

When is Fort Hood Suspect's Faith Relevant in Media Coverage'

09.11.2009 - 22:20
On Friday morning, Minhaj Hasan, editor-in-chief of The Muslim Link in College Park, Md., checked local headlines on the shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas, that had taken the lives of 13. They rang all too familiar.A Washington Times' headline read: "Army: Suspect Said 'Allahu Akbar!' Before Shooting." Me [...]

Federal Judge Says Website Not Liable For Comments

03.09.2010 - 20:23
From Online Media Daily, a small item about a libel case dismissed by a Southern District court. The case involves a news website in Mississippi, which a former employee sued for libel when it posted an article about her arrest for cocaine possession and failed to moderate the comments below the art [...]

A Fortune Look at Arizona's Private Prisons

03.09.2010 - 19:03
A tip of the hat to this Fortune story from a couple of weeks back highlighting the prison-industrial complex in Arizona, which has tried to privatize all the state's prisons (emphasis mine): According to research firm IBISWorld USA, private corrections is a $22.7 billion industry with an annual gro [...]

Wise Up

03.09.2010 - 18:18
Mike Wise wasn’t. Earlier this week, the Washington Post sports columnist decided to tweet a fabricated claim that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would be given a five game suspension by the NFL. Wise later said the erroneous tweet was his way of showing that "anybody will prin [...]

What Really Happened in Takhar'

03.09.2010 - 17:58
There was an air strike this week in Takhar, a province wedged between Badakhshan and Baghlan in northeastern Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) claims they managed to kill off a major leader in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist group operating in [...]

Q & A:Longshot co-founder Alexis Madrigal

03.09.2010 - 15:00
This past May, a group of California writers and designers hunkered down one weekend in the Mother Jones office for a radical experiment in publishing: an independent magazine fully produced in just two days. They actually did it, and it looked pretty good, too. Last week, the folks that brought you [...]

Murdoch Could Learn a Thing or Two from WSJ.com

03.09.2010 - 17:15
Chris Roush has a brief interview posted with Alan Murray, who heads up The Wall Street Journal's digital operations, including WSJ.com. I've long been a fan of the Journal's leaky paywall approach. They've got pay figured out far better than anyone else, including the Financial Times. So this, abou [...]

Q & A:Longshot co-founder Alexis Madrigal

03.09.2010 - 15:00
This past May, a group of California writers and designers hunkered down one weekend in the Mother Jones office for a radical experiment in publishing: an independent magazine fully produced in just two days. They actually did it, and it looked pretty good, too. Last week, the folks that brought you [...]

Audit Notes:The Swells at CNBC,Quote Stuffing,Austerity for Thee

03.09.2010 - 03:32
Barry Ritholtz lays into CNBC this morning for one of those decidedly numbskulled views of the world so many of its journalists seem to have. In this case, they were going on about how awesome layoffs are. Three years into a recession or near-depression, the well-to-do folks on CNBC have got some re [...]

A Swedish Shield,Unraised

02.09.2010 - 23:40
Julian Assange, the public face of the secret-sharing site WikiLeaks, has recently been spending a lot of time in Sweden. And given a recent investigation of rape charges against him, he may not be going anywhere else for awhile. While that courtroom drama plays out, another Swedish legal issue—on [...]

Barron's Investigates the Shady Reverse-Merger Business

02.09.2010 - 23:23
A hearty Audit huzzah to Barron's and reporters Bill Alpert and Leslie P. Norton for a superb investigation into Chinese companies that list in the U.S. stock markets by reverse merging into American shell companies. Sounds shady from the get-go, no' Well, here's what Barron's found: A Barron's stud [...]

Keeping an Eye on Hospital Safety

02.09.2010 - 22:52
Slowly the public is coming to realize that hospitals are not always safe places. When the Institute of Medicine published its landmark study "To Err Is Human” a decade ago, pointing out the ubiquitous problem of medical errors in the U.S., the press yawned. Since then, though, a grassroots patien [...]

Covering the Self-Serving Fuld Testimony

02.09.2010 - 19:43
The coverage of Dick Fuld's appearance before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is somewhat uneven this morning. The Wall Street Journal's report, unfortunately, goes for the savvy angle: Playing up the political differences on the panel and how that will affect its ability to produce a report [...]

Q & A:Politico's Maggie Haberman

02.09.2010 - 19:20
Maggie Haberman covered New York politics for over a decade at the New York Post, with a three-and-a-half-year stint at the rival Daily News. In that time she’s earned the fear of the state’s politicians and the respect of her peers—the Daily News’s Liz Benjamin told The New York Observer, " [...]

NYT Advances Oval Office Gets New Rug,Chairs Story

02.09.2010 - 18:51
The New York Times today publishes its third piece on the recent "subtle redo" of the Oval Office. There was, yesterday, Sheryl Gay Stolberg's A-12 news story about the Now More Neutral room, and Maureen Dowd's column bashing the makeover (which, apparently, nearly makes Dowd miss "the the Technicol [...]

"Data Is the New Soil”

02.09.2010 - 15:00
Journalist and designer David McCandless gave an inspiring TED talk last month, just posted online last week. In it, he shows off some of his favorite visualizations of data and explains why visualization is increasingly vital, the more information we as media consumers are exposed to. He says, "It [...]

Citizen Media Business Issues:Traffic Rankings,Search Engines,and Search Engine Optimization

05.06.2009 - 22:39
(This is the seventeenth in a series of postings about citizen media business issues. See the introduction here. All of these entries are considered to be in "beta” and will be revised and refined as they find a home on a more permanent area of the Center for Citizen Media web site. To (...)

Citizen Media Business Issues:Web Statistics

03.06.2009 - 20:59
(This is the sixteenth in a series of postings about citizen media business issues. See the introduction here. All of these entries are considered to be in "beta” and will be revised and refined as they find a home on a more permanent area of the Center for Citizen Media web site.   To that end, [...]

Investigative Blogger Raising Funds

23.04.2009 - 21:13
Firedoglake is raising money to pay for investigative blogging.

Berkman Center Talk Next Tuesday

16.04.2009 - 20:11
I’ll be speaking next Tuesday at lunchtime at the Berkman Center. Topic (and link for RSVP): Mediactive: Why media consumers, not just creators, need to be active users.

Journalism and Location

16.04.2009 - 00:38
I’ll be speaking at the Where 2.0 conference next month in San Jose, about journalists are using, and can use, location-related products and services. The talk is called Where Does Journalism Go'You can get a 25 percent discount by using this code — whr09rdr — when registering.

Summer New Media Program at Arizona State

13.04.2009 - 20:01
The Cronkite School at Arizona State is offering a summer New Media Academy “for adults who want to understand how communication is changing and how to set up and maintain a fully functional, multimedia-rich Web site.”

ProPublica Invites the Public’s Help

09.04.2009 - 18:19
ProPublica has launched the citizen-journalism portion of its operation, or at least the first iteration. By posting The Obama Team’s Disclosure Documents and asking readers to help figure out any potential conflicts of interest or other facts that are worth knowing, the site is doing what newspap [...]

Location,Location

06.04.2009 - 15:48
Combining mobility, time and location is becoming one of the most valuable techniques of media creation. Last week, some students and I did a small experiment that demonstrates how easy this is to do, and suggests all kinds of possibilities for journalistic follow-ups. This Flickr map has more than [...]

Pundit to Critic:Fuck You

01.04.2009 - 06:31
It’s hard surprising when someone fires back at a harsh critic of his or her employer’s competence and/or ethics. But when that someone is superstar New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, and the return fire takes the form, in part, of “Fuck you,” it raises a few eyebro [...]

Reporting on the Phantom Financial Economy

30.03.2009 - 20:01
Accompanying Simon Johnson’s remarkable, must-read Atlantic article, “The Quiet Coup,” is this chart:What’s not noted here — or in most traditional media coverage of the meltdown — is something that everyone should understand. These profits were an illusion in the [...]

New Investigative Project

30.03.2009 - 18:31
Jay Rosen: Introducing the new Huffington Post Investigative Fund (And My Own Role in It) The announcement of its birth, along with the $1.75 million starter budget, is really the launch of a new Internet-based news organization with a focus on original reporting. You might say the Fund’s oper [...]

Watching Walmart Spread Through America

26.03.2009 - 20:02
Flowing Data: Watching the Growth of Walmart Across AmericaBrilliant. I was working in the Midwest when Walmart’s destructive march across the nation’s heartland was just gaining strength. This visualization looks like the nuclear explosion map in old movies, and the imagery — if o [...]

Google Power

25.03.2009 - 01:01
Google is pointing from its home page today to a page about World Tuberculosis Day and that, in turn, points to the Stop TB Partnership, a nonprofit organization. A worthy cause, and good for Google for pointing to it.Consider the power of this endorsement. I suspect that with this single link, Goog [...]

Guest Blogging Elsewhere Next 2 Weeks

09.03.2009 - 20:02
I’ll cross-post the media related items here, but for the next 14 days you’ll find me over at BoingBoing.

Saving Local Journalism, One Step at a Time

06.03.2009 - 18:01
Chris Anderson (Columbia University):  What’s So Hard About Local' Where should our foundation dollars go' Perhaps they should go towards assuring that the so-called "lowly” (and yet, so oddly difficult to fund either a peer-produced or market based substitute for!! so much for lowly!) beat rep [...]

Court victory for British journalist accused of forging interviews

03.09.2010 - 22:07
A British journalist's reputation has been restored after he won an Austrian High Court libel over a claim, distributed internationally by Associated Press , that he made up interviews in his book.

Open the airwaves to close the bandwidth shortage

03.09.2010 - 19:02
There is no bandwidth shortage. Visitors to Burning Man will get free cellular calls this weekend as a result.

Minister defends Rasool post

03.09.2010 - 14:52
Former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool's appointment as ambassador to the US will not be reconsidered until allegations that journalists were paid to write favourable reports about him have been proven.

Rape investigation into Wikileaks chief reopens

03.09.2010 - 10:38
The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is said to be 'angry and disappointed' at the prosecutors' decision enlarge Allegations against Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, took an unexpected turn yesterday when Sweden's top prosecutor announced she was reopening a rape investigation.

Report:Aide to U.K. PM linked to royal phone taps

03.09.2010 - 06:23
Britain's government came under pressure Thursday amid allegations that a top prime ministerial aide was involved in illegally tapping cell phones of members of the royal family.

South African journalists fear limits to press freedom

03.09.2010 - 02:14
South African President Jacob Zuma's government has proposed a 'protection of information' bill that reporters fear will limit press freedom.

Investigative journalist Veronica Guerin,who was killed in 1996

02.09.2010 - 22:00
Former contact of murdered journalist Veronica Guerin in Dutch police custody after joint operation with UK Veronica Guerin, who was shot dead shot dead by the pillion passenger on a motorbike as she stopped at traffic lights in Naas, just outside Dublin, in June 1996 Photograph: PA/PA Archive/PA Ph [...]

Journalist "resisted arrest":minister

02.09.2010 - 17:50
The police were forced to call for back-up in the arrest of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika because he resisted, writes Caiphus Kgosana .

Ruff Times riding major market trend

02.09.2010 - 13:40
An awful August, but it was great for Howard Ruff. And he expects to continue that way.

Kerala CM Achuthanandan cautions against communal propaganda

02.09.2010 - 09:36
New Delhi Sep.1 : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, in an interview to senior journalist K. Gopalakrishnan underlined the secular character of the State of Kerala, and said that the State police will intervene against any attempt to disturb it.

Paste Magazine folds

02.09.2010 - 05:26
Paste has died. It's a sad day for music journalism fans. The Americana-oriented indie music magazine based out of Decatur, Georgia -- whose tagline was "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture" -- has folded its print edition, though publishers say that the magazine will continue its website.

Microsoft ships 'Fix-It' for DLL load hijacking attack vector

02.09.2010 - 01:16
Microsoft has released a Fix-It tool to help mitigate the latest DLL load hijacking issue that exposes Windows users to remote code execution attacks.

ANC bodies at each other's throats

01.09.2010 - 21:12
The suspension of SABC group CEO Solly Mokoetle has pitted ANC structures against each other, with the youth league reprimanding the military veterans for threatening to institute criminal charges against board members.

Spreadsheet cloud nirvana:Zoho supports 1 million cells,handily tops Google Apps

01.09.2010 - 17:02
Calling people with spreadsheet fetishes - you know who you are. Zoho launched its Sheet 2.0 with support for 1 million cells per workbook, 65,536 rows and 256 columns.

Obama remarks on Iraq as provided by White House

01.09.2010 - 12:52
Despite President Barack Obama's declaration Tuesday of an end to the combat mission in Iraq, combat almost certainly lies ahead.

Wiki life

31.08.2010 - 20:02
“Everyone brings their crumbs of knowledge to the task and if they don’t, we’re the lesser for it.” I love that line about encouraging more people to bring more knowledge to Wikipedia, from a conversation yesterday with Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundat [...]

Internet,schminternet

10.08.2010 - 14:59
I am baffled by the Google-Verizon agreement on nonnet-nonneutrality. I’m mostly baffled by why Google would put its name to this. What does it gain' As I see it, the agreement makes two huge carve-outs to neutrality and regulation of the internet: mobile and anything new. So ol, grandpa inter [...]

Bad things could happen

07.08.2010 - 16:42
Farhad Manjoo New York Times review of Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus relies on the argument I hear a lot in privacy circles: Bad things could happen. Shirky imagines what good things people could do if they watched less TV and created more stuff together (2,000 Wikipedias bloom). Manjoo yes- [...]

The price of privacy

05.08.2010 - 16:43
I love it when economists and their ilk reduce a complicated issue in life to a simple line and chart (that’s what makes Freakonomics so popular). At the latest New York Tech Meetup, Drop.io founder Sam Lessin did just that with my favorite topic: privacy and publicness. In a rebuttal to Clay [...]

Whither magazines'

05.08.2010 - 02:38
Three people I respect a great deal now lead the big magazine companies: David Carey (ex Condé) at Hearst, Bob Sauerberg at Condé, and now Jack Griffin at Time Inc. — and I’ll add Justin Smith at Atlantic. It’s a big challenge to head a magazine company these days (witness the sa [...]

Cookie Madness!

01.08.2010 - 00:03
I just don’t understand Julia Angwin’s scare story about cookies and ad targeting in the Wall Street Journal. That is, I don’t understand how the Journal could be so breathlessly naive, unsophisticated, and anachronistic about the basics of the modern media business. It is the Reef [...]

Crowdsource government work

29.07.2010 - 15:59
One way to reset the relationship of government and the public — from constant complaint — is to make it collaborative — thus constructive.In my pollyanna way, I imagine a day when citizens could take over some tasks of government to save money and do them better. How about this as [...]

Value-added journalism

27.07.2010 - 14:53
I asked Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, whether his paper should have started Wikileaks. I wondered whether the Guardian was looking at WIkileaks the way it looked at HuffPo when it started (that is, ‘darn, we should have thought of that, so we will’ … and it star [...]

Disliking the public

25.07.2010 - 16:30
There are those in the press and government who don’t like or trust the public they serve. It is an unliberal attitude–which can come from Liberals, by the way–for it doesn’t buy the core belief of liberal democracy that the people properly rule. Two classic examples:Here we [...]

Advertising is next

24.07.2010 - 17:32
Condé Nast is a house built on smoke and mirrors — that is, to say, on brand advertising. So it is astonishing to hear its CEO, Chuck Townsend, essentially toss the company’s business model out the window of the Death Star in what The Times frames as “a fundamental overhaul of the [...]

Don’t fragment books (or other content)

23.07.2010 - 03:20
I agree with Devin Coldewey at CrunchGear that Andrew Wylie’s deal to publish big authors’ backlists exclusively on the Amazon Kindle is bad for readers (and for authors and for the industry). Fragmenting content such that one has to buy one device to read one author and another to read [...]

It’s still about friends

21.07.2010 - 03:22
Three examples of back-handed positive coverage for Facebook:* bNet praises the anticipated Facebook Stories campaign about the service’s 500 million friends:Stories of communities using Facebook to come together to help a family in need; stories of finding a long-lost love on Facebook; of fin [...]

The First Amendment wins one

13.07.2010 - 21:48
Bravo. The Court of Appeals has struck down the FCC’s indecency rule — specifically, its fines for “fleeting expletives” — as “unconstitutionally vague.” No shit. Fox is the official victor here. The other networks also win. But we all win whenever the First [...]

What phone(s) should I buy' Or not'

12.07.2010 - 16:52
I’ve been debating my phone strategy: I now have a two-generations-old iPhone on AT&T and a Nexus One on T-Mobile plus an AT&T laptop card. Do I buy the new iPhone 4' Do I buy a new Android' Do I shift on Android from T-Mobile to Verizon' Do I move to one phone and platform' (...)

The Quark of programming'

12.07.2010 - 16:48
I think Google’s App Inventor tool that enables anyone to program an Android app could be profound. But then, I thought Buzz was a big deal, so what the hell do I know' Is it possible that the App Inventor could do to development what Quark did to publishing and Blogger did to the web: (...)

Clarification: The Digital Edge Blog is Open-Access

01.10.2008 - 20:22
Someone pointed out to me today (thanks, Peter) that I should make sure you all know that the Digital Edge blog is still an open-access blog. Yes, parts of the NAA Community are behind the members-only wall, but the Digital Edge blog and all the new blogs we've launched through the NAA Communit [...]

Moving Day! Digital Edge Blog Moves to NAA Community

25.09.2008 - 16:22
By now (unless you’re reading this blog through an RSS-reader only), you’ve probably noticed the new NAA Community announcements at the top of this blog. Yes, the Digital Edge Blog is moving to a bigger, better, nicer home. From here on, the blog will be integrated into the NAA [...]

Congratulations to Emmy Winners: Free Press and Mercury News

23.09.2008 - 17:25
Just a quick congratulations to the Detroit Free Press and the San Jose Mercury News staffers who won News & Documentary Awards (part of the Emmy Awards). We love to see our newspapers embrace online video and get positive national recognition for their efforts. The Free Press won two award [...]

August Sessions Per User: Journal Sentinel in Top 10

22.09.2008 - 18:03
The Drudge Report kept its No. 1 spot in August in monthly sessions per user among Nielsen Online’s Top 30 Current Events & Global News Destinations, slipping again from 20.5 sessions per user in July to 19.4. Daily Kos jumped up several spots to No. 2 with 11.2 sessions per user.  Th [...]

Digital Resarch for Online Sales Reps

19.09.2008 - 18:25
In just about every edition of the Online Publishing Update, I’ve been including interesting research nuggets about the online audience that might be useful for online ad sales reps to keep in their arsenal. Here’s a roundup of the most interesting ones from the past few months: Res [...]

Local Search: What Your Customers are Looking For

17.09.2008 - 21:05
At a jam-packed session at the Online News Association Conference this weekend, the moderator of a panel asked a series of questions about the audience's usage of online ads. Here's what happened:Moderator: Who has intentionally clicked on a display ad online in the past month'Audience: ... A f [...]

ACAP: Why You Should Care

13.09.2008 - 06:04
 The following came from a session at the 2008 Online News Association Conference about ACAP (the Automated Content Access Protocol): According to ACAP Program Director Mark Bide, copyright laws in place now worldwide have largely worked and are still effective. But in the digital age, we [...]

ONA 2008: Newsroom Convergence Tips

12.09.2008 - 16:03
Yesterday, I attended “Like Minds,” a pre-Online News Association Conference workshop that focused on convergence in newspaper newsrooms (at least, my section of the workshop did). The ideas-sharing session of the workshop included these ideas for getting over some of the bumps in c [...]

ONA Conference: Tell Me What to Cover

09.09.2008 - 17:44
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I’ll be at the Online News Association Conference here in Washington. I will attend a few sessions on Saturday for Presstime magazine (see below), but my entire day on Friday is open for me to go to whatever sessions you think I should attend.  Here are your [...]

Leuders: Newspapers Matter

08.09.2008 - 22:05
“Conservatives say newspapers are hurting because readers are fed up with how liberal they are. Liberals say newspapers are hurting because they've become shills for conservatives and tools of corporations. … Here's what I say: Newspapers are hurting because the people who should be rel [...]

In Focus: The Honolulu Advertiser

04.09.2008 - 20:29
We’ve added to our Zooming In on Online Video series this week with a short case study on the Honolulu Advertiser. Hawaii, as many people know, is a beautiful place and the newspaper had an understandable desire to cover the news with video as much as with words and pictures.Gannett&rsquo [...]

PRESSTIME: New Tools, J-School and Telling the Story

02.09.2008 - 21:46
In this month’s issue of PRESSTIME:New Tools for a New Job As the Internet continues to evolve, so have the ways newspapers spread content on the Web. In the past, articles, videos, photos and blogs were bound to the newspaper’s main Web site. That is no longer the case, and many newspap [...]

Times-Picayune Adjusts for Hurricane; Lessons from Katrina Heeded

02.09.2008 - 18:09
At least a few newspapers made adjustments to their print runs for Hurricane Gustav, but the real adjustments were online.Dan Shea, managing editor/news, told Editor & Publisher that 120 newspaper staffers were at the newspaper’s offices Sunday evening, and more than half stayed long past [...]

Online Ideas Gallery: Alphabet City

27.08.2008 - 22:07
 We just put yet another new idea into the Online Ideas Gallery, NAA’s database of best practices and innovative ideas. Alphabet City, a quiz on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Web site, is a local landmark-recognition game spearheaded by the photo department. Although the Post-Dispat [...]

Idea Log: Newspapers Ramp Up Digital Media for Convention

26.08.2008 - 23:46
Newspapers – especially the Denver newspapers and a few national outlets known for politics – are putting out some fabulous digital media-based coverage of this week’s Democratic National Convention. Here’s a short round-up!  Please add to this list by telling us wh [...]

Locked-out journalists start weekly

03.09.2010 - 19:52
The journalists locked out by French-language daily the Journal de Montréal will start publishing a free weekly tabloid at the end of October.

China's journalists under threat

03.09.2010 - 19:00
Mr. Niyaz 's "crime"' Giving an interview to foreign media after the July 2009 ethnic violence in Xinjiang - even though he maintained the government's line that the violence had been sparke...

Alaska is right to review Bill Allen sex abuse case

03.09.2010 - 18:48
There are no guarantees that the state will pursue the case, but Alaskans should be glad that Attorney General Dan Sullivan is reviewing the sex-abuse investigation of former Veco president Bill Allen...

Journalists allege assault by CPI-M cadres in Bengal

03.09.2010 - 18:12
Kolkata, Sep 3 : At least six journalists were allegedly assaulted Friday by a group of armed Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in West Bengal's West Midnapore district, police said. How...

Locked-out journalists start weekly

03.09.2010 - 17:37
The journalists locked out by French-language daily the Journal de Montréal will start publishing a free weekly tabloid at the end of October.

Gangbangers meet the press

03.09.2010 - 17:12
sowhatandmethree at 8:37 AM September 03, 2010 Let's get to the media's role in this.As this column indicates, as did excerpts on the radio. this group was, to be charitable, less than coherent. But...

Press Freedom - Do We Really Understand What This Means

03.09.2010 - 17:02
There has been much noise and fury recently across a range of news outlets in this country about press freedom. "We want a free press" - you hear the journalists cry, and surely you think to yourself ...

U.S.,Cuba will not swap 'Cuban Five' prisoners for Gross,State Dept. says

03.09.2010 - 16:42
The U.S. State Department Thursday flatly denied reports that the Obama administration is considering swapping the "Cuban Five" spies in U.S. prisons for a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Hava...

Journalists roughed up by Delhi Metro staff

03.09.2010 - 16:06
New Delhi, Sep 3 : A ride on the inaugural train on the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar stretch Friday turned out to be a bitter experience for two journalists as they were allegedly manhandled by a D...

Which food has more fairy dust,and which journalist will report it

03.09.2010 - 15:51
New York Times magazine piece , Michael Pollan told us to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  What is often forgotten is that this was not a prescription for eating as much as it wa...

Africans Consider News Service for Whole Continent

03.09.2010 - 14:37
Church Leaders See Need for Networking in CommunicationNAIROBI, Kenya, SEPT. 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- "Fragmentation is our biggest weakness," says a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communica...

Haiti's presidential candidates are spending big

03.09.2010 - 14:28
Even before being deemed qualified to run, presidential hopefuls in impoverished Haiti faced a hefty bill: a $12,500 nonrefundable filing fee. Now they are finding that the amount will only get ste...

Geelani's efforts to remain in the headlines(Article)

03.09.2010 - 16:10
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir, has, in a press conference in Srinagar on Aug, 31, laid down five pre-conditions which, he feels, would restore peace lead to re-initiation of the dialogue process.

Bulgarian Economy Ministry Alters Press Release after F1 Scandal

03.09.2010 - 13:57
The Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, had amended its official press release from August 30, announcing plans to build a Formula 1 race track near Sofia with financing from Abu Dhabi. The comp...

Today in the press

03.09.2010 - 11:50
The benefits for firms who relocate their headquarters to Ireland - a practice known as corporate inversion - are significant. In addition to low corporation tax rates, they can benefit from the fact ...

What Does Obama Unleashed Sound Like

03.09.2010 - 17:11
What does Obama unleashed sound like' President Obama has been slowly turning up his political rhetoric for months. He's made broad attacks on Republicans and taken specific shots at people like Senat...

Shipman's closes up shop

03.09.2010 - 18:14
“We are probably the only store supplying kids with science project kits and other materials for their school projects,” Irfaan said. “We were also the only game in town when it came...

Waterbury Ave footbridge close to completion

03.09.2010 - 18:14
Work is progressing on the Waterbury Avenue pedestrian bridge being reconstructed by the NYS Department of Transportation. Much of the railing and fencing is now in place.New railing that is the same ...

NYC man attempted to stash marijuana in state trooper's patrol car

03.09.2010 - 18:14
A New York City man attempted to stash marijuana in a Delaware state trooper’s patrol car Friday after his companion was pulled over for speeding, police said.Delaware State Police said around 2...

Crossway church boots three Gregori supporters

03.09.2010 - 18:14
Three worshipers at the Crossway Christian Center who have been vocal in their loyalty to the former pastor, Mark Gregori, are getting the boot.Each has received a letter ordering them not to return t...

Albanian community celebrates Mother Teresa

03.09.2010 - 18:13
Get on the bus!The Albanian community in the borough was overflowing with pride as Albanian-born Mother Teresa was honored at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the anniversary of her 100th birthday on ...

Community Appreciation BBQ a success

03.09.2010 - 18:13
Pelham Bay’s first ever Community Appreciation Day barbecue was a big success, drawing the community out to rediscover a jewel in its own backyard. The Pelham Bay Taxpayers and Civic Association...

WikiLeaks founder's lawyer unsure whether client is in Sweden

03.09.2010 - 18:13
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's lawyer said Friday he does not know whether his client, who is being investigated by Swedish authorities over rape and molestation allegations, was still in Sweden, ...

Tiger posed for photo after signing over $100M

03.09.2010 - 18:13
A smiling Tiger Woods was happy enough after officially ending his marriage to Elin Nordegren that he posed for a picture with a court bailiff.Nordegren got $100 million as part of the deal, which was...

DiNapoli tells state workers how to game pension system

03.09.2010 - 18:13
ALBANY – Even while telling New Yorkers to pony up $1.3 billion more next year to cover soaring pension costs, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is advertising on his official Website how government w...

How to win friends and influence politicians

03.09.2010 - 18:04
While the media and politicians engage in frenzied debate about the virtues and vices of building – or preventing the building of – a Muslim community center (cum mosque) near the “sacred ground...

A Greek vegetarian menu

03.09.2010 - 18:04
The Mediterranean diet, with its emphasis on vegetables and olive oil, became famous as a result of in-depth studies based largely on the menus of the residents of Greece.Vegetables are important in G...

UV rays make water in space

03.09.2010 - 17:38
They made the discovery while examining a dying star that is 500 light-years away from Earth, using an infrared observatory launched by the European Space Agency last year.

Toshiba recalls about 41,000 computers

03.09.2010 - 17:38
The recalled models are the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite ProT130 notebook computers, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Kia models under fire recall

03.09.2010 - 17:38
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Hyundai-Kia Motors is recalling more than 35,000 cars with fire-prone electrical wiring systems, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.The government agenc...

TimesOpen 2.0:Get Inspired

TimesOpen Mobile/Geolocation:Speaker Lineup

Announcing the TimesOpen 2.0 Events

OSCON 2010 Report

Get Ready to Say Goodbye:Congress API V2

Behind the Scenes of a Live World Cup

Introducing the Districts API

What We're Reading

More Subject Headings Published as Linked Open Data

Dress Up Your App With NYT API Logos

RailsConf 2010:Dig Into the Code

Introducing the Most Popular API

Look for Us at RailsConf 2010

Using the Congress API With Spreadsheets

Building a Better Submission Form

Business,Entrepreneurial Skills Come to Journalism School

03.09.2010 - 21:34
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.For decades, journalists in mainstream news organizatio [...]

How to Conquer Journalism Students' Fear of Technology

02.09.2010 - 20:00
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.In a time and age when many of my generation assume the [...]

Revamping J-Schools in Australia to Bring in 'Citizens Agenda'

01.09.2010 - 22:01
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.As Australian democracy hangs in the balance, and with [...]

Special Series:Beyond J-School

01.09.2010 - 00:43
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.About this SeriesAfter the success last month with our [...]

5Across:Beyond J-School

31.08.2010 - 22:39
5Across is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.Just as traditional media has struggled with disruptive technology and the Inte [...]

How to Teach Social Media in Journalism Schools

30.08.2010 - 21:24
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.Editor's Note: This is the first in our special series [...]

4 Minute Roundup:Google Offers Free Calls via Gmail

28.08.2010 - 01:36
4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.In this week's 4MR podcast I look at the recently launched free phone service from [...]

Free Speech at Stake as India Demands Encrypted BlackBerry Data

26.08.2010 - 20:40
Next week will be decisive for BlackBerry corporate users. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) could provide a solution to help security agencies in India access corporate email by obtaining encrypted data in readable formats. If RIM does not offer a solution before the end of the month, India [...]

While Others Shrink,KQED Expands Cross-Platform News

25.08.2010 - 19:55
Last month, KQED News in San Francisco dramatically expanded the scope of its news coverage with a new website, an increase from six to 16 local radio newscasts and the addition of eight news staffers, including six producers/reporters, a developer and a social media specialist. Its expansion will c [...]

KCET's 'Departures' Exemplifies Community Collaboration

24.08.2010 - 20:36
I've written for MediaShift several times about journalistic collaboration between news organizations, such a the Climate Desk project, for example, or Public Media's EconomyStory. But there's another kind of collaboration that's critical to the future of journalism: Collaboration between a news org [...]

Smartphone,HDTV Boom Begets Gargantuan E-Waste Problem

23.08.2010 - 19:48
The digital media revolution promises to improve the quality of our lives though an expanded capacity to communicate, collaborate, learn and make informed decisions. Yet our seemingly insatiable demand for digital media is driving a proliferation of consumer electronic devices and IT infrastructure, [...]

4 Minute Roundup:Facebook Places Wants to Be Turned Off

21.08.2010 - 02:43
4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.In this week's 4MR podcast I look at the recently launched Facebook Places location [...]

CrowdSpring Brings Crowdsourcing to Design,Writing

20.08.2010 - 19:40
If you run any kind of business, large or small, you're always looking for ways to get quality work done at a low cost. And when it comes to contract jobs like web and logo design, or copywriting, you're caught balancing between quality and cost. A couple years ago, CrowdSpring launched as a way for [...]

Social Media,Entrepreneurship Dominate AEJMC 2010

19.08.2010 - 20:05
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.The problem with five jam-packed days of panels and eve [...]

How Metadata Can Eliminate the Need for Pay Walls

19.08.2010 - 00:04
You have to admire his chutzpah. Rupert Murdoch, the so-called nemesis of public interest news, is now being hailed by some as its potential savior. Sick and tired of people reading his news outlets for free online, Murdoch has erected pay walls around his sites (or some of them at least). Anyone wh [...]

About That Lawyer ...

Mark Your Dictionaries

There's Only One Child Myth

Reinventing the newspaper

When 'Might' Makes Wrong

When 'Domestic' Doesn't Mean Domestic

Happy New Decade!

Not-Coms

Ambush' Why Not 'Conflagration'' Or 'Gefiltefish''

more lowercase silliness

Downs and Ups

You Can Write,but You Can't Edit

If You Libel,You May Be Liable

Say,Say,Say

Wish I'd Thought of That

This blog is now a Web cobweb,Part 2

21.08.2009 - 19:29
It's done. I am no longer actively blogging at this radio.weblogs.com address.A copy of all posts before this one is now at http://www.stepno.com/oldblogMy current blog is at http://www.stepno.com/blog-- and if I move it, that address will bounce to my current most-used blog, as well as updating the [...]

This blog is now a Web cobweb

27.07.2009 - 07:11
As indicated in the previous post, for seven years this blog was hosted at radio.weblogs.com, which is being discontinued.  So I am posting an archive of all the site's files, going back to 2002, in this subsection of stepno.com.  The conversion to the new site is not perfect. For one thin [...]

Only six months to live! Big surprise for me...

23.06.2009 - 23:18
Well, I think I've held out longer than most...  seven years in Internet time is pretty long! Since April 2002, this blog has been hosted on the "radio.weblogs.com" server run by Userland Software, the company that makes the blogging package  "Radio Userland." The hosting has been included [...]

Ukulele madness at NPR (and at my house)

14.06.2009 - 23:13
Summertime news: Fiddling while Rome burns may have been a sign of Nero's craziness, but strumming a ukulele is therapy, according to NPR.  I woke up to this piece on the radio yesterday...Even in Bleak Times, The Ukulele Thrives: NPR MusicRather than wait for some conspiracy theorist declare a [...]

Summer reading:The save-journalism and save-newspapers debate

31.05.2009 - 07:30
For summer catch-up reading: A collection of news and blog pieces on the "future of news" and "newspaper bailout" debates and related issues...Senate hears a dim forecast for newspapers' future by Andrew Miga, AP, via GoogleSave the separation of press and state, by David Carr, NY TimesIn Congress, [...]

Soviet spy story footnotes chapter in

20.05.2009 - 22:21
In "Say It Ain't So, Izzy," the New Haven Independent's Paul Bass reviews a recent controversy over investigative journalist I. F. Stone's contacts with the Soviet Union... back when there was one. Apparently, Stone was someone the Soviet KGB talked to often enough in the 1930s to have a code name f [...]

NY Times offers bloggish features

12.05.2009 - 20:33
Linking "off site" was an early feature of blogs that commercial newspapers' sites were slow to adopt, for fear of letting the reader escape to the other distractions of the Web. We've come a long way... Now The New York Times "Extra" button on its home page gives you an expanded page view with extr [...]

Three views of journalism today,only two involving swine...

03.05.2009 - 20:30
Swine flu strikes the downsized newsroomUnrelated to the "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip above -- also not to be confused with the wonderful Pearls Before Breakfast, which I use as an example of break-the-rules storytelling in newswriting class. This one is a horror story about the meeting of two [...]

Cirque du Soleil Inspires Newspaper Designer

03.04.2009 - 23:01
In this short TED video, newspaper designer Jacek Utko, says the transformation from circus to performance art by Cirque du Soleil inspired him to search for equally revolutionary design ideas in newspaper publishing.From the TED intro: "Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose [...]

Growing a new forest of news while dead-tree media fall

03.04.2009 - 20:02
Seeing a new media ecologyMy headline takes some liberties with Stephen Berlin Johnson's ecological metaphor for the current transition in the reporting and delivery of news, but I recommend his essay, one of several good ones this week on saving the news or finding a sustainable model for civic or [...]

Times, Twitter, Sprouts and a campus drive-by

25.02.2009 - 17:32
This month I've been using my Boblog blog a lot more than this one recently, because I can post from a variety of computers. Samples:So who and what is Twitter good for'Drive-by shooting at edge of campus (and it's a good thing, too)New Ways to Read the Times (another good thing)New media tools Spro [...]

Is Flash animation Viagra for old media'

31.01.2009 - 19:31
A friend just passed along a link to this item from Newsday, a Walt Handlesman animated editorial cartoon of primary interest to Baby Boomers, especially those who are or were Steppenwolf fans (mp3 sample)... but also probably of interest to anyone who wants to have a chuckle at Boomers' expense. Af [...]

iNventing the new news-media

12.01.2009 - 21:31
David Carr's "The Media Equation" in The New York Times this weekend has an interesting observation about Apple, iTunes and the changes in the music industry: Let's invent an iTunes for NewsCarr wonders whether something like a large-format iPod and an "iTunes Store" news service could breathe some [...]

Media optimism found at Harvard

08.01.2009 - 08:31
Media Re:public: News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age is a series of papers on "the potential and the challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment" generated in or around Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society... and involving "journalists, blog [...]

Citizen Journalism Site Features Blue Ridge Muse

30.12.2008 - 09:30
Doug Thompson, who blogs from Floyd in words and pictures at http://blueridgemuse.com, is featured in the Knight Citizen News Network's collection of tools and tips for citizen journalists. "I'm flattered that they chose to feature Blue Ridge Muse as part oftheir 'learning modules,'" he says, "but I [...]

Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck Joins NAA Board

06.05.2010 - 00:00
Mary Junck, chairman and CEO of Lee Enterprises was appoined to the board of directors of the Newspaper Association of America by NAA Chairman Mark G. Contreras, senior vice president/newspapers of The E.W. Scripps Company.

Alt-Weekly Publisher Village Voice Media Underwriting Challenge to Arizona Immigration Law

06.05.2010 - 00:00
Village Voice Media is underwriting the cost of a lawsuit challenging Arizona's controversial immigration law. In a note to readers Thursday, VVM Chairman and CEO Michael Lacey and Executive Editor Jim Larkin said the law forces "all law enforcement in the state (to) adopt the police-state tactics o [...]

Out of Bankruptcy,'O.C. Register' Parent Planning No Divestitures or Layoffs,COO Says

06.05.2010 - 00:00
In the first town hall-style meeting with employees after emerging from bankruptcy, Freedom Communications executives said there are no plans to sell, break up or shrink the chain. One thing is being jettisoned, interim CEO Burl Osborne told employees -- the mandatory espousal of libertarianism by i [...]

'E&P' Online is Changing Servers - Please Update Your Feeds!

04.05.2010 - 00:00
We'll be switching over today to a new server, so please bear with us as we make the transition. If you receive any of our content via an RSS feed, click through for the new link through which you can update your feed.

'Beaumont Enterprise' Publisher Newhouse Resigning

05.05.2010 - 00:00
John E. Newhouse II, publisher of The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise since 2007, announced Wednesday afternoon he is leaving the newspaper to pursue a new business opportunity, the newspaper reported.

Torstar Swings to Q1 Profit as Newspaper and Digital Revenue Rebound

05.05.2010 - 00:00
Toronto Star parent Torstar reported a first-quarter profit Wednesday on improved results from its newspapers and digital assets. In the Star Media Group, including the Toronto Star, Canada's biggest daily, revenue was up 4.7% to C$107.1 million, said the group's publisher and president, John Cruick [...]

'Oklahoman' Lays Off 57 as Advertising 'Struggles'

05.05.2010 - 00:00
Citing a "struggling advertising environment," The Oklahoman eliminated the jobs of 57 employees Wednesday.

Washington Post Co. Mulling 'Newsweek' Sale

05.05.2010 - 00:00
The Washington Post Co. said Wednesday it is exploring the possibility of selling Newsweek, the 77-year-old magazine it has published since 1961

'El Paso Times' Appoints New Publisher

05.05.2010 - 00:00
A one-time El Paso Times circulation manager has been named the far West Texas paper's publisher.

AP Names Asst. Bureau Chief for Illinois,Indiana

05.05.2010 - 00:00
Patrick McDowell, Asia-Pacific editor for The Associated Press, has been named assistant chief of bureau for Illinois and Indiana.

Community Publisher GateHouse Media Reports Q1 Loss - But Actual Gain in Print Classified Revenue

04.05.2010 - 00:00
GateHouse Media in the past couple of years has not generally been the place to look for good news about the newspaper industry. After a blockbuster initial public offering, it was de-listed from the Big Board, had access to its credit facility cut because of its high debt and was forced to abandon [...]

Rupert Murdoch on 'Liberal' Newspapers,iPad as Savior and the Economic Outlook

04.05.2010 - 00:00
In a wide-ranging interview on Fox Business Network Tuesday afternoon, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch opined that liberal-leaning newspapers were chasing people to Fox News, that the iPad may well be the "savior" of newspapers, and that his company's recent success could portend an economic rebo [...]

Judge Orders Media Ban on Coverage of Teen's Murder Case

04.05.2010 - 00:00
In Canada, the slaying of an eight-year-old girl has raised eyebrows among the media not only for the heinousness of the crime, but also for a gag order that is preventing the ensuing court case from being covered.

Gay Weekly 'Chicago Free Press' Folds

04.05.2010 - 00:00
Chicago Free Press has folded after 11 years as one of two principal newspapers serving the city's GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) community.

'Dallas Morning News' Parent Narrows Q1 Loss Despite Continuing Ad Slump

04.05.2010 - 00:00
Dallas Morning News parent A.H. Belo Corp. reported a first-quarter loss Tuesday of $9.13 million, or 44 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $100.7 million, or $4.91 a share in the year-ago period, which included a big non-cash impairment charge. Chairman and CEO Robert Decherd (left) said the [...]

links for 2010-09-03

03.09.2010 - 16:01
Cell phones and American adults | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Note that this report only covers voice calls and text messaging, not any of the many other uses of cell phones. (tags: mobile research generations text+messaging SMS) Power-law and why we fail to [...]

links for 2010-09-02

02.09.2010 - 16:00
Missoulian's digital manager's parting shot at editors "I believe in the process of news and the responsibility of a local newspaper to provide news to the citizens. Unfortunately, newspapers are helmed by old, decrepit captains who cannot see past their bifocals way down their noses r [...]

links for 2010-09-01

01.09.2010 - 16:00
MediaShift Idea Lab . What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity | PBS "Perhaps what we can learn from all of this is that objectivity, while important as an ideal of fairness, should not be seen as a way of achieving "detached-ness," if you will. But heck, this blog post is b [...]

links for 2010-08-31

31.08.2010 - 16:01
OpenBlock Demo site is now live (for Boston) "OpenBlock is an open source software initiative to bring hyper-local news and data capabilities to news organizations of all sizes. "OpenBlock builds upon the source code originally developed for EveryBlock.com, and is supported by the John S. an [...]

links for 2010-08-30

30.08.2010 - 16:00
Mobile Testing | Mobile Website Development | Mobile Interactive Testing Environment (MITE) from Keynote Systems MITE provides interactive testing and validation of mobile content right on your desktop. Test content with 1,600+ mobile device profiles over a live wireless network, mobile ca [...]

Would you quit Twitter' Reflections on personal media choices

29.08.2010 - 19:50
Wow. If You Think Quitting Booze Freaks People Out, Wait ‘Til You Quit Twitter. Very interesting insights from TechCrunch’s Paul Carr. I think there is much to be said for periodically cutting back on (or eliminating) anything that feels absolutely essential or habitual to you, to gauge how [...]

links for 2010-08-29

29.08.2010 - 16:00
Historic Preservation ~ City of Oakland, California Apparently, Oakland's historic preservation guidelines are nationally famous (tags: Oakland history government) Finding a prepaid SIM card CNET On call – CNET Reviews "Unfortunately, the prepaid phone situation in the United States i [...]

links for 2010-08-28

28.08.2010 - 16:00
RIP Breaking News Online App: You Were the Best Way to Get News Fast "The app was a favorite of news-junkies and reporters around the world. Even members of the RedCross said they used it to find out about natural disasters before any other channel alerted them. Then in November, Breaking News a [...]

links for 2010-08-27

27.08.2010 - 16:00
How To Take Screenshots of the HTC Droid Incredible in Mac OS X with the Android SDK | Guide (9 Steps) « Wonder How To It's incredibly frustrating that you can't take screenshots with a stock unrooted droid incredible. Here's one hack that might work. (tags: android tutorial pro [...]

links for 2010-08-26

26.08.2010 - 16:00
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D.: Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Every Day Applied cognitive science: Tips for shifting your mood to reduce stress. Yeah, I've gotta do this. (tags: brain cognitive+science science tips emotions life) AMC's &The Walking Dead& debuts first trailer online | [...]

links for 2010-08-25

25.08.2010 - 16:00
http://polytripod.blogspot.com/2010/08/thinking-in-multiples.html'zx=291ba017b936efbf "Sort of an odd thing I noticed the other day- My daughter and I were out visiting a friend, and as we were conversing, the daughter-unit was feeling a bit shy, but wanted to have certain stories shared, so was [...]

links for 2010-08-24

24.08.2010 - 16:00
Howto: HTC Droid Incredible Leaked Froyo 2.2 Update – Technology – Jonamerica.com "You’ll also have to apply the leaked OTA radio antenna update - which some may find to be too risky. However, for the fearless I’ve outlined the steps below. "The update to Froyo gives the phon [...]

links for 2010-08-20

20.08.2010 - 16:00
Xark!: The "Lack of Vision" thing' Well, here's a hopeful vision for you "Journalism is a profession for storytellers, and our newsroom culture celebrates romantic myths that are generally hostile to structure. We enjoy jockeying with authority, poking bureaucrats and annoying anal- [...]

links for 2010-08-19

19.08.2010 - 16:00
Verizon Droid Incredible not getting Android 2.2 today "Well, we passed along a rumor from Mashable which said the HTC Droid Incredible would get Android 2.2 today and it looks like that was full of bullspit. On the Verizon support Twitter account, Big Red said, "We currently do not have informa [...]

links for 2010-08-18

18.08.2010 - 16:00
Twitter: 10 Insights from Psychology — PsyBlog "Twitter doesn't always feel like a conversation as people use it in different ways. In the same way that talking isn't always conversation, sometimes it's a command, an expression of surprise or an aid to thought. In other words, T [...]

The office itself matters

08.07.2010 - 00:09
Boring, bland, lifeless offices don’t benefit anyone:Research has shown that a healthy office space with plants and open windows is more conducive to productivity.I love my home office. It’s filled with plants, books, a fish tank, antiques and interesting objects My office at work is pre [...]

Wait,people don’t want "science” reporting from Pepsi'

07.07.2010 - 21:56
Nothing destroys the credibility of a site quicker than corporate shillery:Should ScienceBlogs.com have agreed to host a controversial blog on nutrition, written by PepsiCo' No, say the site’s readers, as some of its star bloggers stop their blogs in protest.It’s an idea so bad that you [...]

Urban cycling quantifiably better for you than driving a car

07.07.2010 - 20:45
Despite the risk, urban cycling is a healthier optionThe authors found that for the individuals who shift from car to bicycle, the benefits gained by increased physical activity were substantially larger (3 – 14 months of life gained) than the drawbacks of inhaled air pollution (0.8 – 40 [...]

Climategate scientists vindicated

07.07.2010 - 20:39
‘Gate Fever Breaks – Dot Earth Blog – NYTimes.com:The  Independent Climate Change Email Review is finished and, within its constrained mandate, has cleared climate scientists and administrators at the University of East Anglia of claims of malfeasance rising out of the contents of fo [...]

More lanes and roads causes more congestion,not less

09.06.2010 - 17:05
Building more roads to alleviate congestion only causes more congestion:It seems like a logical conclusion that if your streets are clogged, you need more lanes for cars. But, in a curious phenomenon known to urban planners, cars seem to fill whatever space they’re given.What many cities have [...]

Realizing the worst with the Gulf oil spill

20.05.2010 - 18:00
If the oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico can’t be contained, it could leak half a billion barrels of oil into the ocean. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez leaked about 11 million barrels of oil. Wow.Matthew Simmons, former chairman of energy industry investment bank Simmons and Company sou [...]

Patents are like teenagers with guns

20.05.2010 - 16:13
Christopher Montgomery, founder of the Xiph.org Foundation, on why software patents suck and need reform:"Patents are like every teenager carrying a hand gun,” he told me.  Sooner or later, one of those guns could go off.Don’t get too excited about Google open sourcing the VP8 video codec. [...]

Followers (or fans or friends) are not all created equal

13.04.2010 - 18:03
It’s easy to get followers; it’s hard to get good followers. Be patient.There are a bunch of tools to get people and organizations a mass of Twitter followers quickly. But raw numbers won’t help you. What your organization needs are followers that actually care about your product [...]

On libertarianism and different generations

06.04.2010 - 19:58
A debate has sprung up in the blogosphere about libertarianism and millennials based on this OkCupid post on political leanings and generations. (hat tip to Andrew Sullivan)William Wilkinson has a great take home on why many millennials may lean libertarian and yet also feeling more comfortable wit [...]

How I’m going to test the iPad and how you can help

01.04.2010 - 21:52
By now, you’ve probably read glowing review after glowing review of the iPad by tech columnists, but I want to share my experiences with you when I get my iPad.I will not have received an iPad for free, nor will I be testing it out as my job for  a news outlet or tech blog. (...)

Why and how I’d use an iPad and similar tablets

24.02.2010 - 20:58
Instead of pontificating on whether or not the iPad is a failure or how it will change computing forever, I thought that I would spend some time thinking about how I would actually use an iPad or similar tablet.1. My commute to work and walking around the cityDoing work on the train — I do (.. [...]

Bill Gates wants to create a zero carbon emission future

19.02.2010 - 01:32
This is a must watch TED Talk from Bill Gates. He thinks our ultimate goal as species should be to emit zero carbon emissions. He believes the best way to get there is through technology, investment and innovation. He shares several promising ideas in this video.

The people need the iPad and simpler computers

12.02.2010 - 20:08
A lot of technologists don’t realize how broken the current computing experience is for so many people. Desktop computers (with desktop-metaphor OSes) are really work machines, but many people — if not most — spend the majority of their computing time these days doing non-work stuf [...]

On knowledge

14.01.2010 - 16:44
Today I finally did what I should have done a long time ago: I donated to Wikipedia.I strongly believe that all human knowledge should be free. Wikipedia is the leading project to help make human knowledge free and accessible. We still have a lot more human knowledge to unlock, but Wikipedia has bee [...]

It’s not about the perfect Pepsi but rather the perfect Pepsis

21.12.2009 - 04:08
Where would the world be without chunky tomato sauce'Watch this TED Talk about not trying to create the perfect product and how we should instead try to create the perfect products to target distinct groups. Apply this logic to journalism. What do you come up with'So why are news orgs trying to crea [...]

News Worthy of Sharing Online

18.03.2010 - 01:12
Subject: Special Announcement on behalf of Ryan Davis…..I am pleased to announce the promotion of Yoni Greenbaum to Vice President, Product Development.  This move is reflective of Philly.com’s commitment to build and maintain a strong and dynamic management team.Yoni is an outstanding team [...]

Wanted:Interns who won’t fetch coffee or open mail

22.02.2010 - 00:08
Philly.com Sports is looking for an intern to start immediately.The candidate will be expected to work on production of the site, make important editorial decisions and contribute original content.Previous experience in the field of sports journalism is strongly preferred.Knowledge of Photoshop, Fin [...]

How Do You Make Money'

04.01.2010 - 01:40
All too often when I ask a colleague at another media company what their monetization strategy is (in general or regarding a specific product) the response I’m given is akin to "that’s not my station.” To me, that answer epitomizes the problems we’re seeing at too many media companies - too [...]

Awesome Philly Internship Opportunity!

10.09.2009 - 01:17
PAID and ACADEMIC internships available for the fall at Philly.com. Whether your interested in writing, video production, web design, online marketing or mobile applications this is your opportunity to get top-quality experience working with a proven team. Our internships are not about opening mai [...]

In the name of efficiency, think first

25.02.2009 - 07:32
I believe that the phrase “no one can do it all and frankly no one should” must be part of the discussion at any newspaper serious about their online operation.As I wrote in a previous post, there is a growing sentiment at many papers that there are just too few people to tackle what see [...]

Bad online practices from the New York Times

25.02.2009 - 07:32
OK, here’s a prime example of a lost linking opportunity that actually annoyed at least one reader (me).On Sunday, the New York Times posted a story “Dancers in the Crowd Bring Back ‘Thriller’.” It’s an interesting and entertaining piece about how Sony BMG has used viral [...]

At a loss for words

25.02.2009 - 07:32
So a funny thing happened to me on my way to starting my new job. In addition to everyone in our household (with the exception of our cat, Boo) getting monstrously sick, I managed to lose my bloggers voice. I initially chalked up the occurrence to the toll the flu had taken on my body, (...)SHARETHI [...]

How not to get that journalism-related job

25.02.2009 - 07:32
Over the years, I’ve interviewed my fair share of candidates. And while the positions I’ve been hiring for have changed and the candidates have varied, here are five areas that keep my head shaking in disbelief.So consider these points as either observations or, if you’re looking for a job, wo [...]

Come one, come all to the Carnival!

25.02.2009 - 07:32
That’s right, it’s time for another Carnival of Journalism and this month, I’m proud to be hosting. Not sure what a blog carnival is' Check out this entry on Wikipedia. The Carnival of Journalism includes posts from some of the brightest minds currently blogging on journalism, in m [...]

Not quite a blog post, but still worth a read

25.02.2009 - 07:32
I thought I would share this address that I gave at the Bi-Co Boot Camp at Bryn Mawr College. The event was a gathering of students from both Bryn Mawr and Haverford College who work, or are interested in working at the student newspaper, the Bi-College News. I was invited by Dave Merrell, a former [...]

Your content is not rotisserie chicken

25.02.2009 - 07:32
Recently, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about Ron Popeil. An American inventor, Popeil is responsible for such gadgets as the Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic, Hair in a Can Spray and the Showtime Rotisserie Oven which he hocked on many late night infomercials. It was this last product that has be [...]

Is it too late for an intervention'

25.02.2009 - 07:32
I spent part of my Sunday morning visiting dozens of newspaper websites and by the time I was done I found myself wanting to scream. WAKE UP! LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING!Too many of the sites I visited looked as if they’re frozen in time or, at the very least, not working with any (...)SHARETHIS.ad [...]

In the name of efficiency, think first

31.12.2008 - 10:00
I believe that the phrase “no one can do it all and frankly no one should” must be part of the discussion at any newspaper serious about their online operation.As I wrote in a previous post, there is a growing sentiment at many papers that there are just too few people to tackle what see [...]

Bad online practices from the New York Times

31.12.2008 - 10:00
OK, here’s a prime example of a lost linking opportunity that actually annoyed at least one reader (me).On Sunday, the New York Times posted a story “Dancers in the Crowd Bring Back ‘Thriller’.” It’s an interesting and entertaining piece about how Sony BMG has used viral [...]

At a loss for words

31.12.2008 - 10:00
So a funny thing happened to me on my way to starting my new job. In addition to everyone in our household (with the exception of our cat, Boo) getting monstrously sick, I managed to lose my bloggers voice. I initially chalked up the occurrence to the toll the flu had taken on my body, (...)SHARETHI [...]

Five Tools to Increase Productivity

25.08.2010 - 17:15
My last blog post “Generations in the Desert” was abstract, theoretical and academic. I do that from time to time. I’m honored that it inspired folks like Steve Butry, Rick Waghorn and  Stjin Debrouwere to write related posts. But I do not, at this time, see myself as a “tho [...]

Generations in the Desert - Thoughts from Aspen

21.08.2010 - 07:19
Much like FooCamp, the Knight Focus event in Aspen was very invigorating. FooCamp had a “FrieNDA” policy about blogging (I went ahead and assumed things were off the record). This event was the opposite and while I could never fully capture every brain spark on this plane ride home, I do [...]

Aspen Institute - The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities

16.08.2010 - 16:54
I’m at a roundtable event at the Aspen Institute this week. The table consists of 48 individuals ranging from Dean Singleton, Vivian Schillier and other big hitters in the media sphere. I’m literally sitting next to Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post and the lead co [...]

Are the Paper Cuts Over'

11.08.2010 - 17:30
In 2008 there were roughly 15,992 layoffs or buyouts. This was followed by 14,783 layoffs or buyouts in 2009. I know this because Erica Smith knows this. These numbers are arrived via her site Paper Cuts which she started as a non-scientific way of estimating newspaper layoffs. Here’s the nut [...]

My Vision of Tech Blogs

03.08.2010 - 15:59
Tech blogs play an important role in the larger journalism community. I have long said that tech reporting/blogs/journalism will often be at the forefront of our industry. It is an occupational hazard. This is possibly why Dan Gillmor was one of the first to blog (don’t forget he started out a [...]

Missteps,Success and Pivoting at Spot.Us

25.07.2010 - 05:28
Anyone that has followed Spot.Us from the beginning knows we’ve tried to remain iterative and agile. In the earlier stages of Spot.Us I thought this was one of the larger lessons for journalism-entrepreneurs. I went through the iterative and agile process and tried to document it so others cou [...]

An Ethical Argument for Transparency - Part II

22.07.2010 - 21:31
In a recent post on my website I examined an ethical argument for transparency. I will continue this internal dialogue with the caveat that I am not a journalism academic. I do not prescribe my beliefs to anyone but myself. This is a disgustingly theoretical post (I promise the next one will be prac [...]

The Ethical Argument for Transparency in Journalism - Part I

14.07.2010 - 19:00
If one can make an ethical argument for participation in journalism and that transparency is necessary for well-informed participation to occur, then it follows that there is an ethical argument for transparency. For a long time I’ve had a post inside of me dying to get out. A few months ago I [...]

Protests,Looting and the Media Gaze

13.07.2010 - 06:55
It seems having a camera is as essential to a modern protest as the bongo drum probably was at my father’s protests in the 60′s (sorry dad, was that a low blow'). Independent media is the glue of a movement and in some cases – a moment. Last Friday in the aftermath of the Johannes [...]

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08.07.2010 - 03:09
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Protests,Looting and the Media Gaze

13.07.2010 - 06:55
It seems having a camera is as essential to a modern protest as the bongo drum probably was at my father’s protests in the 60′s (sorry dad, was that a low blow'). Independent media is the glue of a movement and in some cases – a moment. Last Friday in the aftermath of the Johannes [...]

Clay Shirky:‘Paywall will underperform - the numbers don’t add up’

08.07.2010 - 03:09
The internet guru on the death of newspapers, why paywall will fail and how the internet has brought out our creativity - and generosity

Five Lessons to Learn from NewsTilt

07.07.2010 - 19:33
Note: This is the second attempt at this post on a sleepless Saturday night. The first and better draft was lost. Alas, this one may be less robust. I’ve always wanted to see a Crunchbase for journalism startups. If this is a time of experimentation then we need to keep better track of project [...]

Should Collaborations Be Organic or Institutional'

22.06.2010 - 23:10
At last week’s Future Civic Media conference at MIT there was a barcamp session on “collaborations in the newsroom” led by Josh Stearns from Save The News. (See “his list of journalism collaborations”:http://stearns.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/indexing-journalism-collabora [...]

WikiLeaks:Ethics,Ideals and Questions

21.06.2010 - 19:13
If: Information is power. And: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Then: Absolute information corrupts absolutely. What is WIkiLeaks: According to wikipedia it’s “an amorphous, international organization, originally based in Sweden,(1) that publishes anonymous submissi [...]

The iTunes for News we have

11.02.2009 - 06:32
Let’s talk about what iTunes does.Back when it first launched, it was a companion to a piece of expensive hardware, the iPod, and a way to sell music that could be played on that piece of hardware. Both are Apple products, and the two work together as seamlessly as as Windows and Internet Expl [...]

Imagine…news on your computer

09.02.2009 - 03:31
It’s not as far fetched as you might imagine:This video has been making the rounds, but I had to post it because–aside from being broadcast the year I was born–it says something about the way news consumption has changed in my lifetime.I hear some version of the lead in on this pie [...]

Tools for News teams up with SND

02.02.2009 - 19:02
The toolkit for online journalists has moved to a new home with the Society for News Design.Shortly after I launched Tools for News in late December, Tyson Evans from SND emailed me about teaming up on the project. Matt Mansfield helped convince me to come on board. Chrys Wu has more on the hackatho [...]

Blueprint CSS. Yes.

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Why, or why, did it take me so long to discover Blueprint CSS'Because I wasn’t looking, clearly.I am not a designer. Designers are people with style, and my sister, my girlfriend and my housemate have all made it very clear that I’m lacking in that department. More than that, CSS fits in [...]

Stuff to learn in 2009

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Just going to write all this down so I don’t forget. Could call it “resolutions” but that whole mindset seems designed to produce regret come December. Let’s just make this a to-learn/to-do list:GeoDjangoWith Tools for News up and running and RedFence 2.0 almost there, I feel [...]

New tool: TwitBlog for LiveBlogging with Twitter

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Let’s say you want to live-blog something. Let’s say you like Twitter. Twitter is great for immediacy, but what if you want to round up all your tweets at the end of the day and put them in a blog post' You’d have to copy each one, reformat it, then put the whole list in (...)

Remembering Deep Throat and the man in the shadows

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Friends, family and admirers of W. Mark Felt, better known to the public as Deep Throat, remembered the late FBI agent today as a man who lived his fundamental beliefs of “truth, justice and service.”“Action is character,” former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (now an [...]

Lessons from Spot.us

02.02.2009 - 16:00
I’m about to leave the warm embrace of the Bay Area and in doing so, take myself out of the jurisdiction of Spot.us. I was lucky enough to meet David Cohn when the San Jose Mercury News opened its newsroom for CopyCamp last year, and he suggested I pitch something in his alpha phase. At (...)

PBS Newshour Online

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Funny story: Back in October, I started building a little Django-powered web app that ultimately became Tools for News. I’m up coding one Friday night (my girlfriend was in Guatemala at the time; I’m not THAT much of a nerd) and send out this tweet:eyeseast: The little journalists’ [...]

Experts

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Steve Yelvington talks about being a local expert. This pushes farther a concept Jeff Jarvis advanced a few months back: The building block of journalism is no longer the article. Matt at Newsless describes this as systematic knowledge accumulation (he’s talking about within journalism, in thi [...]

Experts

28.01.2009 - 11:31
Steve Yelvington talks about being a local expert. This pushes farther a concept Jeff Jarvis advanced a few months back: The building block of journalism is no longer the article. Matt at Newsless describes this as systematic knowledge accumulation (he’s talking about within journalism, in thi [...]

PBS Newshour Online

27.01.2009 - 01:01
Funny story: Back in October, I started building little Django-powered web app that ultimately became Tools for News. I’m up coding one Friday night (my girlfriend was in Guatemala at the time; I’m not THAT much of a nerd) and send out this tweet:eyeseast: The little journalists’ t [...]

Lessons from Spot.us

24.01.2009 - 22:31
I’m about to leave the warm embrace of the Bay Area and in doing so, take myself out of the jurisdiction of Spot.us. I was lucky enough to meet David Cohn when the San Jose Mercury News opened its newsroom for CopyCamp last year, and he suggested I pitch something in his alpha phase. At (...)

Remembering Deep Throat and the man in the shadows

17.01.2009 - 04:00
Friends, family and admirers of W. Mark Felt, better known to the public as Deep Throat, remembered the late FBI agent today as a man who lived his fundamental beliefs of “truth, justice and service.”“Action is character,” former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (now an [...]

New tool: TwitBlog for LiveBlogging with Twitter

16.01.2009 - 00:30
Let’s say you want to live-blog something. Let’s say you like Twitter. Twitter is great for immediacy, but what if you want to round up all your tweets at the end of the day and put them in a blog post' You’d have to copy each one, reformat it, then put the whole list in (...)

How To Use Facebook Ads to Get a Journalism Job

05.02.2010 - 20:34
A friend of mine asked me recently, ‘how can I use Facebook targeting to advertise jobs or get hired'’I started by writing out the lengthy Facebook reply, but for some reason, FB wouldn’t send the mail…. So here I will share it with everyone! YAY! :)I’ll break this up i [...]

How To Get Hired for a Journalism Job Using Facebook Advertising

05.02.2010 - 20:34
Why Use Facebook Advertising'Only because it’s the most powerful advertising platform when it comes to targeting! Seriously, you can get in front of nearly anyone at company…. because… well, they probably are using Facebook too.If you want to get hired, there’s no shame in ad [...]

How To Advertise a Journalism Job on Facebook

05.02.2010 - 20:33
Why Advertise on Facebook'If you have a job you want to fill, facebook is an awesome platform for targeting ideal candidates. Why' Because the Facebook has a huge, sometimes-educated, DAILY audience – much bigger than the daily audience on say JournalismJobs.com.Now I can’t speak on cost [...]

No Newspaper Bailout! Bailout News Instead

21.09.2009 - 14:41
Since bailouts became all the rage, a lot of journo’s have asked “where’s our bailout'” Where’s the bailout for the newspaper industry'Looks like the buzz is getting a second wind as The Hill reports President Obama may be open to the idea of a bailout for the newspaper [...]

Journalism Monetization:How to Make Money with Your J-Skills

08.09.2009 - 17:14
This is part two of my series about diversifying your income streams. See part 1 if you missed it.If you read my last post in this series, you’ve likely put together a list of your skills and a few other lists as well. If you didn’t, go back to post 1 and write your lists. (...)

It’s Furlough/Layoff/Paycut Time,What Are You Going To Do'

04.09.2009 - 15:36
It’s time to stop asking “are we at the end of newspaper times” and start preparing yourself for other options.The writing on the wall is as clear as it can be – diversify yourself.If your job at a newspaper is your only meal ticket, this series is for youYour Basket Has a Ho [...]

How To Think About the New News' Listen to Best Buy

09.06.2009 - 14:43
Watch this video, and while you’re doing it, substitute Best Buy’s products for news and it’s brand/stores with a news organization.Everything Best Buy CMO Barry Judge talks about Best Buy doing this or that, think about how a news organization can do or think similarly.What did yo [...]

The Rumors are True! Shawn Smith Now Unemployed!

05.06.2009 - 14:09
Well, not exactly unemployed. Starting today, I’m self-employed :-PToday is my last day serving as senior producer for MLive.com.My video explainer (turn your volume all the way up - sorry about that)WHERE I’M GOINGSince 2007 I’ve been working on my own internet marketing group wit [...]

Dear Journalism Students:Do You See Something the Journalism Industry Doesn’t'

07.04.2009 - 13:34
Forbes reports that while news agencies across the U.S. are slashing budgets and payrolls, journalism schools are actually filling up.Who knew'Says Forbes about J-School applications:Columbia, Stanford and NYU applications increased 38%, 20% and 6%, respectively, from the previous year. Same thing a [...]

Your In-Depths Can’t Keep My Interest - The Real Problem of Long Articles Online and What To Do About It

01.04.2009 - 18:31
Ever notice how the most interesting articles online seem to command too much of your time' Have you ever stopped reading a long article online because you saw that it was paginated into 8 clicks' ‘Ugh, 8' That’s just too much,’ you might have thought.If you’re anything like [...]

John Stewart’s Skewing of CNBC Sends Message You Don’t Need a Journalism Degree or Newspaper Experience to be a Journalist

06.03.2009 - 18:02
Are we there yet' Have we finally arrived at the realization that the world’s journalists don’t need a j-school degree and newspaper experience to be considered a journalists'If you’re still teetering on the edge, start first by watching John Stewart’s skewering of CNBC analy [...]

Journalists Can’t Afford to Ignore Congressmen and Congresswomen on Twitter

26.02.2009 - 19:02
By now you know what Twitter is. You probably use it too.So do a lot of other people, including public figures … like Congressional members.Michigan Rep. @PeteHoekstra recently caused a stir for Twittering his visit to Iraq, which some called a breach of security.But that’s not what̵ [...]

Can Your Site Afford To Shrug Off $56M Per Year'

16.02.2009 - 23:01
I once wrote that your news website can win the online election coverage race through aggregation. But I want you to forget focusing on web election coverage.Because aggregation can help you win the whole online game altogether, judging by some Nielsen Online data.Scott Karp analyzes the data that s [...]

How to Use FriendFeed as a News Ticker

16.02.2009 - 23:01
FriendFeed, everyone’s favorite little social network that could, recently released the Real-Time Updates feature that allows you to watch live updating aggregation streams on the site. You can also take these streams and embed then on your own blog if you like. (I picked this up from Stevel R [...]

Are You the Future of Journalism'

16.02.2009 - 23:01
In a time of buyouts, downsizing and uncertainty for the journalism industry, bright spots are emerging.While many of these changes can be disheartening, some journalists are skirting doom and gloom and becoming entrepreneurs that propel journalism ahead. Take a look at the New York Times’ pro [...]

Looser than average ends

31.08.2010 - 21:49
Let’s just dig into the bucket of links I’ve been mailing myself from Tweetie, er, Twitter for the iPhone, and see what we can tie together here… There is now a “Share on Twitter” bookmarklet for your Web browser that pairs … Continue reading →

My day at the3six5

10.08.2010 - 15:14
Late last fall, when Daniel Honigman and Len Kendall were running around online talking about the3six5, a sort of social media experiment where a different person would write a post each day of the year 2010, I was interested. I … Continue reading →

ProPublica Photographer:I Was Followed by BP Security and Then Detained by Police

21.07.2010 - 16:55
(NOTE: I'm experimenting with ProPublica's new "steal our stories" republication feature. Forgive me as I continue to try out different online syndication models, using my blog (and you, dear readers) as a test kitchen. This story originally appeared at ProPublica.) by Lance Rosenfield, Special to P [...]

Clay Shirky:‘Paywall will underperform - the numbers don’t add up’

07.07.2010 - 21:03
The internet guru on the death of newspapers, why paywall will fail and how the internet has brought out our creativity - and generosity

Five ways you can keep supporting USA soccer

28.06.2010 - 14:09
Congratulations to the millions of American sports fans who started paying attention to the United States men’s soccer team over the last few weeks at the World Cup! No, really, I’m not being sarcastic this time — you’ve been awesome. Tweeting about the team’s chances, [...]

As if posting weren’t already light enough…

10.06.2010 - 13:39
PreviouslyHalloween debriefing, baby-friendly in 2007Notes on migrating three quarters of a mileWell that was an interesting week

WikiLeaks and Tor:Moral use of an amoral system'

31.05.2010 - 16:30
Reading the New Yorker’s piece on WikiLeaks, it’s hard to decide whether I’m reading about freedom fighters, skilled propagandists, or as is often the case, both.Without looking too deeply, although I have serious reservations about their editorial decisions from time to time, I b [...]

Be a silobuster

13.05.2010 - 13:38
Remember the great print vs. online war of 1995-2005'Well, some of you are probably still fighting this war, eh' Not everyone got the news yet, but the war is over, and the silobusters won.Anyway, you’re going to think this is crazy, but lately I’ve spotted a new silo developing, over th [...]

Philadelphia and the pace of innovation

23.04.2010 - 17:16
Exactly a year ago today, I worked my last day in corporate at a newspaper company and walked out the door to three days of technical unemployment before I started my new job at a startup on a Monday.Of course, those three days of unemployment were highlighted by a Saturday spent in Philadelphia at [...]

Randomer than you

29.03.2010 - 23:07
In the process of making some sort of point about “random story” buttons on news sites this morning, I added one to this blog. It’s up top in the nav for now. Look for the obviously labeled link that says “Random Post.”Or just click on this thing:But let’s be hone [...]

Things I Tweeted Today

26.03.2010 - 00:30
RT @everyblock: EveryBlock launches in Portland: http://blog.everyblock.com/2010/mar/25/portland/ #"Oh, hi Stella. What's up'" #calmmovielines #Most Commented Posts10 obvious things about the future of newspapers you need to get through your headFive Keys to AuthenticityMy advice to jour [...]

Three threads tied together

22.03.2010 - 12:50
I’ve been doing a bit of lightweight reporting and writing for a few other spots on the Web over the last two weeks, and the stories all pull together very nicely, like so:First, over at the official Publish2 Blog, I posted a few notes on Evolving Platforms for Collaboration. You’ll fin [...]

When all I have left is my Fun folder,I win

06.03.2010 - 19:19
If you don’t use Google Reader or Bloglines or some other feed reader, you can stop reading now.OK, still here'Months ago, after at least a couple years of just throwing all my feeds in Google Reader and sorting by newest, reading from the top down and marking all as read when I felt full of ( [...]

Back to the Internet’s Future

24.02.2010 - 13:32
Once in a while, I take a look through some of the links I’ve been saving, sharing, and publishing in the sidebar of my blog, Twitter, and a few other places, and try to scrape the pixelly cream off the top to immortalize (until the links break, anyway) a little bit of the Web, hung (...)

Epistemology and sources

03.02.2010 - 04:16
Back in the excellent philosophy class I took in high school (Hi Mr. Lutness!), epistemology was simply explained as How You Know What You Know.And different philosophers said you know what you know for different reasons. George Berkeley, for example, had this whole “seeing is believing” [...]

WSJ goes the distance with the Google Maps API

11.08.2010 - 01:31
A good piece on the googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com  on how the Wall Street Journal crew created a fine set of maps illustrating various major-city marathons.  Go here for complete piece. WSJ goes the distance with the Google Maps API Sunday, August 08, 2010 The following guest blog post [...]

Internship in Bolivia

14.07.2010 - 21:30
Jack Kinsella, of the Bolivian Express, writes:"The Bolivian Express, an English language magazine in La Paz, Bolivia, set up by Bolivian graduates in collaboration with students from around the world. We are a subsidiary of the Grupo Express Press, which publishes another magazine in Bolivia, Revis [...]

Use "BatchGeo" to quickly generate Google Maps with multiple locations

14.07.2010 - 21:30
If you've acquired a spreadsheet file with a bunch of addresses, you can quickly map them using BatchGeo.  We haven't tried it yet with a huge data set, but it works nicely with a couple hundred addresses.  Check out BatchGeo at http://batchgeo.com/ "Have locations in a spreadsheet' Well t [...]

JavaScript Solutions for Charts and Graphs

14.07.2010 - 21:30
15 Crazy Useful JavaScript Solutions for Charts and GraphsGraphs and charts are a great way to break down the information at hand to the user in a descriptive and visually enticing manner. These visual structures allow you to easily simplify complex data and output easier to understand content. Ever [...]

San Francisco crime mapped as elevation

14.07.2010 - 21:30
Once again, FlowingData points us to an example for first-rate mapping.San Francisco crime mapped as elevation By Nathan Yau - Jun 7, 2010 - Mapping - Post on Twitter Doug McCune maps San Francisco crime in 2009 as if it were elevation. Peaks and valleys emerge with the rolling terrains of crime. Th [...]

"Media badly misplaying Foxconn suicides"

14.07.2010 - 21:30
IAJ Fellow Patrick Mattimore, currently living in Beijing, recently wrote in China's People's Daily Online: Media badly misplaying Foxconn suicides Patrick Mattimore One newspaper has called the recent suicides at the electronics company Foxconn an epidemic. Another newspaper reports that Foxco [...]

White House to tie together mapping and data sites

14.07.2010 - 21:30
(From Nextgov.com) White House to tie together mapping and data sites By Aliya Sternstein 05/28/2010 The White House has contracted with a major developer of mapping software to merge a federal website that publishes geospatial information with Data.gov, the government's depot for downloadable data [...]

GIS and Twitter mash-up

14.07.2010 - 21:30
 From GISUser at http://blog.gisuser.com/'p=6962 Social Media and Geo-Services - A Fabulous ArcGIS Explorer, Twitter mashupModeling real-time situations… This video goes back a few months to the Haiti disaster response, however, its a great example and reminder of how geo technology (ArcGIS E [...]

"BP tries to mislead you with graphs" - From FlowingData

14.07.2010 - 21:30
 Go to: http://flowingdata.com/2010/05/26/bp-tries-to-mislead-you-with-graphs/ BP tries to mislead you with graphs By Nathan Yau - May 26, 2010 - Mistaken Data - Post on TwitterBP senior vice president Kent Wells explains in this new video what his group is doing towards repairing the leak. He [...]

Trafficing in Maps

14.07.2010 - 21:30
Nathan at FlowingData.com posts a nice collection of traffic mapping examples.Explorations of real-world traffic Posted by Nathan on Apr 15, 2010 to Mapping / 8 commentsTraffic visualizations, mostly in the form of geographic maps, have been popular lately. Governments and organizations have been re [...]

Great - and helpful - interaction between data and newspapers

14.07.2010 - 21:30
 We have long been critical of newspapers' failure to marry data with real-time readers' interests.  Interests like finding a cab in New York City.  It's great to see the gang from the NYTimes doing some innovative mapping to truly present added-value to their product. Tracking Taxi F [...]

Applied Complexity in Havana

29.03.2010 - 01:02
In January, Team Santa Fe (Tom Johnson, Steve Guerin, Nick Bennett, and Alfredo Covaledo (Bogota)) rolled up in Havana to attend the 10th Congress of Complexity Studies in Cuba. (Steve, Nick and Alfredo also taught a day-long workshop on Netlogo and simulation modeling following the conference.) One [...]

Pivot Tables in Excel Webcast [free}

19.03.2010 - 22:32
Pivot Tables in Microsoft Excel Presented by: Michael Milton, author of Head First Excel, Head First Data Analysis, and Great R: Level 1 Pivot tables let you put together in seconds data summaries that would take forever to create with Excel formulas. That speed gives you the ability to get a [...]

How 'bout a new term:"NewsViz"'

27.02.2010 - 21:32
 Many of us are commonly using the term "data visualization" or "dataviz" or even "infoviz."  Perhaps we should add to the lexicon "newsviz."  If so, you saw it here first.  Maybe.  In any event, check out this interesting page at Slate. News Dots: The Day's Events as a Soci [...]

Open Source Maps Are Helping the World Bank Save Lives in Haiti

20.02.2010 - 22:34
From FastCompany:Open Source Maps Are Helping the World Bank Save Lives in Haiti BY ANYA KAMENETZFri Feb 19, 2010 An aid worker from the European Commission holds a PDF printout from OpenStreetMaps. The humanitarian relief effort underway in Haiti is proving the true potential of open source m [...]

links for 2010-09-03

03.09.2010 - 18:02
Are the Paper Cuts Over' « DigiDaveLet's hope so!(tags: journalism jobs newspapers)This year's advice for journalism studentsRobert Niles offers tips to those just beginning in j-school.(tags: journalism tips branding education students advice)ACP – Multimedia Story of the Year Fina [...]

Meet your new (Apple) mojo kit

02.09.2010 - 15:57
Apple held their fall product announcement event yesterday. The iPod lineup got a complete makeover. The biggest announcement from a journalistic perspective – hands down – was the addition of video/still cameras to the iPod Touch.While the Droid X and other Android phones duke it out wi [...]

Redesigns 2010:Student Press Law Center

01.09.2010 - 15:30
Okay, so it’s not technically a student media site, but the SPLC does a lot of good for high school and college media outlets. On Aug. 25, they unveiled a new version of their website:Frank LoMonte, in an e-mail to CMA’s listserv, listed some new features:Just some of the many new featur [...]

Redesigns 2010:UCLA Daily Bruin

31.08.2010 - 16:00
The Daily Bruin just launched a new version of their site now using the Gryphon CMS from DetroitSoftworks.Here’s the new design:Here’s a screencap from Aug. 31, right before the switch:And here’s an ancient screen cap from 2007 (file . . . → Read More: Redesigns 2010: UCLA Da [...]

Media Law in the Digital Age workshop Sept. 25

31.08.2010 - 15:51
Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Sustainable Journalism are hosting a one-day Media Law in the Digital Age workshop at Kennesaw State on Saturday, September 25Len Witt, who heads the CSJ, mentions that there are a few student scholarships available to redu [...]

Redesigns 2010:NIU’s Northern Star

30.08.2010 - 20:15
Jim Killam sends along word about the redesign of the Northern Star at Northern Illinois.Here’s the new look:And here’s what the site looked like a couple of years ago (most recent version I have):In addition to the redesign, the Northern Star is now using TownNews as a CMS. Previously, [...]

Registration now available for ACP/CMA Convention

30.08.2010 - 16:05
Students and advisers can now register online for the fall National College Media Convention Sept. 27-Oct. 1 in Louisville. Which means you can also register for the Main Street Stories multimedia workshop we’re putting on during the course of the weekend. Details on the workshop are available [...]

Redesigns 2010:Onward State

26.08.2010 - 15:00
Onward State is an online-only publication for Penn State. Publisher Davis Shaver sends along news of their redesign for the new school year. “Major new features include community posting capabilities, community member profiles, and topic pages,” Shaver wrote in an e-mail.Here’s th [...]

Redesigns 2010:Lee Clarion

25.08.2010 - 15:46
The Lee Clarion of Lee University redesigned over the summer. Kevin Trowbridge said it was redesigned for the first time since the site went online in 2008.Here’s the old design:Here’s the new design:Lighter flag, larger dominant art, more white space . . . → Read More: Redesigns 2 [...]

Redesigns! We’re looking for redesigns!

24.08.2010 - 20:08
New school year, new site designs. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing screenshots of some of the online college news sites that have put on a new coat of digital pixie dust. If your media outlet has redesigned the web presence over the summer, drop me an e-mail at scmurley -at- gma [...]

Curated Links for 8-19-10

19.08.2010 - 20:00
Do you have *your* parking pass yet' Start of a new semester. Here are some links from around the Web to stuff I’ve been reading. In no particular order, and with some non-journospecific goodness.Choose Your Multimedia Tools Strategically: Story is Still King, Marc Cooper: “New multimedi [...]

You can never go home again:Alma mater going online

19.08.2010 - 15:58
The offices of the Lamar University student newspaper, the University PressThis summer, I had the opportunity to travel back to my hometown, Beaumont, Texas, and visit my college newspaper stomping grounds – the University Press.Student Publications Director Andy Coughlan led me through the of [...]

It’s still about the journalism,not the CMS

18.08.2010 - 16:40
The Chronicle of Higher Education had an article recently about college newspapers abandoning “template-driven” College Media Network for open-source content management systems (CMS): For College Newspapers, Prepackaged Online Versions are Yesterday’s News.The article quotes the ed [...]

New multimedia extended workshop launches in Louisville

05.08.2010 - 22:05
The CICM Story Project • Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1-6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 28, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., continues intermittently until 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 31 (schedule allows regular convention participation)College journalists and advisers looking for an intense hands-on multimedia training experience [...]

Princeton Review’s "20 Best College Newspapers” is a joke (rant)

05.08.2010 - 19:25
Via Dan at College Media Matters, we find the Princeton Review's "Top 20 Best College Newspapers."Wow. What a list. Some names you probably recognize: Yale, Texas, North Carolina, Duke, Harvard, Maryland. The entire list is reproduced at CMM. (Dan has also added 15 other papers he believes should be [...]

Knight-Batten Award Winners Announced

iPad Users Mostly Male,Love Photos [Y! Mobile]

25 Useful Online Media Infographics [Webdesigner Depot]

Report:Women 55+ Facebook’s Fastest-Growing Demographic

What Does One Call A Programmer/Journalist' [PBS MediaShift]

Newspaper Comments:Forget Anonymity! The Problem Is Management [Scott Rosenberg]

Slash' Backslash'

Predicting The Future Of Obituaries

At Snopes,A Quest To Debunk Misinformation Online [NYTimes]

The Twitter News Instinct

Eye-Tracking Tablets And The Promise of Text 2.0 [Wired]

Automated Sports Reporters Coming This Summer [ReadWriteWeb]

Update Facebook On Weekends,Twitter In Mornings [OMNT]

Poll:Many News Site Readers Are Likely Early Adopters [Newsosaur]

How To Increase Conversions On Any Website In 45 Minutes [Six Revisions]

The Rise of the Anti-Facebooks

01.09.2010 - 07:47
"Facebook is dominating social media in almost every country where it hasn't been banned, and the six-year old site shows no signs of slowing down. It's creeping across generations, replacing things like the phone book and introducing tools the masses had no idea they needed. It's als [...]

Out of the Western Sky:It’s a Hyperlocal,Worldwide Mormon Vertical!

01.09.2010 - 05:25
"The immediate news that caught the attention of the news world: The Deseret News — one of two dailies in the market, in a joint operating agreement (shared business operations) with the MediaNews-owned Tribune — is cutting 43% of its newsroom, or 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees. That’ [...]

T-Mobile HSPA+ is live in Boston,Miami,and more; 42 Mbps coming in 2011

31.08.2010 - 21:32
"People in those cities should see a noticeable bump in download speeds beginning today if they have compatible phones. The Nexus One and Vibrant should get some fast speeds, but the first device capable of reaching top theoretical speeds (21 Mbps) will be the T-Mobile G2.T-Mobile promises to reach [...]

Boston.com launches a real estate-focused iPhone app

31.08.2010 - 20:43
"The new app also provides a relatively closed area in which the Globe can experiment with and learn about the mobile space. In general, Kempf points out, apps offer two core opportunities for news organizations: use-case-specific platforms and location-based services. In the case of a real estate a [...]

Report:Be Mobile or Be Dust

31.08.2010 - 20:27
"Mobile is not just for young people. Eighty-two percent of seniors use their mobile phones for information and learning.Location-based targeting is the a critical distinction that makes mobile communications more powerful than other channels. Knowing where a mobile user is - whether if be in a stor [...]

ViewSonic Viewpad 7 gets official:sub-£350 Android 2.2 tablet

31.08.2010 - 20:24
"ViewSonic has come clean on its first Android tablet, the 7-inch ViewSonic Viewpad 7. Running Android 2.2 on a capacitive touchscreen, the Viewpad 7 has an integrated GSM/3G modem for phone and data connectivity, a front-facing VGA webcam and a 3-megapixel rear camera. It can be used as a regular A [...]

How iPad Usage is Shaping Up

30.08.2010 - 08:41
"The iPad was considered the No. 1 delivery method for newspapers and magazines, and its popularity for books was even greater: 41% of iPad owners preferred to read on the device, vs. 36% who liked hard copies better. iPads were also the top gaming device for owners of the tablets, beating out conso [...]

Mobile apps:are newspapers ready to be innovative'

31.08.2010 - 06:39
"Frédéric Filloux however, believes newspapers will not be able to sustain the app culture. If apps become readers' choice, he speculated on Monday Note, specialization is likely to come in: "launching an app with a specific coverage target, such as sports or politics events, will become par [...]

Internet Users Over Age 50 Flocking to Social Media

31.08.2010 - 06:18
"The fastest growing demographic for Facebook and other social media: Those age 50 and over, says a new report.Social networking use among Internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22 percent in April 2009 to 42 percent in May 2010, says a survey of over 2,250 U.S. adults from the Pew R [...]

In Defense of Links,Part One:Nick Carr,hypertext and delinkification

31.08.2010 - 06:16
"Links, like words, need to be used judiciously. ... Overuse of links is usually a sign that the writer does not know how to link, which on the Web means he does not know how to write. But such abuse hardly discredits linking itself. Many writers still don’t understand that comma-splicing is bad g [...]

The Emmy Awards Get Social

30.08.2010 - 07:20
"The 2010 Emmy Awards are this Sunday, and NBC is using the ceremony to embrace social media in a big way.NBC is using services such as Twitter, yfrog and Ustream to bring a more real-time experience to the event. These services will also let fans and viewers interact with Emmy presenters using soci [...]

Samsung Galaxy Tab to have HDMI dock,leather case,and other sideshow trinkets

30.08.2010 - 07:12
"We're starting to think Samsung has given up the pretense of keeping the Galaxy Tab's details secret and is letting them all out now. Accessories for its upcoming 7-inch Android tablet have been spotted on one of Sammy's many online portals, complete with pricing. The headline act he [...]

Google Shows Off Chrome,HTML5 With Interactive Music "Experience"

31.08.2010 - 06:06
"Google has released its latest "Chrome Experiment" today in the form of a music video "experience" that takes you, quite literally, back to the streets of your youth.The experiment is the work of writer and director Chris Milk and social media-savvy band Arcade Fire, and it shows off the interactiv [...]

10 ways data is changing how we live

30.08.2010 - 09:05
"The availability of new sets of data has changed the way we live our lives: here are 10 examples of data which have changed everything from how we assess wars to how companies deliver milk."

Check (In) Yo’ Self Before You Wreck Yo’ Self:Why Foursquare Users Check In "Off The Grid”

29.08.2010 - 04:37
"Foursquare has a window of opportunity to build an experience on top of geolocation. The game mechanics are unlikely to be pursued by Facebook who have already allowed social gaming to be a third party business on their platform. The ability to have a personal location diary combining public and pr [...]

The Times of India and the Commonwealth Games

03.09.2010 - 10:43
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from Delhi: The year of the lord 2010 has seen the The Times of India in uber-aggressive mode. The nation’s largest English daily that rarely ever wants to “afflict the comfortable” despite its size, reach, reputation, resources and influence, has pulled out [...]

107 headlines from ToI on Commonwealth Games

03.09.2010 - 09:42
Pride of the nation' No, shame of the nation. The following is a list of the 107 “negative” headlines on the Commonwealth Games that have greeted readers of The Times of India (Delhi market) from August 1 to September 2, 2010: •    Now, two top cyclists fall victim to dengue •   [...]

The light goes out of Selvan Shiv Kumar. RIP.

29.08.2010 - 10:17
sans serif records with a heavy heart the passing away of photojournalist Selvan Shiv Kumar in Bangalore today. He was in his early 40s and had been ailing for some time. He is survived by his wife and son. Shiv Kumar had worked in The Times of India, Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times and DNA in (...)

For a few TV rating points more,a life was lost

21.08.2010 - 15:26
Mail Today, the tabloid newspaper owned by the India Today group (which also owns the Hindi TV channel Aaj Tak), reports that two TV journalists have been arrested in Ahmedabad for coaxing a man to immolate himself outside a police station in front of their cameras. The journalists—Mayur Raval [...]

Well-armed gunmen shoot unarmed woman

19.08.2010 - 16:17
On World Photography Day, visitors write thousands of words to the background music of a fountain at Lal Bagh in Bangalore on Thursday. Photograph: Karnataka Photo News 2009: A lensman’s eyes reaches parts others’ eyes don’t 2008: With so many legs, who on earth needs a tripod' *** [...]

EXCLUSIVE:Unpublished doodles of R.K. Laxman

18.08.2010 - 03:15
The hand of India’s most famous newspaper cartoonist, R.K. Laxman, rests in a hospital in Bombay without a pen or pencil in its grip. Not even sure if (or when) it will regain the strength to pick up a pen or pencil to regale the millions who have woken up to the magic behind its (...)

The 2010 Shakti Bhatt first-book prize

16.08.2010 - 09:08
PRESS RELEASE: In its third year, the Shakti Bhatt first-book prize is a cash award of Rs one lakh. Entries in the following genres may be submitted: poetry, fiction (including graphic novels), creative non-fiction (travel writing, autobiography, biography and narrative journalism) and drama. A thee [...]

Look,who’s now a war comic-book character!

06.08.2010 - 03:18
NDTV editor and star-anchor Barkha Dutt in a 2008 war comic on the saga of Captain Vikram Batra, a young officer of the 13th battalion of the J&K rifles regiment of the Indian army, who was martyred during the Kargil war. Filed under: Art, People, Television Tagged: Barkha Dutt, Captain Vikram B [...]

If the writing is on the wall,it is Newsworthy

31.07.2010 - 04:19
You can wrap fish (or bajji or bhujia) with newspapers. You can swat a fly or a mosquito. You can even make an improvised weapon with it. Well, how about covering your wall with it, as Lori Weitzner says we can do' Filed under: A bit of fun, Art, Newspapers Tagged: Churumuri, Lori Weitzner, Sans (.. [...]

When nothing’s sacred,everything’s suspect

30.07.2010 - 05:31
In the cynicism that now envelopes modern Indian journalism, even the Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism awarded by the Indian Express are not beyond ideologically motivated barbs. This letter to the editor of The Pioneer was published by the right-wing daily on Wednesday, 28 July, a [...]

The newspaper cartoon that offended Christians

29.07.2010 - 09:48
On Sunday, The Times of India carried this 8-column illustration by Neelabh to highlight the travails of R.K. Laxman‘s common man at a time of galloping food prices. Titled “The Lost Supper” and bearing a likeness to Leonardo da Vinci‘s Last Supper, the illustration conveyed [...]

Medium is the message in a movie hall queue

22.07.2010 - 14:18
No mention of Marshall McLuhan in the global village is complete without “the medium is the message” bit. On his birth annivesary, Boing Boing digs up a scene from Woody Allen‘s Annie Hall. Filed under: A bit of fun, Television Tagged: Annie Hall, Churumuri, Marshall McLuhan, Sans [...]

How serious is the trouble at CNBC & CNN-IBN'

12.07.2010 - 12:21
Raghav Bahl‘s Network 18 group has restructured its business plan. Again. All the loss-making broadcast businesses—CNBC TV18, CNN-IBN, IBN7, etc—are under one roof, and the digital and publishing initiatives—moneycontrol.com, Infomedia, etc—under another. Debashis Basu [...]

Daily exercise improves newspaper circulation

07.07.2010 - 13:34
Indian publications are full of facts; the fiction is in their circulation figures. Cooked up with great expertise, garnished liberally with an extra zero, certified by audit agencies which will consume any shit, and then lovingly dished out to agencies and advertisers, the number of actual copies s [...]

If TV cameras are OK,why not still cameras'

06.07.2010 - 10:19
The courts do not allow photographers to shoot pictures inside a courtroom, although they will allow illustrators to get away drawing courtroom scenes which have almost no likeness with reality. Ditto, the legislature. This, above, is a scene from the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore where a joint sessio [...]

Terminate the Zombies Managing American Newspaper Companies

New Media Business Syllabus for Spring 2009

Why Should Newspapers Offer Online Video News'

The Fatal Arrow, Shot From a Crossbow, Struck His Chest

01.12.2008 - 08:47
Abel Girón Morales, 1979-2008Shot from a crossbow, the plastic and metal arrow struck him in the chest, shattering one of his major arteries. The 29 year-old victim, a graphic layout artist, had left home his home on the outskirts of the city, was walking to work, and apparently hadn't taken notic [...]

Ian Alexander Davies (1959-2008), R.I.P.

02.11.2008 - 00:42
Ian Alexander Davies, 49, of Topcroft, Norfolk, U.K., a husband, father of two, newspaper and magazine New Media expert, and an ardent private pilot, died Wednesday when the two-person aerobatic biplane he was aboard collided with a crop-spraying tractor as the biplane was approaching the runway at [...]

Ian Alexander Davies (1959-2008), R.I.P.

31.10.2008 - 18:21
Ian Alexander Davies, 49, of Topcroft, Norfolk, U.K., a husband, father of two, newspaper and magazine New Media expert, and an ardent private pilot, died Wednesday when the two-person aerobatic biplane he was aboard collided with a crop-spraying tractor as the biplane was approaching the runway at [...]

Beer Is The Better Investment Than U.S. Newspaper Companies

21.10.2008 - 02:22
(Kegs photo by Jeramey Jannene via Flickr. No endorsement by him of this posting is implied.)Do the executives who manage America's major daily newspaper publishing companies think they know what they're doing' They'll assure you the answer is yes. But how obvious does the evidence have to be befor [...]

Multimedia Newspaper Professorship Opening at Syracuse

14.10.2008 - 00:03
In case anyone reading this is interested, the Newspaper Department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, seeks an experienced journalist with strong multimedia skills to join a department committed to preserving core journalistic competencies while teaching stu [...]

Life Aboard an Academic Supercarrier

25.09.2008 - 06:04
In May, when after a year of teaching graduate school courses, I wrote a ClickZ.com column lamenting how resistant to change many media schools are about New Media, I was amused when my friend Jeff Jarvis tried to hijack my column and turn it into an advertisement for his smaller and competing scho [...]

What Is/Are the New Media'

23.09.2008 - 04:24
Defining what the term New Media means and its potential. Ten minutes from a New Media Business conducted at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on September 3, 2008, by Adjunct Professor and Senior Consultant about Executive Education in New Media Vin Crosbie.

Why Mass Media Content is Dumbing Down

16.09.2008 - 06:23
In the second part of my essay, Transforming American Newspapers, I mentioned several corollary effects that occur when the sheer number of Media vehicles radically increases. However, I inadvertently omitted two other corollary effects.The primary business model of most Mass Media vehicles (newspa [...]

Monday, August 25, 2008

15.09.2008 - 00:26
Expert at estimating and forecasting the amount of unexpected chores my clients might face when completing tasks, I can woefully underestimate and overlook the unexpected when I'm trying to complete my own. I'm now more than two weeks past when I promised to post the third part of my four part essa [...]

Transforming American Newspapers (Part 2)

25.08.2008 - 08:08
(Continued from Part 1)Violating the Principle of Supply & DemandIf the major reason for the American daily newspaper industry's demise were its stories contained too many dangling participles, then the industry could more easily comprehend its situation than instead hearing that the reason was it [...]

Thursday, August 21, 2008

21.08.2008 - 23:49
I'm back! I'd taken a year off for reflection.After concluding that no daily newspaper executive in North America knows where their industry is headed, I went back to school approximately this time last year. I'd hoped that news media academics might have the answers. What I found was that, with th [...]

Transforming American Newspapers (Part 1)

21.08.2008 - 03:45
Ignorance isn't bliss to the dying. Witness the pathos of American daily newspaper companies. Most have finally begun to realize that the deterioration of their businesses isn't cyclical but grave. Yet few, if any, understand why. Almost all grasp for the reasons.Some attribute their grave conditio [...]

More photos and a little video

Free money for school

Loudoun Football Video

Shel Israel on social media in government

Holidays in Loudoun

Snow!

Time for the next adventure

Lessons Learned from an Intern

All New: TheSpartanDaily.com

Join the wired

It's alive! Fresh content on theSpartanDaily.com

Training future journalists

LIVE Video!

The live video worked!

Live Blogging at the Daily

Replies to a journalism student

30.08.2010 - 21:58
Belinda Giles sent me the following email: Dear Adrian I am a university student in Western Australia, studying law/journalism. I am working on an opinion piece for the journalism component — the subject is ‘journalism is the lifeblood of democracy’. During my googling I came across your blog [...]

Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain - Pharyngula [del.icio.us]

19.08.2010 - 14:03
I'll make a prediction, too. We will not be able to plug a single unknown protein sequence into a computer and have it derive a complete description of all of its functions by 2020.

Hidden in Plain Sight:The News Media's Role in Exposing Human Trafficking - Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism [del.icio.us]

16.07.2010 - 13:24
Panelists urged reporters and editors to avoid salacious details and splashy, "sexy" headlines that can prevent a more nuanced examination of trafficked persons' lives and experiences. Journalists lamented the lack of solid data, noting that the available statistics are contradictory, [...]

How supermodels are like toxic assets - 3quarksdaily [del.icio.us]

14.07.2010 - 15:44
Without a view of the market as a social body—composed of individuals acting in concert with each other, aided by financial models, and bound together by conventions to help them anticipate one another’s actions—we can’t see how participants act together. Yet their collectively attuned steps [...]

Open data doesn't empower communities - internet.artizans [del.icio.us]

07.07.2010 - 16:50
There are many missing steps between open data & an empowered citizenry that can fulfill David Cameron's claim that "People will be the masters. Politicians the servants. And that’s the way it should be”. It might be useful to contrast the histories of libraries and of Chartism - librar [...]

Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz [del.icio.us]

06.07.2010 - 16:31
(E)xcellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until it’s time [...]

Changing the World,One Friend at a Time - Don Tapscott [del.icio.us]

06.07.2010 - 13:20
Facebook thinks that transparency is not just an opportunity for companies and other institutions to disclose pertinent information, and in so doing to be more trusted and effective. They believe it's an opportunity for individuals to do so as well.Facebook's founders, Kirkpatrick says, be [...]

The Highest Form of Mention - Economic Principals [del.icio.us]

05.07.2010 - 23:36
Precisely because paper is expensive, heavy, durable and, since it is costly, scarce, attention in print will remain the ultimate source of social currency for many decades to come.A case in point, at least in the making, is Bloomberg’s Businessweek, which in the past few months has become the mos [...]

The Myth Of Creativity - Robin Hanson [del.icio.us]

30.06.2010 - 15:52
Critics complain that schools squelch creativity, but most people are inclined to be more creative on the job than would be truly productive. So schooling is mostly about selecting the smarter and more diligent, and learning to show up day after day to somewhat boring jobs with ambiguous instruction [...]

Mounting Web Woes Pummel Newspapers - Advertising Age [del.icio.us]

29.06.2010 - 09:51
Newspaper sites still typically command much higher rates than most of the internet -- collecting $6.99 for a thousand impressions in April compared with $2.52 across the web as a whole, according to a recent ComScore report. That's partly because advertisers trust newspaper sites to provide sa [...]

The General speaks… - USC Center on Public Diplomacy - Newswire - CPD Blog & Blogroll [del.icio.us]

22.06.2010 - 12:00
The appeal of 18 June has a number of lessons for contemporary public diplomacy. It is a reminder of the historical impact of the radio, which still has a role to play in today’s world. More than this it is an example of the public diplomacy of empowerment. The British government could (and did) a [...]

Kim Andrew Elliot [del.icio.us]

21.06.2010 - 17:18
"(V)oice of the voiceless" doesn't capture what successful international broadcasting really does. "News to the newsless" would be much better, though, admittedly, it doesn't sound as good.

Rupert Murdoch's Sky bid marks a shift in the centre of gravity - Steve Hewlett [del.icio.us]

21.06.2010 - 12:51
News Corp's decision to take full control of BSkyB marks a fundamental shift in the company's centre of gravity - in the UK at least. He is no longer a press baron with a sideline in electronic media; now, he is a towering presence in pay TV with other interests in important but declining [...]

Yes,People Still Read,but Now It’s Social - NYTimes.com [del.icio.us]

21.06.2010 - 09:13
The intellectual tools for assessing the media, once the province of academics and professional critics, are now far more accessible to the masses. The number of people who have written a thoughtful response to Mr. Carr’s essay — and, even better, published it online — surely dwarfs the number [...]

OECD examines the Future of News and the Internet - OECD [del.icio.us]

19.06.2010 - 10:18
(A)n in depth-treatment of the global newspaper market and its evolution, with a particular view on its economics, the development of online news, related opportunities and challenges and policy approaches.

Ed Moses’ Autograph

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Edwin Moses is here at DLD, he was talking on the panel about philanthrocapitalism and his work at the Laureus Sporting Academy.Anyway, I’m not a massive athletics fan - but he is *such* an icon, I was just reduced to 100% fan, and had to go and grab his autograph. Something I don’t thin [...]

What’s on my mind..

02.02.2009 - 16:00
I’m going through a bit of a Wordle phase at the moment. And just putting together a presentation to take round the business. This is my ‘Agenda’ wordle slide…anything missing'

Ed Moses’ Autograph

26.01.2009 - 12:02
Edwin Moses is here at DLD, he was talking on the panel about philanthrocapitalism and his work at the Laureus Sporting Academy.Anyway, I’m not a massive athletics fan - but he is *such* an icon, I was just reduced to 100% fan, and had to go and grab his autograph. Something I don’t thin [...]

What’s on my mind..

26.01.2009 - 12:02
I’m going through a bit of a Wordle phase at the moment. And just putting together a presentation to take round the business. This is my ‘Agenda’ wordle slide…anything missing'

Obama vs Lincoln vs Roosevelt vs Bush vs Me wordles

21.01.2009 - 17:02
 This was a particularly neat thing to put in the paper today, I thought. (Yes, I know others have done similar things), comparing Obama vs Lincoln, Roosevelt and Bush.Of course I had to then rush out and do one for this blog (yes, a bit late, I know).  Only to be reminded of my  shockingly (...)

Ohto Tasche Fountain Pen - thank you CultPens

20.01.2009 - 10:31
Have you ever thought about buying a fountain pen, but then gone: “It’s nice - but just a bit too long”'No, nor have I.Which makes me wonder what they nice chaps at Ohto were on when they thought up the Tasche Fountain pen . Yes, it’s one of the world’s most compact pen [...]

Picasa for Mac - worth it just for the collages

18.01.2009 - 10:31
I’ve been playing round with Picasa for Mac since the beta launch a couple of weeks ago. I was keen to try it because I’ve started to use Picasa to back up all my photos. For some reason, Flickr feels like more of an open/ communal area, while I can keep all my family photos (...)

The era of the Great British Media Brand

01.12.2008 - 17:22
 I was asked recently to speak at the Campaign/ APG Battle of Big Thinking. A few publisher types such as myself were tagged on at the end of a day of agency planners pontifications on life, the universe and everything (there was a lot of quantum physics, for some reason). Anyway, this was my contr [...]

links for 2008-10-29

29.10.2008 - 17:43
Sequoia Capital on startups and the economic downturn

links for 2008-10-27

27.10.2008 - 17:22
Digital Lifescapes | by David H. Deans: Fate is Sealed for the Big Media Dinosaurs(tags: newspapers disruption)

links for 2008-10-24

24.10.2008 - 18:42
Online spending figures tumble as financial crisis starts to bite - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic(tags: e-commerce)

links for 2008-08-27

27.08.2008 - 20:50
TV advertising gloom set to continue | Media | guardian.co.uk(tags: advertising trends)

links for 2008-08-19

19.08.2008 - 19:24
How to create free iPhone ringtones using your Mac « Joe’s Blog(tags: iphone mac)Marc Benioff taunts the awakened dinosaurs | Outside the Lines - CNET News.comr and I interviewed Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff last week. Following is part of the exchange, where I asked Benioff for his thoug [...]

My new blog: Digital Disruption

14.08.2008 - 15:49
I’ve started a new blog - Digital Disruption which is where I’m planning to put the bulk of my ’serious blogging’ effort in from now on - allowing this place to be turned over to occasional indulgent whimsies about gadgets and music and the like.Take a look…

Is anyone cooler than David Bowie

12.08.2008 - 11:41
OK - I’m not blogging during the summer…as I get a load of stuff cleared and then start with a new blog elsehwere in the autumn.However, during this slightly quieter month - a question has been bugging us in the office. Is anyone cooler than David Bowie?Any help with this gratefully rece [...]

Media shifting online: IDG success story

31.12.2008 - 10:00
There’s a fascinating piece in the New York Times looking at IDG — the world’s largest publisher of tech-related magazines — and how it has been transformed from a print entity into what has increasingly become an online-only entity:“In 2002, 86 percent of the revenue f [...]

Twitter: The first draft of history'

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Like many others, I woke up this morning to Twitter messages about a disaster in China: a magnitude 7.8 (at last report) earthquake in the southwest, with thousands of people either dead or injured. Much like the forest fires in California last fall and other recent news events, Twitter became one o [...]

Blogs and the attribution dilemma

31.12.2008 - 10:00
I wasn’t going to jump into this one, mostly because it seemed kind of “inside baseball” (i.e., not that interesting to lots of people), but as we all know one of the main things the blogosphere likes to do is blog about blogging, so I thought I would take a crack at the Ars Techni [...]

Ars Technica acquired by Conde Nast

31.12.2008 - 10:00
On the heels of CBS acquiring CNET for $1.8-billion comes another deal involving “old” media and “new” media: according to TechCrunch, the folks over at Conde Nast — the magazine publishing family that owns Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired — have plunked down about [...]

The Grey Lady gets jiggy with APIs

31.12.2008 - 10:00
I don’t know why, but when I saw a post about the New York Times — known for decades as The Grey Lady — working on releasing an open API, I couldn’t help but picture an elderly woman in an evening gown trying to break-dance. That aside, however, I think it’s great that [...]

Belgium: Ignoring reality since 1830

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Despite the headline on this post, I have nothing against Belgium as a country. I am a big fan of their waffles, for example, not to mention their chocolate — and Brueghels is pretty cool as well. Still, they are inescapably intertwined in my mind with one of the stupidest lawsuits I can (...)

Bubble 2.0: Glam turns down $1.3B

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat is reporting that Glam Media — an advertising/content network focused on sites that appeal primarily to women — has turned down a $1.3-billion acquisition offer from an unnamed party. Like Caroline McCarthy at Webware, I assume that this offer likely cam [...]

Globe and Mail pay wall comes down

31.12.2008 - 10:00
I don’t do this a lot, but I just thought I would point out for those who might be interested that the Globe and Mail — which happens to be my employer — has removed the pay wall that used to block access to a lot of the paper’s online content. All of the columnists (...)

Ballmer on papers: Wrong as usual

31.12.2008 - 10:00
There’s lots of buzz out there about how Microsoft supremo Steve Ballmer figures the newspaper will be dead in 10 years — oh yes, and magazines too. Here’s what he said to the Washington Post:“Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left i [...]

mathewingram.com/media is no more

31.12.2008 - 10:00
For quite awhile now, I’ve been writing most of my blog posts — about media, technology, business and anything else that captures my fancy — at my main blog (mathewingram.com/work), and then cross-posting the ones that were more media-focused manually to this blog. I thought that m [...]

mathewingram.com/media is no more

22.06.2008 - 20:25
For quite awhile now, I’ve been writing most of my blog posts — about media, technology, business and anything else that captures my fancy — at my main blog (mathewingram.com/work), and then cross-posting the ones that were more media-focused manually to this blog. I thought that m [...]

Ballmer on papers: Wrong as usual

06.06.2008 - 19:51
There’s lots of buzz out there about how Microsoft supremo Steve Ballmer figures the newspaper will be dead in 10 years — oh yes, and magazines too. Here’s what he said to the Washington Post:“Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left i [...]

Globe and Mail pay wall comes down

02.06.2008 - 18:24
I don’t do this a lot, but I just thought I would point out for those who might be interested that the Globe and Mail — which happens to be my employer — has removed the pay wall that used to block access to a lot of the paper’s online content. All of the columnists (...)

Bubble 2.0: Glam turns down $1.3B

29.05.2008 - 19:02
Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat is reporting that Glam Media — an advertising/content network focused on sites that appeal primarily to women — has turned down a $1.3-billion acquisition offer from an unnamed party. Like Caroline McCarthy at Webware, I assume that this offer likely cam [...]

Belgium: Ignoring reality since 1830

28.05.2008 - 20:03
Despite the headline on this post, I have nothing against Belgium as a country. I am a big fan of their waffles, for example, not to mention their chocolate — and Brueghels is pretty cool as well. Still, they are inescapably intertwined in my mind with one of the stupidest lawsuits I can (...)

QOTD:Give em hell and try to have some fun

19.07.2010 - 02:45
“Give ‘em hell and try to have some fun while you’re at it.” — Julie Doll, parting advice from the now-former executive editor of the Journal & Courier whose last day was this week This was Julie’s short and sweet parting advice in an e-mail to staff before headi [...]

QOTD:The future does not fit in the containers of the past

12.05.2010 - 20:35
"The future does not fit in the containers of the past.”— Rishad TobaccowalaI came across this quote recently, and it seemed to make a lot of sense in the context of journalism. So I wanted to pass it on to my readers. I see its meaning similar to one of my other favorite quotes, which (...)

Reporter tip:Keep your cell phone number,use Google Voice to get a local one

10.05.2010 - 19:43
I briefly mentioned in my post on Saturday that I use Google Voice as a cell phone number for local sources to call. I realized I’ve never written about this great tip for reporters who’ve moved far from home but don’t want to give up their old phone numbers. I use it sort of like [...]

‘If your mother says she loves you,check it out’

09.05.2010 - 23:02
First, this post has nothing to do with my mom (whom I love and who definitely loves me). But I thought it’d be a good time to post on the topic of fact-checking since it is Mother’s Day and all.So, raise your hand if you were told this phrase in j-school: “If your mother says (... [...]

Why I didn’t buy an iPhone (I got the HTC Droid Incredible instead)

08.05.2010 - 17:25
When the first iPhone came out, I wasn’t tempted to purchase it because its price was too rich for my blood (or rather my underpaid, young reporter checkbook). I settled for a BlackBerry Pearl instead and stuck with T-mobile.When subsequent upgrades were released, I found other reasons not to [...]

Why I’m going to give Google Buzz time

11.02.2010 - 21:14
While I’ve been busy covering millions of dollars in budget cuts this week, otherwise known as doing my day job, the Internet has been abuzz itself, over Google Buzz. (Apologies for the pun.)I haven’t had time to thoroughly check it out but most of the posts from my network so far have g [...]

Who really loses in a News Corp./Bing deal'

24.11.2009 - 15:56
I’m not a business person. That’s obvious. But I’ve read recently about how News Corp./Rubert Murdoch are in talks with Microsoft to have the new Bing search engine be its sole way of searching for content from the Wall Street Journal etc. Here’s the most recent Business Week [...]

What I’ve learned two months into a 10-month series

30.09.2009 - 18:44
You know it’s bad when even your boyfriend, who is not a journalist, keeps telling you that you need to update your blog. My last update was the end of July, so I didn’t want September to slip completely by, as August did, without any updates.I also want to update everyone on the series [...]

My paper is hiring a reporter and a copy editor

31.07.2009 - 17:36
Now that you’ve gotten over the initial shock everyone seems to have upon hearing any newspaper is hiring these days, let me give you the details.My newspaper, the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana, is hiring a new city/general assignment reporter and a new copy editor. Both are ful [...]

Embarking on a 10-month project *gulp*

26.07.2009 - 21:30
On Friday, my editor, the projects editor and I finally finished developing the budget for a story I first pitched in May. Yes, it’s almost August.But this isn’t just any story. I’m more excited about this story, or rather the series of stories, than I have ever been about a story [...]

QOTD:… decide that you are not going to stay where you are

11.07.2009 - 04:24
"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”—John Pierpont Morgan

A pun-filled story that was a bit too "well done”

09.07.2009 - 17:02
I meant to post on this weeks ago when this story first aired on the local TV station, but I got busy and forgot. I was reminded of it again today and since I’m off work today (I’m working Saturday and avoiding the newsroom so if there are any lay offs today there I’m not (...)

A list of 90+ education reporters on Twitter

08.07.2009 - 06:32
For months, I’ve had in mind finding all my education reporter peers across the country on Twitter. I decided this afternoon it was time to finally put together what I’ve gathered and to see how many more I could find. What follows is a somewhat comprehensive list of education reporters [...]

Awards,external praise don’t motivate me

27.06.2009 - 17:23
So, today I have resolved to go back through all the stories (or at least the headlines of the stories) I wrote during the past year to see if any of them are worth putting up for my paper to submit to the state press association contest.I usually don’t do this. And this year, as (...)

Indy Star’s ‘info stream’ like friendfeed for its reporters

10.06.2009 - 19:28
I just came across an interesting feature that I think is new, or at least new to me, on the Indy Star site.Scanning the education section of the site, I noticed under the refers to education reporter Andy Gammill’s blog and twitter there was a new link: “Andy’s info stream.” [...]

The Cartoonist Aims to Bring Newsgames to the Masses

02.09.2010 - 18:21
The Cartoonist, our winning entry in the 2010 Knight News Challenge, emerged from two research programs. For the past two years, my research group at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been cataloging and analyzing the burgeoning genre of "newsgames" -- videogames about current and past real-wo [...]

The Challenges of Life and Transparency at Quincy District Court

01.09.2010 - 20:12
Now that the celebrations and congratulations are in the past, the hard work of building Order in the Court 2.0 has begun. The idea that received the endorsement of the Knight News Challenge is now being tested in the real world with formal meetings with officials from the Massachusetts court system [...]

What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity

31.08.2010 - 16:10
The following post comes to us from Sameer Bhuchar, who is helping Spot.Us from Austin.It has been said a thousand times before: The landscape of the modern media is changing. With today's more complex, active Internet ecosystem, the accepted norms of journalism are constantly being rewritten or tos [...]

SeenReport Helps Citizens Report on Floods in Pakistan

30.08.2010 - 21:03
The devastating floods in Pakistan have been covered by trained reporters and mainstream media outlets around the world. Citizens, often on the front lines of the flood, have also been contributing thousands of reports though mobile phones, in part enabled by the citizen journalism service SeenRepo [...]

Washington Post Caught Napping at Imaginary Intersection

27.08.2010 - 16:54
Of this we can be certain: There is no such thing as the intersection of Mozart Place and 16th Street NW. These two Washington, D.C, thoroughfares in the Adams-Morgan area parallel each other.So when people who knew the neighborhood read the Washington Post's "Crime Scene" post on Aug. 12 about a ho [...]

10 Must-Read Sites for Hyper-Local Publishers

26.08.2010 - 20:05
Here at NowSpots we're developing a new advertising platform that will let local publishers sell and publish real-time ads on their sites. In my last post here on MediaShift Idea Lab, I explained why real-time ads are a better business model for hyper-local bloggers and local publishers than AdSense [...]

New Media Tools Play Pivotal Role in Kenya's Constitution-Making

25.08.2010 - 18:29
Kenya is moving towards greater democracy and more transparent governance thanks to the recent constitutional referendum that received 70 percent "yes" votes. The new constitution, which is scheduled to be signed into law on Friday, replaces the one drafted during Kenya's colonial era. It includes a [...]

Helping D.C. Drinkers and Bikers with Custom Maps

24.08.2010 - 19:05
In my last post about TileMill, I outlined some of our general plans and the background for why we’re working on this project to help make it easier for people to design very custom maps online. One question that we get a lot from people who are new to the GIS space is, “When would I nee [...]

One-Eight,Afghanistan:Social Media + U.S. Marine Corps

23.08.2010 - 18:21
As the saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for."In my case, I won a Knight News Challenge grant to launch an online, social media reporting network that follows a battalion of U.S. Marines throughout their deployment to southern Afghanistan. (Congratulations! You've won a year in Helmand Province [...]

Stroome Helps Journalists Collaborate via Online Video Remixing

20.08.2010 - 19:27
Stroome, a winner of the 2010 Knight News Challenge grant, fosters a social network that allows journalists to collaborate together by sharing content and stories that can be edited right in a browser and then pushed across the web.Prototyped at USC Annenberg's pioneering Online Program on Online Co [...]

How can civic media help cover "slow-motion disasters"'

19.08.2010 - 16:33
I'm helping MIT's Center for Future Civic Media put together a talk on how better to cover slow-motion disasters, and I'd like your thoughts.The bursting of the housing bubble, for example, cost the American economy $8.3 trillion. Yet for a decade, national media missed signs of the coming disaster, [...]

How Training Citizen Journalists Made a Difference

18.08.2010 - 18:03
I recently attended the Walkley Media Conference in Sydney, Australia. It is run by the Walkley Foundation, a very interesting outfit that I'm learning more and more about. The Foundation aims to encourage professional and ethical journalism in Australia, and they run the country's main media awards [...]

Ushahidi Builds Community with 3 L's:Listen,Learn,and Leverage

17.08.2010 - 19:45
One of the things we have quickly learned at Ushahidi is that it is about more than just about creating great code/design and an easy-to-use tool -- what really makes everything come together is the people; or, if I can appropriate the term, it's about the peopleware. By this I mean not just the tea [...]

GoMap Helps Communities Map Local Events,News

16.08.2010 - 20:43
GoMap is a map-based interface for local news, initiatives, building projects, public hearings and tweets. Our project, which won a 2010 Knight News Challenge grant, is ment to turn a city into a neighborhood, a place where everybody sees and hears his/her friends, can communicate with each other, a [...]

Order in the Court 2.0:Making the Justice System More Public

13.08.2010 - 17:01
The idea behind Order in the Court 2.0, one of this year's winners of a Knight News Challenge grant, is to restore and reinvigorate the public's access and understanding of our nation's courts.Up to now journalism has been the primary bridge connecting the public to the courts. But the media's abili [...]

Immersive video

17.05.2008 - 07:33
This is a really neat way to display video. Instead editing all three camera angles into one video, they just let them play side-by-side-by-side. I can’t think of a lot of places where it would make sense to display online video this way. But a live performance is definitely one of them. N [...]

Redundancy

17.05.2008 - 06:47
So let me guess. Peter Magowan is stepping down as Giants GM:

Moving on

12.04.2008 - 09:46
Dave Butler is right, of course. It’s time to focus on the future - not the past - at the Mercury News. In a memo to staffers yesterday, the executive editor noted a recent photo essay by designer Martin Gee that documents the empty desks and offices left behind by recent layoffs and buyou [...]

Uh oh, Yahoo buying Maven video platform

30.03.2008 - 01:16
There may yet be a smart business strategy behind Yahoo’s rumored purchase of web video company Maven Networks. I’m finding it hard to understand much of anything Yahoo is doing these days, even as I try to root for them. But the Maven deal depresses me a bit. We began using Mave [...]

NewsGlobe

30.03.2008 - 01:16
I don’t know that there is a tremendous amount of value in seeing top news stories represented on a globe. In fact, most globe mashups I’ve seen tend to have a short “wow!'’ shelf-life. But NewsGlobe is kind of cool, nonetheless. And it’s always nice [...]

Two years (nearly) in the life of the Mercury News

30.03.2008 - 01:16
April 27, 2006: Ridder: Singleton will be a very good steward of the Merc “While McClatchy may be buying Knight Ridder, we’re getting the flagship and the crown jewel of Knight Ridder,'’ Dean Singleton told the San Jose Mercury News staff Wednesday. He appeared with KR [...]

Merc Sessions

30.03.2008 - 01:16
When I moved over from reporter to online editor at the Merc, one of the first things I wanted to do was build a site focused on the local music scene. Alas, because of the many distractions at the Merc, lack of resources, competing demands, etc., it didn’t get done before I left. As the [ [...]

Thanks for your comment, but we’re too busy right now

30.03.2008 - 01:16
I tried to leave a comment on a Fortune blog last week (owned by CNN). I say tried because a) the comment still isn’t posted, and b) I’m left with the impression that it may never be. Why? Here’s the confirmation message I got after I hit the publish button (emphasis mi [...]

RIP Mercury News

30.03.2008 - 01:16
At the risk of offending my friends and former colleagues still at the San Jose Mercury News, I’m writing its obituary today. There will be more buyouts and layoffs this week, the fourth round of en-masse departures in the last few years. Sadly, I fear the paper will not recover. I worked [...]

How to lay off people

30.03.2008 - 01:16
It’s sort of beside the point - kind of like asking how you’d rather be executed - but someone raised the issue again of how the Mercury News laid off employees today. In the last round of layoffs, and again today, management ordered everyone to stay home between 8 a.m and 10 a.m [...]

Sarah Lacy got mugged

30.03.2008 - 01:16
I can’t say I’m a big fan of Sarah Lacy. She seems just a tad too enamored with and starry-eyed over the Web 2.0 crowd she covers as a journalist. But now that the (almost) full video of her SXSW interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is out, it’s clear the negativ [...]

Know your partners

30.03.2008 - 01:16
I received an email from VideoEgg today telling me that they were closing my publisher account. Their FAQ says why: As you know, resources at technology startups are limited and it is in our best interest to focus on the core of our business at this time….Once [your] video is removed from [...]

Dave Butler’s vision for the Mercury News

30.03.2008 - 01:16
Executive Editor Dave Butler sent the following email to the Mercury News newsroom. There’s a part of me that wants to deconstruct it line-by-line. But I think I’ll just let the words speak for themselves. Colleagues: Where are we headed? What’s my vision for The Mercu [...]

The Power of STORY,the documercial

13.08.2010 - 01:30
Like it or not, when big advertisers are doing it, then we're on to something!

A Virtual Gallery of Video Inspiration

30.07.2010 - 04:46
Think of this as a gallery. Let's call it the MMS Virtual Gallery. The walls are your computer screen. I'm the curator. So welcome and enjoy the art I'm displaying.

iPhone:A storytellers most valuable tool. Plus apps and gear you gotta have.

29.06.2010 - 22:27
List of the apps and gear every mobile journalist should have, for their iPhone, of course.

Why no one is watching your video and 9 ways to improve your story [VIDEO]

10.06.2010 - 03:57
Okay, so I don't really know if anybody is watching your videos or not, but, I have learned a few things along the way that can help you get more people to keep watching after they hit the play button. I hope you enjoy this screencast I put together.

10 hella funny videos about journalism you must see

21.05.2010 - 20:32
The recent rap video in celebration of the kick off of the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop in Syracuse, N.Y., from Evan Vucci and Matt Ford produced this silly music video about being multimedia journalists and got me thinking about the other funny things I've seen lately, enjoy!

13 Projects Worth Watching

19.05.2010 - 22:48
My regular curated round-up of projects I think are worth your time, enjoy!

Attack of the interns,students and one day to document the world!

24.04.2010 - 06:20
Multimedia goodness from NPR Intern edition, Columbia J-School, and more.

ShowCase:Create a slideshow in the palm of your hand. Demo and Sample

18.04.2010 - 21:07
Check out my quick demo and sample of an awesome new iPhone app, called SHOWCASE, perfect for multimediashooters.

Picturing the devastation in Haiti and more inspiring projects

18.04.2010 - 06:16
A quick round-up of moving and powerful stories from Haiti and a few other multimedia stories I stumbled upon recently.

2 Visual Journalists you don’t know,but should

02.04.2010 - 00:32
First, one of the best pieces to win in the recent NPPA contest was this piece by the wonderful Maisie Crow. WARNING: Tissue required or you have no soul.A Life AloneMaisie is a graduate student in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. She is  currently living in New ...

So Much Inspiration,It Hurts

24.03.2010 - 22:33
Sit back and enjoy some of what I've found that the intertubes has to offer in inspirational multimedia storytelling.From the MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia WorkshopsJohnnie Footman, 90, may be the oldest cab driver in New York City. With a cigar hanging from his mouth, a plastic spider around his . [...]

Follow or Die:The Best Multimedia Tweeters

24.03.2010 - 22:33
With all the noise about basketball clogging my twitter feed, it makes me love the folks on the following list even more. I'm pretty picky when it comes to my twitter feed and the following people have become indispensable resources for all things visual. So other than being great about ...

Holy Flying Duckrabbits,Two Multimedia Studios doing it the Right Way

24.03.2010 - 22:33
First, I have to say that I've always been blown away by the work of the Bombay Flying Club. I think of them of as the *new* Magnum. Hopefully the photo gods won't strike me down for that comment, but if you aren't familiar with their work, you should be.Bombay ...

Internship Opening:Year-long internship at Los Angeles Times

24.03.2010 - 22:33
MediaStorm » Blog Archive » Internship Opening: Year-long internship at Los Angeles Times.

Multimedia Rules to Live By and Seven Steps to Training Yourself

25.12.2009 - 02:06
This teaching thing must really be getting into my blood. Now that I'm on winter break and I haven't been in a classroom for over a week, I have a strong urge to spew unsolicited and unnecessary multimedia advice. Please excuse the rant and take it for what it's worth--the ...

How the Social Media Converges with Mass Media What’s Missing from Today’s Hyperlocal Sites - Community Leadership

09.05.2009 - 20:10
From Media Transparent.What’s missing from sites focused on a city' Community organizers. It’s the same leadership dilemma facing any organization, whether physical or virtual. Hyperlocal sites need to be driven and organized by hubs and influencers of the local community, and these hubs need to [...]

Syndicaster - Boon for Local Broadcast News'

17.04.2009 - 11:52
TechCrunch Co-Editor Erick Schonfeld wrote a great article about video hosting service Syndicaster’s increased options for distributing local broadcast news.Via TechCrunch:…Syndicaster is adding one-click distribution options to the major video sites so that local TV affiliates or statio [...]

GroundReport and Worldfocus Join to Tell Stories

06.02.2009 - 04:02
GroundReport just got a great opportunity through Talk To US: bring the voices and faces of global citizen journalists to national television program Worldfocus. Every month we ask a question on news perspectives, and the most compelling video response is aired on TV for hundreds of thousands. It [...]

Anderson Free Press Update

02.02.2009 - 16:00
Dear World:I’m coming up on four entire years out here on the front lines of the media revolution being waged across the nation, across the world. In that time, a lot of other similar sites (some with millions of dollars of cash injected into them) have fallen. A lot of other sites continue to [...]

Anderson Free Press Update

30.01.2009 - 05:01
Dear World:I’m coming up on four entire years out here on the front lines of the media revolution being waged across the nation, across the world. In that time, a lot of other similar sites (some with millions of dollars of cash injected into them) have fallen. A lot of other sites continue to [...]

HOWTO: Upgrade an SVN Managed Drupal Installation (without CVS)

09.01.2009 - 03:04
At Chapter Three we use the Subversion Version Control System to manage our client and internal Drupal projects. When we kick off a new project we roll out the latest version of Drupal, stick it in the SVN repository, and start developing.As a matter of best practices it is usually a good idea to ch [...]

Defcon 16

09.01.2009 - 03:04
We live in a very insecure digital world where it is very possible for those unsavory elements of our society to spy, sniff, inject, and otherwise interfere with the work we do on our computers. In real terms the odds of anything particular bad happening to any of us while we build Drupal websites a [...]

Rolling Securely: 5 Tips to Protect Your Personal Data

09.01.2009 - 03:04
We live in a very insecure digital world where it is very possible for those unsavory elements of our society to spy, sniff, inject, and otherwise interfere with the work we do on our computers. In real terms the odds of anything particular bad happening to any of us while we build Drupal websites a [...]

HOWTO: Utilize Drupal 6-style "preprocess" theme architecture in Drupal 5

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Once of the biggest advances “under the hood” in Drupal 6 is the addition of the preprocess architecture to the theme layer. This is part and parcel with the deeper embedding of template files, and together they render Drupal 6 the most flexible and powerful release yet in terms of theme [...]

Netroots Nation 2008

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Firebug is a hell of a thing and at Chapter Three we use it regularly - as many others do - to analyze and debug our web development work. It can do things like inspect the HTML, manipulate the CSS, execute and debug Javascript, and monitor site performance and download times. It is so great that we [...]

Drupalcon Szeged

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Firebug is a hell of a thing and at Chapter Three we use it regularly - as many others do - to analyze and debug our web development work. It can do things like inspect the HTML, manipulate the CSS, execute and debug Javascript, and monitor site performance and download times. It is so great that we [...]

Drupal for Firebug: Firebug talking Drupal

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Firebug is a hell of a thing and at Chapter Three we use it regularly - as many others do - to analyze and debug our web development work. It can do things like inspect the HTML, manipulate the CSS, execute and debug Javascript, and monitor site performance and download times. It is so great that we [...]

Drupal Elegance: Not Just For Code Anymore

09.01.2009 - 03:04
We all love the elegance the Drupal. The code style is clean, the architecture beautiful, and it’s all pretty well thought out. Plus the logo is pretty amazing. To find a fitting tribute to our favorite content management system, I spoke with a friend from college, the very elegant Lilly Russo [...]

Bay Area Drupal Camp 2008

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Drupalcon Szeged 2008 was the annual European gathering of some of the best Drupal minds of our generation with plenty of excitement and style thrown into the mix. For the event I flew across the pond to represent for Chapter Three and chase down some amazing vegan food throughout Central Europe wit [...]

The Amazing Scene at Drupalcon Szeged

09.01.2009 - 03:04
Drupalcon Szeged 2008 was the annual European gathering of some of the best Drupal minds of our generation with plenty of excitement and style thrown into the mix. For the event I flew across the pond to represent for Chapter Three and chase down some amazing vegan food throughout Central Europe wit [...]

New RSS Feed from the White House

19.02.2009 - 21:01
Ok, actually it’s not from the White House, but from a watchdog group Propublica. The organization has set up ChangeTracker to track when the White House changes its online content, along with two government-developed web sites recovery.gov and financial stability.gov.The non-White House site [...]

Digging into Data Challenge

10.02.2009 - 17:03
Former UF student and Fact Finder Megan Taylor tipped me off to this intriguing new opportunity that combines scholarly and applied research techniques on never-been-available datasets–both domestic and international. Now, before your eyes glaze over with that “oh no, not a scholarly pos [...]

Obama’s new rules

22.01.2009 - 15:01
As a hard-core absolutist in terms of press freedoms and public access, I find it heartening that one of the first actions taken by President Barack Obama was directed in that realm. In a memo sent out all federal executive departments on Jan. 21, Obama directed each department to open up records to [...]

a new public affairs and multimedia class

13.01.2009 - 22:03
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which is certainly a peer school to UF in terms of journalism, has revamped its curriculum to be more multi-media oriented. As part of this revamp, the school has begun a class called “Public Affairs Reporting For New Media.” As near as I can [...]

What’s my major'

06.01.2009 - 20:00
The campus is buzzing here at the University of Florida, though I feel certain it’s more about the upcoming National Championship game than the first day of the spring semester.Nevertheless, I always like to start out the semester with an example of computer-assisted reporting for my students, [...]

Tweeting about Twitter

10.11.2008 - 18:42
I’ve been reading a lot about the social media service Twitter. Personally, I’ve been a bit reluctant to embrace this idea, but certainly it appears that lots of folks are on board with it. Essentially, an individual signs up to follow certain tweets (perhaps from other journalists or so [...]

Interactive election graphics

03.11.2008 - 17:43
In honor of election day, I thought I’d highlight a few election-related graphics that provide some useful information.Time Magazine: nice stand-alone graphic on swing-votes.Wall Street Journal: Audio commentary with hypothetical electoral college scenarios.USA Today: This is kind of a build-y [...]

Podcasts

30.10.2008 - 16:22
I have created a page (on your right) and put all of my previous podcasts about news research on it–take a listen….

Finding Military Records

28.10.2008 - 15:06
The Public Records Free Directory Blog now includes a post about obtaining military records that should be useful for Fact Finding students. In particular, the post talks about the DD214, which designates individual military service. This form, as with most military records, is not available online [...]

Visit from one of the best

24.10.2008 - 16:22
My class had a visit this week from one of the best in the CAR business–Matt Waite, News Technologist at the St. Petersburg Times. Matt talked to a couple of classes at UF about using data in news stories and how to approach the main concepts. But it was interesting, really.My colleague, Mindy [...]

Job opening

08.10.2008 - 22:09
I saw a job listing today which would be perfect for a graduate of Applied Fact Finding interested in pursuing data-driven and public-records oriented work. Perhaps after a bit more experience. But the job sounds fascinating.The Computer Projects Reporter will research and write his or her own data- [...]

The trends of Google

07.10.2008 - 17:44
I have a new passion in information gathering, and it’s called Google Trends. Its the epitome of a data cruncher for a infogeek like me.Google Trends allows users to search up to five terms (separated by commas) and compare them in two ways. First, it’s search index shows how often each [...]

A new way to use research in newspapers

22.09.2008 - 18:05
Here’s a new trick started by the news researchers of the Orange County Register: They have started their own blog entitled “(A)nswers (S)ources (K)nowledge.” The authors promise to get you an answer within 48 hours, if possible, which is quite a lofty goal, in my estimation. I ans [...]

Purpose of library assignment

15.09.2008 - 18:24
The first assignment I give out in Applied Fact Finding each semester is a library and online treasure hunt. Each student is randomly assigned five questions to be answered in in the UF journalism library and five questions that must be answered using online sources. Each multi-part question should [...]

Examining the drug wars

04.09.2008 - 19:13
I spent a little time this week examining the Drug Enforcement Agency’s web site and found a ballooning amount of useful information (pardon the pun). The DEA has a National Clandestine Labratory Database that lists locations where agents have found chemical labs (Thanks to Public Records Free [...]

New API survey shows ad execs still cling to tried and true

Take this test to rate your sales force effectiveness

Sales Resource Optimization,Weekly Edition

Nominate your favorite vendor

API reveals huge revenue opportunities through Sales Resource Optimization

Find your path to paid online content

API,Poynter team up for seminar

Paid Access:Practices and Profiles

What's in your 2010 Revenue Portfolio'

API initiatives continue to provide tools for transformation

2010 Dollar Match Program

Are you ready for recovery'

Five big questions (answers) for (from) Dale Peskin

An interview with CircLabs Inc.'s Bill Densmore

An interview with Education Week's Virginia B. Edwards

Kind Of a Personal Question, Isn't It'

Judging The Best of Newspaper Design

07.02.2009 - 18:32
I'm in Syracuse assisting with the judging of the Society for News Design’s Best of Newspaper Design competition through Monday. There’s comprehensive live blog coverage, as well as Twittering and Flickring....

New York Times Sells First Front-Page Display Ad

02.02.2009 - 16:02
The New York Times will sell display ads on its front page and, in fact, already has, as you can see in the above image of Monday’s front page. The Times would not disclose the rates it charges for...

New York Times Sells First Front-Page Display Ad

05.01.2009 - 09:32
The New York Times will sell display ads on its front page and, in fact, already has, as you can see in the above image of Monday’s front page. The Times would not disclose the rates it charges for...

Mansfield Leaving the Merc

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Steve Dorsey and Matt Mansfield (right) at SND Boston. Mansfield's leaving the San Jose Mercury News. Wow. Matt Mansfield, deputy managing editor and business development director at the San Jose Mercury News, is leaving the paper. It’s also one...

These Are Not the Titles You're Looking For

31.12.2008 - 10:00
If Saul Bass did the Star Wars titles: (via Calacanis)...

Time for the Merc's Obit'*

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Michael Bazeley, who worked at the San Jose Mercury News for 11 years, writes (prematurely, it is hoped) the paper’s obituary. Managers from parent company Media News will continue to downsize the editorial staff until it’s down to several dozen...

links for 2008-03-07

31.12.2008 - 10:00
Journal Standard of Freeport, Ill., redesigns "We knew we had to change. Our newspaper had become boring. It was a collection of long, hard-to-read stories. Alternative story-telling formats, such as breakout boxes, were rarely used, and the visual presentation...