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 [...]

Ex-Unity Pres.:NAHJ,NABJ,AAJA,NAJA Should Not Merge

21.10.2009 - 12:11
When the National Association of Hispanic Journalists announced earlier this month that it had a $300,000 budget shortfall, people began tweeting the news and expressing concern over the group's financial woes. One NAHJ member, Mo Krochmal, tweeted that the shortfall is an indication that "at some p [...]

Outburst at Obama Prompts Discussion about Covering Cultural Divides

16.10.2009 - 18:21
Remember before the Summer of 2009, when we were still living in post-racial America' Between the arrest of Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. in July, and Joe Wilson's "You Lie" comment during Obama's health care speech last month, it's tough to figure out how to have a productive conversat [...]

Solo Operator of Native American Times Passes One-Year Mark

09.09.2009 - 23:55
When Lisa Snell left her job as a graphic artist in 2007, she didn't expect that a year later she would become the managing editor and owner of a Native American paper. The job demands almost 100 hours of Snell's week and requires her to juggle the roles of designer, writer, editor, online publisher [...]

What Does the Future of Diversity Look Like'

14.08.2009 - 16:51
Whither goes diversity in the age of layoffs'Even in this season of conventions featuring journalists of color, the question seems overshadowed by the rising ranks of the unemployed. People who have spent decades advocating for justice, fairness and accuracy in U.S. newsrooms are preoccupied with cu [...]

CNN's Klein on Breaking News:'This Whole Thing about Being First is Overrated'

07.08.2009 - 21:04
Michael Jackson's death rocked the world of journalism as much as it rocked his global fan base. A non-traditional media outlet, TMZ, broke the story while mainstream media held off announcing his death for well over an hour.At the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Tampa on Thu [...]

Globe Reporter On Covering Gates' Arrest:'Dobbs Caught Me Off-Guard'

29.07.2009 - 23:15
The higher-education beat at The Boston Globe produces its fair share of weighty stories as the economic crisis eats away at university endowments and the specter of swine flu casts a shadow on handshake-laden commencement ceremonies. But the last thing that Tracy Jan, a higher education reporter at [...]

Milton Coleman:'Diversity Is Not a Social Experiment; It's an Industry Imperative'

06.07.2009 - 17:45
"The times are changing, but the mission has not."That's what Milton Coleman, senior editor of The Washington Post, has to say to young journalists of color in today's rapidly-evolving news media world.Coleman's advice comes from his own experiences, from four decades of fighting on the front lines [...]

Arab American News Serves Thousands,Turns 25 This Year

15.06.2009 - 04:23
If your journalism career has been anything like mine, you're eager to hear inspirational stories about others in the news industry. I found one a few weeks ago, even as announcements were made that colleagues at my own newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, would lose their jobs.I had lunch with Osama [...]

Audit Notes:Battle of NYC,Fed,Complexity,Big Mac Subsidies

17.03.2010 - 02:38
About the last thing we need now is a newspaper war, but Rupert Murdoch is Rupert Murdoch, so here we go. Crain's New York looks at the looming Battle for New York, for which the air war has already started. You can see why Rupert, bolstered by his Avatars and his Glenn Becks, thinks he has a lot to [...]

Audit D.C. Notes:The FT Looks at the Lobbyist Set; WSJ on Credit Agencies,NPR on the Dow,Etc.

16.03.2010 - 22:02
The Financial Times takes a look something that all too often gets treated like wallpaper in Washington, the persistent power of lobbyists. As Stephanie Kirchgaessner, my former colleague, explains: But little has changed in the way Washington works or the way the game is played. Despite attempts by [...]

He-Said,She-Said on Medicare

16.03.2010 - 20:47
The dispatch from Strongsville, Ohio in today’s New York Times, about Barack Obama’s efforts to rally public support for his health care plan, is standard stuff: a recounting of what the president said, an explanation of his political strategy, and a dollop of cynicism to demonstrate the press k [...]

"We felt a lot better once we got back to camp and had a cup of tea."

16.03.2010 - 20:30
Here's some captivating video of what it's like to come under fire when embedded on patrol in Afghanistan from Stuart Webb and Alex Thomson, journalists with British television network Channel 4.

When the Well Runs Dry

16.03.2010 - 20:16
Last week, CJR’s online science desk, The Observatory, ran a story about the launch of a new weekly science and technology section at two North Carolina newspapers. The section is, as we reported, a rare reversal in the otherwise precipitous decline of science sections in newspapers across the cou [...]

Reporting from the Examining Room

16.03.2010 - 18:55
The New York Times gets credit for going where few bother, into the examining rooms of doctors who see Medicaid patients—and, more importantly, some who don’t. It’s a story that’s often told at 30,000 ft—how state budget cuts to the insurance program for the poor and disabled have [...]

The President Pushes against Waste,Fraud,and Abuse

16.03.2010 - 18:10
The president has a sales job to do if he wants the American people to get behind whatever reform emerges from the congressional sausage grinder in the next few days. As part of his pitch, he has been flogging three terms guaranteed to resonate with the public—waste, fraud, and abuse. Who isn’t [...]

Why So Serious'

16.03.2010 - 17:28
The editorial page of The Washington Post has a well-established reputation for its hawkish stance on fiscal matters, so it was no surprise that Fred Hiatt, the page’s editor, devoted his column yesterday to the deficit. But, in a twist, Hiatt was actually writing about Barack Obama’s "happiness [...]

Leeway for Lehman Brothers

16.03.2010 - 16:33
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that John Carney thinks "We Should Not Criminally Prosecute Lehman Executives." After all, this is someone who is a fan of insider trading, which he says "harms no one" and ought to be legalized, and who thinks the Community Reinvestment Act played a significant r [...]

An Icon Fades

16.03.2010 - 14:00
Ebony magazine, the African-American monthly, has been a beloved institution in black America for more than sixty years. These days the love is still there, but the luster has faded. One of the few African-American-owned magazines in the country, Ebony is like a once-beautiful, stylish elderly relat [...]

Audit Notes:Strong Leder,Online Ads,CNBC Deathmatch

16.03.2010 - 01:38
— The Wall Street Journal has a very good leder today looking at how the dearth of credit is crimping the economy, prolonging any recovery. This is just a super well done piece by Mark Whitehouse, threading the prospects of two small-business clients of a community bank in Ann Arbor together t [...]

Blogs Beat the Press on the Lehman Brothers Scandal

15.03.2010 - 22:20
And just like that the Lehman Brothers scandal drops off the front pages. And not just the front pages—the section fronts, too. Say, we just learned about a $50 billion fraud on Thursday. Think there might be some newsworthy follow-ups here' Actually there are, and both The New York Times and [...]

Audit D.C. Notes:NYT Does Well at (Trade) School; WaPo on Earmarks,Squeezed in Ypsilanti,Etc.

15.03.2010 - 22:01
The New York Times continues its excellent series on "The New Poor” with a look at the for-profit colleges and trade schools that have seen enrollment—and profits—soar during the recession. But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefit [...]

Bad News

15.03.2010 - 19:14
They went looking for crap, and by golly they found plenty of it. Students in Howard Rheingold’s journalism class at Stanford recently teamed up with NewsTrust, a nonprofit Web site that enables people to review and rate news articles for their level of quality, in a search for lousy journalism. T [...]

China Stories:Good,Bad,Indifferent

15.03.2010 - 18:57
There’s unusual depth to today’s flurry of China coverage, and that’s a good thing—mostly. The New York Times gets the top seed in the bracket with a strongly reported look at China’s two-part strategy to maintain its export dominance: "fighting protectionism among its trade partners a [...]

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 [...]

Journalists describe New Orleans police run-ins

17.03.2010 - 01:35
Several journalists described run-ins with New Orleans police Tuesday as they testified about allegations that city officers routinely arrest or threaten people who film them.

Oxford faces music over Swindon rivalry

16.03.2010 - 21:07
Musicians, promoters and rock journalists have dismissed a survey which fails to put Oxford in a list of the top 20 musical centres - " but puts Swindon at 13.

Prosecutor Lists Students as Potential Witnesses

16.03.2010 - 16:47
Seven University of Michigan law students and a California journalist who was a U-M fellow are on the witness list submitted by assistant Wayne County prosecutor Bob Stevens in a case involving a Detroit man whose murder conviction was overturned last year.

Oregon Attorney General Leads Push for Government Transparency

16.03.2010 - 12:23
A journalist able to avoid being shut out of a public meeting by looking up the law on a cell phone is a small victory for Oregon Attorney General John Kroger in a battle over government transparency.

The Editors:Greg Mitchell Joins The Nation

16.03.2010 - 07:51
The Nation is adding an essential new voice to TheNation.com --Greg Mitchell, former editor of Editor & Publisher .

Journalists suspended amid probe

16.03.2010 - 03:15
Two Sowetan journalists have been suspended in connection with bribery allegations in separate cases in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, editor Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya said on Monday.

Suit Claims Police Harass Journalists,Bystanders

15.03.2010 - 22:49
A federal jury is hearing testimony about allegations that New Orleans police officers have engaged in a pattern of unlawfully arresting or harassing journalists and bystanders who tape or photograph them in public.

PEJ comes out with its "State of the Media" report.

15.03.2010 - 18:27
Poynter Online What's shrinking, though, is original reporting, and the growth of commentary and opinion online isn't providing users with enough of the independently-reported information they need to make good decisions about civic life, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's just- [...]

Survey:Readers don't want to pay for news online

15.03.2010 - 14:06
Published: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 4:30 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 12:10 a.m. Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be "like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons," a new consumer survey suggests.

Terror groups,state infringing media freedom in northeast

15.03.2010 - 09:46
The media in India's restive northeast is caught in a Catch-22 situation with journalists becoming targets of separatist groups, the state government, and the mafia, leading to an infringement of press freedom in at least two states, Manipur and Assam.

Ron Hart:Palin blurs lines between celebrity,journalism,politics

15.03.2010 - 05:29
ROSEMARY BEACH Sarah Palin took a leave of absence from her Russia-watching post in Alaska to become a Fox News contributor.

Teacher sues over student article

15.03.2010 - 01:04
A Northern Nevada high school teacher has sued her principal and the district superintendent, claiming an article in the school newspaper damaged her reputation.

U.S. human rights report hits China,Iran

14.03.2010 - 20:34
China and Iran have stepped up their abuses of human rights, targeting both anti-government activists and the free flow of information over the Internet, the State Department said on Thursday.

Newspaper defends fake terror stunt

14.03.2010 - 16:06
Police Minister Judith Collins has come under fire after she turned her wrath on the Sunday Star-Times newspaper today, for sending "terrorists" to Super 14 rugby games in a supposed bid to test security ahead of the 2011 World Cup.

Publishers shelve rare study about Brown

14.03.2010 - 11:39
An in-depth and intimate study of Gordon Brown during the past two and a half years has been shelved by its publishers, Bloomsbury.

The money graph

15.03.2010 - 15:22
A new Pew study on the economics of news does not give comfort to news sites planning pay schemes. It also does not give me comfort that we’re wasting precious time futzing over walls when we should be paying attention to the big problems we have — one of which this Pew study points out: [...]

TEDxNYed:This is bullshit

08.03.2010 - 13:50
Here are my notes for my talk to the TEDxNYed gathering this past weekend. I used the opportunity of a TED event to question the TED format, especially in relation to education, where — as in media — we must move past the one-way lecture to collaboration. I feared I’d get tomatoes [...]

Buffett on "terrible journalism”

04.03.2010 - 13:34
Warren Buffett — owner of one newspaper and director of another — complains in his letter to shareholders (PDF) about his quote being mangled and misused by sound-bite journalism:Last year we saw, in one instance, how sound-bite reporting can go wrong. Among the 12,830 words in the annua [...]

Operational transparency

26.02.2010 - 15:18
I am in Tampa waiting to fly back home to New Jersey and, thanks to the snowicane but rather than sitting in the usual information vacuum to which airlines subject us, I am watching as Continental shows us the status of the flights that were supposed to bring our jet in from LA to Cleveland (...)

News(paper)

26.02.2010 - 14:55
Friend Michael Rosenblum forwarded word that the Star-Ledger in New Jersey was just nominated for seven local Emmys for its video work. Bravo for my old friends there and for Rosenblum, who trained them .I remember when my old colleague Jim Willse, then editor of the Ledger, told me he wanted to get [...]

Italy endangers the web

24.02.2010 - 15:18
Italy is endangering the web. It convicted three Google executives for privacy violations for a video that was posted on YouTube that Google took down when it received a complaint. By holding Google liable for the actions of a user, the Italian court is in essence requiring Google and every other we [...]

Media’s evolving spheres of discovery

22.02.2010 - 20:18
Here’s another in an occasional series of

Next to the gallows:Newspaper coupons

17.02.2010 - 16:22
The best reason that some newspapers have to stay in print — at least a few days a week — is to distribute coupons and circulars (free-standing inserts, or FSIs, in the jargon). But as newspaper circulation declines below critical mass and as digital means of delivery of coupons and barg [...]

The German privacy paradox

11.02.2010 - 17:11
As a group, Germans are more private than anyone I know. My German grandfather-in-law used to lecture me: “People do not need to know that.” Germans complain about Google Streetview taking pictures of them … in public. They’re going after Facebook on privacy. They say that Go [...]

They’re b-a-a-a-ck

11.02.2010 - 13:48
Hilarious. Just mention a rumor of Howard Stern replacing Simon Cowell on American Idol and the so-called Parents Television Council rears its head again. Haven’t heard from them in a while — have we' — because they and their coconspirators at the FCC succeeded in making broadcast [...]

The danger of the wall

28.01.2010 - 19:03
The European, a German online news service, asked me to write a commentary for a debate on paid content. Here it is in German. And here’s the English text:I have nothing against charging for content, if you can. After all, I’m selling a book. But I believe building pay walls around online ne [...]

The right to link

18.01.2010 - 04:11
My column in the Guardian argues that we have a right to link and that the link is the basis of freedom of speech online. The issues are important and so I’m posting the entire column here:* * *Linking is more than merely a function and feature of the internet. Linking is a right. The (...)

Entrepreneurial journalism on the air

18.01.2010 - 04:00
On this week’s On the Media, Bob Garfield interviews me about CUNY’s entrepreneurial journalism program and the idea of teaching journalism students business. See our conference (call) with J-schools around the world that are starting to teach entrepreneurial journalism. We also discusse [...]

The cockeyed economics of metering reading

18.01.2010 - 03:23
The irony of the report that The New York Times is going to start metering readers and charging those who come back more often is this: They would would end up charging — and, they should fear, sending away — the readers who are worth the most while serving free those who are worth least [...]

The death of a curious mind

02.01.2010 - 17:27
Deborah Howell was unafraid to learn in public. That, I think, is her best lesson for us all. Deborah died today in a roadside accident while vacationing in New Zealand. She had been ombudsman of the Washington Post, chief of the Advance Publications’ Newhouse News Service in Washington, and e [...]

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 [...]

Gamebookers.com Starts Officially Backed Liga 1 Football News Service

16.03.2010 - 16:01
, the official sponsor of Liga 1 is proud to launch its "Liga 1 website" with the best from the Romanian top league. The initiative with LPF also sees the launch of the first ever officially recognis...

Halt,Accelrate Power Systems Inc.,Broadview Press Inc.,Parkland Energy Services Inc. And First Gold Exploration Inc.

16.03.2010 - 16:01
Company/ Compagnie Accelrate Power Broadview Parkland Energy First Gold Systems Inc. Press Inc. Services Inc. Exploration Inc.TSXV Symbol/ Symbole AXP - V BDP - V PKE - V EFG - VReason/ Motif Company ...

murder Trial Opens With Details Of How Officer Died

16.03.2010 - 15:05
Sheriff's gang Det. Ed Yee took off his jacket and tried to stop the blood pouring out his mortally wounded partner, Vu Nguyen, sprawled on top of a backyard chicken coop. "Vu, stay with me," Yee i...

Fitch Assigns Wales " West Utilities Expected 'a '/'bbb' Ratings

16.03.2010 - 13:32
: Fitch Ratings has today assigned Wales & West Utilities Finance plc (WWUF) and Wales & West Utilities Limited (WWU) expected senior secured ratings as follows:

Regulator To Rubber Stamp Mvno Scheme In July,Local Press Say

16.03.2010 - 12:55
Brazil’s telecoms watchdog Anatel may ratify the launch of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the country by July 2010, local press say, quoting Anatel communications manager Nelson Takayan...

Journalist Killed In Southern Mexico,4th In 2010

16.03.2010 - 12:41
A journalist has been killed in southern Mexico, the fourth slain in the country so far this year.The leader of the journalists union in Guerrero state says Evaristo Pacheco worked for the regional we...

Killing Of Tv Journalist Spawns Protest

16.03.2010 - 12:41
Dozens of journalists took to the streets Monday in northern Honduras to protest attacks on their colleagues after gunmen killed a television journalist in a hail of bullets _ the third such slaying i...

Egypt Arrests Israeli Journalist Along The Border

16.03.2010 - 12:32
Egyptian security officials arrested an Israeli journalist as he tried to sneak across the porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants, his newspaper reported Monday.

Ohio Gets Full Court Press

16.03.2010 - 11:18
This crucial battleground state was the prime target Monday in the White House’s campaign to win congressional hearts and minds on health care reform. Just ask Rep. Dennis Kucinich. One of...

Pioneer Press Boys Hockey Player Of The Year Nick Bjugstad Leaving...

16.03.2010 - 10:37
SHOULD I GO OR SHOULD I STAY' When he was a freshman, Nick Bjugstad was invited to play in the U.S. Hockey Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. He turned it down. His United States Hockey League r...

Today In The Press

16.03.2010 - 09:54
NAMA TO DEMOLISH DEVELOPMENTS THAT WILL NEVER BE VIABLE - NAMA, the toxic loans agency, is prepared to demolish half-completed buildings which it believes have no value as commercial or residential de...

Dubai Press Club Widens Membership Base

16.03.2010 - 08:59
The Dubai Press Club has expanded its membership to include media professionals from all platforms, including broadcast and online media, Gulf News has reported. 'Lecturers and media students, PR prof...

Press Says Vedanta Aluminum Ipo May Be In The Offering

16.03.2010 - 08:21
JavaScript Tag // Tag for network 658: United Stations // Website: Mineweb.com // Page: Mineweb - ROS Gold News NEW // Placement: Mineweb-ROS-Gold News NEW Button (1607318) // created at: May 12, 2008...

Thumbs Up For Gulf News Visual Journalism

16.03.2010 - 07:55
When something goes wrong, people notice. When it succeeds, it is usually taken for granted. This is especially true of newspaper design. Getting that fine balance between the written word and visual...

Thailand Protesters Press Plan To Bring Down Govt

16.03.2010 - 07:31
Tens of thousands of red-clad Thai protesters pressed on Tuesday with their rally calling for snap elections, despite the prime minister's firm rejection of their demands that he step down. The "Re...

Obama's Australian Trip Cut Back

17.03.2010 - 00:02
The White House confirmed yesterday that Mr Obama would spend barely 24 hours in Australia as part of a rushed Asia-Pacific tour next week.According to his itinerary, released yesterday, the President...

Holder Defends Criminal Trials For 9/11 Suspects

16.03.2010 - 23:59
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday defended plans to prosecute some terrorism suspects in traditional criminal courts, urging lawmakers to avoid politicizing the decision a...

Bin Laden Can "remain Silent" Forever

16.03.2010 - 23:57
Attorney General Eric Holder, seen in this Nov. 13, 2009, file photo, told Congress on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.

Stem Cell Cures Any Closer

16.03.2010 - 23:57
Obama Approves Stem Cell Funding President Obama has approved using federal taxpayer dollars to fund research on embryonic stem cells. Dr. Chris Hansis, Stem Cell Researcher at NYU Medical Center, wei...

Texas Gov. Activates Secret Drug War Plan

16.03.2010 - 23:57
Mexico Gang Blamed for U.S. Couple's Death (AP) Texas Gov. Rick Perry has activated a secret spillover violence contingency plan, citing an increasing threat of violence crossing the Texas border from...

10th Suspect Arrested In Camden Torture Killings

16.03.2010 - 23:47
The Camden rowhouse where the couple was tortured. A girl, 14, and two other juveniles were among the recent arrests. (ED HILLE / Staff Photographer)

Lawmaker Calls For End Of Death Penalty In Pennsylvania

16.03.2010 - 23:47
HARRISBURG - A Philadelphia-area lawmaker today called for the abolition of the state's death penalty, arguing that execution is ineffective and an economic drain, as well as a moral wrong. "By ...

Specter To Hold Hearing On Web-cam Issue

16.03.2010 - 23:47
Lower Merion School District's Web cam surveillance controversy, already the topic of a federal lawsuit and intense community debate, has become the focus of a scheduled U.S. Senate subcommittee heari...

Dogs Of Murder Victim Find New Home

16.03.2010 - 23:47
The two pedigreed Alaskan Malamute dogs owned by an Upper Merion man murdered last Friday will go together to a new home. Well, actually, they will go back to a former home. Carmen Ronio, executive ...

Montco Man In Custody After Greeting Police With Handgun

16.03.2010 - 23:47
A King of Prussia man who met investigators at his door with a semiautomatic handgun is in custody, Upper Merion Township Police said today. Matthew C. Vose, 21, faces charges that include aggravated...

Oprah To Defend Defamation Charges In Phila.

16.03.2010 - 23:47
A federal judge has dismissed Oprah Winfrey's request to throw out a defamation suit filed against her by the former headmistress of her academy for girls in South Africa. The judge ordered the trial...

Honda To Recall 410,000 Vehicles For Brake Problem

16.03.2010 - 23:47
FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2006 file photo, unsold 2007 Elements sit on the lot of a Honda dealership in Littleton, Colo. Honda Motor Co. on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 said it is recalling about 410,000 Ody...

Kennett Square Officer Resigns After Arrest

16.03.2010 - 23:47
Following his arrest this month on drug charges, an eight-year Kennett Square police officer has resigned, derailing a law-enforcement career shared by his father and brother. Matthew T. Cordone, 36,...

Rielle Tells 'gq' About Affair

16.03.2010 - 23:47
I HATE BEING all judgmental, but where I come from, there's a name for women who behave like Rielle Hunter, but I won't repeat it in a family newspaper. What my editor will let me get away with writi...

Southwest,Us Airways Launch Sale On Phila. Fares

16.03.2010 - 23:47
Southwest Airlines Co. today launched a 72-hour fare sale from Philadelphia for one-way fares of $30, $60 and $90 to certain destinations. Tickets can be booked only on

Introducing Version 3 of the Congress API

What We're Reading

More Tags Released to the Linked Data Cloud

Article Search API Enhancements

What We're Trolling

Nominations Data Added to Congress API

Behind the Code:Times APIs

First 5,000 Tags Released to the Linked Data Cloud

Yahoo Open Hack NYC

YQL + NYT = Easy Times APIs

Show Me the Code:NYT Trender

Plaxo:On the Pulse of TimesPeople

Congress Returns,As Does an Improved Congress API

OSCON 2009 Wrap-Up

Announcing the NYT API Tool

How Magazines Use Social Media to Boost Pass-Along,Build Voice

16.03.2010 - 21:47
Magazines have always prided themselves on their longevity as a medium and their pass-along circulation -- the additional readers each copy gains when it's passed from hand to hand. Today, social media are providing opportunities for readers to share content and experience their favorite magazines a [...]

How Journalism is Getting Better

15.03.2010 - 20:00
Michael Arrington's recent TechCrunch post about old media "guys" who don't get it made me realize how far things have come -- and how much better they've gotten -- in the world of journalism.I worked for more than 15 years in what's now called "legacy media" as a reporter, news editor and business [...]

4-Minute Roundup:The Rising Buzz of Location Services at SXSW

12.03.2010 - 22:53
This episode of 4MR is brought to you by the Knight Digital Media Center, providing a spectrum of training for the 21st century journalist. Find out more at KDMC's website. It's also underwritten by GoDaddy, helping you set up your own website in a snap with domain name registration, web hosting and [...]

NPR,SiriusXM Internships Steeped in Multimedia,Social Media

12.03.2010 - 17:35
When you think about internships at media companies, you probably picture people fetching coffee, running errands, or worse. But some internships have taken a different tack, setting up specialized blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages for their interns to help them understand new technology and s [...]

9 Tools to Help Live-Stream Your Newsroom

12.03.2010 - 01:12
"We'd like to write blog posts, but don't have time." That's the oft-heard lament in newsrooms. More and more traditional journalists recognize the benefits of blogging and social media, but many just can't figure out how to add them to their existing workload.I have a solution that seems to work in [...]

Witness Creates Sophisticated Evaluation Tools for Video Impact

11.03.2010 - 19:25
Last month, Jessica Clark and I explored how various Public Media 2.0 projects are measuring their level of success in informing and engaging publics. We found that many public media organizations are struggling to measure impact -- and some are relying only on traditional indicators of reach, as op [...]

Public Media Twitter Chat Aims to Foster Collaboration

10.03.2010 - 20:07
Public media workers and aficionados have a new routine: Every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, they log on to Twitter for Public Media Chat, which is using the #pubmedia hashtag. The chat, which started about a month ago, is the result of a discussion between a group of public media professionals at [...]

Turkish Reporters Unite to Protest YouTube Ban

09.03.2010 - 19:55
The Turkish courts banned YouTube in May 2008, and now a new protest campaign launched by the editorial team of the Milliyet newspaper is drawing attention to how long the country has been prevented from using the website. The initiative, which was was launched on February 19, is not the first campa [...]

What Are the Legal Implications of PleaseRobMe'

08.03.2010 - 21:13
They know where you sleep, and now they know where you get coffee.That was the message driven home by the recently created website PleaseRobMe.com. The site aggregates Twitter posts sent when a person uses Foursquare to check in at a location -- meaning they're basically telling the world that they' [...]

4 Minute Roundup:Viacom Yanks Shows from Hulu; FT's Pay Model

06.03.2010 - 01:36
This episode of 4MR is brought to you by GoDaddy, helping you set up your own website in a snap with domain name registration, web hosting and 24/7 support. Visit GoDaddy to learn more.Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the recent move by Viacom to [...]

Can Social Media Chatter Predict Oscar Winners'

05.03.2010 - 22:54
The biggest night in movies is two days away, and everyone has an opinion as to who will win an Oscar. While there isn't a proven formula that can tell us which film is going to win, a closer look at social media such as blogs and Twitter can provide some interesting perspective as to which nominees [...]

5Across:Smartphone Etiquette,and Our Lack of Civility

04.03.2010 - 16:50
This episode of 5Across is brought to you by GoDaddy, helping you set up your own website in a snap with domain name registration, web hosting and 24/7 support. Visit GoDaddy to learn more.Back in 2006 on MediaShift, I asked an innocent question to readers: In what social situations should you NOT u [...]

Are Photos by Aid Workers an Invasion of Privacy in Haiti'

03.03.2010 - 16:30
I recently spent a week in Port au Prince, Haiti, helping in a tent hospital set up at the airport. When I arrived back in San Francisco, I wrote about my experience in Haiti on my blog and posted pictures I had taken. I also posted photos on my Facebook profile, including images of smiling children [...]

The #Spill Effect:Twitter Hashtag Upends Australian Political Journalism

02.03.2010 - 20:00
Australia is gearing up for a national election in 2010 and a core group of influential political journalists in the elite Canberra Press Gallery are tweeting their way along the campaign trail -- and bringing an engaged public along for the ride.Press Gallery journalists are among the most active A [...]

Self-Publishing,Author Services Open Floodgates for Writers

01.03.2010 - 19:26
In 2001, the Wild Writing Women, a San Francisco Bay Area travel writing group of which I was a member, decided to self-publish a book of stories. Why' Because none of us could find a traditional publisher for what we thought was our best writing. We had skilled publishing professionals among us, so [...]

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

How About It,Hyphen Haters'

Protest-Too-Much Department

Dictionary Dissents

Dictionary Definition of the Day

A Nostalgia Fix (Hurray!)

¿Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim'

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 [...]

No Q2 Furloughs for Big Earners,Gannett Says

16.03.2010 - 00:00
An apparent memo from Gannett Co.¿s U.S. Community Publishing President Bob Dickey Tuesday said the nation¿s largest newspaper publisher will order no unpaid furloughs in the second quarter, and plans no ¿division-wide layoffs.¿

Nevada Can Ban Brothel Ads in Newspapers,Federal Court Rules

16.03.2010 - 00:00
A federal appeals court has upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state's rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.

Michigan's 'Saginaw News,' 'Bay City Times' Partner on Weekly Newsstand Edition

16.03.2010 - 00:00
Michgan dailies The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times are partnering to launch a Tuesday newsstand print edition called Great Lakes Bay Tuesday, beginning March 30.

March E&P Features Ken Doctor Book Excerpt,Exclusive Column by 'Newsosaur' Alan Mutter

16.03.2010 - 00:00
The March print issue of Editor & Publisher is on its way to subscribers, featuring an excerpt from Ken Doctor's highly acclaimed "Newsonomics" -- and an exclusive column from Alan Mutter, the newspaper consultant and former Chicago Sun-Times editor who writes the popular "Reflections of a Newsosaur [...]

ABC Board Overhauls Publisher's Statement to Emphasize Other Channels

16.03.2010 - 00:00
An Audit Bureau of Circulations newspaper task force has approved an overhaul of the Publisher's Statement that will incorporate more audience information, emphasizing other channels and distribution methods beginning October 1, 2010.

Huffington,AP's Curley to Speak at NNA Government Affairs Conference This Week

15.03.2010 - 00:00
The National Newspaper Association (NNA), the principal organization for community newspapers, has attracted a line-up of prominent media and government figures to its 49th annual Government Affairs Conference, which kicks off in Washington March 18.

Ban on Airport News Racks Violates First Amendment,U.S. Appeals Court Rules

15.03.2010 - 00:00
Public airport authorities that ban newspaper racks are violating the First Amendment, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Newseum Exhibit Cites Elvis' Relationship with the Press

15.03.2010 - 00:00
A spark that helped ignite Elvis Presley's fame more than 50 years ago was lit by the newspaper editors and critics who hated him.

'NYT' and 'WSJ' Launch Advertising Campaigns Touting New York Dominance

15.03.2010 - 00:00
The battle between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal is heating up today with a new marketing campaign launched by the Times. The advertising takes direct aim at the WSJ's audience numbers, and emphasizes the Grey Lady's dominance in the New York market. The ad blitz is timed to coincid [...]

'Washington Post' Readies Launch of New Pub 'Capital Business'

15.03.2010 - 00:00
The Washington Post has announced a new weekly product titled Capital Business, a subscription publication that promises comprehensive coverage of the people, trends and ideas shaping the D.C. business community.

The State of Newspapers' Think of Sand Falling in an Hourglass,Pew Report Says

15.03.2010 - 00:00
Newspaper advertising revenue plunged an astounding 45% over the last three years forcing publishers to make drastic reductions to the actual size of the print edition, to the space devoted to news to the ranks of employees. The latest State of the News Media report from the Pew Center's Project for [...]

Monday,Daily Named Best Texas Small Paper Converts to Online-Only

14.03.2010 - 00:00
The Daily Tribune in River Cities, Texas, is not publishing a printed newspaper Monday as it converted to online-only on weekdays.

Obama Rated as Bad as Bush on Government Secrecy,Sunshine Week Poll Finds

14.03.2010 - 00:00
Public cynicism that the federal government operates in an atmosphere of secrecy is as strong as ever, despite President Barack Obama's promises to make government information more easily available to the public. An ASNE-commissioned poll kicking off Sunshine Week shows the Obama White House is rate [...]

'Manning (S.C.) Times' Staff Departs to Start New Paper

12.03.2010 - 00:00
It's one thing for a newspaper's staff to get laid off, as is happening in Honolulu today. But having your whole staff walk out on you to start a new publication is something else entirely.

In '09,New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson Again Out-Earned Her Boss

12.03.2010 - 00:00
For the third year in a row, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson made more money than Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., according to a Security and Exchange Commission proxy filing. Like union employees, top executives took a pay cut -- but got big bonuses.

links for 2010-03-16

16.03.2010 - 15:00
Citizens, journalists join forces to cover the news | Reynolds Journalism Institute | University of MissouriPEJ's State of the News Media report provides valuable insights into the motivations of people who start community news sites and blogs. It shows that across a highly uneven and [...]

links for 2010-03-15

15.03.2010 - 15:00
Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps | Video on TED.comBing maps TED talk(tags: Bing presentations video maps geodata photos innovation augmented-reality)Podcast: Microsoft Uses TED as a Platform to Announce Bing Maps Update – Articles"Last week Microsoft used a talk at [...]

links for 2010-03-13

13.03.2010 - 15:00
Oh Get A Grip!: Three-Part HarmonyThe three of us are no spring chickens, and I would venture to say it’s entirely possible that is one of the reasons our polyamorous relationship works as well as it does. I believe that security and self-esteem increase with age. The insecurities of youth, the se [...]

links for 2010-03-11

11.03.2010 - 15:01
Google's YouTube Adopts Mobile Ads Cautiously | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD"While you may see banner ads on YouTube’s mobile home, search and browse pages, you won’t see ads on the clips themselves. Those will come eventually, Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s direct [...]

links for 2010-03-10

10.03.2010 - 15:01
Introducing Homer: The Blogware-agnostic Feed-based Homepage Creator for the 'News Blob' | Shhhaw"From a news point of view, getting story data from a writer and keeping it in a database is a solved problem. There is excellent free software out there that does this much better tha [...]

links for 2010-03-09

09.03.2010 - 15:00
BroadbandBreakfast.com: Digital Impact Group: Persistent Digital Divide Among Low-Income Individuals"The conclusion of our study is that, summing the conservative, low-end estimates of 11 categories of economic impact yields an aggregate estimate of the current costs of digital exclusion at over [...]

The Onion:How will the end of print journalism affect old loons who hoard newspapers'

09.03.2010 - 06:08
Pretty much says it all. It may be the only market they have left:How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers'

links for 2010-03-05

05.03.2010 - 15:00
Can the Dailies Survive by Charging Online' | Feature | East Bay ExpressOverview of the history and possible future of mainstream bay area news orgs trying to chage for access to their content online.(tags: news+biz newspapers Bay+Area business business+models history analysis economics pr [...]

links for 2010-03-04

04.03.2010 - 15:00
Foursquare, Baby, Foursquare."Foursquare may still be relatively small (around 450,000 users), but wow have they been able to woo certain areas of the mainstream quickly. We already know about the deals with Conde Nast, Marc Jacobs, the New York Times, and others — some of which are pulling in [...]

links for 2010-03-03

03.03.2010 - 15:00
'Hella Big': Soon To Be A Scientific Measurement' – cbs13.com"10 to the 27th power is a colossal number, but will it be accepted as being hella big'"An oft-hated slang word coined in Northern California has been proposed as a worthy entry into the field of scientific measurem [...]

links for 2010-03-02

02.03.2010 - 15:01
Zombies scare in 'The Crazies' remake – Arts & Entertainment"Essentially, "The Crazies" is a stereotypical zombie film, where a mysterious outbreak happens in a small town's water supply. A cast of characters have to gruesomely fight their way to freedom, all whi [...]

links for 2010-03-01

01.03.2010 - 15:00
Solar Storms Could Be Earth's Next Katrina : NPR"Eventually there will be another storm as big as the ones in 1921 and 1859 — a sort of solar Katrina. But the impact is likely to be far worse than in previous solar storms because of our growing dependence on satellites and other electroni [...]

links for 2010-02-28

28.02.2010 - 15:00
Is ChatRoulette the Future of the Internet or Its Distant Past' — New York Magazine"As Internet culture has grown, we’ve come to romanticize certain kinds of unmediated, old-fashioned "human” interactions. But this fantasy ignores how much of normal social interaction is fleeting, bite [...]

links for 2010-02-27

27.02.2010 - 15:01
Is monogamy good for technology' | The Open Road – CNET News"Most of us can't afford to live exclusively within Apple's (or Microsoft's) ecosystem. Work often gets in the way of personal preferences, whatever they may be. We're also more and more inclined to experi [...]

links for 2010-02-26

26.02.2010 - 15:01
Bay Area News Project Editor's Meet And Greet: The New Breadline: Media: SFAppeal"During Q & A, older journalists' questions showed anxiety that they wouldn't be hired because they were too old and not tech-savvy enough. Many younger reporters' remarks seemed designed to [...]

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 [...]

It’s OK to lose control

17.12.2009 - 17:29
“You no longer control the message. And that’s OK.”If you want to succeed on social media (and the Web in general) you have to be willing to lose control. This fantastic TED Talk should be a must watch for anyone engaged in social media and for marketing departments around the worl [...]

My best advice for social media

16.12.2009 - 18:24
Be yourself. Be passionate.Social media is nothing like the tightly controlled, sterile communication messages of the past. Want to get good at social media' Be passionate about something and let that passion show through.It’s really that simple.

On journalism

14.12.2009 - 01:10
You know that day that you never thought would come'Well it came. And I’m no longer a full-time journalist.There are a lot of reasons that I’m no longer a full-time journalist. The main reason is that I don’t want to be. These are incredibly difficult times in journalism, and it wa [...]

It was a moment in time

13.12.2009 - 23:46
Last week my Web site was hacked. That may seem like bad news, but it provided a moment of clarity.It was time for a change.The Journalism Iconoclast is no more. That’s not who I am anymore. More on that later.My new blog is Endemic. It’s a blog on being. On being a member of this (...)

What’s competition these days,anyway'

15.10.2009 - 04:17
Over at Wired Journalist’s someone asked what to put online first and what to hold for print. He mentioned that staffers were worried about the competition getting ahold of their scoops. Here is my response:Online everyone is a competitor and no one is a competitor. As in, what you view as you [...]

Paying for news has to be easy on consumers

24.09.2009 - 16:46
Does the Star Tribune’s new Access Vikings Premium sound easy to you'But in addition to the info, registrants have to accept the site’s e-mailed FYI Newsletter and FYI Offers. The offers can be customized, it looks like, but choosing from various categories. (By this point I would be pulling [...]

Entrepreneurs can change the world

23.09.2009 - 16:00
Let’s change the world.

Thoughts on why micropayments are a dangerous delusion

22.09.2009 - 23:33
Mathew Ingram has a post over at The Nieman Journalism Lab asking if micropayments are the holy grail or a dangerous delusion' I think the answer is obvious.Micropayments will not work for news. Why not'I don’t believe there is a market — News is one of those things that I think macropay [...]

Journalism needs a down and dirty revolution

10.09.2009 - 03:15
A lot of businesses could benefit from the I like to call the down and dirty principles.Down and dirty says you should never make something that your users don’t care about. Down and dirty means focusing on return on investment. It means admitting that we don’t have unlimited time, mone [...]

Bringing engagement to an old,one-way medium

12.08.2009 - 20:02
This is a cross post from BeatBlogging.Org. I thought the post may be more relevant here:I want to share with you a project I’ve been working on, and why I think it illustrates how engagement and interaction are coming to all old medium platforms.Since earlier this year I have been helping bes [...]

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 [...]

How not to get that journalism-related job

31.12.2008 - 10:00
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 [...]

Demand Media,AOL’s Seed and Spring Break for the Internet (SXSW) Day Two

At South by Southwest and Updates

Interview – Jason Barnett from The Uptake

The Shift Newspapers Use When They Discuss “Citizen Journalism”

Spot.Us:New Designs and Features and What Comes Next

The Connection Between Communities and Small Business

Micro-Payments vs. Crowd Funding

How Did I End Up In Journalism'

Information Finds a Way,but Does Revenue'

Links I’ve Touched – Trying to Keep Track of My Digital Footprint

Demand Media,Seed and Spring Break for the Internet (SXSW) Day Two

At South by Southwest and Updates

Interview – Jason Barnett from The Uptake

The Shift Newspapers Use When They Discuss “Citizen Journalism”

Spot.Us:New Designs and Features and What Comes Next

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 [...]

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” [...]

Five

01.02.2010 - 13:45
When I started this blog, in my first week as a Mass Communications graduate student at San Jose State, it was called “Big Silver Robot,” it was hosted at Blogspot, and it was anonymous. That lasted for about a month.Pretty quickly, I signed up for a free WordPress instance at Blogsome, [...]

A Newsstand for the Tablet that might work

29.01.2010 - 13:59
“Newsstand” by triin on Flickr.Mario Garcia probably believes the lifespan (halflife') of print newspapers will stretch out ever so slightly longer than I believe, but I’m constantly inspired by his original thought about the problems associated with sustaining any version of the e [...]

Don’t do this

21.01.2010 - 15:10
Hugh MacLeod is certainly one of my favorite cartoonists around. I’ve bought business cards with one of his drawings on the back before, and I’m happily subscribed to his e-mail newsletter, where he’s gone the way of Jason Calacanis and cut down on blogging while ramping up (well, [...]

Notes on the Cleverness Economy

20.01.2010 - 23:25
As a young aspiring writer (of what, I didn’t know), I wrote an awful lot of words in notebooks for the better part of the 1990s, and I mean “an awful lot” to have multiple meanings in this case.All self-deprecation aside, one of the easiest, most satisfying ways to string words to [...]

IdeaLab:Q&A 2.0

16.01.2010 - 21:28
Over at the PBS IdeaLab blog, I wrote something earlier this week about what I think of as Q&A 2.0, the recent string of modern, general purpose question & answer sites exploring different ways to gather, filter, and deliver information.And that’s the right way to think about it: Gathe [...]

Street by street,block by block

08.01.2010 - 13:37
Back in the early days of grad school, when questions about the future of online advertising came up, I was bullish about the future of location-based mobile advertising that would by contextually relevant to the content you were viewing and the place you were sitting.I was wrong about a big piece o [...]

We are all technologists now

07.01.2010 - 13:29
A company launches a new phone, or is rumored to likely be planning to launch a fancy tablet computer, or a new browser, or upgrading its mobile data network, and thousands (millions') of us have something to say about it.Really'What do we know about technology, business, strategy, and the machinati [...]

About that resolution

06.01.2010 - 13:34
Funny thing about writing is that it used to be much easier.Somewhere around 1991, I became one of those kids who didn’t have their textbook with them in class, but always had a spiral-bound notebook with all sorts of strange numbers and notations on the covers, and nothing but my guts spilled [...]

Blog posts I have written and not written this year

23.12.2009 - 14:43
Hey, would ya look at that, the year’s almost over. And while I’m not the biggest fan of arbitrary divisions of time, I sure do like making lists.Year-end lists are little nuggets of candy that fall from the sky like sweet, sweet hail, and every now and then, it’s the end of a deca [...]

What I would fund:An imaginary challenge for news business models

16.12.2009 - 17:17
Last night, I was browsing this year’s public Knight News Challenge entries ahead of the midnight deadline to enter, and I caught myself thinking about what the project doesn’t fund when it comes to supporting journalism.And the answer appears to be business models.My friends at the Foun [...]

Items that recently have caught my attention

15.12.2009 - 23:31
ReadingThe Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009Published at Foreign Policy on December 14, 2009.Global warming, international relations, Iraq, Chechnya, and more — but not the headlines you were expecting. An important year-end list from Foreign Policy magazine, spotted via kottke.org.From a nava [...]

Sometimes,I show up in person and talk about journalism

23.11.2009 - 15:04
Just a quick programming note:If you’ve ever seen me in person, perhaps giving a short presentation and talking about journalism, blogs, social media, innovation at newspapers, or my own projects, you can now find related notes, slides, and links on my Speaking page.I’ll keep that update [...]

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 [...]

"2009 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners Announced"

20.02.2010 - 05:33
Press Release 10-0282009 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners Announcedhttp://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp'cntn_id=116369&org=NSFWinning entries appear in the Feb. 19 issue of Science"Branching Morphogenesis" aims to reveal--through abstraction--the unseen beauty and dynamic r [...]

Review:The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics

18.02.2010 - 15:33
From FlowingData: Review: The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics Feb 18, 2010 / Infographics, Reviews / Add your commentAdd another book to the growing library of guides on how to make information graphics the right way. Dona M. Wong, former graphics director of The Wall Street J [...]

"Predicting the Next Enron"

17.02.2010 - 23:02
Thanks to Steve Doig for the pointer:Freakonomics - New York Times BlogFebruary 17, 2010, 3:00 pmPredicting the Next EnronBy FREAKONOMICSVia the Wall Street Journal, here’s further evidence that companies "tweak” quarterly earnings numbers. Joseph Grundfest and Nadya Malenko analyzed almost half [...]

"GIS Data Show Relationship Between Violence,Liquor Retailers"

17.02.2010 - 23:02
From: http://gisandscience.com/2010/02/17/gis-data-show-relationship-between-violence-liquor-retailers/GIS Data Show Relationship Between Violence, Liquor RetailersFebruary 17, 2010 in GIS, Social ScienceAnnual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science18 - 22 February 2010, [...]

New book:"GIS for Public Safety"

16.02.2010 - 23:02
This looks to be a good book on backgrounding how police use -- or do not use -- GIS so a reporter can ask informed questions. Oh, did I mention that it's free'http://www.rutgerscps.org/gisbook/dwnld39629.html "From the BACK COVERThis book, GIS for Public Safety, focuses on ESRI’s ArcGIS functiona [...]

How-to:Turning Netflix data into map

08.02.2010 - 19:02
From the Society of Newspaper Designers via FlowingData:The making of the NYT’s Netflix graphic January 20th, 2010By Kevin QuealyOne of The Times’ recent graphics, "A Peek Into Netflix Queues,” ended up being one of our more popular graphics of the past few months. (A good roundup of what peop [...]

More Visualization Links on Twitter

23.01.2010 - 20:31
Thanks to Steve Doig for the pointer to....More Visualization Links on TwitterBy: Jeff Clark    Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 In a recent post I showed the Top 20 Individual Data Visualizations Mentioned on Twitter and remarked that many of the most frequently mentioned twitter links were to [...]

How to Make a Heatmap - a Quick and Easy Solution

21.01.2010 - 22:32
Thanks to Nathan at Flowing Data:How to Make a Heatmap - a Quick and Easy Solution By Nathan / Jan 21, 2010 to Featured, Statistical Visualization, Tutorials / 11 comments How do you make a heatmap' This came from kerimcan in the FlowingData forums, and krees followed up with a couple of good links [...]

So what ARE people talking abouit

14.01.2010 - 06:32
One of the things we've noticed about journalism operation that allow comments and discussion on their web pages is that few take the time to analyze that interchange and content.  Partially, that's because of a lack of tools.  The "tldr Project" is a step toward meeting that challenge. tl [...]

David Rumsey's website redesign

14.12.2009 - 22:36
New davidrumsey.com Website Redesign "For the first time since its launch in 1999, the www.davidrumsey.com website has been completely redesigned and updated.  With better navigation and structure, users will find it easier to explore the site's many viewers and collection database with over 21 [...]

Cartography 2.0

11.12.2009 - 23:33
From Internet Scout :Cartography 2.0http://cartography2.org/Professor Mark Harrower at the University of Wisconsin Madison's Department of Geography was frustrated with the "inability of traditional textbooks to keep pace with Web technologies." So he and his colleagues set out to create Cartography [...]

A fine how-to from FlowingData on making an "Interactive Area Graph"

09.12.2009 - 23:32
Nathan, the guy behind the code at the FlowingData blog, offers up a good how-to set for producing interactive area graph. How to Make an Interactive Area Graph with Flare Posted by Nathan / Dec 9, 2009 to Tutorials / 3 comments You've seen the NameExplorer from the Baby Name Wizard by Martin Watten [...]

Swimming in Data' Three Benefits of Visualization

05.12.2009 - 01:30
Good piece on dataviz from Harvard Business Publishing. John Sviokla The Near Futurist RSS Feed Swimming in Data' Three Benefits of Visualization 4:11 PM Friday December 4, 2009 Tags:Information & technology, Knowledge management "A good sketch is better than a long speech..." -- a quote often [...]

Curated links for March 9,2010

09.03.2010 - 19:00
A few things that have popped up in my RSS feeds lately that might be of interest:Research Dramatizes Changing Practices: The ever-inciteful Paul Gillin links to some interesting research about how social media is being used extensively by journalists in their reporting (even Wikipedia!). Lots of ot [...]

YouTube auto-captioning for video

09.03.2010 - 16:59
Several people have asked in the past about transcriptions/closed-captioning for video. It's a pain in the butt, but YouTube has just rolled out a promising new time-saving feature called auto-captioning.Like any machine-generated transcription, some words get garbled. But if you have a video that h [...]

Video example from boston.com

09.03.2010 - 15:00
I came across this story from the Boston Globe about an MIT student whos inventing a new type of wheelchair that is more usable in less wheelchair-accessible areas. The story itself is inspiring, the interactive graphic is interesting, but the video really tells the story of how it works, and illust [...]

Blogging specific links

08.03.2010 - 22:23
Here are a few links to some "meta" discussion specifically about blogging - blogs about blogs - that I've come across recently. And all were recommended by one blogger.They contain some excellent advice and tips if you are interested in the topic, or looking for ways to improve your own blogging sk [...]

links for 2010-03-04

04.03.2010 - 14:01
Not So Private Professors - Inside Higher Ed"Colleges have for years been warning students to keep their Facebook and Myspace pages free of embarrassing photos or writings, but a more recent phenomenon is the emergence of concrete policies governing how faculty and other employees use social media." [...]

Tagging & subcategories:organizing online content

04.03.2010 - 16:33
A major problem with any news site is the search engine. If users have troubles locating a specific story that isn’t a few clicks away, chances are they won't revisit your site.So what’s the best way to please your visitors who want to find that story that never appeared on the front page' The a [...]

Inside Vandy pushes multimedia packages

02.03.2010 - 21:44
Vanderbilt's InsideVandy has been pushing the envelope recently in their online offerings. While they've been doing multimedia for a while, they are starting to package their efforts into more user-friendly experiences.Check out these attractive packages: A City Guide, with restaurant reviews and an [...]

Curley’s advice:Write well

01.03.2010 - 14:51
Rob Curley spoke this weekend at the Associated Collegiate Press gathering in Phoenix. It was the first time he's spoken in public in 18 months, he said. His keynote speech was interesting, but the better session was a Q&A that followed. During that time, he talked about some of the plans the La [...]

Opening up Pandora’s box

24.02.2010 - 15:52
Recently, I was on a plane flying back to St. Louis from a two-day workshop at The Daily Toreador at Texas Tech. (I say 2-day - thanks to the airlines and the weather, it was a little less, but that's a story for another time).Thinking back on it, I just realized the feeling I usually (...)

links for 2010-02-22

22.02.2010 - 17:01
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Increasingly, we choose our own 'facts' : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis"To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingl [...]

Dave Hon is our Spring 2010 intern

16.02.2010 - 16:05
Please welcome Dave Hon, online editor for the Griffon News, as the Spring 2010 CICM intern. You can read more about him here. I look forward to his contributions over the remainder of the semester.

MPI Workshop Mardi Gras weekend

13.02.2010 - 21:59
I'm in St. Louis this weekend for the Mid-America Press Institute/Ill. Press Foundation "Innovation and managing change in the newsroom" workshop. You can follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #mpichange, or read articles at the mpinews web site.Also, watch Monday for an announcement about our Sp [...]

Xtranormal:in ur text,making it video

06.02.2010 - 15:17
I linked to this site almost a year ago when I first discovered it, but I thought it was worth looking at again: xtranormal.com. The site allows you to produce an animated movie based upon the text you type into a script. It allows for various camera angles, characters, and actions. And, as with mos [...]

Video camera guidelines:how much money'

04.02.2010 - 16:41
A couple of weeks ago,  I wrote a post about video cameras. In the comments to that post, Kathleen Flores, adviser at UT-El Paso, wrote:I'm considering the Sanyo Xacti. It is only $160 but has no microphone/headphone inputs. I want to get something inexpensive so that I can purchase at least (...)

RTNDA’s social media guidelines

04.02.2010 - 16:31
Via Al Tompkins at Poynter, here are the guidelines for social media as proposed by the Radio and Television News Director's Association.College journalists should perhaps pay special attention to this one:• Avoid posting photos or any other content on any website, blog, social network or video/ph [...]

Online News Readers Use 5 Sites or Fewer,Study Says [NYTimes]

Facebook Users Prefer Broadcast Sites,Hitwise Analyst Says

Survey:How Twitter Has Influenced Political Journalists’ Coverage

How To Sell Ads On Low-Traffic Sites [Smashing Magazine]

Pew Study Says Internet Overtakes Newspapers For News

The Future of User Interfaces [Six Revisions]

Free Multimedia Tool Workshop Updated Handouts

Time Hack:Monitor News Sites with iMacros Firefox Plugin

5 Must-Read Online Media Books

5 tips on managing insane amounts of e-mail

Handouts for today’s FSNE multimedia workshops

Google puts ads on Google News

Tips for Optimizing Content for Google News

Not-to-Miss Florida Online Media, Technology Events

One Key Piece of Advice for All Journalists

Twitter to Simplify Integration of 'tweets' Into Web Sites

16.03.2010 - 05:48
"Twitter plans to launch a new platform that lets Web publishers display 'tweets' on their sites more broadly and easily than is possible today via the company's APIs (application programming interfaces). The new frameworks, collectively called @anywhere, will let Web publishers bring [...]

Hitwise says Facebook Most Popular U.S. Site

16.03.2010 - 05:26
"New data released from analytics service Hitwise today names Facebook the largest website in the U.S. with 7.07% of all U.S. visits. Google is second at 7.03%. Yahoo Mail is third with 3.8% and Yahoo is fourth at 3.67% (if you combined both Yahoo properties, and I’m not sure why they don’t, Yah [...]

Apple Dreams of a Sci-Fi Future:Hires Wearable Computing Scientist - Technomix - Fast Company

16.03.2010 - 05:23
The chap in question is engineer/physicist Richard DeVaul, a PhD-touting graduate of Texas A&M University and MIT. His LinkedIn profile gave the game away. Among his stated business credentials like "leadership for early stage companies," "tech startup CTO" and other good stuff, we find some abs [...]

Gowalla Tops Foursquare at SXSW Web Awards

16.03.2010 - 05:21
"Providing further proof that location-sharing services are currently all the rage, Gowalla picked up the award for best site in the Mobile category Sunday at the 13th annual SXSW Web Awards.Gowalla beat out top rival Foursquare in the category, even as the supposed SXSW location smackdown between t [...]

Tim Berners-Lee with an update on open data

15.03.2010 - 15:55
"Tim Berners-Lee, credited with inventing the World Wide Web, comes back to TED a year after his call for open, structured data with a quick update. Spoiler alert: things are looking good - and they're only going to get a lot better. But you already knew that, right'"

Big Changes Are Coming to Digg:More Power to Publishers,Less Power to Top Diggers

14.03.2010 - 23:52
"Obviously, quite a few publishers will worry that the old Digg effect - which would often take sites down because of the huge amount of traffic a story on Digg's frontpage can create - will now disappear. Adelson, however, who also noted that Digg "wants to be a good source for traffic for pub [...]

Its Hard To Watch The Newsosaurs Turn A Blind Eye To Their Own Extinction

14.03.2010 - 05:18
"The longer media companies wait, the bigger disadvantage they will have when they cross over to the other side and find a whole new host of competitors who never had any print legacy businesses to protect. Those competitors right now are blogs and online news hubs who are still furry little rodents [...]

The evolution of lasvegassun.coms homepage strategy more importantly,does a nice design negatively impact traffic'

03.03.2010 - 04:37
"Well, we learned that a pretty and practical homepage design combined with the right content mix has led to the most significant online traffic gains of any site our online team has worked at.We even learned that changing up the design throughout the day doesn’t hurt traffic, despite some traditi [...]

Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source

15.03.2010 - 16:05
"With that said, if we are willing to take crowd-sourced content - whether tweets, Facebook updates, blogs, videos or whatever else - as valid sources for information about our world, then a collection of these same media as carefully poured over and curated as found in a Wikipedia article should be [...]

FCC comes through with a Consumer Broadband Test app for iPhone,Android and the home - Engadget

13.03.2010 - 06:52
"FCC is getting involved directly with its own Consumer Broadband Test app, designed to probe network latencies and download speeds on your home connection or mobile device. Part of the hallowed National Broadband Plan, this will furnish the FCC will useful data to show the discrepancy between adver [...]

All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple:The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

09.03.2010 - 15:24
"The entire family of devices built on the iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) have been designed to run only software that is approved by Apple—a major shift from the norms of the personal computer market. Software developers who want Apple's approval must first agree to the iPhone Develope [...]

KnightBlog SXSW Interactive:Picks for Journalists

08.03.2010 - 02:12
Sheesh, that 11 a.m. Sunday time slot is triple booked with awesome sessions.

ONA Nashville:Smart Phones for Smart Journalists - Online News Association

03.03.2010 - 05:49
This looks like a pretty cool training event coming up for the midwestern/midatlantic folks. (via Jack Lail)

New Canon 5D Mark II firmware scheduled for March,updates video features

03.03.2010 - 05:42
"In addition to fixing the main frame rate to capture at 29.97 frames per second--though typically rounded to 30fps in discussions, that's not the actual standard--the firmware update adds 24fps (and 25fps for PAL) capture for film-like recording. Semimanual exposure modes will also become avai [...]

Facebook News Feed Patent Could Change Everything

02.03.2010 - 05:51
"Assuming good execution, this could be a gold mine," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group. "Facebook has the potential to gain the kind of power that Microsoft and Google enjoy. They have a long and dangerous path to get there, but with this, they are getting closer to that potential [...]

It takes 3 Idiots to call the bluff of Pauper Tigers

16.03.2010 - 09:15
The prostitution of Indian journalism by pimps, promoters and proprietors selling editorial space without letting the reader know what is independently verified news and what is a paid-for advertisement in the garb of news, has attained pandemic proportions.“Paid News”, as the trend has [...]

Now,who could this Union minister be'

10.03.2010 - 08:38
A gossip item appearing in the columns of the New Delhi-based tabloid, Mail Today, owned by the India Today group, two days in a row.Also read: When a politician weds a journalist, it’s newsFiled under: A bit of fun, Newspapers, People Tagged: Churumuri, India Today, Mail Today, Sans Serif

You have read the column,now read the paper

02.03.2010 - 14:31
The Times of India has a new weekly newspaper on the stands, and it’s called The Speaking Tree.The eight-page broadsheet, encompassing “higher… and contemporary new age spirituality” is an extension of the eponymous column on the edit page of the paper.Priced at one rupee and [...]

‘I thought she would live forever’:A love story

21.02.2010 - 10:16
For reasons they know all too well, journalists’ marriages have (generally) become the byword for short (if not unhappy) marriages.Not so, T.S. Nagarajan’s.The renowned photographer, master of the black-and-white form, was happily married to wife Meenakshi for a full 50 years till two De [...]

It’s all happening in the newsmagazine space

17.02.2010 - 11:30
The latest advertising campaign of the newsweekly The Week targetting Outlook*.The Cochin-based Week is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), while the Delhi-based Outlook along with market leader India Today are not. So The Week used figures filed by Outlook before the registrar of ne [...]

Is a bank not allowed to change its newspaper'

31.01.2010 - 09:21
PRESS RELEASE: “T. Venkattram Reddy, president, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), strongly condemns the direction issued vide a circular dated 15 December 2009  by the deputy general manager (P&E) of the Kerala State Co-operative Bank Limited, Kerala, to all senior managers of the bank [...]

How to do a TV news report in under 2 minutes

30.01.2010 - 10:31
Charlie Brooker presents the classic TV news report.Link via Dhruva BatniFiled under: A bit of fun, Television Tagged: Charlie Brooker, Churumuri, Sans Serif

There are two types of journos in the world…

27.01.2010 - 13:04
Robert Thompson, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, in The Australian:“It is becoming clear that there are two personality types in the world of content: the creators and the reverberators. The latter group is merely an editorial echo chamber: the noise is sometimes interesting, but t [...]

How a newspaper welcomed the new republic

25.01.2010 - 19:31
The front page of the Bangalore newspaper Deccan Herald 60 years ago, on 26 January 1950, the day India became a republic.Launched in 1948, the paper was then edited by the legendary Pothan Joseph, who, besides editing The Dawn when it was started in Delhi by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, also had a role to [...]

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria gets Padma Bhushan

25.01.2010 - 16:59
Fareed Zakaria, the Bombay-born editor of Newsweek International and the host of CNN’s GPS, has been decorated with India’s third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.Zakaria’s name finds mention in the annual Republic Day honours’ list released by the ministry of home a [...]

When even God couldn’t save religion reporters

23.01.2010 - 15:19
A grand total of 14,845 journalists lost their jobs in the United States in 2009, according to Paper Cuts. According to Freaknomics, four religion reporters have moved out in just the last month.Read the full article: 2009 layoffs and buyoutsLink via FreakonomicsPosted in For the record, Newspapers, [...]

A garland and a platter of fruits on turning 90

17.01.2010 - 15:55
The veteran Kannada journalist Patil Puttappa is felicitated by Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa on turning 90, in his hometown, Hubli, on Sunday, 17 January 2010.For a language whose journalism only goes back to 1840, Dr Puttappa is a pioneer and still a rare one at that. “PaaPu̶ [...]

Hit and Rann:‘I want to expose the media’

15.01.2010 - 04:23
A television promo for the next Amitabh Bachchan starrer Rann, a movie “about the highly competitive world of television news reporting in India“.Directed by the maverick Ram Gopal Varma, Rann is reportedly an insider’s account of how TRP-thirsty news channels manipulate and sensat [...]

Where’s your sense of humour,paper asks Aussies

09.01.2010 - 09:06
The editor of the Indian newspaper that published the “racist” cartoon on Australia’s tepid response to continuing attacks on Indian students in that country, has responded to the criticism.Bharat Bhushan, editor of Mail Today, the tabloid newspaper run by the India Today group, sa [...]

The Indian cartoon that’s offending Australians

08.01.2010 - 09:30
It takes a particular genius to feel offended by a piece of art instead of the reality it mirrors.Several students of Indian origin have been clobbered in Australia in an unceasing (and unacceptable) wave of attacks over the last few months; one of them even being killed last week. Yet, the response [...]

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

The truth about the price of investigative journalism online - The Editorialiste [del.icio.us]

07.03.2010 - 21:23
Say you get 200,000 pageviews on a great investigative story, but it takes you a solid two weeks (not very long in investigative journalism land) of work to do.You've given up whatever pageviews you would have made during those two weeks -- and even if you break even, your site has been silent [...]

George Orwell:The Sporting Spirit [del.icio.us]

03.03.2010 - 20:31
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.

Facebook Users Prefer Broadcast Media - Hitwise Intelligence [del.icio.us]

02.03.2010 - 07:27
Do Facebook users prefer Broadcast Media' I ran a correlation analysis to try to figure out if the amount of traffic Facebook sends a site is related to the number of fans a brand has on its Facebook page. I found no such correlation. (For the analysis, I used downstream visits from Facebook to 23 t [...]

Foreign Arabic-Language TV:An Exercise in Futility' - Magda Abu-Fadil [del.icio.us]

14.02.2010 - 08:59
"Arabic-language foreign channels: millions squandered on a non-responsive audience," headlined a feature in the Lebanese daily An-Nahar's youth supplement.

Public diplomacy:U.K. 1,U.S. 0 - Checkpoint Kabul [del.icio.us]

13.02.2010 - 19:47
"(T)he London conference was a model of public diplomacy. It was made for television, literally, and had the appearance of being a co-production with the BBC, which broadcast hours of it live on its World Service... The only problem with the production was that BBC effectively became a particip [...]

Speaker recalls life during Nazi Germany - Sioux City Journal [del.icio.us]

13.02.2010 - 19:44
In every situation, Leviticus said, there are three types of people: a small number of perpetrators, a small number of victims and a large number of bystanders.He said people must educate themselves, stand up for what they believe in and teach their children to do the same."In the end it doesn& [...]

Prepared remarks from Michael Schudson - USC Annenberg [del.icio.us]

12.02.2010 - 19:58
(J)ournalism before the late 1960s was generally superficial, often servile, usually unambitious, narrowly focused on government, almost devoid of critical inquiry about business, inattentive to the professions, the universities, the environment, women, minorities, schools, the family. If there was [...]

Frank Magid Turned TV News Into Entertainment - WSJ.com [del.icio.us]

10.02.2010 - 08:35
One of television's original "news doctors," Frank Magid helped re-imagine television news as a form of entertainment. Mr. Magid, who died Friday at age 78, was a market researcher who started his career helping banks and breweries figure out how to better-serve their customers.During [...]

People Share News Online That Inspires Awe,Researchers Find - NYTimes.com [del.icio.us]

09.02.2010 - 20:37
People preferred e-mailing articles with positive rather than negative themes, and they liked to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics.Perhaps most of all, readers wanted to share articles that inspired awe, an emotion that the researchers investigated after noticing how many scien [...]

Should Government Support Journalism' It Always Has - AOL News [del.icio.us]

07.02.2010 - 20:37
(F)ederal, state and local governments have contributed billions of dollars a year to the commercial news business.Even now, these governments devote upward of $2 billion in postal subsidies, public notices and tax breaks to the for-profit press, more than twice as much as they spend on public radio [...]

The mystery of Chinese savings - vox [del.icio.us]

06.02.2010 - 10:16
"China’s surplus of men has produced a highly competitive marriage market, driving up China’s savings rate and, therefore, global imbalances."

The Chess Master and the Computer - The New York Review of Books [del.icio.us]

05.02.2010 - 21:22
Weak human + machine + better process was superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process.

Google Economist Explains Why You Won't Pay For Online News - San Francisco News - The Snitch [del.icio.us]

05.02.2010 - 21:18
To the extent that reading an actual newspaper is an activity in itself, Varian argued, people are willing to pay for it, in a way they aren't willing to pay for a couple minutes of distraction at work. So the challenge for newspapers would be to reinvent a way to make reading news  a leisure- [...]

Our Incredible Shrinking Democracy - Robert Reich [del.icio.us]

05.02.2010 - 21:09
Democracy requires at least three things: (1) Important decisions are made in the open. (2) The public and its representatives have an opportunity to debate them, so the decisions can be revised in light of what the public discovers and wants. And (3) those who make the big decisions are accountable [...]

Wikileaks Meets Its Cash Goal — For Now - Wired.com [del.icio.us]

05.02.2010 - 18:41
The whistleblowing site Wikileaks has apparently raised the money it needs to continue operating for the time being, according to a message the organization sent out Wednesday night on Twitter."Achieved min. funraising (sic) goal. ($200k/600k); we’re back fighting for another year, even if we have [...]

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 (...)

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.” [...]

A few tips on outlining stories

07.06.2009 - 16:45
For most daily stories, the time it would take me to outline the article isn’t worth it. I can write about a crash, a fire, a school board meeting without really thinking through the direction I want to head: Start with what happened, and it gets less important from there.But I also write a lo [...]

I am bad at being on furlough

19.05.2009 - 06:27
I don’t know about other people, but being on furlough is hard for me. It’s not just the “uh, how will I pay my bills this month'” difficulty you’d expect. What’s harder for me is to be excommunicated from my colleagues and my daily routine. Even leaving town isn& [...]

Newspapers report their woes because it is a story

13.05.2009 - 16:55
I read a story in the New York Times this week that piqued my interest. The basic gist: Even though TV news also is losing audience at a rapid pace, you’re not likely to hear about it. But newspapers' There isn’t a person who pays attention to the news, whether from TV or print or (...)

Kudos to Kent News Net coverage of riots

27.04.2009 - 18:42
I first saw the coverage Kent News Net had of the riots at Kent State this weekend on Twitter. My immediate reaction was, “come on guys.” Not about the newsroom, which was pumping out updates at rapid-fire pace, but about the future alumni of my alma mater. People already associate the s [...]

Why page jumps online are annoying,counterproductive

08.04.2009 - 18:57
I knew it was coming. And yet this weekend, when I pulled up one of my stories and saw it was split into two pages, I was still annoyed. I read enough newspaper Web sites to have noticed over the past several months a trend was spreading among the other Gannett papers using the corporate (...)

10 Reasons Why News Organizations Should Use 'Linked Data'

16.03.2010 - 20:39
On a news organization's list of priorities, publishing articles as "linked data" probably comes slightly above remembering to turn the computer monitors off in the evening, and slightly below getting a new coffee machine.It shouldn't, and I'll share 10 reasons why.Before I do, I should briefly expl [...]

How Mark Luckie Created 'The Digital Journalist's Handbook'

15.03.2010 - 18:55
It's an increasingly common story in the news business: Young journalist roars out of graduate school at Berkeley, gets a great job at a magazine in New York, works like mad, gets laid off when the economy tanks, turns to his blog and Twitter to brand himself a rock star in his field, publishes a bo [...]

Freedom Fone Promotes Information for All in Africa

12.03.2010 - 17:53
Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) strategies are viewed in many contemporary business circles as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. BoP refers to the 2.6 billion people who live below the $2 a day breadline and many business strategists argue that if targeted correctly, these consumers can offer b [...]

Top 5 Lessons from the Failure of The Zonie Report

11.03.2010 - 17:20
Last week, I wrote a blog post on The Zonie Report (TZR), my Arizona news blog, that I was temporarily shuttering it to spend more time working on CityCircles, a Knight Foundation News Challenge project.Since most of you probably haven't heard of TZR, here's a quick recap of my post: In my digital f [...]

Hacks and Hackers:A New Community for Technojournalists,Journotechnologists

10.03.2010 - 15:26
Last June, at the annual Center for Future Civic Media Conference, I got to talking with Aron Pilhofer (an old friend, leader of the New York Times news applications team and a Knight News Challenge winner for the DocumentCloud project) about the growing number of people who are now doing computer p [...]

Printcasting Adds Partners in Philadelphia,Puerto Rico and Perú

09.03.2010 - 20:54
Do niche print magazines still have a role to play in the digital age' Media outlets in five different cities around the world are using the Printcasting publishing network to try and answer this question.We've added three partners in two weeks. They are:La República, one of the leading newspapers [...]

How Virtual Street Corners Fits with History of Art-Telecom Projects

08.03.2010 - 19:28
Below is a guest post from George Fifield, director and founder of Boston Cyberarts Inc., an organization that is a fiscal sponsor of Virtual Street Corners. He and I are working closely together on the project, and here he helps contextualize Virtual Street Corners from a curator's perspective.Fifi [...]

Agriculture and us

06.03.2010 - 07:36
I attended an Ashoka conference in New Delhi yesterday on rural innovation and farming. There were so many new things I realized about agriculture's deep rooted connections with our culture and society and economy that I decided to immediately write about it before the memories weaken. Plus I watche [...]

Clifford Stoll Was Wrong,But Internet is Far From Perfect

05.03.2010 - 15:39
Poor Clifford Stoll. His 1995 Newsweek essay The Internet' Bah! Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana resurfaced last month and, yes, is still so curmudgeony that it makes Dennis the Menace's Mr. Wilson sound like Pangloss: What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is that th [...]

Pew Report Shows Mobile News Use Spreading in U.S.

03.03.2010 - 17:26
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) released a important new report this week, Understanding the Participatory News Consumer. It presents many insights on how Americans stay informed, and highlights the fact that many of us are already accessing news on our mobile ph [...]

Councilpedia Uses Crowdsourcing to Link Money,Politics in NYC

02.03.2010 - 15:22
As Gotham Gazette gears up to launch a pilot version of its Knight-funded Councilpedia project, we are confronting a number of interesting issues.To step back first, though, Councilpedia will provide information about New York's 51 City Council members and two citywide elected officials, including t [...]

Can Citizen Journalists in South Africa Help Open up Government Data'

27.02.2010 - 14:09
Communities need information, particularly information about what government is doing, and how people can access government services. In South Africa, this information doesn't flow so much as trickle -- and often a paper-based trickle at that! The fact that communication between government and us ci [...]

So You Want to Try Crowdsourcing'

26.02.2010 - 08:55
It is no secret that I'm always on the hunt for great crowdsourcing projects. We're still learning a lot about what "the crowd" can tackle and what it can't, but turning to your readers (listeners, community, neighbors) is a great way to foster civic participation because it gives people a stake in [...]

How Mobile Voices Enables Day Laborers to Tell Their Stories

25.02.2010 - 17:04
This is the second of two articles about Mobile Voices, a project based in Southern California. The first post can be found here.Voces Móviles / Mobile Voices, a Los Angeles-based citizen media project, a collaboration between the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern Cal [...]

Faint Praise for Citizen Journalism Misses Point

24.02.2010 - 21:10
John Darnton is a good novelist, and was a superb journalist in a long career at the New York Times. Now he's curator of the Polk Awards, one of only a couple of journalism prizes that means anything. (Journalists have a tedious tendency to give themselves prizes, more so than any other business I c [...]

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 [...]

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 ...

9 Multimedia Projects You MUST Experience

16.12.2009 - 01:35
1. HighriseHIGHRISE, a multi-year, multi-media, collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs. We will use the acclaimed interventionist and participatory approaches of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) projec [...]

9 Sports Related Multimedia Projects Worth Watching

06.12.2009 - 05:02
First let start with this awesome video that reveals  the future of magazines from Sports Illustrated.1. Sports Illustrated - Tablet Demo 1.5 2.World Series Time-LapseBy the time the Yankees rushed the field to celebrate their 27th World Series victory, Robert Caplin had photographed the action — [...]

7 Free Firefox Extensions For Journalists

01.12.2009 - 20:32
Guest post by Mary WardReminderFoxThis is a sort of date planner extension.  Journalists have meetings and important deadlines all the time.  This extension helps any journalist to keep track of all deadlines and obligations so that their minds remain free to handle the journalism and not the minu [...]

8 Projects I’m Thankful For Seeing This Week

24.11.2009 - 22:03
1. Kroo BayBeautiful interface, panos and strong storytelling.2.SaltSALT is the story of award winning and internationally renowned photo-artist, Murray Fredericks on his annual solo pilgrimage to the heart of Lake ...

The Best Camera Is The One You Have With You:The Art of iPhoneography

20.11.2009 - 03:40
The Best Camera Is The One You Have With YouI heard someone say this recently and the voice inside my head yelled, AMEN! Most professional photographers, despite the $5,000 camera hang'n around their neck knows this to be true: Photography is not about the tool, it's about the photographer. More ...

5 Things Your News Org Should Check Out

18.11.2009 - 22:31
First let's start with a few links to some fascinating articles I've read recently,Promising Practices In Online Engagement By Scott Bittle, Chris Haller and Alison KadlecDon't Give Up on Online Video Yet Posted by Regina McCombs1. Managing NewsAbout Managing NewsRSS/Atom based news tracker with sea [...]

9 Killer Things I Saw This Week

07.11.2009 - 18:38
1.The Quentin Tarantino Guide toCreating Killer ContentDon't forget that great writing in the form of narration or strong title cards is an essential part of awesome multimedia, see this post for some tips.2.LivingGalapagos.org UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Journalism & Mass Communication announces th [...]

10 Projects you MUST see,NOW!

25.10.2009 - 22:31
In no particular order as they all kick major ass.1.THE COAL WAR: FIGHTING TO SAVE A MOUNTAIN AND ITS PEOPLEby Chad A. StevensOne woman.One mountain.One last chance.Set among a backdrop of one million acres of decapitated mountains blown up by the coal industry, one woman fights to save one of ...

Stories from the Aftermath of Infamy

16.10.2009 - 22:01
Face to Face from (I)ndependentLensThis is just a beautiful presentation. Powerful portraits and strong interviews. Thanks for the inspiration.December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001: two days that changed the world forever. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, people of Japanese ancestry livin [...]

MediaStorm Behind The Scenes

11.10.2009 - 19:32
Of course the stories produced by the students are fantastic, but I especially love to look behind the curtain. Not to be missed.Behind the Scenes by Maisie CrowMediaStorm intern Maisie Crow takes us behind the scenes of the MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, to see six participants [...]

Must Hear,BLINK,Walter Murch,Radio Lab,NOW

09.10.2009 - 19:32
This week, we ask a question that we thought was a no-brainer: why do we blink' Film editor Walter Murch tells us about a strange discovery he made years ago while working on The Conversation - could something as small as a blink actually be the trick of his ...

Inspiration:Nacho Corbella,Multimedia Journalist

08.10.2009 - 17:32
I stumble across Nacho's work after looking at the Stunning UNC News21 Project, Powering a Nation.I was impressed with his video contribution called Roping The Wind, a solid, visually stunning video.Now have a look at his thesis project It's called Faces of the Crisis and it's about the Economicdown [...]

Frontline:Obama’s War

05.10.2009 - 00:31
PBS Frontline: Obama’s War featuring video by Danfung Dennis and an interview with the photographer.

Dirty,Pretty Thing,The Canon 5D MKII and other DSLR Stuff

04.10.2009 - 05:00
I love my 5D. I'm a huge fan of the shallow depth of field and low light capabilities. I went to great lengths to get that look with my Canon HD video cameras.I  use the 5D almost exclusively for freelance/client work. There's so much out there - good and bad- ...

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 [...]

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PBS MediaShift's Newspaper Next Interview

Newspaper Next 2.0

Newspaper Next Database Report

"Micropersonal" is news, too

01.12.2008 - 08:48
Steve Outing's latest E&P column sounds a theme that resonates with Newspaper Next 2.0 and should be required reading for everyone who's trying to figure out the future of newspaper companies. His headline says, "Newspapers First Need to Redefine 'News' to Move Forward Online." Redefine it how' By [...]

Why the core isn't enough

01.12.2008 - 08:48
Newspaper companies are trying hard to create new growth, but many have trouble grasping that this will be virtually impossible to achieve with news alone. The fact is, to continue providing the kind of newsgathering that communities need, they'll have to expand far beyond news to support it. If y [...]

A great process for discovering new revenue opportunities

01.12.2008 - 08:48
The biggest challenge facing virtually all newspaper companies right now is creating new revenue. Even among the most innovative companies -- those that are quickly diversifying their offerings and creating innovative new products and services for consumers -- the revenue performance often isn't as [...]

Newspaper Next 2.0

01.12.2008 - 08:48
Welcome to Newspaper Next 2.0 -- the next generation of Newspaper Next research from the American Press Institute. This new report, entitled Making the Leap Beyond 'Newspaper Companies,' outlines a broad new vision for what newspaper companies must become if they are to survive in today's heavily d [...]

Baltimoresun.com: Two Effective Approaches to Video Advertising

14.05.2008 - 20:04
Two examples of how video advertising can bring in new revenue for newspaper Web sites.

Google doesn't fear outbound links; neither should you

03.04.2008 - 21:02
Some questions about journalism innovation stump me. This one didn't. A person who's trying to help journalists move into the digital world was trying to persuade some newspaper editors and writers to "build credibility with their users by having the...

What Should We Stop Doing?

03.04.2008 - 20:46
It's not necessarily a bad thing that some newspapers aren't able to afford to send reporters along on every step of the campaign trail. It might just make campaign coverage better.

What Can Newspapers Learn From Apple?

30.03.2008 - 01:16
The Economist has an article about Apple, a company the magazine calls "California's master of innovation." Their success comes at least in part from their ability to hew closely to the classic principles of disruptive innovation, including: A relentless focus...

National play targets thousands of local markets

30.03.2008 - 01:16
If you're a local newspaper, this Mediapost report should be chilling. Marchex, a search and ad network company, announced that it has launched 200,000 local websites providing user reviews on local businesses....

Newspaper Next Training DVD

30.03.2008 - 01:16
The Newspaper Next Training DVD is now available!

Databases help you become the source for answers

30.03.2008 - 01:16
Databases are an important tool for media companies to use in doing more jobs for our communities. The primary job newspapers have done for generations has been to tell the news of the community, the nation and the world. News...

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...