Installation newspapers are essentially town newspapers, and they are suffering from the same loss of readership and advertising as their civilian counterparts. The TechCrunch blog yesterday covered a presentation proposing one model for the survival of local journalism. Don’t worry, though. Media consultant, blogger, and CUNY professor Jeff Jarvis has a few ideas for how [...]
This seems useful: Definitions.net puts an a-to-z bar near the top of the page, and fun and useful definitions front-and-center. By comparison, my favorite online dictionary, Merriam-Webster, emphasizes its vast array of features, and dictionary.com still seems like it’s primarily a marketing site despite its redesign. Definitions.netseems the more logocentric of the three. Its sister site, [...]
These notes have been hovering in my drafts folder since the second day of the Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium May 5. My smartphone decided it didn’t like to play with the Opera browser I was using. They’re a little cryptic, but I hope you find them useful. Media panel: ABC, USA Today, WTOP radio, AP [...]
We, as editors, consider ourselves the enemy of jargon. How often do we get caught up in our own? A recent entry in freelancer Karen Swim’s blog, Words for Hire, highlights a mistake I’d be likely to make even after more than (mumble twenty-five years mumble) before the keyboard — dealing with a client who [...]
There may yet be hope for publishing in the physical world: Reinventing the Magazine: Publications That Push the Boundaries of the Print Medium – WSJ.com
For the record (and IMHO): I will almost always change “stated” to “said” in a news release. “Stated” calls attention to itself: Did the author intend to convey tone of voice? Does he/she mean the speaker more authorative than Joe Sixpack? that speaker is a statesman? Joe Friday* states. The rest of us talk. “Said,” [...]
The Office of the Chief of Public Affairs just announced the winners of the 2008 Keith L. Ware Army journalism awards. Congrats to all.
Editing a young writer’s article made me think, once again, of William L. Rivers, author of the most influential textbook in my writing career, prosaically named “Free Lancer and Staff Writer.” The message was equally simple: Never settle for less than the best you can do, and always study to make yourself a better reporter [...]
A good thing — perhaps the only good thing — to come out of the Sept. 29 failure of the Wall Street bailout was the production of an amazing infographic by the New York Times. It explores the relationship between political philosophy, electoral risk and votes against the Sept. 29 bailout plan in a highly [...]
From Teaching Online Journalism: The best first step for a print reporter toward multimedia is audio. You already know how to conduct an interview, so you ’re more than halfway there. Now all you need is some decent audio gathering gear and Audacity, a free audio editor that works on both Windows and Macs. read [...]
