Archive for January, 2008
Poynter day 2: Attitude is everything
I’ve noticed that many of the participants have done multimedia journalism before and used Soundslides. Those journalists, much like me, are not here to learn how to do something new, but rather how to do something better. Soundslides is one of those programs you can learn in five minutes. I’m not kidding. But knowing how [...]
Early thoughts at Poynter
One thing sticks out at the online storytelling seminar at the Poynter Institute: the background of those attending. Consider this: I can’t explain why this gulf exists, but it appears photojournalists are more willing to try learning new skills. One of the hosts said that photojournalists are more pliable than print reporters. Perhaps, it’s less [...]
Placement and design matters
I moved up my RSS icon to the top of my right-hand column two days ago, and it has made a big difference in my subscriptions. On the first day after moving it up a few spots, I received nine new RSS readers. Obviously, I had been doing a poor job before of letting people [...]
You can’t teach culture (Carnival of Journalism No. 2)
Not every staff member can become an online or multimedia journalist. And if they aren’t really great in their traditional media role, they probably don’t have a long-term role in your news organization. That’s the sad reality, but it’s the only way for newspapers to evolve. You can’t teach culture. A lot of journalists are [...]
The Web is your real competitor
Ryan Sholin says our real competitors are not the TV news anchors or rival newspapers, but rather the Web itself. And he’s right. Newspapers have to compete with everything on the Web for eyeballs. Face it: users consuming anything other than your product is not helping your bottom line. So, if users are spending time [...]
Offering bonuses for new media training
Our new executive editor and I discussed the idea that maybe we should give employees bonuses if they go through new media training. The idea is that we don’t want to mandate (at least not yet) that people learn new media skills. Instead, we want to encourage people. Basically, it would work something like this: [...]
Do you have time to innovate?
Mindy McAdams suggests that newsroom staffers be given 10% of their time to work on their own projects to help facilitate innovation. The BBC implemented a 10% policy, and it has already yielded tangible results. You can now download BBC podcasts wirelessly with an iPhone and iPod Touch. This feature makes it easier for users [...]
Heading down to Florida for a Poynter seminar
I’ll be heading off to Poynter this Saturday for a seminar on online storytelling with audio and images. That means there will not be a lot of updates next week on the state of journalism and Web development. But it does mean there will be updates on the conference itself. I know a lot of [...]
Saying change is needed is not enough
Change means nothing without a plan. Plans mean nothing without actions. Editors, publishers, share holders, etc are all saying the industry needs to change. If I got an e-mail one day from my top editor or the publisher that said, “We must change immediately to tackle new challenges, and we must embrace the Web as [...]
This is journalism?
The pre-primary polls in New Hampshire predicted a Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, victory. They predicted a landslide, a race changing victory. Alas, Clinton won, despite Obama being ahead by double digits in many polls. The polls have been wrong twice now — even exit polls had Obama out front. The real question is: why [...]