My industry
What is writing, reporting and editing worth to you?
Everyone says he didn’t get into journalism to be rich – particularly not the print field – but rather it’s what he wants to do.
But when you really face the numbers it may seem even more daunting.
Continue reading Your new journalism job: what do reporters, editors get paid?
We had a good conversation on the merit of full-text or partial feeds on a post recently that I never got to address.
I got a few e-mails on the matter, too, actually. (No surprise they were as conflicted as the comments)
What we all seemed to agree on is that newspapers (or any RSS feed for that matter) are fools to offer no excerpt in an RSS post.
The debate came on how much content should be provided in a feed, though.
Continue reading Full-text feeds, Partial feeds: What's a blogger to do?
Why does a Google search of “Commonwealth Confidential,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Harrisburg state capital bureau blog, yield no direct results, but rather links to some of their posts?
Because they haven’t reached out to the blogosphere and received in return the currency of the Internet – incoming links.
This isn’t something I put on the Inquirer Harrisburg bureau staffers, nor am I trying to criticize the Inquirer. Rather it is the newspaper I read, so my criticisms and suggestions often fall their way, though I think they’re widely applicable to newspapers across the country.
Continue reading Inquirer blogs that don't own their Google searches: all newspapers need to learn
I owe Philly.com an apology.
I got heavy traffic on a recent post of mine in which I complimented the video product (particularly Philadelphia Business Today) but regarded it as incomplete in many ways. I haven’t shifted much on my analysis, but I have learned I put the wrong address on the post. Find out where it should have gone below, and what every newspaper – or company, or organization, or individual – can learn from it about branding.
Everyone in this country, I figure, ought to be watching the again flourishing NFL rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants in today’s NFC divisional playoff contest.
So who would be scrolling the Internet? Still, this game made me think about how newspapers are losing ground for which they need to fight harder – local sports.
Continue reading Newspapers need to dominate local sports coverage
The 2008 list-spree continues here, and, really, I hope to build on this next year.
No one makes the sensible move to keep a check on the best stories in the fourth biggest media market in the country.
Below, in chronological order, find my seven favorite pieces of journalism from the city’s largest and most influential publications.
Updated 6/27/10 @ 8:50 p.m.: Added additional Gmail improvement suggestions
Yeah, we’re all on Google’s bird. It may be a phenomenon, financially and socially, but I still have my complaints. I’m sure you do too (even if you just blame them for killing newspapers, like the French do.)
As Google applications have grown in popularity during the past few years, journalists have taken to see Google aps as a way to better unite newsrooms.
The advantages are clear, but having only used Google aps for a couple years, and a couple for half that, but I have already found a number of faults with these free Web-based services, particularly for journalists.
Continue reading My problems with Google applications: holes in these journalism tools
I think the Philadelphia Inquirer is doing at least one of its online videos right – mostly.
The storied newspaper’s business section puts out a daily, noontime, three to five-minute news show called Philadelphia Business Today, and it has developed into one of the best newspaper-produced videos online. What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong? What can newspapers across the country learn. And Is anyone watching?
Here’s a brand.
Trudy Rubin is what’s left of the once glorious international presence of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
She just returned from another tour of Iraq, where she has further cemented her reputation as a top global-reporting force. Her Worldview column and her blog are musts for those following American presences in the Middle East (Subscribe here). Yeah, and she’s doing for the Inquirer, fo real.
On Tuesday, she fielded questions in an online forum and, along with politics and military, I was joined by others asking her thoughts on newspapers.
Find them below.
Continue reading A foreign correspondent's view on newspaper struggles
Tomorrow 2009 begins. Instead of doing a top ten list of posts like most, I want to review the year in important journalism-related blog posts.
There are a lot of bloggers who focus on journalism. From grizzled veterans, tech geeks and corporate stiffs who are looking for the future, to those who blog the news, and younger cats like me, who have some of the experience, all the enthusiasm and a fresh perspective to offer. Yes, while some have written newspaper obituaries, some are looking toward the future.
So, with all of us running around blabbing on about new media and the future of newspapers, it turns out that every once in a while something I think is pretty meaningful comes to light. This year has been a big one, so below, in my humble opinion, see a guide to 12 months of the best journalism-related blog posts of 2008.
