Christopher Wink

Online news startup dilemma: we have an industry fighting entrepreneurship

I covered the Demo Day from DreamIt Ventures, a University City tech incubator, for Technically Philly last month.

Bright and passionate 20-somethings pleaded the case for their products, eager for funding to follow the $25,000 and three months of mentoring they received at DreamIt. It was an exacting event.

It was also interesting to think of Technically Philly, a news site I helped co-found that is very much a startup. The conversations I had with some of the young entrepreneurs after the event were startling in similarity to the struggles I’ve had with TPhilly.

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Making mistakes since 1983: Speaking at Rowan University

Brian James Kirk (L) and Sean Blanda speaking at Rowan University on Sept. 16, 2009.

Making mistakes since 1983 | Sept. 16, 2009 | Rowan University

On Sept. 16, 2009, the three Technically Philly founders spoke to Rowan University journalism faculty and students about the necessity of entrepreneurship for young, aspiring journalists. The cheeky presentation was stuffed with insight from their young experiences. Below see our presentation notes.

Metro: The death of the American post office

I contributed to one and grabbed a byline on another in a small package for Metro on talk of closing Philadelphia post offices in response to lagging volume.

With mail volume down, jobs dwindling and the highest deficit in agency history, technology has brought the United States Postal Service into its darkest days.

Read the rest here.

Below some quotations that didn’t make it into the piece.

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PC users: How to use MS Paint for quick, easy screenshot selections

tphilly-cut-header

Anyone publishing to the Web needs to accept the importance of a catchy image, graphic or photo.

The color can spruce up a site — bringing in word-resistent readers and making something simple seem more design friendly — and affect readership.

But many average PC users out there blogging — or even those just looking to share captures from their screen — struggle with an effective way, particularly if they aren’t skilled in graphic imaging or have the requisite software.

Thankfully, MS Paint and other similar basic graphics software prove powerful tools, even with their bare-boned application options.

Mac users can utilize Command-shift-4 to take a selected screen shot (or Cmd-shift-3 for a copy of the entire screen), but for PC users there are a few extra steps if you want to make a selected screenshot. Below, at the behest of a friend, I share the simple steps.
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Metro: Babette Josephs down on ‘Secure Communities’ initiaitve

A city-state-federal policing partnership criticized as threatening the civil rights of immigrant populations in Philadelphia was the focus of a short brief I had in today’s Metro, following a brief interview with state. Rep. Babette Josephs following a press conference in City Hall.

Read it here.

I wrote a fairly large profile of Josephs for the Inquirer last summer. Fair or not, a group of self-labeled reformers in Harrisburg called Josephs a mythological three-headed dog.

I was unable to include a brief interview I had with City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez on the matter, portions of which you can see after the jump, in addition to quotes from Josephs that were cut, more from the Nutter administration, other sources and one interesting concept of the story that didn’t make it into the piece.

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Introducing a new revamped @NEastPhilly: neighborhood news looks good

For more than eight months, NEast Philly, the online hub for Northeast Philadelphia news I introduced back in May, grew to a small, but targeted, 6,000 monthly page views, housed on a free template from WordPress.com.

Finally we have broken free. Yesterday we launched the brand new redesign of our neighborhood news site for the future.

No longer just a forwarding domain, NEastPhilly.com now aims to be the Web portal for content creation, aggregation and dissemination of news, views, information and events happening in Northeast Philadelphia, a middle-class, still print-reliant community. We hope to recapture our traffic numbers from the old site quickly and move far beyond them.

If you’re interested in the geography or another online news startup find a voice, audience and value, grab the RSS feed here.

What’s more, it’ll also be another experiment in establishing a small, self-supporting local news product. Unlike the Technically Philly product I co-founded that is a swing at a high-end, double niche, NEast is a decidedly more modest proposal.

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Faint praise from Inquirer online editor

It’s not a business. It’s an idea, Inquirer online editor says.

Technically Philly is an idea instead of a business…

Metro: Temple tuition hike warned over controversy

Temple students during summer session. Rikard Larma for Metro.

I covered for Metro Philadelphia the political battle between my alma mater Temple University and another alumnus Rep. John Taylor, who is pushing to hold back a $175 million appropriation for the school because of a closed hospital.

Nathaniel Nnadiugwu says he feels like there’s nothing he can do about a political fight between Temple and state lawmakers that threatens to hike his tuition by $5,000.

Read the rest here, or pick up a copy if you’re in the city.

This Page Two story was my second in Metro today. I also had a front page piece. Below see some quotations that didn’t make it in.

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Metro: Double-byline front page on wrongful firing

Daniel Bryant outside the Chop Shop on Temple University's Main Campus. Photo by Rikard Larma for Metro. — The complainant outside the Chop Shop on Temple University's Main Campus. Photo by Rikard Larma for Metro.

I reported on a wrongful termination suit and received a double-byline, front-page story in today’s Metro in Philadelphia.

[He] wears women’s clothes because he says they better show off his feminine features.

~~Read the rest here.~~ The Metro story has been kicked offline, but you can find coverage in the Inquirer here. Pick up a copy if you’re in town and can find it. Below I have some quotations from the owner accused of the wrongful termination below.

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