I’m pretty passionate about the web allowing greater public affairs accountability journalism, not worse. I was reminded of this while skulking around the Internet searching for a column I remember reading back in 2007. Noted Philadelphia Inquirer scribe Tom Ferrick — who has since launched politics coverage site Metropolis — crunched the numbers on the [...]

Riding into the White House, the angle was that Barack Obama would be a president whose celebrated communications skills would work to balance his governing inexperience. But Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek senior editor and author of a new book chronicling Obama’s first year as president, says Obama has instead taken to private, dispassionate discourse on [...]

There are new owners at 400 North Broad Street, the historic home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, which publish online with stand-alone sister organization Philly.com. The movement begins immediately and will likely result in a closing by the end of June. Go here for the financial details of the auction of parent company [...]

Updated 4/13/10 @ 8:50 a.m.: Regionally-specific hyperlocal is just part of the broader system WHYY, the public media station for the Delaware Valley region, is hoping a $1.2 million hyperlocal news initiative for the northwest region of Philadelphia will be the first successful bold Web-first journalism effort from a legacy media player. Updated: That northwest [...]

Well that was a lot about nothing, no? A Web site, Fire John Yoo is tracking all the news of the now dying coverage of John Yoo, who wrote controversial legal notices on torture during the Bush administration, and the virtriol surrounding his being retained as an op-ed columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. There were [...]

All you need to make a journalist is pressure and time. Those same elements can disrupt a writer. Under pressure and no longer feeling the same need to impress someone can make even the most capable of scribes turn a phrase that shouldn’t be turned anymore. Hell, I may be one cliche away from a [...]

I’m betting that a revenue model for newspapers will develop in the coming years -whether it be as a nonprofit or whether online advertising can be revolutionized. Many general interest newspapers will be lost, but a tier will remain for at least some time, I think. But, gosh, I wish more newspapers would make the [...]

It’s the attitudes that got them into this mess – newspaper executives thinking the party would never stop, but newspapers need to combine an appreciation and interest in learning the future with the confidence of being the most powerful news sources in the world. Too many just seem to be running scared.

Last month I mentioned the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Harrisburg bureau Commonwealth Confidential blog didn’t own its own name in a Web search. Well, a Google search today shows that they got it right now. Why’d it take so long and what else can we learn?

Let those links live. For most newspapers, I bet, this is an issue with their content management system, but this is getting serious. Two of my best clips ever for the Philadelphia Inquirer, including one among my favorite stories I’ve ever written, are no longer available online – even though the links are still live [...]