A feature story covering the as-yet unreleased Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections API-based online tool ‘License to Inspect,’ its inspiration and hope was published on Technically Philly Monday, a story I reported and wrote during the last couple months. It is the last major feature of the Transparencity grant project I’ve been leading, and [...]

Though I took part in three of 14 JLab-funded Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund projects, first announced here last fall, I led one of them. For Northeast Philadelphia hyperlocal NEast Philly, I helped lead the editorial direction of a project called District 172: the politics of change after state Rep. John Perzel. http://neastphilly.com/john-perzel/ Following the indicted [...]

Former Time and New Yorker journalist Calvin Trillin on why there is less drinking in journalism. He references this New York Times story on the changing face of big name journalists. “Being a reporter is only lately a respectable occupation.” Former New York Times reporter Gay Talese telling a story about drinking in his old [...]

Tradition matters to me. It gives us culture. It is a way to pay remembrance for those who came before. Yes, it’s a little bit fun. In the world of news, there is a lot of tradition that needs to be lost. Unquestioned impartiality, balance without real context, an ignorance and distance of what funds [...]

On behalf of Technically Philly, I have started work on a six-month, William Penn Foundation-funded journalism project called Transparencity, covering the open data movement in Philadelphia, as was announced this morning. Conducted in partnership with the Institute for Public Affairs at Temple University (which is chaired by my college honors thesis adviser), the project’s focus [...]

I was asked what it is I actually enjoy about this journalism world, its form and practice. So I rattled off some answers: I like writing I like telling stories. I like getting a little bit closer to truth. I like focusing on different conversations. I love asking questions and learning. All of my interest [...]

They weren’t from around here, were they, shouted my neighbor across the street over the weekend. She was talking about a pack of young journalists — from Florida and Washington state and California — who had invaded my Fishtown rowhome the weekend before. That was perhaps one of the largest take aways I drew from [...]

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 [...]

Poynter curated a list of 100 things a journalist should never do. As these things tend to do, it became a rambling collections of do’s and don’ts, but it was interesting nonetheless. Ten stuck with me as among the most important. Strive for context rather than information. Information is plentiful, context is scarce. (@rsm4lsu) Journalists [...]

Hyperlocal news is as much as a buzz phrase for those in news media today as anything else — yes, even social media. But as these things happen, no real definition seems to hit at what we’re talking about, and I was surprised to not be able to easily find someone who tried to give [...]