PANEL/WEBCAST: Changing Media Landscape, 2009

[[[ Catch our previous webcasts: Advanced Facebook for Journalists | Twitter for Journalists | LinkedIn for Journalists | Launching Your Own Media Business 
NON-COLUMBIA FOLKS: Signup to get e-mail alerts about future Columbia J-school events: http://bit.ly/columbiasignup * List of in-person Columbia J-school lectures, panels, etc: http://bit.ly/columbialectures
Questions to sree@sree.net or @sreenet on Twitter; hashtag for this event: #columbiajh ]]]]


"Changing Media Landscape, 2009" 
Columbia J-school's annual look at the journalism revolution, with several fascinating influencers. This is a different kind of panel, with a real conversation among the participants and audience - with no Powerpoint in sight. FREE IN-PERSON EVENT + WEBCAST VIA LIVESTREAM.COM/columbiajournalism (you can watch and interact right there via your Facebook account!)

The Hearst Foundation and Columbia Journalism Digital Media Program present...

Columbia-Hearst Journalism Dialogues

Thursday, November 12, 2009

6:30-9 pm (live webcast at 7 pm New York time on Livestream.com/columbiajournalism
http://livestream.com/columbiajournalism
see local time around the world here: http://bit.ly/4ouGYf )

SPEAKERS:

JULIA ANGWIN, WSJ technology editor and columnist; author, "Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America"

http://twitter.com/JuliaAngwin

JOHN BORTHWICK, CEO of Betaworks, a new media company that builds, and invests in, real-time web companies, including bit.ly, Twitter, TweetDeck,Tumblr, Outside.in and gdgt.

http://twitter.com/JohnBorthwick

ALAN LEVY, founder, BlogTalkRadio.com, an Internet-radio network offering free call-in talk shows, and Cinchcast.com, a new tool for micro-podcasting

http://twitter.com/AlanLLevy

DAVID MATHISON, author, "Be The Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message... Your Way" and former VP for global syndication for Reuters

http://twitter.com/bethemedia

JENNIFER PRESTON, social media editor, New York Times and former

NYT reporter, editor and newsroom manager

http://twitter.com/NYT_jenpreston

MODERATOR: Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs

http://twitter.com/sreenet

HASHTAG FOR THE EVENT: #columbiajh
SAMPLE TWEET: ColumbiaJ panel/webcast: Changing Media Landscape w/5 media influencers: Thur, Nov 12: http://bit.ly/hearst2009 #columbiajh

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

6:30-7:00 pm - networking reception - drinks and light food

7-8:30 pm - discussion (and live webcast)

8:30-9 pm - reception and networking  continue

No RSVP required. No charge. Open to the public. Add yourself to this form to be kept posted about future Columbia Journalism events like these: http://bit.ly/columbiasignup

VENUE: Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Lecture Hall, 3rd Floor - 116th St & Broadway [ #1 train to 116th St or get directions: http://www.hopstop.com/route?city=New+York&county2=Manhattan&address2=2950+broadway&mode=s ]

LIVE and ARCHIVED WEBCAST OF THE EVENT WILL BE AVAILABLE VIA LIVESTREAM.COM: http://livestream.com/columbiajournalism

We'll also be liveblogging the session via CoverItLive right here:

NOTE: Free open, wi-fi available in the lecture hall for bloggers and others.

PREVIOUS SESSIONS (some video and links are available at http://bit.ly/hearstprograms)

2008: VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism#p/u/11/lURvIzds2Zc

REPORT: NYT Careers blog: http://bit.ly/4zvi6a

Sewell Chan, blogger/bureau chief, New York Times "City Room" blog

Adriano Farano, executive editor, CafeBabel.com, a multilingual magazine

Erica Smith, news designer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and "Paper Cuts" blogger

Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor-in-chief Slate Group

David Cohn, J2008, founder, Spot.us, a new crowdfunding investigative journalism project; winner of $300,000 Knight News Challenge grant

2007: VIDEO: http://www.groundreport.com/US/Media-Leaders-Talk-about-Changing-Landscape-at-Col/2838014

Josh Cohen, business product manager, Google News

Hossein "Hoder" Derakhshan, an Iranian-born blogger/Internet activist

Jonathan Dube, director of digital programming, CBC News

Andrew Lih, author of a new book on Wikipedia and expert on Chinese media

Mindy McAdams, new media professor at University of Florida

Michael Rogers, resident futurist of The New York Times

Also watch video of the April 2009 Hearst New Media Lecture by Ken Lerer, co-founder and chairman of the Huffington Post: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism#p/a/u/1/Zhh95o32yvM

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup We list the school's in-person events at http://bit.ly/columbialectures (lots more coming there shortly). Our events as a Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/columbiajschool

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today. This program is in addition to our more traditional M.S. and Ph.D. programs. Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581

Twitter: http://twitter.com/columbiajourn

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism

Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)

Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

TALK: Craig Newmark of Craigslist

Columbia Journalism School presents a live conversation and Q/A with Craig Newmark, founder, er, customer service rep of Craigslist, one of the most influential websites of the last 15 years. He'll make some opening remarks and take your questions. Be sure to read his latest post, "A Nerd's Take on the Future of News Media": http://bit.ly/3OEC5b

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
UPDATED TIME, STARING 15 MINUTES EARLIER!!!

2-2:45 pm. (see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/2iR3kq )

IN-PERSON: Stabile Student Center, lobby floor, Columbia Journalism School (116th St & Broadway) - no RSVP required.

VIA LIVE-BLOG, and LATER, VIA ARCHIVE, with video, perhaps: see below (set yourself an e-mail reminder)

Post your questions in the comments section or e-mail Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, sree[at]sree.net or via Twitter: @sreenet

[ HASH TAG FOR THIS EVENT: #columbiajcraig and #columbiaj.

SAMPLE POST: Liveblog of Columbia J-school talk by Craigslist's @craignewmark, Tues, 2:15-3 pm: http://bit.ly/columbiajcraig #columbiajcraig ]

More on Craig: http://cnewmark.com/ and his Twitter account: @craignewmark

WEBCAST: Advanced Google Docs and Cloud Computing for Journalists

[Catch our previous webcasts: Advanced Facebook for Journalists | Twitter for Journalists | LinkedIn for Journalists | Launching Your Own Media Business

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup ]

Columbia Journalism School presents a new webcast/call-in show on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009:
Advanced Google Docs, Cloud Computing for Journalists
=====} LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVED CONVERSATION AT THIS LINK 


NOTES BELOW... 

Advanced Google Docs, Cloud Computing for Journalists: Get the latest tips and tricks about Google Docs, the suite of web-based, collaborative computing services that many journalists are using these days. Learn best practices as well as new features. We will also address the questions that are central to the idea of cloud computing: how safe and how private is my work? Please call-in/e-mail/Twitter with your questions and comments.

SPEAKERS:

• Marian Liu, the arts and entertainment reporter for the Seattle Times; leads the daily's social networking committee; uses free collaborative web tools to run a special program at the Asian American Journalists Association convention - @marianliu
• Christina Tynan-Wood, the author of "How to Be a Geek Goddess," the owner of the popular blog GeekGirlfriends.com, a reader advocate on InfoWorld, and a contributing editor for Family Circle, among other outlets - @xtinatynanwood 
• Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager at Google's NYC office; primarily responsible for the development of Google Docs and the Google Apps product suite (one of the companies he co-founded was responsible for the technology behind spreadsheets in Google Docs - @jrochelle
• Jason Freidenfelds, a communications manager for Google's collaborative web apps including Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, and others - @jfreiden

MODERATOR: Sree Sreenivasan, dean of  student affairs and digital media professor, Columbia Journalism School - @sreenet 

Thursday, Oct 15, 2009 
Noon-1 pm ET,  9-10 am PT 

see local time around the world: http://bit.ly/2cOTeG

Listen live, or later to a recording, here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/10/15/Google-Docs-for-Journalists

DOWNLOAD TO iTUNES: These audio webcasts are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection and on-the-go listening. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to "Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and type in

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

Before or after the show, leave a comment or tell us what to discuss, below... or e-mail sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast) or via Twitter,  @sreenet

If you Twitter about this, please use this hash tag - #columbiaj (see the conversation here). Here's a sample tweet you can edit: WEBCAST: Advanced Google Docs for Journos, w/ #Google execs, Thurs, 12-1 pm ET: http://bit.ly/columbiajdocs #columbiaj 

NOTES/TIPS from the webcast:

• Google Apps -- the full collaboration and communication suite from Google, in enterprise, school, and personal flavors: http://www.google.com/apps/  

•  Google Docs -- a collaborative online documents tool, which includes a word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and other tools like drawing, forms, readymade templates, fancy charts, etc.: http://docs.google.com/

• Google Sites -- a wiki-style tool for managing projects internally or publishing a website publicly; works well as a complement to Google Docs: http://sites.google.com/ 

• Google Apps Solutions Marketplace -- a set of third-party consultancies who can help organizations set up, learn about, and customize Google Apps: http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/search?categoryId=6&orderBy=rating 

• The Google Docs community channel on YouTube -- has lots of instructional videos on how to get the most out of Docs, many submitted by community members: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleDocsCommunity 

• The Google Docs blog -- the latest feature launches and tips: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/ 

• The Google Apps blog -- rolls up the various Apps' blog feeds (including Docs) into one unified blog: http://googleapps.blogspot.com/ 

• The Data Liberation Front -- Fake-looking official Google site filled with instructions on how you can take your data and work out of Google products: http://www.dataliberation.org. Here's the link about getting your data out of Docs: http://www.dataliberation.org/google/google-docs

Question via Twitter we didn't get to ask on the show:  

doktordab: @sreenet will google give data stored on their servers to the police, governmental investigators or any other organisation investigating? 

Answer from Google's @jfreiden: Google does comply with valid legal process, such as court orders and subpoenas. These same processes apply to all law-abiding companies. At the same time we have a legal team whose job is to scrutinize these requests and make sure they meet not only the letter but the spirit of the law. We have a history of being an advocate for user privacy. In 2006, we went to court to resist a Department of Justice subpoena for millions of search queries on the grounds that it was excessive and invaded our users’ privacy. The judge ultimately ruled in Google’s favor, establishing an important precedent for user privacy.

Previous webcasts:

• Sept. 2009: Advanced Facebook for Journalists
• Oct. 2009: The Case Method, a new way to teach journalism
• Jan. 2009: Twitter for Journalists, or everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter, but were afraid to ask 
• Jan. 2009: LinkedIn for Journalists - or everything you wanted to know about LinkedIn, but were afraid to ask 
• Feb. 2009: Launching Your Own Media Business 

NOTE: Also see the syllabus of the new Social Media Skills for Journalists course at the Columbia J-school.

Columbia Journalism School is doing several webcasts with our faculty, alumni and friends to

add to our collection (50+) at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (suggestions welcome)

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia

Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup

We list the school's in-person events at http://bit.ly/columbialectures (lots more coming there shortly).

Our events as a Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/columbiajschool

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). This program is in addition to our more traditional M.S. and Ph.D. programs. Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

• Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" -  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/columbiajourn
  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism
  
• Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)
• Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

TALK: "New Tools for Journalists" with Mashable's Ben Parr

[SEE OTHER COLUMBIA J-SCHOOL EVENTS: http://bit.ly/columbialectures ]

Monday, Oct. 5, 2009, 12:30-1:30 pm ET
Stabile Student Center, Columbia Journalism School (open to the public)
(and live-blogging below)

And see the live video via Twitcam now...

Ben Parr, co-editor of Mashable: The Social Media Guide - http://mashable.com - will talk about some of the latest tools that journalists need to know about and answer your questions about social media. He'll also share his thoughts about the world of professional blogging and what you need to know if you plan on becoming a blogger.


We will be live blogging/tweeting right here, via CoverItLive (set yourself a reminder below).


The hashtag for this event: #columbiaj [you can tweet your questions to @sreenet or e-mail sree at sree.net]


Sample tweet you might want to use (or not): Live blogging of Columbia J-school talk by @Mashable's @BenParr, 12:30 pm ET Monday: http://bit.ly/bencolumbiaj #columbiaj #CiL


Also, listen to him and other journos on our recent "Advanced Facebook for Journalists" webcast: http://bit.ly/columbiajfb.


Read "9 Reasons Why Mashable Rules Social Media." 







SEE OTHER COLUMBIA J-SCHOOL EVENTS: http://bit.ly/columbialectures

OFFER: Lerer Lessons - media entrepreneurship with HuffPo's Ken Lerer

WEBCAST: Advanced Facebook for Journalists

[Catch our previous webcasts: Twitter for Journalists | LinkedIn for Journalists | Launching Your Own Media Business

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup ]

LISTEN TO THE RECORDING BY HITTING THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE or by going to this link.


Also see the questions and comments below, in the comments section. Two of the many questions we didn't get to: @BradCrooks: "Can we use FaceBook posts and comments as quotes in our articles without getting permission;" and "Does facebook's real time search have hashtags, or any sort of tagging system?" If you have thoughts on this, please add to the comments sections below.

Columbia Journalism School presents a new webcast/call-in show... 

Advanced Facebook for Journalists: Tips and tricks on making better use of Facebook to connect with sources, learn about new ideas, get more attention to you work and protect your privacy.  New FB features include: Username Login (not just e-mail); Photo Tag Search, Prototypes (FB's version of Google Labs); Desktop Notifications; Friend Tagging in Status and Posts; among many others.
Please call-in with your questions and comments. 

SPEAKERS: Arik Hesseldahl, J'97, senior technology writer, BusinessWeek, @AHess247

Ben Parr, co-editor, Mashable.com, @BenParr

Brandee Barker, director of communications, product and platform, Facebook, @facebookbrandee

Barry Schnitt, director of communications, privacy and policy, Facebook

MODERATOR: Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and Columbia digital media professor, @sreenet [NOTE: the syllabus of a new Social Media Skills for Journalists course at the school features Facebook, among other topics.]

Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 
Noon-1 pm ET,  9-10 am PT 

see local time around the world: http://snurl.com/rqj9x

Listen live, or later to a recording, here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/09/18/Facebook-for-Journos 

Call in with your questions (or listen live): +1-646-915-9583

Before or after the show, leave a comment or tell us what to discuss, below... or e-mail sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast) or via Twitter - @sreenet

If you Twitter about this, please use this hash tag - #columbiaj (see the conversation here). Here's a sample tweet you can edit: WEBCAST: Advanced Facebook for Journalists, with journos, FB execs, Friday, Sept. 18: http://bit.ly/columbiajfb #columbiaj 

DOWNLOAD TO iTUNES: These audio webcasts are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection and on-the-go listening. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to "Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and type in

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

Previous webcasts:

• Jan. 2009: Twitter for Journalists, or everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter, but were afraid to ask 
• Jan. 2009: LinkedIn for Journalists - or everything you wanted to know about LinkedIn, but were afraid to ask 
• Feb. 2009: Launching Your Own Media Business 

Columbia Journalism School is doing several webcasts with our faculty, alumni and friends to

add to our collection (50+) at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (suggestions welcome)

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia

Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup

We list the school's in-person events at http://bit.ly/columbialectures (lots more coming there shortly).

Our events as a Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/columbiajschool

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). This program is in addition to our more traditional M.S. and Ph.D. programs. Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

• Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" -  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/columbiajourn
  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism
  
• Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)
• Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

USEFUL: "Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency" by Prof. Mindy McAdams

Prof. Mindy McAdams is a pioneer in the teaching of digital media. She is  Knight Professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville and her Teaching Online Journalism blog is closely watched the world over. 


Her latest contribution that you should note is her 42-page"Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency," now available at http://bit.ly/3gyukJ


Please take a look and download for your files.

Many of our students, alumni and faculty had a chance to meet her and hear her views when she spoke at the 2007 edition of our Changing Media Landscape series at the J-school. 

AWARDS: First Cabot Prize recognition for a blogger

A note from Josh Friedman, director of the Cabot Prizes, the most important prizes for the coverage of the Americas. 

This is the first time in its history that the Maria Moors Cabot Prize Program has recognized a blogger. We are giving a special citation to Yoani Sanchez, a self-taught blogger who operates in Havana against a lot of obstacles.  This is the 71^st year of the Cabot Prizes, the oldest

 international journalism prizes in the U.S. The prizes recognize outstanding coverage of the Americas.

Here’s the citation of Sanchez, approved by the university trustees: “Yoani Sánchez, blogger, Generación Y

Yoani Sánchez is an ordinary Cuban citizen using the internet with extraordinary power. In barely two years, her weekly blog, Generación Y, has put the rest of the world in touch with Cuba — at least digitally. Generación Y does not repeat the battle of words which Cuba and the U.S. have hurled back and forth for five decades. Instead, it is a pitch-perfect mix of personal observation and tough analysis which conveys better than anybody else what daily life ― with all its frustrations and hopes ― is like for Cubans living their lives on the island today. Sánchez, a 34-year-old philologist, pursues her craft with ingenuity, scarce resources and an enormous amount of guts ― buying a few minutes here and there on one of the few internet-connected computers available to Cubans in Havana, quickly downloading and emailing her written and video comments to devoted supporters who post the blog in 15 languages. She has a loyal following of thousands around the world. For her courage, talent and great achievement in such a brief period of time, the Maria Moors Cabot board is proud to award Yoani Sánchez a special citation for journalistic excellence.”

Here’s a link to the Cabot Twitter account to see stories written about the prizes. One is an AP story in Spanish written specifically about the Yoani Sanchez citation. http://twitter.com/CabotPrize

Here is the top of the university press release:

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Announces Winners of 2009 Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Outstanding Reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean

Media contact:  Victoria Benítez, 212-854-6732, vbenitez@columbia.edu Program contact: Giselle M. Obregon, 212-854-0145, gmo2102@columbia.edu

NEW YORK, July 27, 2009 ― The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism today announced the 2009 winners of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean. Now in its 71st year ― the oldest international award in journalism ― the Cabot Prize honors journalists who have covered the Western Hemisphere and, through their reporting and editorial work, have furthered inter-American understanding.

The 2009 gold medalists are:

n      Anthony DePalma, correspondent for The New York Times;

n      Christopher M. Hawley, Latin America correspondent for USA Today and The Arizona Republic;

n      Merval Pereira, columnist for O Globo.

n      Yoani Sánchez, a blogger in Cuba, is awarded a special citation for her blog, Generación Y.

“This year’s Cabot winners exemplify both the finest traditional newspaper coverage of the Americas and the most daring use of digital journalism to break through barriers that have long obscured portions of the continent where a free press struggles to be heard and read,” said Nicholas Lemann, dean of the  Journalism School.

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger will present the Cabot Prize gold medals and honoraria to DePalma, Hawley and Pereira at a dinner and ceremony on Wednesday, October 14, on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus. Sánchez will be receiving a special citation. Excerpts from the 2009 award citations follow.

Rest of the press release, in English and Spanish, here. Please post your comments below.

TWITTER: TweeterScore Report Card, by @Jrochelle

@jrochelle (the Twitter handle of Jonathan Rochelle) has set up TweeterScore, "a report card for any Tweeter." Since Jonathan is the product manager for Google Docs, it's no surprise that he's used Gdocs to set this up (see the notes from his recent Columbia J-school talk).

Since I recently passed the 1,000th Tweet milestone, I decided to give this a whirl. Take a look and get your own.

Two things I was pleased to note:

Quietness:  7 - avg hours between tweets
Chattiness: 3 - avg Tweets per day

*** Scroll to the right to see the other column of info... [anyone know why this Blogger template forces everything into the middle, wasting all the screen space?]

Click here to see direct link ; click here to get your own TweeterScore and learn more about this.

WORKSHOP: Google Docs/Apps for Journalists

Below are two ways to follow the coverage of this important workshop.

1. Read alum Jeremy Caplan's notes from the event: http://bit.ly/g9m2i

2. Read the group liveblog/Twitter collection below, via CoverItLive.com

You will see that Jeremy's "reporter's notebook" approach is more useful overall.

Columbia Journalism School presents
Google Docs (and Apps) for Journalists: an in-person workshop about Google Docs and Google Apps - and how you can make better use of it in your work

Speaker: Jonathan Rochelle, Senior Product Manager of Google Docs and Google
Apps (bio below)

Friday, May 8, 2009
1-2 pm ET
Stabile Student Center, lobby floor

Columbia Journalism School
116th St and Broadway

See below for links to recordings of other recent Tech for Journalists workshops/webcasts

BIO: Jonathan Rochelle is a Senior Product Manager at Google's NYC office.He's primarily responsible for the development of Google Docs and the Google
Apps product suite. Prior to joining Google, Jonathan co-founded two
companies - ITK Solutions, a Wall Street-based consulting firm, and 2Web
Technologies, a software company in part responsible for the technology
behind spreadsheets in Google Docs. Jonathan also has 16 years of experience
as a software engineer and applications development manager at JP Morgan &
Co., working in a broad array of businesses. He holds a degree in computer
science from the State University of New York at Albany.

ARCHIVED WEBCAST: LinkedIn for Journalists - or everything you wanted to

know about LinkedIn, but were afraid to ask

http://columbianm.blogspot.com/2009/01/webcast-linkedin-for-journalists-or.html 

ARCHIVED WEBCAST: Twitter for Journalists, or everything you ever wanted to

know about Twitter, but were afraid to ask

http://columbianm.blogspot.com/2009/02/webcast-launching-your-own-media.html 

TWITTER: How to use it to understand swine flu story

This blogpost has been mentioned in a Newsday piece on the topic . Please note that my quote should read: 

"Twitter is a mixture of the office water cooler and the best possible news sources, and that is a deadly combination," Sreenivasan said. "It puts the onus on the reader, the user, to filter to find information he or she can trust." [the "s" in news sourceS got accidentally dropped].

If anyone wants to discuss this, I am at sree[at]sree.net or Tweet me @sreenet 


Also see Jsource's tips on how the media should cover the outbreak , by Mary Taylor, veteran health reporter.


*** Tweet this: http://bit.ly/twflu 

MY SPECIAL PAGE FOR TWITTER NEWBIES AND SKEPTICS:

http://bit.ly/twitterideas

In addition to sharing the health tips below, I wanted to share how I am following the news and info on Twitter... Stay healthy - and calm!


[post comments below or tweet me at @sreenet to suggest additional resources, new Twitter feeds, etc, etc]

* See Swine Flu Tracker on Google Maps
* Flu Vaccine Stockpiles Report: (via ParthaBose) Impressive but sobering facts on flu vaccine stockpiles - detailed report for WHO and Gates - http://bit.ly/whostudy 
* See Mashable tips on how to track swine flu online 

CDC: http://twitter.com/CDCEmergency
BreakingNewsOnline: http://twitter.com/breakingnews (good for all breaking news)
Michael von Poppel: http://twitter.com/mpoppel (livetweeting about flu)
SwineFluWatch: http://twitter.com/SwineFluWatch (David Burnia's tweets)

Saturday, April 25: from von Poppel's tweets of the NY health commissioner's press conf about Queens outbreak:

* New York Health Commissioner says anyone who is feeling sick should stay at home, urges people not to go to school or work when sick.

* Anyone who's been ill for 48+ hour is unlikely to benefit from threatment

* incubation period is about 3 days

* "We don't know if it will continue to spread"

* Definite confirmation of swine flu will be available tomorrow

CDC main swine flu page: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/ 

CDC FLU TIPS... http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm?s_cid=tw_epr_59

EXCERPT:
There are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.

   * Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
   * Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
   * Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

   * Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
   * If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

MY SPECIAL PAGE FOR TWITTER NEWBIES AND SKEPTICS:
http://bit.ly/twitterideas

Prof. Sree Sreenivasan | sree@sree.net
Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
http://www.sree.net | http://www.sreetips.com
Also on Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter - http://twitter.com/sreenet

*** Tweet this: http://bit.ly/twflu 

TALK: Jonathan Landman of NY Times on the state of the media

Columbia Journalism Alumni Weekend 2009 - Saturday, April 25, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Jonathan I. Landman ’78,
deputy managing editor of The New York Times
(photos by Rebecca Castillo)

ABOUT LANDMAN:

Until his August 2005 appointment as deputy managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for digital journalism, Landman was assistant managing editor. In his 21-year career with The Times, he has served as metropolitan editor, editor of The Times’s "Week in Review," acting culture editor, assistant managing editor for enterprise and deputy editor of the Washington bureau. Prior to joining The Times, Landman was deputy city editor at The Daily News, a reporter at Newsday, and a reporter covering education, City Hall and investigative news stories at The Chicago Sun-Times, where he was also assistant city editor. He worked at The Ford Foundation in 1978 and 1979 as assistant to Fred W. Friendly, who was the program advisor of communications. He was assistant editor at Scholastic Magazines from 1975 until 1977. Landman is married to Bonnie Van Gilder ’79.

PHOTO below shows the CoverItLive screen, with Landman all the way in the distance:

WEBCAST: Discuss the Pulitzer Prizes and the Changing Newspaper Landscape

Columbia Journalism School presents a live webcast (available later via recording)... If you Twitter this, please use #columbiaj hashtag

Wednesday, 4/22, 4:30-5:30 pm ET
see local time around the world here: http://bit.ly/laGPp

Discuss the Pulitzer Prizes and the Changing Newspaper Landscape
Columbia Journalism School presents "Talking about the Pulitzer Prizes and the Changing Newspaper Landscape"

SPEAKER: Prof. Sig Gissler, administrator of the most influential prizes in journalism and member of the Columbia J-school faculty. See this year's winners and finalists; along with the archive and much more at http://www.pulitzer.org

MODERATOR: Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs

VIA COMPUTER: LISTEN LIVE OR TO A RECORDING:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/04/22/The-Pulitzer-Prizes
(you can also ask questions via computer mic)

ALSO SEE OUR LIVE CHATROOM AT URL ABOVE.

VIA PHONE/SKYPE/ETC: LISTEN LIVE OR TO ASK A QUESTION: +1-646-915-9583

You can also post questions via the live chatroom or send questions to sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast)

See list of upcoming Columbia Journalism School webcasts (including a conversation about teaching digital journalism today) at http://bit.ly/columbiawebcasts

See archive of 50+ previously recorded webcasts at
http://blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism

WORKSHOP: 10 Things to Try Today

IFV - Immediate Follower Value - measuring impact on Twitter

UPDATED:  Added GMA IFV below.


ORIGINAL POST, night of April 15/16: As I watched rapper/actor Ice-T on Jimmy Fallon's show tonight, I heard him start to talk about Twitter (Fallon, @JimmyFallon on Twitter, is a Twitter fan). Ice-T mentioned his Twitter address - Twitter.com/finallevel (the name of his record label) - so I went over to see if I could measure the impact of a direct Twitter feed mention on network TV.

Here's a screen shot of what the count was before the mention (click to expand): Count: 590...




Here it is, 15 minutes later (click to expand): Count in 15 minutes: 1,229...


Therefore, the possible IFV or Immediate Follower Value (the number of new followers within 15 minutes of a mention) of Fallon's show: 639 followers (for this specific instance). [Here's what Fallon's bloggers had to say earlier in the day about the possible impact: Ice-T-witter.]

UPDATED: 4/16/2009 - Watching "Good Morning America"

This morning GMA interview mentioned @WiredMoms as part of an appearance by Internet safety expert Parry Aftab [here's the GMA tweet about it ] . At the time, WiredMoms had 614 followers. Within 15 minutes, the number had shot up to 770, giving GMA a possible IFV of 156 followers (for this specific instance).

Of course, IFV is something I just made up. I imagine there's something more scientific that someone's already created. In case there isn't, this MIGHT be an idea for something useful. Or not.

Over on Facebook, as a result of this post, I had the following exchange with Nathan Becker :

Nathan Becker at 2:15am April 16 

Fallon also did a pretty cool Twitter experiment earlier in which he picked a random audience member who had Twitter and gave the instructions to "follow this guy on Twitter." As the show was airing and Fallon was asking people to follow Bryan Brinkman, I watched his followers go up by hundreds with each refresh (and I'm in the Central time zone, ...  Read Moreso it had already aired on the East Coast. He's got 30K+ followers now. http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2009/03/twitter-the-bryan-brinkman-experiment/ 

Sree Sreenivasan at 2:24am April 16

i presume the WAY the twitter feed is mentioned has an impact: the guest casually mentioning it will have only some impact. the guest giving out the specific address (like Ice-T did) will have more. and fallon specifically announcing an experiment and asking people to specifically to follow someone will have a much more obvious effect.

Happy to hear feedback, ideas and more - comments section below or on FB or Twitter or sree[at]sree.net.

[More of my thoughts on Twitter at http://bit.ly/twitterideas and, of course, on @sreenet]

TALK: Ken Lerer on Building Traffic

Monday, April 13, 5-7 pm, Lecture Hall
LERER LESSONS #3: Ken Lerer, chairman of The Huffington Post and this year's Hearst New Media
Professional-in-Residence at the J-school, presents the third of his three spring talks about media entrepreneurship. This week's topic: "Eyeballs: What You Should Know About Building Traffic and Audience in the Digital World."

TALK: Ken Lerer's 2009 Hearst New Media Lecture, Thursday, April 23, 2009

Ken Lerer, chairman and co-founder of The Huffington Post gave this year's Hearst New Media Lecture on April 23, 2009.  The topic of his talk: "How We Got Here, How We Get Out of Here."


Here is video of his lecture:



Some of the coverage of the talk:

• Transcript of the talk, from HuffPo
• Tough Love with Ken Lerer, from CJR
• Newspapers' Essential Strengths , from NYT media columnist David Carr
• Scroll down to see the live Twitter and CoverItLive coverage of the talk.

[ALSO SEE: Lerer presentations on what journalists need to know about building traffic | advertising]

This year's installment of our popular annual new media lecture series -
please pass on to your friends in NYC.

Nicholas Lemann, Dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, cordially invites you

to the annual Hearst Foundation New Media Lecture

Thursday, April 23, 2009 (6:30-9 pm)
Columbia Journalism School
116th St and Broadway (#1 train to 116th St)

Join us to hear Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post deliver an important lecture about the media industry:

"How We Got Here and How We Get Out of Here"

6:30-7:00 pm - reception - drinks and light food
7-9 pm - lecture + Q&A (dessert will be available after the Q&A)

No charge; no RSVP required; all are welcome.
NOTE: Free open, wi-fi available in the lecture hall for bloggers and others.

Information on webcast version will be available soon at http://columbianm.blogspot.com  - the blog of Columbia's Digital Journalism Program

Read/hear some of the previous Hearst New Media Lectures and learn more about the Hearst programs at Columbia: http://bit.ly/HearstPrograms

2008: Brian Storm - Digital Storytelling at MediaStorm.org
2007: Adrian Holovaty - The Line Between Humans and Computers
2006: Dan Gillmor - Trends in New Media
2005: Neal Scarbrough - Lessons from the Cutting Edge
2004: Jack Shafer - Spinning Into Control: The Good News About the Second Generation of Web Journalism
2003: Michael Moran - War Coverage in the Internet Age
2000: Rich Jaroslovsky - The Net and the Pendulum: Lessons Learned with the Benefit of 20-20 Hindsight
999: Dan Okrent - The Death of Print

OUR THANKS TO THE HEARST FOUNDATION FOR ITS SUPPORT OF NEW MEDIA EDUCATION AT THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL

And here's a really early save-the-date for a fall panel...

"The Changing Media Landscape, 2009"
The Annual COLUMBIA-HEARST JOURNALISM DIALOGUES Panel Discussion
Tuesday, Nov. 10 / Columbia Journalism School / 6:30-9 pm

==> IF YOU ARE NOT AN ALUM AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT COLUMBIA J-SCHOOL TALKS, LECTURES, PANELS:

The best way to keep up with the in-person events at the
Columbia J-school is to bookmark this page:
http://bit.ly/columbialectures

If you'd prefer to import our Google Calendar:
http://bit.ly/columbiacalendar

If you prefer e-mail, signup to get alerts about future Columbia
Journalism School events: http://bit.ly/columbiasignup

We have a separate webcasting program that includes recordings of SOME of the in-person events. Keep your eye on
http://blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (more than 50 conversations are archived there).

WANT TO KEEP UP WILL ALL THE MEDIA CHANGES? See "Changing Media Landscape," a list of constantly updated articles about the media revolution around us.
It started as a reading list for Columbia students, but we have been told it's useful by folks around the world: http://www.sreetips.com/landscape.html

-30-

TECH JAM SESSION: Twitter for Skeptics

Sree's Twitter Tips for Skeptics and Newbies: http://bit.ly/twitterideas




As the semester winds down, Dean Sreenivasan (with help from others) will be doing more Tech Jam Sessions (see working list of new topics below; your ideas welcome).

TECH JAM SESSIONS: Learn a technology in less than an hour
ALL LEVELS OF EXPERTISE WELCOME, NO RSVP.

* Friday, April 10, 1-2 pm in the Stabile Student Center

TWITTER FOR SKEPTICS: Tired of hearing all about Twitter and all the Twits who are Twittering all the time? Convinced it's jumped the shark? Wondering why anyone would want to know what their friends are doing at EVERY SINGLE MOMENT? Then this session is for you. It's an introduction to Twitter and a discussion about how journalists can specifically use it to improve their reporting, get story ideas and connect with their readers/viewers. You'll leave with lots of ideas and a list of useful/interesting/fun Twitter feeds.

SPEAKER: Sree Sreenivasan, sreenet on Twitter

Sree's Twitter Tips for Skeptics and Newbies: http://bit.ly/twitterideas


Have you seen J2009er Franz Strasser's collection of J-school alumni, faculty and students on Twitter? http://twitter.com/j_school/friends

Franz's Twitter handle: http://twitter.com/franzstrasser

We are likely to cover this session on http://columbianm.blogspot.com

(please come back at that time)

Listen to our Jan. 2009 webcast on a similar topic:
http://columbianm.blogspot.com/2009/01/webcast-twitter-for-journalists.html

MORE TECH JAMS COMING SOON:
* How to register your own domain name
* Building your brand
* Better use of LinkedIn
* Building audio slideshows
* LOOKING FOR MORE IDEAS

-30-

ADVERTISING: What all journalists need to know

LERER LESSONS #2: Ken Lerer, chairman of The Huffington Post and this year's Hearst New Media Professional-in-Residence at the J-school, presents the second of his four spring talks about media entrepreneurship.

This week's topic: "Everything Journalists Should Know About Web Advertising."

Guest speakers:
James Smith, chief revenue officer at HuffPost
Shane Steele, former VP Digital Media Coca Cola; now VP Marketing, Tremor Media.

JOBS:Columbia Digital Media Fellowships, 2009-10

UPDATE: We have added a second fellowship time period: THE FIRST HALF OF  the academic year, in addition to the full academic year. Please take a look. 

Dear Students: Please take a look at this opportunity (it's the renamed NM Fellows program) and apply if you are interested.

- - -

Columbia J-School Digital Media Fellowships 2009-10

We are pleased to announce the second year of the Columbia J-school Digital Media Fellows program - which provides one-year fellowships for members of the graduating class of 2009. The inuagural fellows this year were Kenan Davis and Dave Mayer.

The Digital Media Fellows will work closely with the faculty and technology staff to continue and expand our integration of digital-media instuction throughout the curriculum. Reporting to Prof. Duy Linh Tu, in his role as coordinator of the digital-media program, the fellows will be part of the school's Academic Affairs team.

Part-teaching assistants, part-technologists, the ideal candidates will be smart journalists with terrific reporting, writing, multimedia, editing and production skills. They will need an engaging classroom presence to help the school community navigate the world of digital journalism. The ability to teach others to use Wordpress, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Final Cut Pro, photo, audio and video equipment, etc., will be key.

Candidates should also be able to adapt to changing situations, to mirror the flexibility needed in a multimedia world.

There are two time-periods for the fellowships:

1. July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

2. July 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2009.

(when you apply, you will be asked to indicate if you wish to be considered for one particular period or both).

Each Fellow will be paid an annualized salary of $27,000 (ie, the fellowship that runs half the length of the full year will received half the salary) and will receive the University's generous benefits package.

The positions are open to both MS and MA graduates of the class of 2009.

TIMELINE:

Monday, March 30, 2009, 10 am: Online application form (short essay, personal home page, relevant URLs, two faculty reference names) goes live at http://columbianm.blogspot.com (see form below)

Monday, April 6, 2009, 10 p.m.: Application form closes.

Week of April 6 and April 13: Selection committee meets and selects
semi-final candidates; committee interviews semi-final candidates.

Week of April 20 or April 27: Fellows selected and confirmed.

July 1: Fellowship begins.

June 30, 2009: Fellowship ends.

Feel free to discuss the program with Prof. Tu, Kenan or Dave.

o o o o o

THE APPLICATION FORM:

BOOK TALK: Andrew Lih & "The Wikipedia Revolution"

Columbia Journalism School New Media Program Presents...

BOOK and TECH TALK: ANDREW LIH, author of "The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia" and China media expert and former Columbia J-school professor.

Thurs, March 19, 6:30-8:30 pm; Lecture Hall

Lih will be interviewed by his former student and Columbia alum Jonathan Dube, J'97.

Dube is president of the Online News Association, the vice-president in charge of ABCNews.com and the publisher of CyberJournalist.net.

This will be the first public launch of the book in NYC.

See details about it at http://www.andrewlih.com  Publicist for the book: Lauren.Hodapp[at]abc.com

JOBS: Job Hunting 2.0 with Jason Alba

Fri, March 13, 12:15-1:30 pm; Stabile Student Center (lobby floor)

Meet Jason Alba, founder of job-hunt-tracking site JibberJobber.com and author of "I’m On LinkedIn - Now What???" - http://imonlinkedinnowwhat.com/ and http://www.JasonAlba.com - as he discusses job hunting in the age of social media and his own entrepreneurial experience. You will leave with plenty of practical tips and new ideas. Our Twitter hashtag: #columbiaj


We are also using it CoverItLive.com to cover Alba's talk... So join us at 12:15 ET, please.



If you've never seen one of these before, here's some background info from the company:

Reader Information

• There's nothing to do during a Live Event other than read, watch and occasionally send in a comment or vote in the polling questions.
• It's not a chatroom. You go to largely find out what the writer has to say. An open chat with thirty or more readers turns into poor, disjointed content very quickly.
• Your comments are published at the Writer's discretion. The Writer can view all comments sent to them but only they can publish your comments for everyone to see.
• Our 'autoscroll' feature ensures you're always shown the newest content without having to refresh or scroll your screen. You can turn this on or off by using the controls at the bottom of the Viewer Window.
• Subtle sound effects alert you to new content as the writer publishes it. This can also be turned on or off as needed.

iPHONE: App Store Secrets presentation by Pinch Media

A presentation on lessons learned by a successful Apps maker.

iPhone AppStore Secrets - Pinch Media

View more presentations from pinchmedia. (tags: pinch media)

MAGS: How Magazines Can Win on the Web

A guest post from alum Nicholas Boston

11 Tips from the American Society of Magazine Editors forum, "How Magazines Can Win on the Web: Innovative Lessons from the Online Categories of the National Magazine Awards,"
led by Sree Sreenivasan on Dec. 4, 2008

By Nicholas Boston
Nicholas Boston is Assistant Professor of Journalism at Lehman College of the City University of New York and a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Cambridge University. He was a reporter for the New York Observer, among other publications and currently blogs for Style.com, the online home of Vogue.

1) GET INTO A NEW MEDIA MINDSET: Don’t simply replicate your print publication online but, rather, make sure that you are meeting your editorial mission with specific online tools, functionality, content, and features.

2) MAKE SURE YOUR SITE HAS ALL THE REQUISITE “ABLES”: That it is shareable, commentable, linkable, embeddable.

3) FOLLOW COLLEAGUES’ SAGE WORDS: “Clear is the new clever.” – John Huey, Time, Inc.
“Mundane is the new sexy.” – Lucy Danziger, Self

4) KEEP IT TIDY AND TIMELY THROUGHOUT THE SITE: Many editors, thinking with their print caps on, spend so much time concentrating on the their homepages, not recognizing the fact that Web browsers are entering from multiple other parts of the site. Fifteen to twenty percent of Web browsers arrive at the homepage, unlike with a magazine, where the front cover is always the first point of visual contact a reader has with the publication. Content throughout your Web property therefore has to be fresh, clean and up to the minute, as you never know which door a browser is going to come through first.

5) USE KEYWORDS: An article on the your site should always have as many keywords as possible at the bottom or to the side, so that users can click through to related articles.

6) TELL READERS WHAT’S HOT: Have “Most Read”/”Favorite Posts” lists and links.

7) SLUGS: Ok, so here’s a tip from print media that is just as relevant online. At the head of every story, add a slug – one word in all caps – telling readers what the piece is all about (e.g. FIRED: Automakers Seeing Red.)

8) USE NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT’S OUT THERE: There’s stuff out on the market that can cut your wait time in half and eliminate a lot of bureaucracy. Flip video camcorders are cameras with a built-in USB connector. Use one to have your EIC make a quick and easy morning report that is immediately uploadable to the site. QIK.com allows for live streaming from your cell phone camera right onto the Internet. BlogTalkRadio.com is the “poor man’s NPR” with which editors can create their own radio chat shows and which costs nothing. See innovative use of BTR by Women's Day magazine: http://blogtalkradio.com/RadioWD. Check out possibilities like these and integrate them into your website’s content and mission.

9) RENAME YOUR PHOTO FILES BEFORE UPLOADING THEM TO THE SITE: This is all about being searchable. A jpeg defined by a long string of numbers is less likely to be read by Google or any other search engine and delivered in a list of searches than is a jpeg that has a name on it.

10) EVERYONE LOVES A SLIDE SHOW: When you’re posting sets of pics, consider that according to numbers, 80% of users who begin viewing a slide show watch the show through to the end!

11) IT’S OK TO SEE WHAT OTHER SITES ARE DOING AND TRY THEIR STRATEGIES: Always remember, “We don’t steal ideas online, we honor them.”

DESIGN: 50 User-friendly design menus

From SmashingMagazine.com:

50 user-friendly design menus
Below we present over 50 excellent navigation menus — we feature CSS-based
design solutions, CSS+JavaScript-based menus and Flash-designs. However,
they all have something in common: they are user-friendly yet creative and
perfectly fit to the style of their respective websites.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/04/50-beautiful-and-user-friendly-navigation-menus 

also see Nav Menus Trends:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/26/navigation-menus-trends-and-examples/

WEBCAST: Launching Your Own Media Business

[Catch our previous webcasts: Twitter for Journalists | LinkedIn for Journalists
NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup ]

Columbia Journalism School presents... 
Launching Your Own Media Business: Tips and advice for surviving - and thriving - in the Changing Media Landscape


Speakers: Henry Dubroff, J'82 alum and Susan J. Marks, authors of "Battling Big Box: How Nimble Companies Can Out Maneuver Giant Competitors"

Using what they learned via Dubroff's media entrepreneurship experience and their brand-new book, our speakers will help journalists understand how they can be entrepreneurial and take charge of their careers in ways they hadn't imagined. The session will be filled with practical, actionable information and they will take your questions. Send us your questions - e-mail sree[at]sree.net or post them in the comments section below - or call in with questions! Share your tips, too, please.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Henry Dubroff, graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 1982. He is founder and editor of Pacific Coast Business Times. Despite operating in the shadow of the region's big-box competition in Los Angeles, Dubroff's publication reached break-even just 18 months after launch and continues to maintain double-digit growth rates. Previously, Dubroff was editor of the Denver Business Journal and business editor at the Denver Post, where he won numerous national awards for excellence in journalism. His entrepreneurial accomplishments have been recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the California Legislature.

Susan J. Marks is an award-winning journalist, freelance writer, book author, and editor. In her nearly 30 years of newspaper, magazine, and book writing and editing experience, she has chronicled large and small business successes and failures, innovations, and changes.

MODERATOR: Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and Columbia new media professor

Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 
1-2 pm ET
10-11 am PT (where Dubroff will be calling from)
11 am-noon CT (where Marks will be calling from)

see local time around the world: http://snurl.com/b8a4l  

Listen live, or later to a recording, here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/02/06/Launching-Your-Own-Media-Business 

Call in with your questions (or listen live): +1-646-915-9583

If you Twitter about this, please use this hash tag - #columbiaj (see the conversation here)

Before or after the show, leave a comment or tell us what to discuss, below... or e-mail sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast)

Columbia Journalism School is doing several webcasts with our faculty, alumni and friends to 
add to our collection (40+) at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (suggestions welcome)

These audio webcasts are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection and on-the-go listening. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to "Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and type in
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia
Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup

We list the school's in-person events at http://snurl.com/columbialectures (lots more coming there shortly).

Our events as a Google Calendar: http://snurl.com/columbiajschool

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

• Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" -  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/j_school
  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism
  
• Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)
• Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

WORKSHOP: Florida workshop on "10 New Tech Things to Try Today"

[Similar workshops coming to New Jersey on Wed, March 4, and to Manhattan on Mon, March 16. If you want more info, e-mail sree[at]sree.net]

In case you know folks in Southwest Florida, let them know. Public welcome.

The Columbia University Club of Southwest Florida
is pleased to welcome
Professor Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs
and new media professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Friday, February 13, 2009
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

The Strand
5840 Strand Boulevard
Naples, Fla.
Reserve your ticket now! RSVPs required by February 9.
The cost to attend for CUCSWFL members and their guests is $25 per person; the cost for non-members and walk-ins is $30.
Please send your check, payable to "CUCSWFL," to P.O. Box 770403, Naples, FL 34107.
Questions or dietary restrictions? Call Dudley Ferrari at 239.254.1434
https://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/COU/events/COU2219996.html

10 New Tech Things to Try Today: Improve Your Online Life
Having a tough time keeping up with all the technology changes around you?
Worried that there's some new tech tip or cool site that everyone knows about but you?

If so, this fun, fast-paced seminar aimed at folks of all levels of computer knowledge is for you. You will learn about some terrific new ideas that will make you more efficient and improve your online life. You will leave with more than 10 ideas, a useful handout and a whole new outlook on technology. After this, YOU will be the one showing off to your colleagues, friends and family.

Professor Sreenivasan received his M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where he now runs the school's multimedia program and serves as the Dean of Student Affairs. He runs Internet workshops around the country for journalists and other professionals. As the tech reporter for WNBC-TV, he appears twice a week in the NYC area and occasionally on various NBC News programs.

His work explaining technology to lay readers has appeared in The New York Times, Business Week, Time Digital and Rolling Stone. A co-founder of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, Newsweek named him one of the 20 most influential South Asians in the nation in 2004.
www.sree.net and www.sreetips.com and on Twitter @sreenet

WEBCAST: Blog Cat Scan of a journalist's blog - CompletelyLegal.net

Listen to the recording above or at the link below.

Friday from 1-2 pm EST, I will be doing another of my Blog CAT Scans (explained below), this time with a reporter's blog for her newspaper.

You can listen live, or later to a recording:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2009/01/30/BLOG-CAT-SCAN-CompletelyLegalnet
(you can go there and set an e-mail reminder for yourself right now)
or live by dialing into +1-347-324-5985

A few minutes after the session ends, an archived, downloadable MP3 will be available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips

*** If you Twitter this, the hashtag is #sreetips

(If any of you would like to volunteer your blog for a future session, write to sree[at]sree.net explaining why a large audience would benefit from your blog being critiqued. There's a backlog, so please be patient.)

o o o o

Listen in and ask questions as Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia Journalism new media professor, critiques a blog and interviews its blogger. You - and the blogger - will learn how to improve the blog; and raise visibility, traffic and revenue.

Sree calls these "CAT Scans" because, in the medical world, CAT scans look at healthy as well as unhealthy tissue. During these fast-paced, fun session, the blogger received plenty of constructive, actionable tips.

Up next: Rebecca Baker, staff writer at the Journal News in White Plains, NY, and her blog, CompletelyLegal.net. Check out the blog at http://www.completelylegal.net and join us for the conversation (her bio is below).

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009
1-2 pm EST
See local time around the world: http://snurl.com/axhhg 

You can listen live via the web or call-in via a phone. Details (and the number):
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2009/01/30/BLOG-CAT-SCAN-CompletelyLegalnet
(you can go there and set an e-mail reminder for yourself right now)
Call-in Number: +1-347-324-5985

Listen to other sessions in this series at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips

See other blogging tips at http://www.sreetips.com/blogs.html

OTHER RECENT WEBCASTS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU:
* Twitter for Journalists
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/09/Twitter-for-Journalists

* LinkedIn for Journalists
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/23/LinkedIn-for-Journalists

* Blogging for Journalists
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2008/02/07/Blogging-for-Journalists-Best-Practices

* Blog CAT Scan: Birds, Bat and Beyond
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2008/02/13/Blog-CAT-Scan-Birds-Bats-and-Beyond-by-Jim-Wright

* Blog CAT Scan: The Murder Book 2008
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2008/03/04/Blog-CAT-Scan-The-Murder-Book-by-Paul-LaRosa

* TECH CHAT: Alan Levy, founder of BlogTalkRadio.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sreetips/2008/03/19/TECH-CHAT-Alan-Levy-founder-of-BlogTalkRadio

Prof. Sree Sreenivasan | sree[at]sree.net
Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
http://www.sree.ne t | http://www.sreetips.com

Also on Facebook, LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/sreenet

Here's Rebecca Baker's background: I grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, attended Carlow College (now Carlow University) where I graduated summa cum laude with bachelor's degrees in communication and writing. I was a staff writer for the (Warren, OH) Tribune-Chronicle from 1996-1999, a staff writer for the New Haven (Conn.) Register from 1999-2004 during which time I graduated magna cum laude with a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. I've been at The Journal News since March 2004 and currently cover state and county courts for the paper and its website, LoHud.com. I live in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). The deadline for application is SUNDAY, FEB 1, 2009 (NO GRE required!) and there's very generous funding available this year. We are also still taking applications for our PART-TIME M.S. program. Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

• Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" -  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/j_school
  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism
  
• Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)
• Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

WEBCAST: LinkedIn for Journalists - or everything you wanted to know about LinkedIn, but were afraid to ask

[Catch our previous webcast: Twitter for Journalists | NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup ]


You can listen to the entire conversation above or at this link:
http://blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/09/Twitter-for-Journalists


[UPDATE: please note the LinkedIn upgrade offer for journos is NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

See all the comments within Twitter, via the hash tag #columbiaj

LinkedIn resources below - please leave your comments and tips. We will be doing more such webcasts - ideas for topics, speakers welcome: sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast) or Twitter @sreenet

Columbia Journalism School presents a briefing on LinkedIn for Journalists
- or, So you've Joined LinkedIn but have no idea how to use it well

- or, Everything you wanted to know about LinkedIn, but were afraid to ask

Plenty of journalists and other professionals join LinkedIn, but many don't use it properly. Join LinkedIn experts (including an LI exec) for practical, easy-to-understand answers to questions such as:

• How can journalists use it in their day-to-day work?
• What are best practices for journalists?
• How can I use it as an effective job hunting tool?
• I hear LinkedIn's Answers section is useful. Is it?
• How can I improve my LinkedIn profile?
• What are the rules of LinkedIn etiquette?

- and much more. Send us your questions - e-mail sree[at]sree.net or post them in the comments section below - or call in with questions! Share your tips, too, please.

SPEAKERS:

• Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek senior technology writer - and an alum and adjunct prof at the J-school (LinkedIn profile)
  
• Jason Alba, author of "I'm on LinkedIn, Now What??? - A Guide to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn" (Amazon | blog) and CEO of JibberJobber, a jobs search service (Linkedin profile)
• Kay Luo, senior director of corporate communication of LinkedIn (LinkedIn profile) 

Among the features Kay talks to journalists about: Advanced search: http://www.linkedin.com/search | Answers: http://www.linkedin.com/answers | Applications: http://www.linkedin.com/apps 

• and... YOU - join us on the air to ask a question, provide your tips, share your enthusiasm or skepticism!
  

MODERATOR: Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and Columbia new media professor (LinkedIn profile)

Friday, January 23, 2009 
3:30-4:30 pm ET

12:30-1:30 pm PT

see local time around the world: http://snurl.com/aksml 

Listen live or, later, to a recording here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/23/LinkedIn-for-Journalists 

Call in with your questions (or listen live): +1-646-915-9583

If you Twitter about this, please use this hash tag - #columbiaj (see the conversation here)

Before or after the show, leave a comment or tell us what to discuss, below... or e-mail sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast)

UNDERSTANDING LINKEDIN:

• Resources from LinkedIn: Best practices for Journalists | Tips for journalists 
• BrazenCareerist: 10 Ways Journalists Can Use LinkedIn  
• Poynter: LinkedIn for Journalists 

Video explainer:

Columbia Journalism School is doing several webcasts with our faculty, alumni and friends to 
add to our collection (30+) at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (suggestions welcome)

These audio webcasts are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection and on-the-go listening. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to "Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and type in
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

NON-COLUMBIA-J-SCHOOLERS! Signup to get alerts about future Columbia
Journalism School events and webcasts: http://snurl.com/columbiasignup

We list the school's in-person events at http://snurl.com/columbialectures (lots more coming there shortly).

Our events as a Google Calendar: http://snurl.com/columbiajschool

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new nine-month M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). The deadline for application is SUNDAY, FEB 1 (NO GRE required!) and there's very generous funding available this year. Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW-ISH WAYS CONNECT WITH COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL:

• Facebook: friend "Columbia J-school" -  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611726581
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/j_school
  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/columbiajournalism
  
• Blip.tv: http://cujs.blip.tv/ (five- and 12-minute mini-documentaries about the school + events at the school)
• Audio webcasts with faculty, alumni and more: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (set automatic e-mail reminders there for yourself)

MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu

WEBCAST: Twitter for Journalists, or everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter, but were afraid to ask

UPDATE: Thank you for the incredible response to this topic. Almost 800 people listened live (690 via PC, 108 on the phone). 200+ in the live chatroom. Archived show "listens": 50 200 215 701 1,121 1,600 2,049. You can listen to the entire conversation above or at this link:
http://blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/09/Twitter-for-Journalists

See all the comments within Twitter, via the hash tag #columbiaj

PODCAST ON iTUNES: If you want to subscribe to this as a podcast on iTunes, go to
"Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and type
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

Twitter resources below. We will be doing more such webcasts - ideas for topics, speakers welcome: sree[at]sree.net 

Many thanks to our speakers - follow them below!

[CATCH OUR OTHER WEBCAST: LinkedIn for Journalists ]

[ original post below ]

Columbia Journalism School presents a briefing on Twitter for Journalists
- or, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Twitter, But Were Afraid to Ask
- or, 90 minutes talking about a service that lets you type only 140 characters.

The popular micro-blogging service is used by many  journalists. We hear how it helped in covering the Mumbai attacks; provided a way to communicate during an LA earthquake, and even helped free an American student from an Egyptian jail.

But there's still a lot of confusion and skepticism about it among most journalists:

• How can journalists use it in their day-to-day work?
• What are best practices for journalists?
• Whose work is, in Twitter terms, worth "following?"
  (send us your questions!)

The answers to all of these questions via a webcast featuring several technology journalists and Twitter experts.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek senior technology writer - and an alum and adjunct prof at the J-school - (@ahess247)
• Shel Israel, author of the forthcoming "Twitterville: Getting Closer to Customers During Tough Times" (@shelisrael)
• Andrew Lih, former J-school new media professor and author, "The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia" - calling from Beijing  (@fuzheado)
  
• Daniel Terdiman, senior writer, CNET News.com  - and an alum (@greeterdan)
• and... YOU - join us on the air to ask a question, leave a comment, share your enthusiasm or skepticism!

MODERATOR: Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and Columbia new media professor (@sreenet )
Friday, January 9, 2009 - RECORDING AVAILABLE
1-2:30 pm ET
10-11:30 am PT
see local time around the world: http://snurl.com/9nkl0


Listen live or, later, to a recording here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/01/09/Twitter-for-Journalists

Call in with your questions (or listen live)! +1-646-915-9583


If you Twitter about this, please use this hash tag - #columbiaj (see the conversation here)


Before or after the show, leave a comment or tell us what to discuss, below... or e-mail sree[at]sree.net (subject = webcast)

 UNDERSTANDING TWITTER:

• Twitter Fan: Wiki explains all things Twitter, including hashtags
  
• ReadWriteWeb: How we use Twitter for journalism
• NYT: David Pogue's Twittering tips for beginners 
• Poynter: Newsies Twittering on Twitter | How Columbia J-school uses Twitter | Use of Twitter for covering governor's speech 
• ThisIsTrue: Randy Cassingham on why you should care 
• ProBlogger: Twitter Tips for Bloggers 
• BlueSkyBlogs: Using Twitter for job search 
• Unusual media Twitter feeds: TheMediaIsDying | Scobleizer
• Squidoo: 225 Twitter tools
• CommonCraft: Twitter in Plain English (video below)

Columbia Journalism School is doing several webcasts with our faculty and alumni to add to our collection (30+) at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism (suggestions welcome)

[A quick note to remind any experienced journalists looking to earn a Master's degree that Columbia J-school's new M.A. program (which allows you to specialize in business, arts, politics or science reporting) is a great option. In addition to in-depth specialization, you can also learn the digital skills that are in such demand in newsrooms today (an example is this webcast). The deadline for application is MONDAY JAN. 12 (NO GRE required!) and there's very generous funding available this year. Also still available: admissions for our PART-TIME M.S. program (get your degree
while working full-time). Details at http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/admissions .... Questions to admissions[at]jrn.columbia.edu ]

NEW JOURNALISM PROJECT: Phil Balboni's GlobalPost

A guest post from Nikolaj Gammeltoft , a current student at the J-school who is interested in the business side of journalism:

I talked to Philip Balboni of GlobalPost today as a relevant follow-up
to yesterday's Ken Lerer and venture capital session. As you know,
Philip Balboni is a journalist, media entrepreneur and founder of
globalpost.com: http://www.globalnewsenterprises.com/teamExec01.php .

I thought I would share my notes from the conversation with the class
because what Balboni is doing is interesting from a media start-up
perspective and because there might be opportunities to work for
globalpost.com later on as freelance foreign correspondents. Please
forward if you see it relevant.

Balboni is launching www.globalpost.com in January 2009.

In Balboni's words, GlobalPost is a new destination for high quality
international news in America. It is not event oriented (he does not
want to compete with AP and Reuters). Instead they want to publish the
untold stories from around the world. They are using country-based
reporting and the freelance correspondents live in the countries they
report on – they do not hop from country to country.

GlobalPost is targeted at an American audience, reflecting Balboni's
view that foreign news reporting is an underserved niche in US
journalism. "The absence of global reporting is stunning," as he said.
Balboni called GlobalPost a destination site – not a news service
although they sell syndication services to newspapers.

It is a start-up so it has a small organization (Balboni works out of
in Boston) but he sees big business and editorial opportunities down
the road in this kind of international news reporting service. His
cost structure reflects this. So as Balboni said, it is sufficiently
costly to create quality news but not too expensive.

It is based on three revenue streams: Advertisement (sponsorship-based
rather than transaction-based); syndication to newspapers (a
supplement to papers that have eliminated their foreign desk and
correspondents – The Star-Ledger in Newark is the first customer to
sign on for this) and finally paid content (they are launching an
elite membership called globalpost passport which will be "fairly
expensive." They are using focus groups to find and understand the
audience for this kind of service).

They are using freelancers as their country correspondents (mostly
Americans right now but could use other nationalities writing in
American-English). They sign agreements that are multi-year and pay
them in cash + shares in the company. Balboni said they had stepped up
the freelance relationship to a higher level. They want to have the
regular relationship with one reporter in a country but they are open
to having more in the same country depending on size and importance I
guess (they have three in China now for example).

Balboni said that GlobalPost is a great place for a young foreign
correspondent to start out at.

GlobalPost has not received venture capital money. Balboni has raised
the money from individual investors ("individuals of integrity," as he
called them) and he stressed that GlobalPost is "totally independent."
He wrote a business plan for GlobalPost and got people to believe in
it.

Balboni said he had always moved to new technologies in his career.
From print to cable programming and now to internet. He thinks
journalism will be reborn/saved by the internet. But there is an
enormous challenge here. He believes serious news consumers will be on
the web in the future. So we have to build new models of journalism
for the web because quality journalism must succeed on the web,
otherwise it might disappear.

As for advice for a media entrepreneur starting out today?

Balboni said: Look for a void, fill a need - develop a business plan
around it. Politico did it, they created a high quality political
reporting site, but were also lucky that they had the greatest
political campaign of US history as their launch pad. But look at how
to service local markets/local communities. There are a lot of
opportunities.

Balboni is on the school's Board of Visitors. He is a graduate of the
school. He was in an international reporting program at Columbia early
1970s (after having worked at UPI) and came up with this idea for an
alternative wire service then. So as he said about GlobalPost: "The
seed for this was planted at Broadway and 116th Street."

NEWSPAPERS: NYT runs first front-page ad

Sign of the times, er, Times, folks: The New York Times ran its first front-page ad today (click to magnify). As I said in a Twitter post this morning: I have no problem with it.  In these troubling economic times - both for newspapers and for advertisers - it's a low-key, harmless way to bring in revenue. I personally don't think there's anything sacred about the space - especially the way the Times has done it. Newspapers in other countries (and, indeed, in this country) have been running such ads for years with no loss of integrity. Am NOT saying they should go overboard, but this is a step that was bound to come. Meanwhile, the NYT op-ed page has had ads for years. BTW, I think magazine covers should be left alone. It's a much more compact , single-focus space than a newspaper.

Reax?

UPDATE FROM STEVE ROSS: To be absolutely accurate, the NYT routinely ran (usually quirky) classified ads on the front page until at least the 1970s and occasionally ran small display ads on page 1 as well. I don't particularly like this CBS ad because it looks at first glance to be editorial, but I'm sure the NYT (and its advertisers) will refine its approach.

Steven S. Ross
Editor-in-Chief
Broadband Properties
steve[at]broadbandproperties.com
http://www.bbpmag.com

USEFUL: Michael Arrington's list of must-have products/services

Michael Arrington of the must-read blog TechCrunch has published his annual list of must-have products :

This is a list of the products I tend to use daily. Some are for work (Wordpress, Delicious, Zoho, etc.), some are for fun (MySpace Music, Hulu, etc), and some are useful for both (Digg, Skype, YouTube, etc.). But I use most of them every day, or nearly every day, and I would not be as productive or happy without all of them.

See the full list and comments at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/04/2009-products-i-cant-live-without/ 

USEFUL: Bit.ly offers a better URL shortener

While the entire world seems to prefer TinyURL for shortening links, I am a SnipURL guy. Here's what I wrote in a Poynter column back in 2003 (it's so long ago that I used to use MapQuest!):

I HATE...long URLs, (i.e. site and story addresses). Because of complex "site architecture," URLs are growing ever longer. For security and in order to preserve the integrity of individual pages, there is a need for long addresses. Doesn't mean I can't hate 'em, especially those that arrive via e-mail when friends send links (sometimes, these links, which can be 2-4 lines long, get broken and then when you click, nothing happens).

An example: Here is the URL for the MapQuest map for the Poynter neighborhood: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&address=801+third+st+south&city=st.+petersburg&state=fl&zipcode=&homesubmit=Get+Map 

That's way too long for my taste -- and often, my e-mail reader.

The solution: Free services that shorten your URL for you, giving you a short link you can forward. Among them: TinyURL.com and MakeAShorterLink.com.

My new favorite is SnURL.com, the shorter URL of SnipURL.com (which goes to the same page). Cut and paste a long URL into Snurl and it gives you a shorter URL you can then share. The MapQuest map, once SnURL-ed, becomes just http://snurl.com/2cpo (just 21 characters, the original had 145). But the feature I like on SnURL is called SNIP THIS! If you use Internet Explorer, you can drag a small link labeled "Snip This!" onto your links bar in the browser. After that, whenever you are on a page with a long URL, you don't need to go back to SnURL. Just click on Snip This! and you get a snipped version in a pop-up window. 

Three other useful things it does: That pop-up window closes automatically in 15 seconds (wish I could say the same for pop-up ads around the web); you need not hit copy (CTRL-C) or cut (CTRL-X) to copy the shorter URL. It gets added to your computer's "clipboard" and all you have to do is hit paste (CTRL-V); and you can create a personalized, unique ending for the short URL. 

And I have been a die-hard SnipURLer ever since, using it especially to generate easy-to-remember URLs (eg, http://snurl.com/columbialectures for a long URL of a Google Spreadsheet). It is especially useful in generating short URLs for Twitter and Facebook, where every character counts.

But I now have a new object of my URL affection.

A friend recently told me to check out Bit.ly. I was skeptical. After all, I was happy with SnipURL, and what new features could it possibly offer? Turns out it does all the stuff that SnipURL does - with a major additional feature: allowing you to track how many people have clicked on your short URL and via what source.

Here's how that part works. Go to http://bit.ly/info/6LoV to see how many visits were received by the shortened URL for a long SAJA.org URL.

You can also track clicks by country and on a timeline. Very impressive, useful stuff.

My only (minor) criticism of Bit.ly: It doesn't automagically do the copy to clipboard so you still have to hit the "copy" button to copy the link, adding a small extra step.

Otherwise, Bit.ly is my new URL shortener.

[Here is the Bit.ly version of this post's URL: http://bit.ly/bitlyrevu - and, with the "info" added to the URL, here is where you can track the stats for it: http://bit.ly/info/bitlyrevu]

What do YOU think? Are there others you'd recommend? Post your thoughts below.

GOOGLE: 2008 Zeitgeist around the world

From Google's 2008 Zeitgeist page:

Fastest Rising (Global)

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

See the full set of fascinating international listings here .

iPHONE: Time's top iPhone apps of 2008

Alum Josh Quittner, who helped created the new media program in 1994, wrote about the top 10 iPhone apps for 2008. Read his collection here.

GADGETS: Time's top 10 for 2008

Alum Josh Quittner, who helped create the J-school's new media program in the fall of 1994(!), wrote about the "Top 10 Gadgets" for Time. See his collection.

BUZZWORD: "Topless" meetings

#10 on Time's list of top buzzwords for 2008 is "topless meeting," a term coined by Dopplr's Matt Jones:

With the “topless” (as in laptopless) meeting idea getting so much coverage, I thought I would put up the “rules” I came up with back in 2006 when I jokingly coined the term. (Note that this banning of laptops can and should spread to other attention-sucking devices. I’m looking at you, Blackberry. You too, iPhone.)

Read his guidelines here.

MAPS: Google Earth's 3D New York

That's a screengrab from the latest edition of Google Earth, showing parts of Columbia University. The big new feature is the availability of a view (or "layer," in Google Earth parlance) of 3D buildings for New York City (that's the only city so far).

While the 3D overlay is very effective for midtown Manhattan, with thousands of buildings rendered in this way,  parts of the city don't have as effective coverage. As you can see from the Columbia campus above, Low Library, at roughly 1 o'clock on the dial, is fully 3D, but the Journalism school, at 9 o'clock, and the Arts school, at 10 o'clock, are flat.

Still the possibilities for this technology, if they can roll it out nation- and worldwide, are fascinating.

Here's how to get it: within gEarth, be sure to click the checkbox next to "3D Buildings" on the left "layers" pane (below "places"). Then fly to New York, NY.

More on all this at Google Earth Blog.

While you are at it, learn how to be like Spiderman on some buildings here. Other fun gEarth stuff includes the Santa tracking project with NORAD and the hidden gEarth flight simulator.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

FACEBOOK: Tips for skeptics/newbies

From my Facebook profile...

[One of the few things I don't like about FB is the fact that it's not easy to catalog, find, archive important/useful/fun discussions. So I've started creating these "FOR KEEPS" notes that archive items worth saving.]

Earlier today, I wrote to a friend via e-mail, saying I saw several people with her name on FB, but  couldn't find her. Here's how she replied:

"That is because I am not there! I have the illusion that I can maintain a zone of privacy... FB is where I draw the line. :)  I'm sure I'll relent at some point..."

This, BTW, is someone who blogs, uses Twitter to follow others, etc. So she's not a technophobe and, in fact, someone whose friends would love to connect with on FB.

This exchange reminded me that last month, I had used my FB status update to get some tips for another skeptical friend. Within minutes, I got several useful comments (to which the skeptic himself replied, of course!)

A couple of excerpts from the collection are below. Please feel free to add your comments/tips/misgivings... 

Nov. 29, 2008

Sree - am trying to get a FB skeptic/newbie to understand why it's useful. post your thoughts on my FB status update and i'll force him to read it ...via Twitter -   7:05pm 

 - 14 Comments

 Maryn McKenna at 7:17pm November 29

Hi, Skeptic: I am a journalist who grew up in the UK, have lived all over the US and have reported from most of the continents. FB helps me maintain friendships and friendly work relationships across many 1000s of miles. PS, I supplement w/ Twitter for rapid communication and LinkedIn for pure biz networking. Helps?

 Ivan Oransky at 7:22pm November 29

There's this http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=journalists--facebook--scoops-2008-07-21

 Lynne Cohn Schreiber at 7:25pm November 29

My FB skeptics seem to think it's weird or strange to put so much of a personal nature out there for the public eye - they seem to think it's ok when one uses FB for business purposes or marketing one's work but not if it's merely a social instrument. Not sure why, but I think they see it as some sort of threat?

 Myrna Weinreich at 7:32pm November 29

There is such a plethora of creative information and communication between friends from my childhood and family to people you can meet spontaneiously in the moment. It's your own intuitive recipe...with a lot of love mixed in :)

 Jim Ogle at 9:00pm November 29

It can get you a world of divergent ideas on even the simplest questions.

 Sree Sreenivasan at 9:11pm November 29

Folks: Let's also suggest some SPECIFIC groups, apps, etc., he should try. My suggestions for apps:

Seen This?

What's Your iCue?

NYTimes.com Most E-mailed Articles

They New York Times Quiz

Skeptics (and others) can find these by clicking on "Applications" at the bottom left of FB and then hitting "Find More"...

 Puneet Singh Lamba at 10:34pm November 29

In a sense, I envy friends who live and work in the cities or towns where they grew up. (Although, they often remind me that it can get a bit tiring when you can't run a quick errand around town without running into someone you know!) For the rest of us, there's Facebook, which helps me reconnect with family and friends scattered all over the world...  Read More.

My favorite apps, which I recommend for any current affairs aficionado: Deadline (by AFP, with tens of new questions added daily) and the NYT News Quiz (five questions refreshed daily).

But more than any app, I think what makes Facebook click is the ability to post statuses, notes, photos, videos, links etc and have friends comment and share reactions on all of the above.

What do YOU think? Post your comments in myFacebook note.

TWITTER: Five ways Twitter can help at work

Earlier, we posted a video in which Guy Kawasaki says ""Twitter is arguably the most powerful branding mechanism since television."
That's easy for Kawasaki to say. But how do you learn how to use it? Here is a simple set of tips from Sarah Milstein, Web 2.0 consultant, writing at Marci Alboher's Shifting Careers blog: "...it’s a fun and useful tool, well worth trying if you want to reach potential and existing customers, employees or employers."

The headlines of her five tips on how to harness Twitter:

1. Share ideas.
2. Show respect.
3. Build your brand.
4. Engage customers.
5. Provide customer service.

Read the full item here and post your comments below.

UPDATE: After seeing this post, Milstein wrote in to share some of her other Twitter-related items:

• NYT story on micromessaging within companies: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/business/23micro.html
  
• O'Reilly webcast, "Twitter for Business" (free):                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUR2E8l3bi8&fmt=18  
• O'Reilly Radar report: "Twitter and the Micromessaging Revolution" ($249): http://radar.oreilly.com/research/twitter-report.html 

HISTORY: An old (very old) journalism video

[reposting from an item on the Dean of Students Blog, March 23, 2008]

WARNING: You'll find this old film alternatively fascinating, exciting, sad, sexist and more. See what was suggested for women at 5:18.

It's from "Your Life Work" an early 1940s series by Arthur P. Twogood, associate professor, vocational education, Iowa State College.

See updated info from the J-school's own resident journalism historian, Prof. Andie Tucher:

The film is available at the Library of Congress in the Prelinger collection — a bizarre and wonderful resource for years’ worth of industrials, educational films, public-service announcements, and other “ephemeral” moving images — that was privately held in NY for years (and beloved by documentary makers) before it was donated to the Library. This film was made in 1940 as part of an educational series on vocations and professions.

A description and collection of the films for various professions are available on this page at Archive.org, with this description: "...a set of educational shorts from the early 1940’s meant to inspire young post-depression workers into specific new careers." You can watch 2,000 films from the Prelinger collection here: http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Guy Kawasaki, interviewed by Robert Scoble

Two of the most "followed" people on Twitter, entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki [http://twitter.com/guykawasaki] and journalist Robert Scoble [http://twitter.com/Scobleizer] in one video. Hear Kawasaki say "Twitter is arguably the most powerful branding mechanism since television." Post your comments below.

BASICS: How Hard Drives Work

Here's a great primer on how hard drives work and how to avoid losing your favorite New Media Newsroom videos: http://gizmodo.com/5106129/giz-explains-everything-you-need-to-know-about-hard-drives

REQUEST: Best blogs/sites for women

I got a note this morning from an attendee of my recent ASME workshop, "How Magazines Can Win on the Web: Innovative Lessons from the Online Categories of the National Magazine Awards":

For a project I'm working on, I need to review the best websites for women. Just wondering if you have any you'd particularly recommend. (Glad you reminded me of babble during your presentation.)

I sent her two links to get her started as she looks for leads.

http://women.alltop.com - a collection of news and headlines.

http://www.blogher.com/bloghers-blogrolls - "Welcome to BlogHer's growing list of blogs by women (and sometimes men too), organized into 20 topic areas."

What else would YOU suggest? Post in the comments, please.

NEW MODELS: Kaiser launches new news service

Penny Duckham, who runs the Kaiser Health Reporting Fellowships, was here at the J-school talking about this last week.

The New York Times
November 23, 2008

Foundation Starts Health Policy News Service
By KEVIN SACK

Seeking to fill a niche left by the decline of the traditional news media, the Kaiser Family
Foundation is starting a news service to produce in-depth coverage of the policy and politics of health care, both for an independent Web site and in collaborations with mainstream news organizations.

With a budget that is expected to reach $3 million to $4 million in two years, the project is one of the most ambitious in a wave of nonprofit online ventures that have emerged as newspapers and magazines cut jobs and newsgathering budgets.

Kaiser, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., has hired two highly regarded journalists to run the Kaiser Health News, based in Washington: Laurie McGinley, formerly the deputy bureau chief for global economics at The Wall Street Journal, and Peggy Girshman, a top editor at Congressional Quarterly and previously at National Public Radio.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/business/media/24health.html

TIME MANAGEMENT: Merlin Mann on maximizing your time

From one of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, I learned about the time management tips of the delightfully named Merlin Mann and a talk he gave at Google HQ recently.


From the Lifehacker item:

His presentation covers several interesting aspects of time management and productivity including renegotiating your commitments, controlling who has access to your limited resources like time and output, and qualifying how your commit yourself to tasks to create a more sane work environment. The video is thirty five minutes and worth the watch for a solid set of productivity principles to help you start this coming week on the right foot.

In 2006, he explained to Lifehacker how he does his work and manages his own time.

Reax?

REQUEST: Compiling a list of noteworthy web journalism

HUMOR: 23/6 on election day in a minute

In our new media classes we often talk about the urge among some web readers to remix video and offer their own take on whatever the original video is about. Here's an example, from humor site 236.com:

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Post your comments below.

VIDEO CHAT: Gmail's new video chat feature

I am reproducing below a recent Facebook status update and selected comments that talk about the new Gmail video chat. Add your comments below.

Sree - just had my first gmail video/audio chat with AnupKaphle... it's amazing technology. have no need now to use skype. works on PC and mac.via Twitter - 11:24pm

 - 26 Comments

 Sree Sreenivasan at 11:27pm November 12

here's the link to get started:
http://www.google.com/mail/help/videochat/learnmore.html

Anup Kaphle at 11:39pm November 12

there is no way to chat with more than one person at the same time.

Anup Kaphle at 11:43pm November 12

Will employers block gmail at work now? They wouldn't want their employees video-conferencing for non-business purposes all day!

 Stanley Mieses at 11:55pm November 12

"Not available for Power PC Macs."

Anup Kaphle at 11:56pm November 12

From google: "Even if your friend doesn't have a video camera, you can still make a voice call or a 1-way video call."

Anup Kaphle at 12:12am November 13

just realized that I could click on the arrow on the nav bar and actually get a normal messenger size box. Love it.

 Marj Kleinman at 12:14am November 13

this is awesome. are they gonna put skype out of biz?

 Dave Burdick at 12:15am November 13

Pretty cool stuff, to be sure. I like it better than other video chats.

Marj Kleinman at 12:24am November 13

interesting that we're all here chatting about video chat "there"...not fully integrated yet.

 Ratan Sethi at 4:55am November 13

Just installed and tested it. Both the voice and video work beautifully!

 Collin Tate Crowell at 2:45pm November 13

I love it. I've already replaced Skype with Google in video chatting with friends and contacts in China. I only wish we could index and save v-chat sessions like I do with Audio Hijack on Skype.

YOUTUBE: Embedding high quality YT videos

Kottke.org has an excellent post on how to embed high-quality YouTube videos:

YouTube has been quietly offering high-quality versions of some of their videos for quite some time via a "watch in high quality" link just underneath the player. It's not HD, but it's definitely an upgrade of YouTube's legendarily crappy video quality. By default all videos on YouTube and embedded on other sites load at normal quality, but there's a way to set your default viewing quality to high, link to high quality video, embed HQ video, and even save HQ videos for later viewing.

See the rest of the info.

Meanwhile, here's a trick from Digital Inspiration:

Go to Google.com, type your search phrase and append the following parameters to your search query: site:youtube.com "watch in normal quality watch in high quality"

Post your comments below.

SKYPE: Here's how to record Skype conversations with Audio Hijack

New media publishing requires being able to plan, source, edit and upload with speed. Yadda yadda. If you're new at this or like me, you'll often have this awesome photo slideshow only to lament your lame audio actuals. While, it's not ideal, you can bolster your slideshow or even your video by calling your source on Skype. You can record the conversation with software like, Audio Hijack and then mix the new actuals over the images.

To make this work, you should be sure that you always record ambient sound while reporting and be familiar with something like Audacity or other sound editing software.

Here's the how to record phone conversations on Skype:

1. First, plan story.
   
2. Then go take photos.
3. Be sure to record ambient when you get there, as you won't get this chance again. Record ambient sound from where ever you get your actuals from.
   
4. Get as many actuals as your storyboard requires.
5. Go home and edit. Realize you're missing material. Doh.
   
6. Open Audio Hijacks. Then open Skype. (Only this order works. You'll be prompted to quit Skype if you reverse order.) Ready? Test. Then call sources and explain. I'm fully honest that I'm laying this new audio over the "older" slideshow. I even ask that they imagine that they are back at the scene. If this is unethical, let me know.
   
7. Once you've got your material. Edit it. Use Audacity's noise removal feature to help get rid of the phone tone.
8. Lay your actuals over the ambient sound you recorded. Tweak accordingly.
   
9. Once you've got your clips. Export as .WAV and insert into slideshow. Voila.

Maybe Google's new video chat will warrant a new post about how to record online conversations, but for now, Audio Hijack seems to do the trick. Bummer is, you gotta pay $32 for the software. If you're reluctant to cough up the cash, then consider this free stuff and other options.

EVENT REPORT: Columbia-Hearst Journalism Panel: "Changing Media Landscape 2008"

by Greg Bocquet

NEW YORK CITY, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008--At a Columbia Journalism School panel tonight, Jacob Weisberg, chairman of Slate, put the tension between “old” and “new” media most starkly.

“New media and the traditional media are diverging rapidly after a period of peaceful coexistence,” he said. “We are moving into a conflict model.”

In this new model, whose development will only be accelerated by current economic conditions, all agreed that what matters most is the two-way relationship between the news organization and its audience.

Trying to figure out economic models was just one of the themes dicussed at the annual "Changing Media Landscape, 2008" panel hosted by Columbia Journalism School and the Hearst Foundation. More than 250 students, professional journalists and bloggers gathered at Columbia to listen to a group of media influencers offer their take on the changes in journalism in a discussion moderated by Sree Sreenivasan, who runs the school's new media program.

Erica Smith, a graphic designer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (and creator of the Paper Cuts blog which has tracked more than 13,000 newspaper layoffs this year) emphasized the importance of having a conversation with the readership, an idea echoed by Adriano Farano, executive editor of the multilingual pan-Europe site CafeBabel.com.

“The internet is more and more the mirror of our own society,” Farano said. “We are looking for things on the web that we do in the real world, like establishing communities.”

Sewell Chan, editor of the New York Times’ City Room blog, emphasized the need to establish trust with readers, which can be accomplished in three ways: maintaining a high standard of reporting, serving as reliable aggregators of content produced outside the organization, and creating an environment where readers can build on the trust of peers in their social networks.

David Cohn, a media entrepreneur and Columbia grad who started the spot.us platform for participatory journalism, has developed a framework for citizen journalism that moves the business model from advertising to user donations to fund freelance work. He sees this as a golden age for innovation.

“Finally, experimentation is being embraced,” he said. “We should think of it as research and development; journalism will survive on the shoulders of its failures.”

Chan provided the discussion’s strongest caveat, insisting that although journalism is increasingly democratic, it is by no means representative. Some groups, such as cyclists or foodies (see 333,000 Google hits for “chocolate covered bacon”) are over-represented, while underrepresented groups tend to include immigrants and people who depend on public services.

If we take Weisberg at his word, that “print won’t go away, but many newspapers and magazines will,” we must be mindful that the result be as inclusive as possible, especially for places in the world without bandwidth. Sites like Global Voices Online are moving in this direction.

Takeaways:

• How do you create a healthy online conversation? Weisberg has a suggestion: Kick out all the men. (see Slate’s XX Factor blog.)
  
• The barriers to entry have come down, and people can now build a website on their own as filmmakers making their first independent film. Dave Cohn’s advice: start small, start cheap. Community trumps technology every time.
  
• Microsites, tools, feeds: Friendfeed brings together Facebook and Twitter in one place (Smith), and Twitter as a fundraising tool (Cohn). Also see Smith's collection of how Twitter is used in newsrooms.
  Sewell Chan on the future: we are all becoming feeds in some way.

NOTE: You can watch a recording of the panel at http://mogulus.com/columbiajournalism

Post your comments below, please.

From left: Sewell Chan, David Cohn, Adriano Farano, Erica Smith, Jacob Weisberg

Other items about "Changing Media Landscape 2008"

• Marci Alboher's "Shifting Careers" column for NYTimes.com: "Keeping Up, When Your Industry Changes"
• Adriano Farano's report for CafeBabel
  

NOTE: Also see a similar panel, about the future of journalism, held at The Christian Science Monitor in Boston to mark the paper's centennial. Among the speakers were three with Columbia connections. Douglas Smith, who runs the J-school's Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program ; CSM editor John Yemma, who is in the Sulzberger Program as a participant; and Prof. Sree Sreenivasan.

NEWSPAPERS: CSM to go online-only next year

the madison, wisconsin paper already did this, but i believe this is 
highest-profile paper to go this route. won't be the last. commments?

[i'll be in boston nov. 6 to speak at the monitor's centennial event; will
try to learn more]

from: http://www.poynter.org/q/?id=A153008

Oct 28, 2008
Christian Science Monitor to go online-only next year
Poynter Online | Editor & Publisher

After April 1, the Christian Science Monitor will publish only a weekend
edition in print. "Both the print and web versions of the Monitor are
light in advertising. So unlike most dailies it will be gaining big
savings on printing, paper and distribution without an enormous sacrifice
of premium-priced print advertisiing revenue," writes Rick Edmonds. ||
Editor John Yemma tells Joe Strupp the paper will save about $4 million in
costs the first year, but likely lose $5 million in revenue.
> The paper's 100-person editorial staff will be cut

ELECTION COVERAGE: Looking at Road Trips

A note from alum Lam Thuy Vo to our new-media-alumni mailing list:

This election has inspired some web-driven journalistic projects that
I found very interesting. Two projects that I like use blogs as their
main platform, have some of their work pubbed by larger organizations
and involve road trips across the U.S.. I guess, road trips can give a
project geographic scope while adding a personal touch to them.

Here are two guys who are going to 18 states in 18 days:
http://redblueroadtrip.blogspot.com/
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/uselections2008/2008/10/200810206237974380.html

And here a blog from recent graduate Matthias Bernold:
In German: http://besusbonton.wordpress.com/
In English: http://rovingreporters2008.wordpress.com/

Other roadtrip projects:
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselectionroadtrip/2008/oct/13/uselections2008
NYT: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/road_to_november/index.html
PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2008/primaries/paroadtripjudy/index.html?type=flash
NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93959692

Feels like the larger organizations are trying to pull off a very
personable approach, though I kind of like the three freelancers'
approach more.
Comments appreciated!
Lam

Here are some of the examples that came in via feedback:

From Anne Nelson:
See also the roadtrip blogs from J School grad Paula Lugones for Clarin of Buenos Aires, in
which she and a colleague cover the U.S. elections traveling across Route 66. Check it out!
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/10/10/conexiones/inicio_ruta.html

From John McGrath:
fivethirtyeight.com  has been doing a road trip too, focused largely on
visiting campaign offices in the battleground states. here's their latest road trip post:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/road-to-270-arizona.html

CAREERS: Layoffs come to Gawker

New York Observer
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/denton-shuffles-deck-hires-snyder-m-e-gawker-moe-tkacik-let-go

Denton Shuffles Deck: Hires Snyder as M.E. of Gawker; Moe Tkacik Let Go
by John Koblin  |  October 3, 2008

And here's the news that'll boomerang all over the Web logs today.

As has been speculated, Gabriel Snyder, most recently of W and
formerly of The Observer, will be replacing Nick Denton as Gawker's
managing editor.

Gawker is also letting go 19 employees. We also hear that Moe Tkacik,
who was brought to Gawker from Jezebel after she nearly left for
Radar, is among those being let go.

Mr. Denton's memo:

     I have some bad news. Here's the heart of it: we are cutting 19 of
our 133 editorial positions and suspending bonus payments at the start
of next year. With the savings, we are increasing base pay and hiring
10 new people on the most commercially successful Gawker sites. But I
know that's scant consolation for the colleagues we're losing and for
those of you who have been enjoying the bonus windfalls from breakout
stories.

     You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession.
Sure, the company is currently profitable and advertising sales are up
by about 30% on their level of a year ago. Our biggest clients are
consumer electronics and entertainment companies that are relatively
well insulated. And, yes, this is not the first time I've predicted
     doom: in July 2006, when we "battened down the hatches" and closed
down Sploid and Screenhead; and in April this year, when we spun off
Idolator, Gridskipper and Wonkette.

     But now the credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector
of the economy. Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas
shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally
difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the
worst comes upon us.

     We never used to talk about the business side of the operation.
Traffic was the only concern; my belief was that juicy news would draw
the readers and the advertising would take care of itself. We were
patient; even if it took four years for a site to develop the audience
that finally registered with advertisers, we had the time. No longer.

     Sites such as Consumerist, whose success has been measured more in
traffic and recognition than in revenue, now need to cover their
costs. I can't underline enough that this harsh commercial judgment is
no reflection whatsoever on the editorial teams that are being cut.

     Each of these sites performs a vital function. Consumerist
provides an outlet for disgruntled consumers that exists nowhere else
on the web; Valleywag has given puffed-up Silicon Valley the prick
it's long needed; and Fleshbot manages to be classy and filthy at the
same time. The site leads and writers on all of our sites have done
exactly what we asked them to: work harder than the competition and
grow the audience. It's my commercial judgment that's been at fault.

     One reason we're eliminating these positions is to reinforce the
teams on the sites with the most commercial appeal—Gizmodo, Kotaku,
Lifehacker and Gawker—and the properties such as Jezebel, io9,
Deadspin and Jalopnik which are poised to join them.

     One new recruit we're confirming today is Gabriel Snyder from W
Magazine in Los Angeles who, as managing editor of Gawker.com, will
continue the site's evolution into a national news and entertainment
site. We are also hiring new contributors at Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku
and io9.

     Even in the growing editorial teams we need to control costs. And
that means a new look at traffic bonuses. We've been spending $50,000
a month on average on pageview bonuses. The scheme has made writers
     hustle for traffic even in teams so large that there was a risk
they become lumbering. It's helped us hit a record 274m pageviews last
month, up 69% on last September.

     Pageview bonuses will continue this quarter. And we are committed
to pageview incentives, and to measuring performance by a writer's
individual pageviews, in the long term. But a first quarter spike in
traffic -- and the resulting bonus payments—could be dangerous if
advertising markets are troubled next year. And we're assuming that
the economy is so volatile that most of you would like a little bit
more predictability about your own income.

     That's why we're suspending the pageview bonus for the first
quarter at least, but making up for some of the loss of income by
raising pay. If you haven't recently agreed to a new rate, your
monthly base amount will automatically be increased by 5% in January.

     The news about the job and bonus cuts will be demoralizing. The golden age
of the blog is over, people will say. Gawker Media is behaving like those big
media companies that we mock so easily. I could come up with some bullshit line
about how much worse it would have been to wait until we were forced to control
costs; or how much more unpleasant life will be at the many internet ventures
and newspapers that won't make it through the downturn. I could give you my
optimistic spin about the glorious future that awaits us on the far side of
this downturn.

     But there is no escaping the fact that we're losing some excellent
colleagues and the environment next year will be bleak. The one
consolation is that there will be plenty of news for us to
break— starting with this email, which you are free to leak.

-30-

CAREERS: Gawker Guide to a Journalism Career

The Gawker Guide To A Journalism Career

So, you want to be a journalist? Ha ha ha. Jeez. Your timing sucks. But hey, it's a perfectly semi-honorable profession; nobler than finance, not
as noble as being a postman. So whether you're already in journalism and wondering about what direction your career should take (besides down),
or a terribly misguided young go-getter looking to get into journalism, we're here to help. Every freaking thing you need to know about the real
state of the media job market....

http://gawker.com/5059589/the-gawker-guide-to-a-journalism-career

VIDEO: Ford Fessenden lecture about infographics

Ford Fessenden of the New York Times gives a lecture on data collection and infographics to Columbia's new media classes.

Inspiration for your pitches

The deadline for your masters project pitches is only a week away (Oct. 10), and I know you've been looking at past projects for inspiration and ideas.

Here's two recent projects by your fellow students, Tim Foley and Matthew P. Moll.


Election Cycle

ElectionCycle.com is a 50-day bicycle adventure and journalistic endeavor to increase issue awareness during the final months of the 2008 presidential election. My route will begin in New York City on September 14th and will take me through a dozen states before ending in New Orleans a few days before the election.

While on the road I will be meeting with Americans from a variety of backgrounds, interviewing potential voters and discussing the issues that matter to them. My goal is to successfully profile “50 Voters in 50 Days” in order to discover the issues that determine their vote.

Taste of Local

Local Food – the people who produce it, eat it and sell it.

Welcome to Taste of Local, a multimedia blog dedicated to exploring local food.

Not local in the sense of a neighborhood restaurant, but rather a neighborhood restaurant that serves produce from its rooftop garden. We are looking at food sources, the distance food travels and everything that goes with it.

VIDEO: Keyword searchable video player on msnbc.com

from lostremote.com, "local media and the battle for the web", one of my favorite blogs:

      Keyword searchable video player on msnbc.com
      by Cory Bergman

      We're pretty excited here at msnbc.com with
      the launch of a new video technology last week that
      allows users to navigate an extended piece of video by
      keyword. We used it for the first presidential debate,
      which you can see in action right here. We'll use the
      interactive player for the upcoming debates as well, and
      there are also plans to make the entire player
      embeddable.

Alum Sandra Larriva Henaine writes on the New Media Alumni list:

If you go here, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553, and scroll down to the "debates" section you can see the real deal. Pretty cool interactive.

LISTS: 50 buzziest blog posts + top 20 viral videos of 2007

From Nerve, two articles worth looking at.

• 50 Buzziest Blog Posts of All Time
• Top 20 viral videos of 2007 

Reax?

USEFUL SITES: Ken Leebow's "Incredible Things To Do on the Internet

From Ken Leebow, one of the top web gurus on the, well, web. Make sure you check out his books and tips at Leebow.com.

Dear Internet Friend,

I speak to thousands of people all over the country about the Future of the Internet, Internet Safety and many other topics. One thing remains constant: Attendees love when I introduce them to incredible Web sites. 

So, here's a blast from the past: Ten incredible Web sites. No descriptions, just go to them. After all, they're incredible . . .

-- Google's New Browser -- A Winner...Bye, Bye IE and Firefox --

http://www.google.com/chrome 

-- Take Me Directly to Voice Mail --

http://www.slydial.com 

-- Got a Question? ChaCha Has the Answer --

http://www.chacha.com  

-- Too Much Information on the Net? Alltop, Sorta Helps --

http://www.alltop.com 

-- Like Doing Reviews? Yelp About It! --

http://www.yelp.com 

-- Create Your Own Talk Radio Show ... for Free --

http://www.blogtalkradio.com 

-- No Doubt, My Favorite Site on the Net (Online Educational Video)... My Favorite: David Gallo --

http://www.ted.com 

-- Free Documentary Films ...

http://www.snagfilms.com 

With the current credit crisis, you might want to watch: In Debt We Trust

http://snagfilms.com/films/watch/in_debt_we_trust/ 

-- Mr. Spock's Wisdom ... This site was in my first book (11 years ago). Still fun after all these years! --

http://mrspock.notlong.com 

Know of an incredible site that I've missed? Shoot it to Ken@Leebow.com.

Wishing you Net Speed,

Ken Leebow

www.Leebow.com 

TEACHING: U of Maryland's newly approved digital courses

The College of Journalism at the University of Maryland has approved several new courses that are worth knowing about. See the list in this post by Prof. Chris Harvey: http://teachingmultimedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/overview-of-multimedia-courses-offered.html 


Comments?

NEW VENTURES: Alum Cyrus Farivar on Maghound's biz model

Alum Cyrus Farivar, J2004,  blogs in Salon about  the new Maghound site.

Maghound offers magazine in a Netflix-style formula

So you've heard of Netflix and probably some of its various offshoots -- Bag Borrow or Steal, Book Swim, Gamefly and so forth. A week ago, a new version of this business model hit the Internets: Maghound. Despite its Web 2.0-esque color scheme and the presence of a "beta" below the company logo, this isn't some new Silicon Valley start-up. Rather, it's the brainchild of Time Inc.
For at least $5 per month, you can get a rotating subscription to various magazines. Not surprisingly, these mainly include Time Inc. titles, like, erm, Time magazine. But there's no Playboy, no Foreign Policy, no Wired, no New Yorker, no Atlantic, no Economist. So you pick three zines, throw down five bucks, and you can change up the titles every month.
Now here's the real question? Will a site like this actually work for printed, ink-and-paper magazines? Based on my own magazine subscriptions, I'm going to say no. I used to get the New Yorker, the Economist, Wired and the Atlantic. Now I only get magazines that I don't pay for, like the California Alumni magazine. I read those other ones online sometimes and then occasionally when friends e-mail me or hand me printed articles. But I probably wouldn't throw down any money -- even just a fiver -- to read a couple issues of some magazine before moving on to another one.

What do you think? Post your comments below. 

HOW-TO: Joseph Lin's AP Daybook tutorial for students

Joseph Lin, MS 2009, created this tutorial for his classmates using Screencast-o-Matic.

RESOURCE: New data map resource for neighborhood reporting

From Prof. Hancock:

Dear Students:

Columbia's Center for New Media Teaching and Learning teamed up with the Journalism School this summer to create a new and dynamic reporting resource for our RW1 students.

This electronic map of New York City allows our students to view an array of census data neighborhood by neighborhood, election district by election district, and beyond.

Look for it at: http://jour6001-000-2008-3.wikispaces.columbia.edu/

You should be able to manipulate the data and import portions of this map to illustrate their stories online. It's accessible on Google Earth, which is downloaded in all the student labs and RW1 professors' computers.

Stay tuned for some quick in-house sessions on how to use it for faculty and students. In the meantime, please contact Maria Janelli (mjanelli[at]columbia.edu) with any questions you have. She is the CCNMTL architect of the map.

Enjoy!

L. Hancock

KNIGHT CHALLENGE: Next steps at the J-school

All J-schoolers should know about the Knight News Challenge (NewsChallenge.org), the open, worldwide contest that is offering a pot of $5 million a year for five years for innovative journalism projects that tie together a physical community and the Internet. Last year, two of the grants had Columbia connections. One, for $340,000, was won by a Columbia J-schooler (you may have read about David Cohn in the NYT "Week in Review") and another, for $600,000, was won by an incoming PhD student (who's postponed his arrival here so he can complete his multi-year project).

On Tuesday, Sept. 9, Susan Mernit, who is working with the Knight Foundation, visited the J-school to discuss the program, offer advice and much more. Several profs attended, too.

Lina Ejeilat, MS2009, was kind enough to share her notes from the briefing session and is also helping to coordinate some brainstorming sessions next week.

We're meeting up on Tuesday, September 23 at 5:00 pm at the Stabile Student Center to talk more about it, brainstorm and see who is interested in applying. Another meeting will take place Wednesday, the 24th at 5:45 in the same place.

Sign up for our new FB discussion thread on the J-school 2009 group: http://www.new.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=10497300901&topic=6984

 

The Knight News Challenge: Presentation by Susan Mernit - notes by Lina Ejeilat

• Mernit worked in online media back in 1990s, then software development. Ran netscape.com. Worked in New York and in Silicon Valley. Susan Mernit's blog: susanmernit.com
  

• See the full Knight News Challenge site at http://newschallenge.org
  See the 2008 winners at http://newschallenge.org/winners/2008
   
• This is a worldwide contest, and there are two more years of the cycle left, so if you don't get picked this round you can still apply next year.

• Check out garage.newschallenge.org, it's an incubator site for people to throw in their ideas and get feedback on them (more info below).
  
  
• Knight wanted to expand beyond traditional online journalism projects. They're looking mainly for diversity of the applications
  
  
• important point: Knight is a risk-taking organization
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • They would like to fund things that make people: you're gonna support WHAT??
  • They accept ideas that look completely great, or can totally fail
  • high tolerance for risk

• You can be an individual, don't have to be a registered organization. It can be one person, two people, or a group

• Main points to keep in mind:

• Project digitally focused. Has to be online, web-based, with a local and geographic focus, pick a town to start with, have a local hook
• Has to serve public interest
• Open-source re-scalability, you have to be willing to share it
• Either share the code, or share the learning and tell people what you've done
• To mashup or to replicate and roll out
• Think about how something like YouTube serves the public interest
• Calling it a journalism program doesn't fit anymore...
• you can think of something that is more content based, but even if you are a more web focused tech person who wants to develop some software, you can apply, platforms and tools - like Drupal. 

• Last year, you had the choice of making the idea open or closed, but this year they're all open on the garage because it's not the idea, it's the ability to execute it

News Challenge Garage:

• The News Challenge Garage, anyone with an idea can put it in the garage and get feedback... or get mentors. Coaching...

• they will track how many people on the garage actually submit an application, or actually win...
  
  
• The garage has 45 projects now  
  
  
• There's not a high degree of risks if you share your idea.
  

Other notes:

• On the News Challenge site, you can read about the winners, the projects, the FAQs have details.

• Don't let past winners confine you into thinking: "this is what I think they want"We want things that are radical. we want half the things we fund to fail... we don't care. It can be something that already started, that is already out there. 

• Last year Knight funded 17 projects, there was real diversity.interesting ideas, well-thought-out, and an edge to it. don't feel bounded... if you can leverage what has been done before and add something innovative to it, Knight will love it.. to include some past things but is original

• Knight has a special category for people who are 25 and younger

• If they fund you they will help support you, you can get very engaged... They help set you up.

• For some people, the project, if they win,  will be a full-time job, for others it isn't

• Some people just ask for $15,000.

• Adrian Holovaty had a great job,  editor of editorial innovation at theWashington Post, and he quit that job for his project: EveryBlock.com, which got $2 million on funding.
  

Application Process:

• Two-step process: Submit an application... deadline: November 1st

• First round is super easy, 300 words on what your idea is
  It can be a crazy idea
  The 2nd round takes more time with budget and stuff
  

• screeners sort applications
  
  
• you either move ahead or not

• last year out 3,000 applications, 400 proposals

• You can submit as many ideas as you want, someone last year submitted 14
  
  
• The project doesn't have to be in English, but application has to be in English

• It's an iterative process with no penalties

• Last year, 40% of applicants were international, two had projects in India, there was one in South Africa, on in Russia - you get the idea
  

• Spend time on the past winners, see what worked and what didn't

Question: How executable does it have to be at this point?

• you'd have a stronger proposal if you say that you've already made contacts. Get buy-in from external people
  

• The judges will think: how executable is it? Put in contacts, names, a quote from someone may be... really sell the project like you pitch a story to an editor

Q: What if the project involves hiring people?

• Then you budget for the staff (including you, if necessary) and it is typically for two years... they can try it out for two years. But Knight will not fund anyone for much more than that.

David Cohn, J-school grad who won last year, appeared via recorded video:

• Spot.us is his project ($340,000)
  

• Find him on: digidave.org

• He says it's "super easy" and wants everyone to apply. 

Lisa Williams, who won two years ago, was also present at the briefing:

•  Her project, Placeblogger.com,  was a project she already started earlier.

• She asked for $200,000.

• The initial site was to showcase local blogs

• placeblogger is now the largest aggregator of local blogs, what Knight funded was a way to build local aggregator software to get readers to local blogs... very useful for reporting and story ideas- Emphasis on technology AND community.

• A lot of people came from media didn't have good technical ideas... on the Garage you can look for tech partners, you can pull people in, there's money for that in funding.

• a lot of money is for writing code, someone coordinating the project... etc.

• She says: "Innovation has become incredibly cheap." If your idea doesn't get funded, do it anyway.

TWITTER: Franz Strasser on J-school's Twitter efforts

That's the front page of Poynter.org, where Franz Strasser, MS 2009, has a centerpiece on Sept. 17, 2008. The story was about how our students covered the McCain/Obama forum at Columbia via Twitter, as part of the ObamaMcCain.blogspot.com project.

Read the full piece on Poynter here.

And here are Franz's tips on how you can Twitter to have your posts arrive automagically at twitter.com/j_school

How to contribute to the J-school Twitter feed:

- create an account at http://twitter.com 

- include #cu09 anywhere in your post and it will appear at
twitter.com/j_school.

- please make sure your "tweet" has something to do with the j-school when you decide to include #cu09 (if you don't, you can still post messages on your own account).

Questions to mail[at]franz-strasser.com

VIDEO: Watch Almost Any Video Format

The newest version of the VLC media player is out. Download it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. VLC allows you to view virtually any video format. I've used it for years (as have 100,000,000 other people), and it's finally getting an upgrade.

Photoshop User TV: Extremely Geeky, Absolutely Useful

Three geeks sit in front of a camera showing off Photoshop Tips. The show's production value is just slightly North of public access, but they do know their stuff. Watch on their site, or download the podcasts: http://www.photoshopusertv.com/.

Free Music for Your Videos

Moby, best known for his dance hits and eating habits, is giving away his music (not the hits, mind you) for use in independent, non-profit, or student work. Check out: Moby Gratis. Yep, it's free.

YouTube+Pulitzer Center Video Journalism Contest

In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, YouTube presents Project: Report, a first of its kind program that encourages aspiring journalists--that mean all of you!-- to produce short, high-quality video pieces focused on stories that are not usually covered by the traditional media.

See the Project: Report channel page for all program details: http://youtube.com/projectreport
See the YouTube News team's announcement here: http://youtube.com/citizennews

The grand prize winner will receive a $10,000 grant for travel abroad and the opportunity to work with the Pulitzer Center. The finalists will also receive video and editing equipment from Sony and be featured on YouTube.

The program will take place over three rounds.

The assignment for Round 1 is to create and submit a profile of three minutes or less of an individual of significance in your community. Video submissions for Round 1 are due by midnight EST on Sunday October 5, and a panel of journalists from the Pulitzer Center will narrow the field to 10 semi-finalists who will go on to Round 2 and Round 3.

Can You Tweet Your Reporting

Interesting move by Laura McGann of The Washington Independent. She Twittered her jaunt to Alaska where she was writing about Governor Palin.

Now the question is, how valuable is it — or can it be — to post your reporting 140 characters at a time? And how does it tie into the the articles you eventually produce?

McCain / Obama at Columbia: Reporting Facebook Group

Heather Grossman '09 has formed a Facebook Group to organize reporting of the McCain and Obama visits to Columbia on 9/11.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33316474433

Sign up to get updates, tips, etc. on how and what to cover.

Free Video Editing Software & Tools

Let's face it, video editing software is expensive. Very expensive, and we're constantly on the lookout for low/no cost solutions before we have the big bucks to purchase our own.

Fortunately, there are many free video editing tools for us to use even it's just to test them out to see what they can actually do.

Hongkiat.com has a pretty thorough rundown of 30 of them.

NEW NEWS: A Facebook app from NBC News - and an alum

Josh Holbreich, J'99, who works in one of the more unusual parts of NBC News, sent me this item about his new handiwork.

I wanted to let you know about a new video trivia game we've just released there through the music app iLike.

It's called "What's Your Obama iCue?", and it is a 10 question video trivia quiz that
you can play over and over and get different results.  The clues are :30 NBC News
clips, and after each question, you have the opportunity to pause and view the entire
video.

We will be releasing a new game every week or so between now and the election.  This
week was an Obama quiz, next week is McCain, then VPs, etc.

If you have the ilike ap installed, you can get to the featured challenge here:
http://apps.new.facebook.com/ilike/challenges [apps.new.facebook.com]

Enjoy -- and please pass on to your students!

Josh

Josh Holbreich
NBC News Education Initiatives
30 Rockefeller Plaza

Flash Training: Slideshow Tutorials and EventListener

Hello New Media concentrators:

Here are some links to tutorials that review the steps in Flash to create a slideshow:

http://www.russellchun.com/storytelling/samplelesson.html and http://www.russellchun.com/flash/slideshowdemo.htm
(this one is narrated).

Here's the bit of ActionScript code for Flash from today's lesson. Keep this code in a Flash document or in your e-mail because you can copy and paste it and modify it to suit your project needs.

Russell

stop_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, dostop)
function dostop(myEvent:MouseEvent){
stop()
}

New Media Newsroom 2008 Syllabus Available

The syllabus for NMN is now available here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfzx6453_44g6hvtxd3.

2007 was the first year that the J-School ran the NMN class. Taking into account the high-level of training in August for the NM concentrators, we've revamped the curriculum to make the course more challenging and focused for students.

TWITTER: A tech reporter uses Twitter

From Romenesko...

You'd be surprised by the substance of many Twitter conversations

"On the Media"
That's what Julio Ojeda-Zapata tells Bob Garfield. The St. Paul Pioneer Press tech reporter uses Twitter to find sources and collect anedcotes for stories, but knows "I have to be very conscious of the fact that this is a silo. This is one group of people. I can't overly rely on these people. I have to find sources by other means, as well." || Clay Shirky also discusses Twitter with Garfield. || More transcripts and audio from the latest "OTM."

NEW BIZ MODELS: Crowd Funding the News

NOTE: this is a project by David Cohn, J2008.

The New York Times Week in Review profiles Spot Us, a non-profit news outfit that seeks community funding to pursue investigative stories.

The organization got off the ground with a $340,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to pursue the idea. Crowd-funding has been used by independent record labels and non-profit fund raisers. Let's see if it becomes a viable means for journalists to pursue stories that might otherwise not be pursued.

SOFTWARE: Microsoft launches PhotoSynth, new "3D" photo tours

From a review by Walt Mossberg, J'70, Personal Technology columnist of the Wall Street Journal.

This week, Microsoft Live Labs is releasing its first broad consumer Web service, called Photosynth. This service turns multiple photos of a scene or site -- say, an art gallery or a building -- into a 3-D scene you can virtually "walk" through on the Web.

Unlike a simple 2-D panorama, which many photo programs can create from several pictures, a Photosynth creation, called a "synth," is a virtual 3-D environment. It gives you the feeling you are in the middle of a room looking around, or circumnavigating a building or object. You can travel through a scene both laterally and vertically, and zoom in to see detailed, higher-resolution views of objects inside the synth, such as paintings on a wall.

For instance, you don't just see a long, flat picture of Stonehenge or the Grand Canal in Venice. You are made to feel you are there, moving through these places, looking up at the sky or down at the ground, and pausing to examine more closely a particular stone, boat or building.

Photosynth, based on technology Microsoft acquired in 2006, is entirely free, and it's entirely based on the Web, at photosynth.net (where it will be launched at midnight EST Thursday). At that site you can view not only your own synths, but the synths created by every other Photosynth user.

Photosynth works within a Web browser, using a small plug-in you install. Currently, it works only in Windows, using Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser or its rival, Firefox. A Macintosh version is in the works, but for now, you can't even view others' synths in the Mac operating system.

What do you think?

NAMES TO KNOW: Jon Dube, J'97, becames VP of ABCnews.com

From a memo by David Westin, president of ABC News about Jon Dube, J'97:

I am pleased to announce that Jonathan Dube will be returning to ABCNews.com next month as the new Vice President in charge of our website. Jonathan worked with us in the early days of our site and then went on to a tour at MSNBC.com. Most recently he has been in charge of the digital platforms at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In his new role at ABC News Digital, Jonathan will oversee the strategic planning, business strategy, editorial content, and production of our website. Jonathan will report to Paul Slavin.

He's also the current president of the Online News Association.

Jon's official bio:

JONATHAN DUBE
Vice President, ABCNEWS.com

Jonathan Dube was named vice president of ABCNEWS.com in August 2008. He is responsible for the strategic planning, business strategy, editorial content and production of the network’s 24-hour online news service.

Mr. Dube joined ABC News from CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where he was Director of Digital Media responsible for leading the strategic planning, product development, editorial programming and delivery of CBC News across digital media platforms. Prior to this position, Mr. Dube served as the Editorial Director for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Web site, CBC.ca, where he oversaw the editorial content for Canada’s largest news and sports site.

Mr. Dube also currently serves as president and board member of the international Online News Association, overseeing the world's largest association of online journalists, with more than 1,500 members.

From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Dube was the managing producer of MSNBC.com. In that role, he oversaw site-wide editorial planning, the front page of the news site and worked on strategic initiatives. He first joined MSNBC.com in 2000 as technology editor and later served as senior producer.

In 1999, Mr. Dube worked with ABCNEWS.com for the first time as a national producer where he wrote, edited and produced national and international news such as the Columbine High School shooting, Microsoft trial and World Trade Organization protests.

Prior to joining ABCNEWS.com, Mr. Dube had spent most of his career in the newspaper industry. He covered local breaking news for The New York Times and New York Newsday, Connecticut state politics for The Danbury News-Times, and crime in the south for The Charlotte Observer. While at The Observer, he co-wrote a Weblog covering Hurricane Bonnie in 1998, the first time a news site used the Weblog format to cover breaking news.

Mr. Dube has received numerous honors throughout his career. He won the first national Online Journalism Award for Breaking News for his coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle for ABCNews.com. At CBC News, he led the website to major awards in Canada and internationally, including numerous RTNDA Canada Awards and an EPpy Award. He has also won four online journalism awards and two investigative reporting awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as the first-ever new media award from Columbia University.

Additionally, Mr. Dube is the founder and publisher of CyberJournalist.net, a resource site for journalists. He writes a Web Tips column for Poynter.org, the Web site of The Poynter Institute. He has written about online journalism as a contributor to two books: Reporting and Writing: Basics for the 21st Century, by Christopher Scanlan (1999); and Shop Talk and War Stories: Journalists Examine Their Profession, by Janice Winburn (2003).

Mr. Dube is a native New Yorker and has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University. He has a master's degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he studied new media.

Congrats to Jon. His website: JonDube.com

MUST-READ: Len Downie's talk on journalism today

On Monday, Aug. 11, 2008, Len Downie, the executive editor of the Washington Post gave an excellent talk to the full-time M.S. class at Columbia Journalism School. See the notes from his talk (include links to some good multimedia packages).