NY Times To Launch Local Blogging Initiative (Brownstoner) February 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentNY Times gets into local blogs, it seems, with help from journalism students:
"Look out, local bloggers, the Gray Lady is moving in on your turf. Starting mid-day on Monday, The New York Times will be rolling out a neighborhood blog initiative.[…]
Each site will be helmed by a writer/editor from the paper, a Times official told us, but will draw upon contributors from the neighborhood as well as some free labor from the CUNY journalism program. Readers will be able to post everything from short films to wedding announcements…"
Times Labs Blog February 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSome nice examples on this Times Online blog of what online journalism can do, including interactive packages and creative visual representations.
The blog describes itself as "a space where we’ll be writing about innovations in web journalism, and sharing some of our own experiments".
Poynter Online – New York Times' Policy on Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites February 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentNYT takes a cautious line on the potential risks:
"Be careful not to write anything on a blog or a personal Web page that you could not write in The Times — don't editorialize, for instance, if you work for the News Department.
Anything you post online can and might be publicly disseminated, and can be twisted to be used against you by those who wish you or The Times ill — whether it's text, photographs, or video. That includes things you recommend on TimesPeople or articles you post to Facebook and Digg, content you share with friends on MySpace, and articles you recommend through TimesPeople. It can also include things posted by outside parties to your Facebook page, so keep an eye on what appears there.
Just remember that we are always under scrutiny by magnifying glass and that the possibilities of digital distortion are virtually unlimited, so always ask yourself, could this be deliberately misconstrued or misunderstood by somebody who wants to make me look bad?"
French town of Eu seeks search engine optimisation (SEO)? February 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Online , add a commentA great story explains the problem:
Anybody entering the word “Eu” in a search engine is likely to get a number of results, but most will be a reference to the past participle of the French verb avoir (to have), not to the pretty market town in Normandy.
The search also brings up pages related to the European Union.
Accordingly, the small town, which boasts a number of attractions, including an impressive château and gardens, is being bypassed.
It goes on to quote the mayor, who advocates changing the town’s name rather than paying search engines such as Google to boost its ranking. SEO probably wouldn’t work just for “Eu” — but “town of Eu” now comes up trumps. Helped, no doubt, by the story in the Telegraph (and elsewhere).
Ironic errors online February 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Online, Subbing , add a commentI tend to think of formatting errors cropping up more in print than on paper. But here’s a Telegraph article with more than a few lines going awry
– and some erratic italics, too (below).
The article is about, well, paid subscriptions to online newspaper content…
Such errors are easy enough to make, eg if one is taking formatted copy from one system to another and inadvertently carries over code with it. It will be interesting to see if it gets corrected!
Maybe own job fear will put reporters on big story | ajc.com February 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentAn editor made redundant, Ken Edelstein, reflects on the coverage of job losses in the media:
“Reporters cover their own industry’s problems differently than they do those of other industries. Stories on the auto industry have focused on management’s poor decisions and union shortsightedness. But coverage of newsroom layoffs is weighted heavily with angst about the grave consequences for our entire society. […]
Maybe, the journalists who might any day find themselves among them [queuing at an unemployment office] finally have their own selfish reasons for demanding some answers.”
School chief's spelling howlers on internet | The Sun |News February 5, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentAt least it suggests that the education minister writes his own blog posts… but doesn't use a spellchecker. It's also another of that genre of news stories based on someone spotting something online (often on Facebook) with the potential to embarrass. How many journalists are now checking MPs' blogs etc. Might boost their site hits a little.
"EDUCATION minister Jim Knight was warned yesterday that he must try harder after his internet blog was found to be littered with spelling mistakes.
The Cambridge-educated Government chief’s website also contains uncorrected typing errors and a grammatical clanger.
But it appears the howlers have gone unnoticed for months because no one reads the minister’s blog."
Bad Science » Nerdy fun with URLs February 4, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentBen Goldacre has fun at the expense of the Express and Telegraph websites — and perhaps causes red faces at the Guardian, too:
"I thought this was fairly well known, but for those who haven’t joined in the lolz, the websites of Express and the Telegraph, at least, let you substitute whatever text you want at the end of their web addresses."
Fun with tax data? — See the data underlying our tax database | Business | guardian.co.uk February 4, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentThe Guardian has released its data on FTSE 100 companies' pre-tax profits and how much they paid in tax — xml file available. Interesting to see what others do with it…
"Here is the data for the four-year totals, converted into pounds for those companies who state their accounts in another currency. This file also contains other information about the companies, including comments they made to the Guardian, and links to their published annual reports."