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…"
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?"
Diane Tucker: Could Twitter Have Saved The New York Times? January 9, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentA pertinent point about the need for online advertising to avoid annoying readers:
"if the Huffington Post had a Little Black Dress Big Sales Page, I'd click on it every day because the perfect LBD has become my white whale. Unfortunately, the next time I read the Times online, I'll get hit in the face with an ad for a lawn mower. What am I going to do with a lawn mower in downtown D.C.?"
?This is a minor point in a piece that closes with a now-familiar theme:?
"Newspapers have great capital: talented reporters with superb rolodexes. But if the bigshots at the top don't join the rest of us in the 21st century soon, those writers will be out of work and you'll be getting most of your news from bloggers like me. I'm not convinced that's a good thing."
Journalism meets data: J-school seeks professor, journalism seeks techies January 9, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Journalism, NYTimes, Newspapers, USA, database, journalism education , add a commentAn interesting vacancy at Medill School of Journalism (Northwestern University, Illinois), which is advertising for a professor of database journalism “to teach data analysis and interactive deployment of data”. Good stuff. According to the vacancy note:
The successful candidate will have expertise in analyzing data for journalistic work and will be expected to teach students how to create and deploy database-driven applications on the World Wide Web and other digital platforms.
I imagine this role will complement the Journalist-Programmer scholarships at Medill, set up by Rich Gordon (and funded by a Knight News Challenge grant). The scholarships are geared towards programmers or web developers who are interested in journalism.
Bringing people with an IT background into journalism, rather than vice-versa, echoes the experiences of Aron Pilhofer, head journo-techie at the New York Times. Eric Ulken wrote up some interesting points from their discussions, including:
When I throw out the old question about whether it’s easier to teach a journalist programming skills or to teach a techie the principles of journalism, he tells me it’s not so much a question of trainability. Rather, he says, “there are more programmers out there that will find journalism interesting to learn” than vice-versa. He tells me that, with a couple of exceptions, the people on his team have either “very limited journalism experience or none whatsoever.”
There’s another interview with Pilhofer here, on Old Media, New Tricks.
Debate Watch: Student View – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com September 28, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentStudent journalists live-blogged the Obama–McCain debate: “The New York Times enlisted student newspaper editors from around the country to weigh in on the first presidential debate in real time. Some are watching in student centers; others at debate parties near campus.”