January 2012
5 posts
“On Twitter, I have a sense that people — those you know and those you don’t —...”
– Why Authors Tweet - NYTimes.com
“Don’t use social media “engagement” in a veiled attempt to boost your counts on...”
– Amen. SPJ Works » Blog Archive » HOORAY FOR US! SPJ reached 9,000 Twitter ‘followers’! (Why we or you shouldn’t care)
“Sometimes I’m deeply in love with David and head-over-heels, and sometimes...”
– I can only dream of a relationship like this. Neil Patrick Harris and His Husband Are Never Allowed to Break Up
“Don’t waste your time worrying about getting old.”
– I promise to never worry about becoming a hill ever again.
Elderly ‘Experts’ Share Life Advice in Cornell Project - NYTimes.com
“As a condition of the incubator they get an early look at whatever apps, tools,...”
– The Philadelphia Experiment: Why a media company wants to be a tech incubator » Nieman Journalism Lab
December 2011
10 posts
“News media may either fail to see the new opportunity to become a new kind of...”
– A good, nerdier view of what I strongly believe from @javaun
What do open sensor networks mean for journalism? | Javaun’s Ramblings
3 tags
I grew up Iowan. I still am Iowan. {actual...
“Iowa is a good place to be from.”
That’s what I usually say when a Californian asks me how it was to grow up in Iowa.
“What do you mean?”
And here’s where it gets tricky. I just finished reading Stephen Bloom’s Atlantic article on Iowa and I understand parts of what he is saying. And I understand the backlash. So here’s my picture of Iowa, one of...
“The developer gap is particularly meaningful in an industry whose success over...”
– BTW, we have openings for developers. Seriously.
MediaShift Idea Lab . Public Media Should Mind the Developer Gap | PBS
“Every story has an ideal medium of communication. For some, social media is the...”
– Social media isn’t killing journalism – but it is fundamentally changing the system | The Wall Blog
4 tags
How a tweet turned into a DDOS attack {stories...
Sometimes, I play reporter (for those of you who do not know, I was a reporter for years before I moved over to social/web).
Last night was one of those nights.
Earlier in the day, our friends at the LATimes broke a story: Someone had posted a bunch of personal information on LAPD officers. The immediate question was “who?”
Around 5 p.m., the reporter who sits next to me figured it...
“The ideas are out there, but what we need in doing the work of news is to create...”
– USC Annenberg | Executive-in-Residence Sill makes a case for open journalism now
“In fact, it is now usually cheaper to just try something than to sit around and...”
– Amen.
Joichi Ito - Innovating by the Seat of Our Pants - NYTimes.com
6 tags
#newsfoo distillations: audio, occupy and...
After every conference or gathering I attend, I’ve built in the habit of sitting in the airport (if it has wi-fi) or on the plane and typing up everything. It’s almost necessary to ensure that I go back home and remember the conversations I had and things I learned.
But to get this out of the way. Yes, newsfoo was an invite-only conference. I consider myself far from the media elite,...
3 tags
The spread of mis-information and realities of...
(Just a note to remind you that I’m posting as me, not officially KPCC.)
{Edit, adding in some stuff from Alex Cohen’s interview with RTNA rep Royal Oaks}
It has been a whirlwind of a week here.
Last night, Occupy LA was raided and cleared out by the Los Angeles Police Department. To cover it, we continued a live blog we started Monday as well as live-tweeted.
I want to jot down...
November 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Success is not all-staff e-mails. A plan, a...
Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I have been reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin lately (highly recommend) and had a rough day.
So, I wrote in what is now apparently a journal for my work thoughts. I’ll re-write them here, slightly more coherent.
Edit: Read this with your rose-colored glasses on. I’m not saying anyone this in a bad or derisive way. This is not a stab at anyone...
“To bury our head in the sand and act like Twitter (and who knows what else comes...”
– Amen.
News agencies must evolve or meet extinction | Anthony DeRosa
“Because really bad managers go after the easiest things: Cut the marketing, cut...”
– Interview With John Paton, a Newspaperman Who Thinks Print Is Overrated - NYTimes.com
October 2011
6 posts
“Your company is structured so it takes a lifetime to get to the top, and as such...”
– This is where I think the majority of news orgs fail. (via @aschweigert)
Why Digital Talent Doesn’t Want To Work At Your Company | Fast Company
“An executive who worked at both Apple and Microsoft described the differences...”
– Steve Jobs Solved the Innovator’s Dilemma - James Allworth - Harvard Business Review This is the way journalism should be.
“The big temptation is to focus more on the distribution than the reporting. (I...”
– 4 Questions With ProPublica’s New Social Media Editor - 10,000 Words
3 tags
RIP, Steve
You may not know this, but Apple powers a good portion of the KPCC newsroom. Many of us have Macbooks. Most of the reporters use iPhones to snap photos, call in live hits, file stories via e-mail and occasionally record sound. Our digital staff is completely Mac-powered.
Apple has profoundly changed journalism. Smartphones opened up doors for reporting from the field. iPhones revolutionized...
“I personally think that’s part of being fearless. I just think you need to find...”
– Advice from The Washington Post’s Cory Haik: Don’t Be Afraid of Beta - Forbes
September 2011
9 posts
“So what does innovation consist of? For a start, it involves rethinking not just...”
– Love it. Hate the focus on apps these days.
Memo to media: A Facebook app is not innovation — Tech News and Analysis
“Pumping Facebook full of links to your site so you can benefit from a bump in...”
– Great piece. There must be a middle ground between the two. How do we make our sites social without making them meaningless?
With ‘frictionless sharing,’ Facebook and news orgs push boundaries of online privacy | Poynter.
2 tags
A possible reason why your page engagement has... →
I may have figured it out. I think.
“Match them with aspects of yourself, your products, and your services. But never...”
– OMG. This is what I was talking about at #ONA11
Why People Don’t Want the “Real” You | Copyblogger
“We need good journalism so that we can make important decisions as a society...”
– Here’s why news sites “over aggregate”… | ZDNet
2 tags
Post-#ONA11 thoughts
I wanted to take a minute to think about the talks I had and the sessions I attended at ONA11. Random and not necessarily journalism-related topics.
Tech is not everything
I’ve had the privilege and honor to be a part of the weekly phenomenon that is #wjchat. And we were lucky enough to get a session at this year’s conference. Thanks to @webjournalist, we had some awesome temporary...
“So rather than tracking your number of followers or fans, keep an eye on how...”
– Gallup social media poll shows retweets mean more than followers | Knight Digital Media Center
1 tag
Write Hard, Die Free {musings}
This pin.
When I was a cub reporter at the Kansas City Star, I was gifted one of these by an editor.
I came across it again today and I stopped.
I wrote about 5-6 stories on half of a suburban/rural county north of Kansas City every day as part of my “fellowship.”
I smoked too many cigarettes, stayed up too late and lived off sauteed spinach and spaghetti. Sometimes ramen. I...
August 2011
11 posts
“Twitter and Facebook play a key role in it, but it’s also about constantly...”
– This. Seriously. This.
Making a market: How ProPublica blends news that wins Pulitzers with news that wins followers » Nieman Journalism Lab
3 tags
Mad Men and newsrooms
I’ve been slightly obsessed with Mad Men lately (thanks, Netflix) and I found myself thinking about the rampant sexism in the 1960s.
“Thank God I don’t have to deal with that today.”
But wait.
I am 28, but I look much younger. It’s a fact of life, and one I am sure I will appreciate as I get older.
I have been working since 2004. I have been reporting and...
“…almost every great newspaper in America believes that it’s more...”
– (via @matthewi) If your website’s full of assholes, it’s your fault - Anil Dash
“Where in the past that might have been a liability, these particular women...”
– Encourage a girl to fail and other unconventional ways to foster more female leadership in tech | jellybean boom
“The NYT has history and assets that a startup could never dream of having. I...”
– New York Times Opens Up Its Software Lab | Epicenter | Wired.com
“So far, however, the most fertile ground for innovation is California. The...”
– It’s true. I can only hope KPCC is part of that innovation. *crosses fingers*
The New Watchdogs by Conor Friedersdorf - City Journal
How Passion Can Ruin Your Career (and What You Can... →
A little concerned that almost every journalist I know is an “obsessive passionate” person. Myself included.
“They didn’t view their fans as walking wallets—for them, their most...”
– YES.
5 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Marketers About Community Building | Fast Company
“Reality really doesn’t care about getting the ending right.”
– Why I Like Media Experiments - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic
July 2011
8 posts
“Think flexibly. Think loosely. I think there’s a lot of fear and conservatism —...”
– Questions for Baratunde Thurston: What The Onion can teach real news organizations about social media » Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism
“…to argue that news “is not social media [and] if it is, it fails” shows a...”
– You said what i was thinking, Mr. Ingram.
If your news site isn’t social, great design won’t matter — Tech News and Analysis
“You fail to register a story when it breaks, you lose an opportunity. You don’t...”
– Not a new post, but a good one.
Real time, All the time: Why every news organisation has to be live « Emily Bell(wether)
“I think the extent to which hyperlocals can give readers an opportunity to have...”
– This is a personal goal of mine for OnCentral. Easier said than done with an unengaged, immigrant population.
Hyperlocal Scoreboard: Two Close Watchers Total It Up | Street Fight