The Seven Be’s of Pull
Newspapers have a fever and Howard Owens has a new prescription: # Be relevant # Be frequent # Be complete # Be diverse # Be easy # Be friendly # Be reliable # More cowbell. (Ok, I added the last one)
Facebook Hammers MySpace on Almost All Key Features
You can talk to me until you’re Facebook blue in the face about why it’s better than MySpace. But I am not going to get on another time-wasting social network unless it does my taxes or something really important. There are starving children in Africa.
Growing Audience: A Toolkit For Change – Resources
Rich Gordon rocks the house: “In five months since DataUniverse went live in December 2006, it generated more than 25 million page views. The paper’s online traffic is growing rapidly, and its executive editor believes DataUniverse is the most significant driver of this audience growth.” via Howard Owens
How to make a good impression at your newspaper internship
“Competently writing 12-inch stories that were assigned to you does not even come close to cutting it. You must bring more to the table. Skills, yes. Both traditional reporting skills, obviously, and multimedia. But, more importantly, I’m talking about attitude and outlook.”
21 things to improve news sites
Great list. I can’t believe we still haven’t optimized this for the most basic strength of the web: “14.Link to external sources of information (link, link, link!!!)”
A dose of reality: Video editing
“Print this out, and leave it on desks and chairs and taped to computer monitors around your newsroom. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do video. Just don’t expect your fresh new shooters and editors to churn the stuff out at lightning speed, please.”
The first Harris Interactive / Innovation newspaper readership survey
“Online news and information will supplant television network news as the leading news source over the next five years, but newspapers will remain a vital source on their own, and can become dominant if they successfully integrate online delivery as a part of what they offer the public.”
Why (some) journalists should learn (some) code
“…But you can see now that when a journalist with data wants to get that data onto the web how a little programming can go a long way. And, the beautiful part is, once you get this working once, you can reuse it over and over and over again.”
Newsrooms adjusting to change isn’t going to be easy, but it will pay off
“There’s two aspects to an increased focus on the web. First, we may be fighting for our very survival; and, second, the web represents our single best opportunity to grow readership and grow revenue. If we want to get through this transition time, we better produce stellar web sites.”
Reinventing before resizing newspapers
“This is why I think that everyone — everyone — in the newsroom should be trained in audio, video, blogs, wikis, maps, blog search, interactivity, and more, not because they’ll all do all of this but because they need to stop thinking of themselves as paper people and they need to start thinking of the new possibilities.”
NBC Wants ‘SNL’ to Be Part of Your Lunch Break
Lunchbox updates are the bomb.
How to Nap at Work – or Anyplace You Need a Rest
Power nap nerds, rejoice!
Scooter Libby Meets Paris Hilton
“Screaming and crying, Irve ‘Scooter’ Libby was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that he must serve out his entire 30-month sentence behind bars rather than in his home. ‘It’s not right!’ shouted the weeping Libby, who was convicted of four felonies in a reckless spy-outing case. ‘Mom!’ he called out to Dick Cheney in the audience.”
Desktop Tower Defense Creates Startup
This is pretty awesome. Although, I’m never going to get any work done ever again after they start pumping out games.
Paris is Push; Baghdad is Pull
“Democracy, said our Founders, depends on an educated citizenry. That’s why they protected the news business with the First Amendment. On the other hand, it’s a good bet that Spring Comes Early for Paris isn’t exactly what they had in mind.”
Kill Meetings to Get More Done
Interesting technique: “If the customer is wavering, tell them to just take home the puppy and give it a try, and if it doesn’t work out, they can bring the puppy back. Many people will agree to this little trial — and they rarely bring the puppy back.”
The Craigslist Secret
No meetings! I heart craigslist even more.
3 Weeks Until The iPhone Goes On Sale
iPhone = Jesus?
Spoof of a Murdoch-owned WSJ
“A spoof front page, imagining a Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, has been making the rounds (specifically from the New York Times newsroom to the WSJ newsroom) according to Mary Ann Akers at the Washington Post.”
MIT discovery could unplug your iPod forever
“Soljacic and a research team he works with have some data to begin validating his theory – namely, the successful experiment to light a 60-watt light bulb from a power source two meters away, with no physical connection between the power source and the light bulb.”
Apple may rent movies for $2.99 on iTunes
“Apple is in talks with Hollywood studios to offer movies on iTunes to rent for a limited number of days for $2.99 each, reports the Wall Street Journal.” Bye, bye Blockbuster.
Journalism isn’t dying, it’s reviving
“The same technologies that are disrupting the news industry are offering unprecedented opportunities for creating a more diverse, and ultimately more vibrant, journalistic ecosystem.”
Millions of Dead Blogs Won’t Stop Blogging
“120,000 new blogs per day is still impressive but there is no denying that there are lots of dead blogs out there and there is no denying the number of new blogs per day is starting to slow. However, there are always going to be new bloggers just like there have always been new writers. “