The Imminent Demise of the Page View
Right on, Steve. MySpace and the other page view inflators can go die. “The page view does not offer a suitable way to measure the next generation of web sites. These sites will be built with Ajax, Flash and other interactive technologies that allow the user to conduct affairs all within a single web page – like Gmail or the Google Reader. This eliminates the need to click from one page to another. The widgetization of the web will only accelerate this.”
“It’s the largest layoff in Mercury News history”
This is quite possibly the lamest news of the year. “That’s because all union editorial employees at the San Jose Mercury News have been ordered to not come to work on December 5 between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Merc management told the reporters and photogs earlier this week that they should remain at home, waiting by their phones for a call that will tell them whether they’ve lost their jobs.”
“New Rules” Gangrey discusses non-traditional beats that newspapers could explore
Great ideas here for niche topics and uncommon beats/blog topics that could really have legs. You just need the right author to rock it.
Yahoo TV unveils new design
Thank you, Yahoo for redesigning your TV page. As a former avid user of your TV listing site, I was incredibly disappointed by your AJAX-ing of everything, so it now loads incredibly slowly. Fortunately, due to your love of flashiness over utility, I found awesome new TV listings… strangely, at the Sun-Times website, their third-party vendor MeeVee.com is my new TV tool. Besides quick-loading listings, they offer the opportunity to tag and build favorite listings on several categories–even down to favorite actors/actresses! I wish you would have redesigned so I could have found this earlier so I wouldn’t have spent spent hours of my life this year searching for Family Guy reruns and Black Belt Jones the old way.
2006 Media Blog Newspaper Site Awards
Howard Owens gives props to the Washington Post, TimesCast and more.
Did Columbia J-Students Cheat on Final Exam in Ethics Course?
“The exam was an open-book, take-home exam in which students had 90 minutes to write a few essays.” Are you serious? This is totally anecdotal evidence, but of the four Columbia J-School grads I’ve known/worked with, all of them have been totally over-rated, lazy bums.
Why Yahoo Needs Newspapers
I’m not sure I agree with this as a long-term strategy for Yahoo, but for right now… “Newspapers, which were well aware that their strength was in their local content, were loath to let anyone else in on their turf. When Microsoft tried in the early `90s with Sidewalks, newspapers vociferously rejected any and all partnerships with the technology giant. But Yahoo has won them over.”
Best Blogs of 2006 that You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading
First Curley, now another of my web heroes gives Journerdism a shout out. Thanks! You’re the “wind beneath my wings!” … I can’t believe I just said that. Anyway, there’s some interesting blogs on the list (about half a dozen I hadn’t heard of). Check it out!
Emily Addison
Nice local project using video, photos and voice over. (Too much Ken Burns effect, imho, but… good project.) In a world that seems so filled with Soundslidery (No offense, Joe. It’s an awesome tool and the deep penetration and rampant use is a testament to that. But “some” organizations think its the *only* tool available.) I appreciate integrated experience of something like this more and more. I’m also really finding that voice overs are critical to moving the story along in an effective, timely manner. Relying on the grab bag of audio from reporters/photographers seems to take more time to massage into a story than just sitting down and writing a script.
The 10 most popular newspaper typefaces
What, no comic sans?
Web Design Inspiration
There are millions of these sites… but like coffee, they’re great to keep around when you’re looking to get stimulated.
Imagination Cubed Web Whiteboard
Great tool for sketching and visually planning design/layout with folks who are away from the office.
Bad News for Old News And 7 More Things to Look Forward to in 2007
“Traditional media companies will struggle to maintain their audiences.” … “More business models will emerge to reward independent content creators.” … ” TVs, computers, and other digital devices will truly begin to morph.”
Newspaper readership was declining before the WWW – and didn’t decline any faster after it
“First, the study found circulation of print newspapers has been declining since 1990. There was no difference in circulation changes between the two periods 1990 to 1994 and 1995 to 2000. The later period was marked by the popularity of internet newspapers.”
Star Wars origami
I would totally buy one of these and worship it.
Local TV broadcaster: 1337 speak is a danger to children!
Are you serious? Are you |=|_|(|<1|\|6 serious? (Via Sholin)
YouTube – Hold my calls, I’m busy blogging
I’m not sure why I find this so funny.
December 4, 2006 at 10:13 am
Those are some strong words about the Columbia J-School grads! I’ve only known one reporter from that program — she used to be here at The Roanoke Times, but is now at the Virginian Pilot — and she was a very hard worker.
Where the grads that you knew working in online media?
December 4, 2006 at 10:24 am
Two of them were in online/multimedia and two reporters. Like I said, this just totally anecdotal… I may have just meet *the* four flunkies they produced this generation. It just seemed strange that a school with such a reputation produced these four bums.
Just to clarify, I am not out to bash the Ivy League. The two Harvard folks I have worked with have been astoundingly cool. And humble! … Which is totally opposite of what I expected. The Brown, Penn and Cornell folks I have known have all been cool.
And to be fair, I have also met a handful of disgraces from Medill … and a lot of people from the University of Toledo that were not stellar. I know a lot of fools from Florida, Ohio State, Ohio University and a bunch of other journalism factory schools.
I guess the bottom line is I am increasingly unimpressed with the university names on resumes or folks that benefit from networking with alumni. I know a guy who does not have any degree (except a GED), who is more of a hard worker and more innovative than any college grad I have met (unfortunately, he does not work in online news anymore). I know a guy from Temple who is awesome but 10 years ago, back in his college days was allegedly kind of a pothead.
I guess what I am trying to say is your college does not make who you are. What you do afterwards makes who you are. But the sad thing is, in journalism, as in many industries, that school name can definitely increase your call backs regardless of the work you have done.
December 4, 2006 at 2:03 pm
I thought that YouTube “I’m blogging” video was pretty hilarious too! My boyfriend and I have a running inside joke about blogging, and he forwarded it to me.
It was funny all by itself, but in the context of this inside joke it was extra hilarious.
December 4, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Yo, Will, I was taken aback by that broad brush with which you slung mud at Columbia. But I will repeat here something I have said many times: I’ve worked with many graduates of their journalism grad school program over the years, and some were fantastic, and some were awful. I mean as writers, as reporters, as editors. More awful ones than I would have expected, but many fantastic ones too. So you just don’t know. The degree listed on the resume? Means nothing. Always call their references. And I would say the same for everyone, regardless of which j-school they say they attended. Pick up that phone!