On March 1, in Austin at a meeting of the Texas Student Media board, there will be a discussion about cutting publication days of the 113-year-old Daily Texan, always one of the best collegiate papers in the U.S. Okay, you say, some non-student papers are moving to reduced publication. But those drastic steps are taken [...]
Yes, I like cat and dog videos on the web, the Stones and Ray Charles from the 60s, Willie, Waylon and Jerry Jeff from any era. As a journalist, anything news-related, and as a media consultant, anything newsy, new tech or build-a-great digital-businesss-related. And, oh yes, George Takei and My Prozac Moment on Facebook. But [...]
When the lights went out on the Super Bowl at start of the third quarter, the Twitterverse lit up even more brightly. For anyone on Twitter, you didn’t see just individuals passing along some terrific humor or sarcastic thoughts. You saw ads, done in real-time, done rapidly, and done effectively. From some brands. You saw [...]
On the Great Big Map of U.S. Newspapers, you’ll find about 8,400 flags – 1,400 daily papers and 7,000 community newspapers. Though a struggling industry, it is still a gigantic industry that is working to reinvent itself. Times are challenging and the reinvention is not unlike repairing a plane while it’s in the air. Along [...]
A survey of 180 U.S. newspapers on their digital transition efforts shows steady growth in revenue from digital sales, but challenges remain in establishing sales approaches that maximize digital revenue. The confidential survey was conducted by Media Solutions Partners, an Atlanta-based consulting group focusing on helping newspapers transition into a successful digital environment. The survey [...]
In the days of 30 percent margins, 700,000 circulation Sunday papers and 500-staffer newsrooms, the copy desk chief walked into my office and said, “We have two people out on the sports desk the next two days; I don’t know how we can get the job done.” Everything is relative to the time you are [...]
Content, Digital, Innovation, Newspapers, Social MediaAppropriately, I drove through rain, snow, sleet, horizontal wind-whipped rain, mountain-top mist and a bit of sun from Pittsburgh to State College, Pa. and my destination, AccuWeather. Appropriately, AccuWeather is located on Science Park Road, not far from downtown and Penn State. “Look for the building with all the satellite dishes,” my AccuWeather colleague suggested. [...]
Safe bet that anyone who owns a pica pole – that ingenious, understated tool belonging to an era now gone with the wind – also has a dead newspaper drawer. Mine is in the basement storage area, in an ancient chest of drawers from my childhood, carved with my full name in upper right corner [...]
industry
We left j-school thinking we had the answers, then we learned just how much we had to learn. I learned humility when I read my first correction in a 700,000-circ paper, apologizing for an error I had made in a story. I learned creativity when security blocked me and a photographer from entering the work site [...]
Texas lawmen closed the country roads and started scouring the dusty ground late in the still-blazing afternoon in an isolated spot an hour-plus northeast of Houston, long beyond where the pavement turns to the Pineywoods. I got my first message at 4:07 p.m. Central time. It started: “POSSIBLE MAJOR STORY…” It came in all caps, [...]
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