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Skills every aspiring journalist should learn | IJNet
This would be my list too: "Employers and recent graduates are telling me that the current job market demands that job applicants know: Multimedia storytelling skills. Producing slideshows with sound, shooting and editing video and photos, writing for the web. Data and statistical skills for storytelling. Collecting, editing, analyzing and interpreting data to produce compelling interactive maps and graphics. Audience development skills (formerly known as marketing and circulation) such as managing online communities, interpreting data on audience behavior, crowdsourcing for information, interacting with the audience. Basics of programming. How to create compelling pages that attract web audiences. The business of media. Journalists can help a news organization generate revenues without compromising their ethics, and today that skill is more important than ever."
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Stop feeding dead content to phantom news consumers
"During the last decades, the digital evolution has opened the possibilities of sending personalised content to many receivers. A combined user data unit/developer team/newsroom could create, if not individualised news feeds, then at least more personalised selections, serving relevant content and services at the right time. You’d be doing that, if you had one of those newsrooms. But most of you don’t."
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Data scraping tool for non-coding journalists launches | Journalism.co.uk
"Import.io lets you extract data from any website into a spreadsheet simply by mousing over a few rows of information."
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How to Use Google Trends for SEO
Including some essential advice for those about to Newsjack... Choose a trending topic. Blog about it. Tweet it (using the established hashtag). Don't be a moron (e.g., don't try to capitalize on tragedy)."
Sunday, 15 September 2013
My 'interesting reads' roundup (weekly)
Sunday, 8 September 2013
My 'interesting reads' roundup (weekly)
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Spike the gloom – journalism has a bright future
Agreed. "First, it’s not a given that today’s big journalism “brands” will go under: they face a horribly difficult task of adapting to radically changed circumstances but institutions will not fall. That’s what happens in deep disruption: some organisations adapt and survive, some don’t. Second, the insurgents of news publishing fully intend to become the giants of the future. A few will, most won’t. In America, where newspaper income fell faster than in Europe (largely because profitability rested more heavily on small ads), there is now a solid if small group of online news businesses which cannot yet match the giants of print but have a viable business – and have done so for several years. The poster girl for this group is the Huffington Post, but there are a cluster of other sites which have been in existence for a decade or more, don’t depend on grants or philanthropy and have a base of income and users solidly built."
- Journalists tend to confuse journalism with major daily papers. The “golden age” of newspaper journalism in the second half of the 20th century was, in reality, a long commercial decline. British national papers reached their peak total circulation in the early 1950s; the Daily Mirror’s highest sale ever was in 1966.
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On the death of journalism - and my Indy career | Christina Patterson
Heartfelt piece on what it's like to lose the job you love. But I don't believe in the death of journalism; I do believe journalism will change but that doesn't mean it disappears. Nevertheless, a good read. "We all know that the clock is ticking. Even Rupert Murdoch knows that the clock is ticking. During the Leveson report, he gave newspapers five to ten years. When I was asked, last autumn, to speak about Leveson at the Battle of Ideas, I tried to think about what newspapers should and shouldn’t do, and what readers should and shouldn’t want, but actually all I could think was this: we are fiddling while Rome burns."
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Social media disaster: What I learned when EVERYTHING went wrong
Honest and darkly funny account of what happens when the wheels fall off. IT really does not come out of this well. "I created something based on what I read on the web, not based in reality. I ticked off the list with things other people told me I would need. I did not take the company culture into account. I did not secure executive sponsorship. I did not look at realistic, measurable goals based on the capabilities of the company. I did not create a compelling story for what I was trying to accomplish and I did not use the company business plan as a guide."
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Wristband Turns Your Heartbeat Into A Unique Password, Unlocks Multiple Devices
On the one hand I think it's amazingly cool, on the other I'm pretty sure that within 24 months it will be considered old tech. The pace at which developments happen still amazes and delights me. "Developed by biometric technology company Bionym Inc., the Nymi wristband identifies its wearer by their heartbeat and uses it as a password for multiple devices, from a computer to a car. The Nymi technology is based on the fact that “like a fingerprint, your heartbeat is unique”—after putting on the Nymi wristband and activating it, you stay authenticated with your devices until you take it off. "
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Pocket : Choose Your Journalists Wisely…
Interesting read on the perceived differences between foreign correspondents, and journalists parachuted in by newsdesks to cover conflict. “Here in the journalists hostel there are lots of jackets hanging on the ends of beds with too many pockets and zips. One Japanese guy has a metal helmet with ‘PRESS’ written in large letters across the front in white Typewriter correction fluid. Some of them laugh during the night in their sleep. Is there something funny going on here, in Jerusalem, during this second Intifada? Maybe it’s just an escape. Maybe not though, perhaps they’re just insane. War clearly sucks but the core of western journalists who report on it seem to consist mainly of people who have no concept of the seriousness of the situation they’re involved in."
Sunday, 1 September 2013
My 'interesting reads' roundup (weekly)
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When Twitter Goes Horribly Wrong
A lovely read from The Awl, with some great, good-humoured responses from those early adopters who found their Twitter handle backfired on them a little. "Jeb Boniakowski is one of the lucky few people who possess a short, apposite Twitter handle directly related to his name: he's just @jeb. He’s also one of the unlucky people who happens to share his Twitter name with someone or something else that people tend to tweet at on accident."
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A definite Interesting Read on analytics, why they rock... and why they aren't always your friend. "There’s nothing like a dashboard full of data and graphs and trend lines to make us feel like grown ups. Like people who know what they’re doing. So even though we’re not getting any real use out of it, it’s addictive and we can’t stop doing it. But after a while you just don’t get quite the same high from your dashboards that you used to. You’ve habituated. We still look at Google Analytics, but at this point metrics like “unique monthly visitors” bore us. They were always useless, but now they’ve stopped being fun, too."
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
The republic of Local
While most U.K. media went gaga over Prince George, the @dailypostwales stuck to its digital mission. My latest post: http://t.co/STIzYEyrAm
— Jake Batsell (@jbatsell) August 27, 2013
Over the course of his time with us he chatted to several team members including Executive Editor (digital) Dan Owen and Head of Audience Engagement, Helen Harper, about the hows and - more interestingly, I guess - the whys of our approach to content and audience. Jake's currently in the throes of penning a book on the subject, and from what I learnt of his research so far it should be a must-read for any news media executive who wants to know about the opportunities already being explored, and future business models.
Jake's blog post on the visit to North Wales (he also brought the start of the heatwave with him, so the region's tourist board owes him Big Time) is here - on the new-ish NewsBiz blog, and you can indeed see from his Post screengrab that while George's arrival was documented on our site, we were more interested in stick-in-the-muds and ponies.
There is a popular view that Content is King and Collaboration is Queen - both these terms are good to keep in mind, as a reporter, but where does Local fit in the hierarchy?
Without Local - and local is scale-able - there's no kingdom for the two Cs to rule, after all.
So maybe Local is a republic. Personally, I like the sound of that.
Sunday, 11 August 2013
My 'interesting reads' roundup (weekly)
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As much as companies spend HOURS training people how to use social media, and most journalists have a code of conduct, the same level of 'Consider before you publish' just doesn't seem to apply to email. Consequently, numpties like this end up in the Daily Mail... 'We are now consulting on the final stage of our restructure and you may or may not be directly impacted... If you are involved I can fully appreciate the concerns you will have and just ask for your patience...On the home front; off to a punk rock festival in Blackpool this Friday. The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers and the Buzzcocks are amongst the acts playing so those old enough may remember them. I am really looking forward to it as it forms a big part of my past.' " Deary, dear me.
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Does this study on print vs digital consumption really say what is being reported?
A good consideration of a report that told the industry what it most wanted to hear - print is doing Just Fine. The point I most agree with is that the data is old, in technology and disruption terms. 2011 - it's another country.
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20 search tips and tools for journalists | Journalism.co.uk
Curated by Sarah Marshall, this is a really useful reference round up of different ways you can improve online search.
Sunday, 4 August 2013
My 'interesting reads' roundup (weekly)
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Why Unmemorable Title is Now a Guest Post Free Zone
ZING! "No more guest posts. It’s over. You’ve ruined it. I will no longer be accepting unsolicited guest posts from people I’ve never met, heard of or spoken to, that want to put a spammy article on my blog just for the backlinks. That door is closed. And if you’re a blogger with any sort of reputation to uphold, I suggest you do the same."
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Five traditional and non-traditional revenue strategies that are working for publishers are outlined in this article: Becoming an agency; producing events; building audience; embracing digital; valuing print.
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New York Times And Future Of Journalism - Business Insider
"Why does that mean we never have to worry about the future of journalism again?" asks Blodget, in an article littered with exclamation marks. " Because a $400 million digital business is a healthy business, one that will support a large, talented newsroom. Even if the New York Times' print paper, which still generates most of the company's overall revenue of about $2 billion a year, were to shut down tomorrow, the company would still be able to fund an excellent newsroom" Because a $400 million digital business is a healthy business, one that will support a large, talented newsroom. Even if the New York Times' print paper, which still generates most of the company's overall revenue of about $2 billion a year, were to shut down tomorrow, the company would still be able to fund an excellent newsroom
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Journalism and disruption: Change is easy and hard | Strange Attractor
Disruption is so often used as an excuse for the failings of the mainstream media. Change is easy and hard, as Kevin says in this post that is that most over-used of phrases: A must-read. For me, the real disruption is the people working within the structures and organisations that exist; we're the ones struggling to adapt. As is so often the case, the real challenge at the heart of our disrupted industry is how we cope with change.
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Canterbury thief Charlie Cooper gets told off by mum after claiming his human rights were breached
The joy that is Open Social Media Discourse, captured brilliantly here by KentOnline as a mum berates her thieving, and unrepentant, son on Facebook.
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Storytelling readers lives through pictures
Called 'My Week in Pictures' it's a friendly challenge to readers to sum up their week through the several photos that best capture it.
First up was a local farmer who is probably best known for his social media chronicling of the tragedies his farm suffered during the snow earlier this year.
So it was really great to show another side to his life - I especially like the goat and the terrier having a scrap.
We have regular Flickr photo features, and a Flickr photo of the day on the letters page, but I like this because it's so informal, and with the right guidance, curation and design it makes a really striking piece.
