WRITERS LIFEGUARD: Mantrae of Our Times

Way back when — in April, 2009 — I called Writers Lifeguard No. 16, “Mantrae for Our Times.” It had but four markers of change: Screen is the new Paper Short is the new Deep Pictures are the new Words Free is the new Pay Now, more than a year further into our climb — [...]

Travelwritten: A Travel Writer’s Guide to Self-Publishing on the Web

Travelwritten is a how-to site and blog for travel writers who want to become writer-publishers on the Web. Author Durant Imboden has been co-owner, publisher and editor of Europe for Visitors for nine years. He was with MSN, About.com, and other online companies from 1995 until 2001. By Durant Imboden, Europe for Visitors The Timeses, [...]

Job Quest Advice: Take Your Skills with You

By Michael Gauger For nearly 20 years, I was a newspaper copy editor in Milwaukee, where I was born and grew up. But in the last few years, the Journal Sentinel had been cutting its staff through buyouts. In the summer of ’09, a round of buyouts didn’t yield enough cuts for the company, and in [...]

Reflections of a Newsosaur: Journalists Running Start-Ups Face Tall Odds

By Alan D. Mutter Posted Monday, June 7, 2010, on Reflections of a Newsosaur Fed up with furloughs and down-sizing – or forced involuntarily out of their jobs – journalists across the land are taking matters into their own hands by starting their own news sites. While I applaud these brave and commendable efforts, I [...]

Strange Bedfellows: What Journalism Can Learn From Adult Entertainment

Posted on Poynter.org by Andy Medici at 6:25 AM on Jun. 3, 2010 Let’s role-play for a second. Imagine you are working in an industry that has been battered by the recent recession and rapid advances in technology. Instead of paying for teams of professionals, people are going online to find new content like yours [...]

Not Sure What to Do? Sometimes It’s OK to Laugh About Journalism

This is “Multimedia Immersion Rap” — a fantastic video about being multimedia journailsts produced by Evan Vucci and Matt Ford to kick off  the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop in Syracuse, N.Y., in May. It’s a parody of Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One” and just one of 10 wild and crazy short videos about journalism you’ll [...]

Remember Good Reporting?

Memo to Harry Smith & CBS, Re: Colonoscopy Crusading Some of you are starting blogs. Some are starting new ventures, some of you just appreciate knowing that good journalism still exists. Gary Schwitzer’s HealthNews Review Blog serves as a shining example of how we can carry on the high standards we held dear before we [...]

Reflections of a Newsosaur: Stop the Exploitation of Journalists

The author has shared the lede and link to Monday’s (Feb. 1) post on his blog: “Reflections of a Newsosaur: Musings (and occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinction.” By Alan D. Mutter It’s time for journalists to stop participating in their own exploitation by working for [...]