Category Archives: In the News

Journalism students, READ THIS.

New York Times Media Columnist, David Carr, marshals his talents as an author and his knowledge of the media business in an eloquent lament about the changing of the Manhattan media scene. If you think you’ve heard it all before, stick it out till you get to the optimistic kicker. (Hat tip to John Glenn and Ross Daly.)

The fur was flying on Tom Ashbrook’s public radio show, On Point,  recently when the guests attempted to predict the future of the news industry. The issue on the table was Rupert Murdoch’s threat to challenge Google – and Google’s news-for-free philosophy – by charging people for access to stories produced by his News Corp empire. Michael Wolff, a Vanity Fair contributor and founder of Newser.com, lashed into Steven Brill, a media mogul and founder of Journalism Online, a company that helps publishing companies transition to charging for content. Jeff Jarvis, a CUNY journalism professor and author of “What Would Google Do?”, was also in the mix. Despite the friction, there were some fascinating perspectives on the thorny issue of charging for content.

Check out these multimedia projects done by the students at the S.I.Newhouse School of Public Communications LINK. According to their site, some 200 students and 20 instructors spent a weekend in Skaneateles, NY, doing stories with equipment loaned by Apple and Nikon. The results are great.

News of William Safire’s death does make it feel like the end of an era. Here’s a great line from The New York Times’ story about his death:

There were columns on blogosphere blargon, tarnation-heck euphemisms, dastardly subjunctives and even Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bumps. And there were Safire “rules for writers”: Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid clichés like the plague. And don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

Caster Semenya, the athlete at the center of the athletics gender debate, has posed on the front cover of a South African magazine called You. As if to answer her critics, who say she is too masculine to compete in women’s events, she has been glammed up in sequins and stilettos in shots that appear inside the magazine. Here’s a story about her makeover.

This cover makes me feel like I prude. I think I have a sense of humor. And I hate journalists who take themselves too seriously. But I have to say I hate this Denver Magazine cover showing anchors Libby Weaver and Natalie Tysdal of Denver’s Channel 31. So does Jennifer Frank who sent it and the link to this Denver Post article.

Here it is. My latest vid. This is a really touching piece about a grandmother and granddaughter who started up an online business selling their art. Here’s the story as it ran in The New York Times’ blog, The Local.

Grandmother and granddaughter selling off art

This just in from Poynter’s Al Tompkins. What happens when United Airlines breaks a musician’s guitar? He makes a video about it, uploads to YouTube and more then 3 million people watch it. Talk about bad PR.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Check out my latest video post to The New York Times blog, The Local. This one’s about a deer hunter who lives in Maplewood and uses his basement to prepare for his hunting trips to Pennsylvania.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Soon, I have no doubt, all the best journalism will be readable in Top Ten format. Anyway, the latest irresistible such list is Forbes Magazine’s ranking of the country’s 100 most powerful celebrities. Making headlines is the fact that Angelina Jolie has ousted Oprah from the top spot.

Jolie raked in $27 million in the past 12 months thanks to a movie schedule that included Kung Fu Panda, Wanted and the not-yet-released spy thriller Salt. Even more impressive: The publicity she garnered following the birth of her twins, as well as the consistent headlines she grabs for her philanthropic efforts and her relationship with actor Brad Pitt, who ranks No. 9 on the list.