Can the techies save the news?
If you think reporters, editors, newspaper pundits, Sam Zell and the Sulzberger family are the only ones worried about the fate of the media business, you haven’t spent a Saturday morning with a room full of geeks. At last weekend’s BarCampPortland III meetup, the assembled developers, programmers and Web 2.0 entrepreneurs were just as concerned [...]
If you're upgrading your writing career, j-school isn't the answer
Twice in the last week I’ve encountered writers or bloggers who’ve run into a bad patch in their careers and are wondering if it makes sense to go back to school and get a master’s degree in journalism. Bottom line: you don’t need a degree to get work as a writer. Even if you have [...]
Top 10 digital media trends of 2008
This is the last new post I’ll write in 2008, so it seems fitting to look back at the biggest stories of the year in the digital media business and how they’ll affect on freelancers now and in the future. I’ll weigh in with my top 10 first. Feel free to send your own suggestions [...]
WordCount recap – weekly news from the digital media biz
I’m starting what I hope will become a WordCount Friday feature, a recap of news and commentary on freelancing and the media business as reported by other blogs and news outlets this week. Happy reading: The case for independent news sites as profit-makers – David Westphal, a senior fellow at USC’s Annenberg’s Center on Communication [...]
J-school grads are mastering digital news skills, freelancers should too
Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia Journalism School gave the commencement address at the college’s 2008 graduation ceremony on May 21. It’s interesting reading for freelance writers contemplating where they fit into the increasingly digital world of news gathering and writing. As Lemann’s address makes clear, this year’s crop of journalism graduates is leaving school [...]
One Writer's Journey From Print to Online News
How does someone go from mild-mannered print writer to multimedia maven? It’s the question of the day given the direction the U.S. publishing industry is taking – and if you’re not asking it, you should be. That goes for freelancers as well as staff writers. To shed some light on reporting and writing in the [...]
Click here for the RSS feed
