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 […]
What Freelance Writers Should Know about SEO
You don’t have to look hard to see the publishing business is changing. Newspapers are cutting jobs left and right as advertising dries up and the economy spins closer to recession. At the same time, publishers are finally sinking more effort into their digital properties, though they still haven’t figured out how to make money. […]
The Myth of the Paperless Office
Computers were going to wipe out paper. That’s what we believed back at the dawn of the PC era. Twenty-six years later, people are still overwhelmed by the stuff. Face it, getting rid of paper completely won’t happen. It’s too big a part of our lives. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be as […]
While Other Papers Sink, Oregonian Swims
The same day the New York Times ran this depressing story detailing everything bad about the newspaper business – dropping circulation, constant management changes, drastic staff cuts, etc. – my local paper had a story about how bad sales were at major department store chains in December and January. Coincidence? I think not. As the […]
Keeping Web 2.0 Safe
Companies use blogs and social networks to keep customers informed and employees happy. But Web 2.0 technologies can open the door to corporate spies and hackers, which is why if a company uses them, they also need strong security policies for protection. You can read more on the subject in my new story, Keeping Web […]
Avoiding Data Disasters
At my old newspaper, the main frame computer that ran all the newsroom writing terminals used to routinely freeze at 4 p.m., right when reporters were on deadline. When it happened, everyone popped up from their cubicles like Punxsutawney Phil on GroundHog’s Day. If you were lucky, whatever part of the story you’d written was […]