Remember the first of the 5 W’s: Who

One thing that hasn’t changed in the newspaper business is that we get annoyed when broadcast media, as they frequently do, rip off our stories without credit.
My friend Daniel P. Finney of the Des Moines Register, night cops reporter and author of one of the best beat-reporting Twitter feeds, DM_in_the_PM, expressed this annoyance Saturday, noting in [...]

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Tell your story at iowafloodstories.com

A draft of my Sunday column:
Many of the stories, photos and videos at iowafloodstories.com will already be familiar to you. We want you to add your own stories, photos and videos to make this a complete record of the 2008 Cedar Rapids flood.
What is new about iowafloodstories.com is the presentation. You can use a map [...]

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See how Twitter covers breaking news

If you still don’t understand the value of Twitter for covering breaking news, check out how it’s covering two stories breaking today:
Search Twitter for Bethesda or River Road and you will find lots of eyewitness accounts and links to blogs, photos and video about the huge water main break that flooded River Road in Bethesda, Md.
Search [...]

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Emailers mostly critical of Culver’s flood response

It’s been a while since a column has drawn the response that I got from Sunday’s column (Saturday’s blog post) on Chet Culver’s refusal to call the Iowa Legislature into special session. In the interest of giving my critics their due, I will start with the only critical email. (I should note that my emailers are [...]

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Twitter is an essential reporting tool

If you’re not yet convinced of the value of Twitter as a news-gathering and storytelling platform, check out Mike Wilson’s (@2drinksbehind) account of the Denver plane crash. Vlogger Loïc LeMeur notes the difference between the tweets and standard coverage on CNN. Check out AP’s coverage, too.  
I turned to the Rocky Mountain News more than 12 [...]

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Culver isn’t moving “as quickly as possible” on flood relief

Here’s a draft of my column for the Sunday Gazette:
Pardon my skepticism, Governor.
I had to laugh when I saw the quote from Gov. Chet Culver in large type on the front page of Saturday’s Gazette: “I want to get businesses up and running as quickly as possible.” I didn’t laugh because it was funny. This [...]

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My blogging history

It took me a while to start blogging for The Gazette, but this isn’t my first blog. I have to confess, though, that most of my blogs have been more like online columns. Part of this is because I have not previously used blogging software that was set up for effective commenting. Part of this is because [...]

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Optimism during a tough week for my business

This has been a tumultuous month for the newspaper industry, stumbling toward the finish line of a traumatic year. And it’s been a great week for The Gazette.
WGN, the broadcast flagship of the mighty Tribune Company media empire, took its call letters from the longtime boast in the Chicago Tribune masthead: “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” Last [...]

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