Gazette disaster coverage featured at seminar

Journalists who covered Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 Eastern Iowa floods and the Parkersburg tornado will share their experience at a seminar in Davenport next month. The Mid-America Press Institute‘s “Covering natural disasters” seminar starts Friday, April 17, at the Radisson Quad City Plaza Hotel in Davenport. Mizell Stewart III, editor of the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & [...]

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Help me explore and enjoy Eastern Iowa

    When my wife, Mimi, and I moved to Cedar Rapids last June, we were planning to explore and enjoy the fun places of Eastern Iowa. This is my Monday column for The Gazette:     We knew western Iowa well from years living in Shenandoah, Essex and Omaha. We knew central Iowa well [...]

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Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Breaking news online

I’m sitting in this morning on a session led by George Stanley, managing editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as part of the American Press Institute’s seminar, “The New Newsroom,” at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Since I had a glitch on the liveblog in CoverItLive, I will just update this frequently. George is talking [...]

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Liveblog from “The New Newsroom” Seminar

I’ll liveblogged briefly today from API’s seminar, “The New Newsroom” from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. I encountered a glitch and stopped after a while. I will post a single account of the second morning session, led by George Stanley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Here’s what I did live from Mary Glick’s opening session, [...]

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Link lovefest for Gazette transformation continues

Updated with BeatBlogging Q&A: The transformation we are undertaking at Gazette Communications continues to draw attention: Alana Taylor of BeatBlogging.org interviewed Chuck Peters and me and posted Thursday. Quotes several other blogs, including Tim McGuire’s description of me as the “real damn deal.” Can’t read that one enough. Also drops an Obi Wan Kenobi reference [...]

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Using Twitter to follow North Dakota floods

As the Red River rises in North Dakota, Eastern Iowans are watching closely. Cedar Rapids has tried to learn lessons in flood recovery and flood control from Grand Forks, N.D., which was devastated by 1997 flooding. Now Fargo and Grand Forks are facing the worst floods up there since 1997. You can keep tabs on [...]

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Join us in reading and discussing ‘Tallgrass’ and ‘Mockingbird’

I spend a lot of my time involved with digital communication – blogs, tweets and multimedia. But occasionally I have to lose myself in an old-fashioned book. I recently finished Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas and will start soon on Harper Lee‘s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. I could read them digitally if I could [...]

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I’ll be helping ASNE’s virtual convention

Updated to add @carolynwashburn to list of Twittering editors. I’m pleased that the American Society of Newspaper Editors is proceeding with a virtual convention. I suggested such an alternative in a post I wrote Feb. 27, the day ASNE canceled its Chicago convention scheduled for late April. I can’t take credit for the ASNE decision because President [...]

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Czech Village project uses new storytelling skills

If you want to follow or help chronicle the progress of flood recovery in Czech Village, spend some time with ”It Takes a Village.” This multimedia project by Gazette staff members Cindy Hadish, David Miessler-Kubanek and Greg Schmidt shows pictures and reports the status of businesses in the  historic Czech Village area of Cedar Rapids. Click on the [...]

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Gazette changes get lots of link love

I believe and hope we’re on the right path in the organizational changes we’re making at Gazette Communications. We’re getting some positive attention in the industry: OJR asked me to write and just posted a piece on what we’re doing: “News businesses must think about content, not just products, to ensure survival.” BeatBlogging.org will be [...]

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Seattle P-I joins newspaper graveyard

Update: Ken Doctor’s blog Content Bridges notes one of the most intriguing aspects of the SeattlePI.com plan: Aggregating regional advertising opportunities for business. Rest in peace, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When I was in Des Moines in 1982 and in Kansas City in 1990, I saw the deaths of two newspapers, the Des Moines Tribune and the [...]

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No room for smugness as Gazette experiments

This will be my Monday column in The Gazette:   I can be a little smug when I receive e-mails from conservatives who attribute the decline of newspapers to our supposed liberal leanings. I understand the shifting media landscape so much better than these people, I tell myself. Aren’t they aware that conservative newspapers such [...]

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