Jonah Kessel and Carmen Sisson discuss entrepreneurship and photojournalism

One of the classes I will be speaking to at the University of Iowa today is a “Global Images” course. I will be discussing changes in visual journalism in the digital age. Some of the differences I wanted to address are the necessities of multitasking, online promotion and entrepreneurship. I asked two excellent visual journalists [...]

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Our Washington metro site has a name: TBD

I love the new name of the Washington metro news operation I joined in February: TBD. Click that link to read more.

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Loryn Wilson joins us as a community host

I have hired five of six people for our community engagement team. Loryn Wilson will be a community host, joining Jeff Sonderman, Lisa Rowan and Daniel Victor, whom I already announced. I also have hired Mandy Jenkins as social media producer. We’re still working on hiring the mobile producer. A graduate of George Washington University, [...]

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Daniel Victor joins our community engagement team

It may take a while for me to learn to call Daniel Victor, my newest staff member, Dan. I’ve followed him on Twitter so long that I just think of him as @bydanielvictor. Dan’s the latest recruit to the Allbritton Communications metro news operation (which Jim Brady says will have a name soon, perhaps today).

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Syncing social tools (especially Foursquare) requires some thought

If addiction is the second stage of Foursquare use, I am still at stage one, curiosity. But at least I’m a curious Mayor. Blogger Dan Macsai described the Five Stages of Foursquare Use — curiosity, addiction, socialization, greed, apathy — in a blog post. While it was amusing, he didn’t really address the factor that’s [...]

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Mandy Jenkins joins us as social media producer

I am delighted to welcome Mandy Jenkins of the Cincinnati Enquirer to our community engagement staff as social media producer. Mandy helped me by long distance a year ago when I led a Twitter webinar for the American Society of News Editors. So I think it was appropriate that I received her email accepting my [...]

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A mobile-first project for your community on the go

I will be making a presentation to newsroom leaders Tuesday about the mobile-first strategy I have proposed and promoted in this blog. I was pleased to hear Eric Schmidt tell the American Society of News Editors (that N in ASNE used to stand for Newspapers) in Sunday night’s keynote address that Google is taking a [...]

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Maya’s adoption becomes final in Iowa

An update on my great niece, Maya, from Haiti: Her adoption became final in Iowa yesterday. Tony Leys wrote a great story in the Des Moines Register this morning, accompanied by Andrea Melendez photos:

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Our community engagement team is taking shape

Update: Since posting this, I have also hired Mandy Jenkins and Daniel Victor. I got scooped on my own announcement. And I couldn’t be happier. Over the last few days, I reached agreements with Jeff Sonderman and Lisa Rowan to take the first two positions on our community engagement team. As they were giving notice [...]

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Yes, engagement is everyone’s job — and my job

I see I will be having a new colleague soon. Voice of San Diego is hiring an Engagement Editor, which sounds a lot like my title, Director of Community Engagement. Whenever the position is filled, I will start networking with this new colleague. Maybe a couple more and we can form an association (FREE, Federation [...]

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