Twitter location bugs show interesting twavels

Twitter succeeds sometimes in spite of itself. I have promoted Twitter use among journalists on this blog and at conferences, seminars and, of course, on Twitter itself. So I make fun of Twitter not as one of those critics who don’t understand it and refuse to like it. I write as one who has tweeted [...]

Read Full Post »

Mourning my drowned iPhone

That moment of silence for my iPhone was not mourning. I was just stunned. The sobbing, that was mourning. For three years now, since the first iPhones came out, Apple’s mobile meth has been at the heart of my innovation pitch. At the first Newspaper Next symposium in February 2006, Harvard scholar Clayton Christensen used [...]

Read Full Post »

Kay Powell knows the power of details in obituaries

Details mark the great writers. Like this tidbit in an obituary by Kay Powell: In fact, after she was widowed, there were 13 toothbrushes in her bathroom, all kept there by people who regularly enjoyed her company. The detail tells you about the person who died and shows you why Kay is a journalism treasure.

Read Full Post »

Jobless journalists could find a business model in obituaries

I don’t expect newspaper companies to follow the advice I offered Wednesday for a new business model for obituaries. Why should newspapers start following my advice now? So I’ll turn that advice around and suggest that it could work for journalists who have retired, accepted buyouts, lost jobs staff cuts, or are still seeking to [...]

Read Full Post »

Academics measure new media (again) by old-media yardstick

For academics studying whether “citizen journalism” is going to “replace” traditional journalism, let me save you some time: It won’t. It’s not trying to. It shouldn’t. Journalism is not, never has been and should not become a zero-sum game. A study by a team of five university researchers showed a fairly common old-media bias in [...]

Read Full Post »

An update on Maya Poulter, six months after Haitian earthquake

If you read this blog in January, you might remember the story of Maya, the Haitian orphan who joined our family following the Jan. 12 earthquake. To summarize quickly: My niece, Mandy Poulter, and her husband, Matt, had completed the the three-year adoption process before the earthquake and were just awaiting a U.S. passport so [...]

Read Full Post »

A possible new business model for obituaries

Monday night I criticized a Pennsylvania newspaper’s plan to charge loyal online readers to read the obituaries. Today I want to suggest a more innovative, future-focused approach to obituaries. I was interested that Ernie Schreiber, editor of the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era, cited my Newspaper Next experience in scolding me for Monday’s post. He clearly [...]

Read Full Post »

I respond to criticism about obits from LancasterOnline editor

When I posted Newspaper charges for reading obits online: double-dipping on death, I invited Ernie Schreiber, editor of the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era, to respond. I posted his response as a separate post, because I think it’s fair to give him his say uninterrupted. But he raised points that demand or merit a response on [...]

Read Full Post »

LancasterOnline editor responds about charging to read online obituaries

When I posted Newspaper charges for reading obits online: double-dipping on death, I invited Ernie Schreiber, editor of the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era, to respond. His response is below. I responded separately. Steve, It’s disappointing to learn that when you left the newsroom, you left behind fairness, the bedrock of credibility in our profession.    As [...]

Read Full Post »

Newspaper charges for reading obits online: double-dipping on death

Update: Ernie Schreiber, editor of the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era, has responded to this post. I encourage you to read his response. If I were seeking to kill off newspapers (I’m not), I would try to persuade them to charge people to read obituaries online. Apparently that’s the plan of Journalism Online, a profiteer seeking [...]

Read Full Post »

Don’t bet that Google Me won’t succeed in social media

Bloggers, including this one obviously, are abuzz about Google Me, the Facebook-killer-wannabe rumored to be under development in the Googleplex. Of course, the naysayers are pointing out that Google has flopped with two ballyhooed social tools in the past year: Wave, which was launched with lots of hype and anticipation, and Buzz, which snuck up [...]

Read Full Post »