A salute to the American Press Institute (and hope for a prosperous future)

I have been expecting some sort of change for the American Press Institute for more than a year. But today’s news that API is merging with the Newspaper Association of America Foundation still hit me with a wave of fondness and nostalgia. I won’t speculate on the future, except to express my hope that the [...]

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Engage on community Facebook pages, not just your page

Facebook engagement doesn’t mean just posting links and questions on your own page. Good journalists should be reaching out to the community on other pages. In a recent email, Toni Sciacqua, Managing Editor – Digital at the Daily Breeze, Press-Telegram and Daily News in Southern California, shared a great example of Facebook engagement: I wanted [...]

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I’ll be leading ASNE live chat on role of newsroom ombudsmen

For the last few months, I have taken a few turns leading the #ASNEchat on Twitter for the American Society of News Editors. Starting today, we are going to alternate live-chat formats. We’ll still do a Twitter chat every other week. But on the alternating weeks, including today, we’ll do the live chat using CoverItLive [...]

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Google+ Hangout helps with video interviews

How is your newsroom using Google+ Hangouts? In recent months, I’ve seen some good examples of Google+ use in some Digital First Media newsrooms. I asked my colleagues to explain what they did and how. Their responses are presented below, with minimal editing. (You’ll note that I’ve been hanging onto these examples quite a while. [...]

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Banjo app helped Andy Stettler find local tweets

The Banjo app is downloading to my iPhone as I write this. I haven’t used it yet, but I like how it helped Andy Stettler gather information during a breaking story earlier this month for The Reporter in Lansdale, Pa. I’ve blogged frequently about using Twitter’s Advanced Search function to find people in your community [...]

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Lisa Fernandez shares a crowdsourcing (or fetching) lesson

I enjoy watching journalists grow and learn about our profession. I recounted last month how Lisa Fernandez of the San Jose Mercury News tried live-tweeting after a webinar I led on using Twitter to improve your journalism. Lisa tweeted and emailed recently about another lesson she learned about engaging with the community: I "crowdsourced" and [...]

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Buffy Andrews’ tips for daily beat checks using HootSuite

My blog post on questions to guide beat reporters drew a helpful response from Buffy Andrews that I wanted to give more attention than it would receive simply as a comment. So I’m reposting it separately, with minimal editing: Another excellent post, Steve. I totally agree about establishing a routine to check on digital sources. [...]

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Questions to guide a Digital First reporter’s work on any beat

When I wrote about how a Digital First approach changes a journalist’s work, people asked for more examples. In that initial post, I provided examples of how the approach would change the work of a court reporter, sports reporter, visual journalist, beat reporter and assigning editor. In response to a question from a colleague planning [...]

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How a Digital First reporter should approach statehouse coverage

Credit: Free images from acobox.com An editor asked me to outline how a Digital First statehouse reporter should work. I see nine themes for the digital emphasis of a statehouse reporter: Live reporting of events. Community engagement around the issues and events of the Capitol. Reporting breaking news and enterprised scoops as the stories unfold. [...]

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A workshop for local bloggers in West Chester, PA

I will be leading a workshop at the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pa., this evening for local bloggers. The workshop will be fairly short, then I’ll answer questions and we’ll socialize for a while. I will share with the bloggers some tips from these earlier posts: 8 basic points for basic beginning bloggers [...]

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My favorite Iowa videos

As you get ready to watch coverage of the Iowa caucuses tonight, I offer my favorite Iowa videos: Iowa Nice: Iowa Nice (the clean version, which you should watch if foul language offends you): Where in Iowa is Jeff? (a Hawkeye/Cyclone version of Where in the World is Matt?): And a video I did about [...]

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Memories of covering seven Iowa caucuses in four decades

I’ve had a lot of fun covering the Iowa caucuses. It feels odd to be mostly sitting this one out. Last week I noted that I think it’s time for Iowa to relinquish its place at the front of our nation’s political line (or for political parties or federal legislation to reform the process, giving [...]

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