My blogging themes for 2010: job change, Twitter, business models …

Reviewing 2010 on this blog:

My job change to TBD was a major theme of the year here. My most-popular post of 2010 shared tips on job-hunting, from my own experience finding a new job and hiring the community engagement staff at TBD. That’s my second most-read post in two-plus years writing this blog. Other posts among the year’s leaders dealt with my job change as well: Pursuing a new opportunity in Washington, Wanted: vision for community engagement and Our community engagement team is taking shape. Another post relating to the job change took a longer view, discussing how I have twice redirected and rejuvenated my career. I also told how TBD’s launch prompted my first foray into public relations and brought back memories of an earlier launch. I explained why we need a director of community engagement, even though engagement should be everyone’s job. I have blogged as well for TBD, writing about our commitment to accuracy and transparency, and about why and how we chose TBD as our name.

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Resources for journalists using Twitter

Journalism professor Julie Posetti has compiled a helpful analysis of the use of Twitter by political journalists in Australia, The #Spill Effect: Twitter Hashtags and Australian Political Journalism.

I highly recommend reading it and will deliberately not quote or summarize it extensively here because you should just read it. I will. though, note her summary of the various ways political journalists in Australia are using Twitter:

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Robert Niles says there is no new revenue model for journalism; I disagree

Robert Niles is one of the sharpest commentators about digital journalism and the business of journalism. So his tweet last night caught my eye:

Deal with it – There is no new revenue model for journalism.

He linked to his latest post at OJR: The Online Journalism Review. He makes a lot of excellent points, as I would expect, and I will review some of them later. But I believe he is wrong on his central point:

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Commentary on Downie and Schudson’s “The Reconstruction of American Journalism”

While I am critical of the Columbia University report, The Reconstruction of American Journalism, I am pleased that it has stirred debate about the future of journalism. Here are the most interesting takes I have seen on the report by Columbia journalism professor Michael Schudson and former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr:

Tom Grubisch ripped into Downie and Schudson in OJR: The Online Journalism Review, calling it the kind of “shallow analysis that typically informs newspaper editorials on big issues.” Be sure to read Robert Niles’ comment. He sees Downie and Schudson as speaking for news industry leaders who “chose to ignore, marginalize or even demonize voices who argued that the news industry must change its procedures, in both editorial and business operations, to compete online.” Now, Niles says, “top news company managers are working their way through the stages of grief.” The Downie/Schudson report, Niles said, represents the stages of anger and bargaining.

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Resources for journalism ethics

This list of resources was initially published on my blog in September 2009. I have added some links but have not checked to remove any outdated links.

I will be leading a discussion on journalism ethics in November for the American Society of News Editors and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. It will be part of the ASNE Ethics and Values Forum.

ASNE Ethics and Values Chair Mike Fancher is compiling a reading list for participants and asked me to submit some of my writings about journalism ethics issues. After passing the links on to Mike, I thought they might have interest to a wider audience. So here are links to my own writing on journalism ethics, followed by valuable resources on ethics from other sources:

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Bloggers share lots of advice

In my early days as a journalism trainer, I made my mark by compiling helpful handouts. I thought I had a lot of good ideas on the topics I trained on and I compiled tip sheets that people told me they found helpful.

That approach (and sharing those handouts liberally online at No Train, No Gain) built my reputation in the journalism training field more than anything I did. So when I decided to do a blogging workshop this week, my first inclination was to develop a handout with all my tips and advice on blogging. I could have done that and almost did, but two things held me back:

• I’m not that experienced at blogging and still learning a lot myself. I feared that my own advice might be too shallow and obvious (though I’m amazed at how often people express gratitude for advice that I consider obvious, so I will include some of mine).

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OJR invites a guest post on C3 Blueprint

OJR, the Online Journalism Review, invited me to write a guest post about the Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection. Thanks to Robert Niles for the invitation and for posting: How are you going to make money? By changing your relationship with your community.

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