We pay for value. So I’ve come to the realization that I would pay for Twitter. I wouldn’t pay for Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed or any of the Ning groups I belong to (and I’ve never been a MySpace guy). But I would pay a few dollars a month to continue using Twitter. All these venture-funded social […]
Archive for January, 2009
Mark Briggs 
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January 29th, 2009
Be not afraid: Journalists should learn code
Actual computer code can be scary stuff. I’ve met too many veteran journalists who flinch and recoil when faced with even the smallest amount of computer code. “I’m not a programmer,” they shriek. “I can’t do this.” How about today’s college students? Surely these youngsters who grew up with MySpace and Facebook, are much more […]
January 27th, 2009
What’s your video SEO strategy?
The people running news web sites have been working on enhanced strategies for video and SEO for a few years now. But what about “video SEO”? That is the focus of a new white paper published by ReelSEO, a consulting company operating in this space. New Business Models for New Realities: The Newspaper Industry’s Video SEO Opportunity is […]
January 26th, 2009
New federal data a playground for journalists
The federal government’s new web site at USASpending.gov will be a playground for journalists. Why? Because it was developed with a user-friendly customer-facing interface, but mostly because of the access to its data that is available through the API it offers. (More at On the Media). The API will allow web developers at news organizations or independent […]
January 24th, 2009
Hard work isn’t enough: It’s time to pay attention
Keeping up – or catching up – with the tools, concepts and skills of the digital age takes a lot of hard work. Or is it simply a matter of attention? The work ethic that powered the Industrial Revolution is giving way to an attention ethic in the Information Age, according to a recent piece […]
January 22nd, 2009
A new role for journalism organizations
Labels are limiting. Especially when it comes to professions undergoing massive change. A few days earlier at a different bar in Seattle, members of the Society of Professional Journalists held a similar gathering. And a month ago, a local independent journalism entrepreneur hosted a more formal gathering for a group think/discussion on the topic of […]
January 21st, 2009
Gaming the news
Online news editors began using games to create more engaging and interactive presentations shortly after they began publishing news online in the 1990s. But the concept hasn’t really taken off yet, despite some early successes. Back in 2001, the newspaper I worked for received a grant from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism to develop […]
January 20th, 2009
Can a news organization un-news the news enough to survive?
That is the question put forth recently by a Seattle-based political blog … Not only are newspapers dying, the type of “news” they purvey — uninterpreted, blandly regurgitated, pre-spun information supplied and shaped by a stakeholder with the intent of policy manipulation — has lost its relevance as well. Just look where the growth in news […]
January 19th, 2009
My favorite iPhone apps
The iPhone has changed the way I access information and communicate with other people. It has also changed the assumptions I have about what an electronic gadget can do and how I think information will consumed – and published – in the future. But it can also be a ton of fun. And since I […]
January 16th, 2009
