If you’re in Southern California next week, I encourage you to take a look at the 2009 Entrepreneurs Conference hosted by the UCLA MBA program. I’m honored to be moderating a session at the conference, but am equally excited to attend the other sessions, including the contest where entrepreneurs will be judged on their 90-second […]
Archive for April, 2009
Mark Briggs 
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April 29th, 2009
Joining forces: it’s time for universities and media houses to work together
Academia, meet industry. Industry, meet academia. Last year I had the honor of participating in a symposium in Chapel Hill, N.C. (in honor of the retiring Phil Meyer) that featured two days of discussion on the topic of journalism education in the digital age. The final conclusion was clear: in these uncertain and disruptive times, […]
April 28th, 2009
Ambitious local news plan shows commitment to innovation
Steve Buttry posted the complete – and I mean complete – details of Gazette Communications’ plan to revolutionize its business yesterday. It’s worth a glance if you care about the evolution of local news and worth a full read if you’re responsible for running a local news business. (Sorry, but suing Google is not part […]
April 23rd, 2009
Five things a ‘complete journalist’ should know today
In baseball, a 5-tool player is someone who can hit for power, hit for a good average, runs well, is good defensively and has a strong throwing arm. Basically, this is who you want on your team. It describes a “complete ballplayer.” I thought about this yesterday as I was speaking to a journalism class […]
April 20th, 2009
A reputation economy is a good model for comments
If you’re a serious code master (I’m not, but I know several) you probably already know about Stack Overflow, a handy place to find answers to specific programming questions on everything from Visual Basic to Flash. (And if not, you should check it out.) I was listening to Joel Spolsky, one of the site’s founders, […]
April 16th, 2009
Free video editing no more: Yahoo cuts Jumpcut
One of the sites I often suggest people check out when looking for free multimedia editing tools is Jumpcut. No more. Today, Yahoo announced it is pulling the plug on the free online video editing service Jumpcut. Strangely, visitors aren’t immediately notified of this on the jumpcut.com homepage. Yes, things change quickly in the era […]
April 15th, 2009
Print is a powerful tool for mobilizing an audience
(Note: The following post is drawn from research I’m doing for my new book). UPDATED 4/16/09 11:15 a.m.: Clarified some dates and details on the Dallas Neighbors project. Thanks, Oscar. The Dallas Morning News launched a print-only community newspaper called Neighbors in 2005 and, two years later, turned it into neighborsgo and launched a corresponding […]
April 7th, 2009
Strike a different bargain with online video
How easy can digital video be? It is estimated that 13 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. The low cost and ease of use mean anyone can participate. The quality varies greatly, of course. Both in journalism and in the greater video ecosystem. This debate about quality has strangled many news organizations. […]
April 6th, 2009
The future of journalism depends on the future of the Internet
Drop what you’re doing and take 30 minutes to listen to Brooke Gladstone’s interview with Lee Rainie for the latest edition of On the Media. The two discuss the results of the Pew Center’s latest survey on the future of the Internet. No, not even 600 “experts” can predict the future. But the discussion of […]
