Why Canadian Press is now using Storify
For Toronto hockey fans, Jan. 9 was a big news day: the firing of Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke was completely unexpected. Also unexpected was how Canadian Press, the country’s wire...
View ArticleThe Atlantic’s Scientology advertorial proves audience is awake
Screengrab from the Atlantic’s Scientology advertorial I suppose it seemed like a good idea to the folks in advertising at the time: The Atlantic receives a sum of money to write a glowing piece on...
View ArticleAudio reporting tools of the trade: then and now
Note the 3-metre cord on the microphone, which was designed for karaoke. I wound it up and held extra cord together with a hair elastic. Very technical. This is an I-love-technology piece, gird...
View ArticleOut of disruption, comes media innovation
Quit your job in a traditional newsroom, and go it alone to innovate in journalism … or work within existing newsrooms, which have the most money to try new things. These were the two messages that...
View ArticleLeonard Asper speaks about the demise of Canwest
Leonard Asper, left, speaks to the Winnipeg Free Press’ Geoff Kirbyson. A funny thing happened during my Michener-Deacon research in Manitoba. Leonard Asper, CEO of failed Canwest stopped by the...
View ArticleSimple graphic of platform differentiation: how readers’ news needs vary by...
I’ve been hearing a lot about platform strategy in the news business lately, and I think before we create a strategy, we need to look at how people are using these devices to consume news – including...
View ArticleBoston Marathon bombing coverage by CNN and John King
On Wednesday, CNN’s John King reported that a ‘dark-skinned male’ had been indentified, then arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. But over the next 90 minutes, King’s credibility –...
View ArticleTime for an NNA upgrade
For the record, this is not what the NNA looks like. It’s a framed plaque. Gird yourself, I’m about to attack a Canadian journalism institution: The National Newspaper Awards. It has taken me a couple...
View ArticleNewsana: Who do you trust to tell you what’s important?
Trust is what many traditional news organizations use to promote their relevance, stating they are a trusted brand to cut through the noise. The pitch goes something like this: ‘We are a trusted brand,...
View ArticleWhen journalists don’t know math: Exhibit A
A while ago, I wrote about the importance of knowing simple arithmetic, how I taught math in a second-year fundamentals of reporting course at Carleton University’s journalism school. In that blog...
View ArticleHow to ‘wow’ during a newsroom internship interview
You don’t have to feel like this (Photo credit: Arroz y Asado) Recently I was contacted by a candidate who had been short-listed for the Ottawa Citizen’s year-long internship opportunities. (Note: all...
View Article8 great reads on Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post
Photo by flickr user vpickering Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has bought the Washington Post for a cool $250 million. In his letter to Post employees,...
View ArticleMultimedia journalism is like sex in junior high: Garcia
Photo from Garcia’s wikipedia page Media consultant Mario Garcia was at the Ottawa Citizen today to share his thoughts on a new wave in storytelling, in which four platforms (mobile, tablet, web and...
View ArticleIngram: What journalists must do when information is everywhere
Photo by Flikr user LittleRae Journalists need to embrace their changing role as a trusted curator and aggregator of news, Mathew Ingram said at a recent Third Tuesday event in Ottawa. Ingram said the...
View ArticleGreat multimedia journalism of 2013
We’ve come a long way since Snowfall, baby. The New York Times’ massive multimedia project went live in December, 2012 and set the tone for an amazing 12 months of online journalism. Yes, I know, we’re...
View ArticleNow this is a cool story form experiment
The BBC conducted an interesting experiment in story form yesterday: A quick video report it labelled the #Instafax on its Instagram account. This is smart in many ways, but mostly because it’s using...
View ArticleHow to cultivate journalistaphobia
Really, we’re friendly – and just calling with a few questions…. Any journalist who has tried to contact a federal government researcher/scientist/source can tell you how frustrating an exercise it...
View ArticleWe need to keep experimenting in journalism
This photo from the high school science class I really wish I’d taken. Any good scientist will tell you that not all experiments succeed, but it’s important to keep at it. It’s sad to hear that Digital...
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