Recently added articles from The Masthead:
Care and feeding of blogs.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
Mar 22, 2009; ... As the editorial writing craft continues its evolution from a print to an online medium, the blog has emerged as the place where the action is. The blog, in so many ways, is the perfect vehicle for editorials and the conversations that surround them. A good blog is succinct, ...
Cultivate your blog and its audience: cross-promote, get the word out, and link, link, link.(MASTHEAD SYMPOSIUM: Care and feeding of blogs)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Jim Boren, in tending The Fresno Bee's Opinion Talk blog, uses "drip irrigation." For the California agricultural region around Fresno, it's an apt metaphor. But instead of judiciously targeted use of water to grow crops, Boren is marketing specific editorials or blog entries to ...
Dawning of the post-newspaper world.(MASTHEAD SYMPOSIUM: Care and feeding of blogs)(Brief article)
Mar 22, 2009; ... A whole ecology of local news is coming and among the players will be: * Local nonprofits with newspaper-style journalism and foundation/philanthropist subsidy * For-profits and nonprofits subsidized by individuals and groups with partisan interests * ...
Engage with the blogosphere--even the writers who criticize you: use the Web to market your product.(MASTHEAD SYMPOSIUM: Care and feeding of blogs)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Robert Cox loves to mix it up in the blogosphere. The president of the Media Bloggers Association rose to prominence when the New York Times ignored his concerns about an inaccurate quote in a prominent columnist's article. He began blogging and linking and sharing ...
The unfairness of the 'fairness doctrine'.
Mar 22, 2009; ... Maybe those right-wing radio talk-protest too much. The threatened renewal of the "fairness doctrine," as promised by House Speaker Pelosi, could be just another straw man, something to rile the fans of Rush Limbaugh. But the doctrine was once used to threaten ...
A perfect storm of 'pet peeve' words.(Viewpoint essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Sure, I've made some bad word choices in 2008. What can I say? I am just an imperfect writer describing a perfect storm. More on that later. How's that for telegraphed foreshadowing? But a new year is all about moving on. And thanks to the ever-helpful NCEW listserv, ...
Obama's challenges in foreign policy.(Barack Obama)
Mar 22, 2009; ... If change is the mantra of the Obama presidency, then it must move the county away from Cold War policies that still dominate U.S. decision-making. So noted two speakers at the November 6 seminar on 'America's Next President and the World." Offered in conjunction with NCEW at the ...
Bring the community discussion to your Web site.(INNOVATIONS)
Mar 22, 2009; ... In the summer of 2008, the Wausau Daily Herald and other Gannett Wisconsin newspapers joined together to present an unprecedented, in-depth look at the state's culture of alcohol use and abuse. "State of Drinking" examined dozens of issues and told deeply personal stories of families who ...
Coming soon: a must-visit Web site.
Mar 22, 2009; ... An ad hoc committee appointed by NCEW's board is working on a major revamp of NCEW's Web site. Our goal is to have the new site up and running by July 1. Several assumptions are driving our work: Economic turmoil will continue in our industry, making it more ...
The editorial page editor as referee.(Viewpoint essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The price of free speech seems to be rising these days. Unfortunately, people who write letters to the editor--offering their real names, actual hometowns and heartfelt opinions--sometimes pay a steep price for their engagement in a public forum. This trend disturbs ...
Survival means becoming a digital entrepreneur.
Mar 22, 2009; ... When Pulitzer winners, popular columnists and industry-leading editorial page editors start disappearing in layoffs, you can safely assume it is not about the writing or the journalism. Whether any of us like it or not, the game has changed and the rules with it. Sparing ...
When your editorial goes viral--in a bad way.
Mar 22, 2009; ... Endorsement interviews are designed to inform and influence the thinking of voters, but are not often a news event in their own right. The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board members could not have imagined that our videotaped meeting with presidential candidate Barack Obama would make ...
Going to Salt Lake City.(CONVENTION 2009)(National Conference of Editorial Writers)(Conference news)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "When the going gets tough, the tough get going," is a familiar adage. Well, times are tough. They're unpredictable and challenging. And that's precisely the reason the dedicated members of NCEW would benefit from going to this year's annual ...
A strategy to build membership.(PRESIDENT'S LETTER: Straight talk from David Holwerk)
Mar 22, 2009; ... You have plenty of bad news about our line of work these days, so here's some news I hope you'll find encouraging. The officers and board have a plan to help NCEW grow, even in these difficult times. For almost a year now, the NCEW board has struggled with a ...
A tribute to Carol Horner.(LAST WORD)(In memoriam)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Carol Horner, to reverse John F. Kennedy's remark about Washington, D.C., was a woman of Northern efficiency and Southern charm. She was instinctively polite and gracious, two characteristics particularly disarming to the sometimes-impatient editorial writers whose paths she crossed. Her ...
Calendar.(Brief article)(Conference notes)
Mar 22, 2009 ... The National Press Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation based in Washington, DC, with a grant from the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation, is offering an all-expenses-paid four-day fellowship April 19-22 on "Understanding Violent Weather." Session will be at the ...
Snap out of doldrums, and fight back to save journalism.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Dec 22, 2008; ... AT THE SEPTEMBER convention Little Rock, there was much cash-bar and coffee-bar conversation about what was happening to editorial pages while newspapers figure out how to transform the business model. The final speech of the convention by Hank Klibanoff, former managing editor ...
Editorial pages best to defend, assert the role of journalism: former editor delivers a call to arms.(MASTHEAD SYMPOSIUM)
Dec 22, 2008; ... The arguments over what is truth have become a blood-sport in which the most vociferous of the competing forces simply do not play fair. The airwaves--open to all, thank goodness--are filled with articulate, persuasive megalomaniacs who, if the nation were more unified, would be doing ...
Searching for optimism in transformation: much excitement ahead in journalism.(SYMPOSIUM)
Dec 22, 2008; ... One of the most notable characteristics of gatherings of journalists these days is the pervasive sense of sadness about the disintegration of the old ways of the news business and fear about its future. As Dan Radmacher of The Roanoke Times wrote in his column after NCEW's gathering in ...
Fundamentals still the key in convergence media: quality, ethics, integrity make way for opportunity.(SYMPOSIUM)
Dec 22, 2008; ... The terms "new" and "old" media tend to distort discussion about the change in the way people access information and to artificially divide debate into opposing camps. There is good, informative journalism produced with integrity, and there is something far less, the dreck of ...