Evan Smith's Texas Tribune Brings Old-School Reporting Online
via mediabistro.com
Media Nation Publishes Email From An Editor At AOL's Patch
Basically, the job is 24/7 with so far little support in getting any kind of time off — nights, weekends, vacation days guaranteed under our AOL contract. (Some regional editors do try to help; others don’t.) This time-off issue has become a major concern among local editors. You might hear about the 70-hour work weeks. Yes, 70 hours and more. It’s a start-up and all that, and I knew it would be hard work going in. But what is becoming distressing is this sense that I can’t get a break. I’ve worked in journalism for more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter, online editor, magazine editor, and I’ve never worked so much in my life.
via dankennedy.net
Austin-based Texas Tribune adds staff
—Texas Tribune: Two new hires at the non-profit news site: April Hinkel joins as director of business development and Shadi Afshar is now audience development manager. Hinkel previously spent 21 years at Texas Monthly, most recently as publisher. Afshar was a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting.
via paidcontent.org
Nick Denton memo on Gawker's growth
Gawker's technology underpinnings have improved. (Yeah, I know that might seem a stretch after the problems of the last two weeks.) Pageload time has gone from 8 seconds to between 5 and 6. And the new design will take us down to 4 seconds.Second, we've begun our first serious marketing effort. (We were always to editorially snobby before to pitch our wares in a consistent fashion; marketing was for losers.) The greatest success: Chris Mascari's drive to promote Fan pages on Facebook and distribute our stories into individual newsfeeds. Our Facebook refers were 6.2m last month, up 67% on the month before and triple what they were at the end of last year. Most of these are new readers; some of them we believe will become regulars.
But above all, our stories are stronger and sharper. The numbers on the Big Board have helped focus attention on the performance of each story; but the reports below from each site lead demonstrate something else. It's editorial flair, not some descent to the web lowest common denominator, that is rewarded and recognized.
here's a good snapshot of how journalism has changed
Under supervision, will research and write news and straight forward short stories with low level of complexity, analysis and narrative, in accordance with identified style and structure; compile lists, contribute regularly to blogs during the course of the work day; work with reporters as directed to enhance larger trend stories; may “fill in” in other areas as assigned when reporters are away from their beats; may use social media to enhance readership and find sources, and assist with daily cops calls.
Look at Me! : CJR [Maureen Tkacik]
when the Internet forced journalism to compete economically after years of monopoly, journalism panicked and adopted some of the worst examples of the nothing-based economy, in which success depends on the continued infantilization of both supply and demand. At the same time, journalism clung to its myths of objectivity and detachment, using them to dismiss the emerging blogger threat as something unserious and fundamentally parasitic, even as it produced a steady stream of obsessive but sneering trend stories on the blogosphere.
via cjr.org
George Dearing
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