My buddy Tom Watson posts on anonymous sources, Deep Throat, and the daily grind of journalism. I had the pleasure of working with Tom on journalistic endeavors at @NY back in the day, and I’d have to say my thoughts on the subject are completely in sync with his. So in the interest of saving time while I continue to trudge through house buying, baby gestating, and the ClickZ biz, I’m just linking to him. Thanks, Tom, for putting it so well.
Journalism
Community News Jumps Offline
The Rocky Mountain News is taking its YourHub.com community journalism project to the streets (aka print distribution).
“What is significant about this launch is the fact that the online, community-based product is driving the printed version of the newspaper,” said John Temple, Editor, President and Publisher of the Rocky Mountain News. “YourHub.com represents a significant shift in the way we think about modern newsgathering.”
Is Technology King?
I’m not sure that I entirely agree with Peter Caputa when he posts that content is no longer king. Then again, maybe it’s just because my paycheck is derived from producing and editing content — human work, not technology work. Anyway, this idea hearkens back to my earlier East Coast/West Coast post, and to my column about the ad inventory issue.
The Masters, a different perspective
On the subject of citizen journalism… The Augusta Chronicle is
inviting spectators of The Masters golf tournament to submit their own photographs of the event. They are displayed on the publication’s official Web site for The Masters. Today, they’d mostly just be pictures of umbrellas, but it’s still nice to see.
Now that I look more closely, it appears the newspaper chain has a central site — Spotted — for photo sharing. Great community concept.
RIP Mr. Thompson
Spent the wet long weekend in Yosemite, so just heard late last night about the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson. He was one of my journalistic heroes — because he told it like it was and because he told it so well. An amazingly adept writer, his stylistic flourishes and lengthy sentences often had me in awe. I loved especially Proud Highway, Volume 1 — an epistolary work covering the writer’s youthful exploits, from growing up in Louisville, KY to serving in the U.S. Air Force to writing Hell’s Angels. It’s fascinating to see how much raw personality was evident so early, and to see him develop the writing style to express those intense energies. Farewell, Hunter S. Thompson.
On Embargoes
Danny Sullivan has a great post about blogging, news embargoes and how SEW handles them. My thoughts on the subject are very similar.