I began writing this as a comment on Steve Buttry’s blog, which today has two posts about a Lancaster, Pa., newspaper’s new paywall on its online obituaries for out-of-town viewers. I was reacting to the editor’s response to Steve’s initial post criticizing the move, but I figured I have a little more to say about it than just a comment.

What newspapers are doing failing to do with their obituary business model should be frighteningly familiar to them by now.
Newspapers: I think it’s very predictable that someone is going to come …

This study comparing citizen journalism and traditional newspaper reporting has drawn lots of discussion on Twitter, but is not readily available online. Below is a copy posted to Scribd by Goran Rizaov.
UPDATE: After first just putting this up to make it available, I’ve looked through it and have some thoughts.
This study is disappointing on a few levels. It’s not a study of citizen journalism and newspaper journalism. It’s a study of citizen journalism sites and newspaper sites. So that’s a bit limiting and doesn’t approach some more interesting issues of …

Last night I hosted a two-hour live chat on Twitter about Web journalism. It was the 20th weekly episode of #wjchat, where people involved or interested in online journalism gather to discuss questions around a certain topic.
Our topic this week was “How to build engaged online communities,” specifically for news sites. Of course I picked this topic because my job is to work with a team of engagement wizards to build a web community around TBD.com, a news Washington, D.C., local news site launching this summer.
If you didn’t get to …

So Google is planning to roll out later this year a micropayment system for web content called Newspass. The concept is a single, standardized system for many publishers to put a “pay to read this story” button on their web pages.
Now, I’m on record as not a fan of paywalls online (they’re often considered for the wrong reasons and with a lack of economic understanding). As bad as that is, micropayments are worse.
People who have been paying attention have learned that valuable websites are created through building a loyal community …

You have less than one year left to talk about mobile devices as the “future” of media.
A lot of people have been talking about the eventual dominance of mobile. Some people have been planning. How many are truly ready?
We’ll know next year.

I missed the weekly #wjchat Web journalism discussion last night on Twitter, which focused on whether journalism schools are still relevant, and what their roles should be today. As a J-school graduate (Missouri BJ’04) and someone who has seen a lot of recent grads enter and exit newsrooms, I have some insight.

After a long time telling everyone the name of our new DC news site was to be determined, we announced today that the site will in fact be called “TBD.”
Now I’ve always felt that a brand name itself is not that important. All brands start at reputation zero. (Think back to how meaningless the brand “Google,” or the word “googol,” was to you in 1997.) It’s nice to have a catchy name. But the brand is defined over time by the value and experiences it provides. I’m happy to now …

I’m excited to announce today that I am joining the Washington, D.C., digital news startup led by Jim Brady and Allbritton Communications. I’ll be working as Senior Community Host on Steve Buttry‘s community engagement team, developing ways to work with bloggers and users to generate, share and discuss content.
Our goal is to build an online news site for the DC metro area, and do it taking full advantage of the how the web works — with partnership not competition, users not readers, …

The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association released today its Keystone Awards for the best journalism of 2009. My Times-Tribune news reporters cleaned up first place in our division for all the major reporting categories — investigative, spot news and series. The total newsroom haul is 12 awards, also for features, sports, photos and design. This comes shortly after we won a PNA award for “Best Application of Social Networking Tools.”
Great work by the following, and those who helped make it happen:

First place, Investigative Reporting, Borys Krawczeniuk, for his stories on Bob …

A friend who recently started working for a journalism institute e-mailed me for advice about how to grow the institute’s Twitter following. My response applies to both institutes and institutions, including newspapers, and somewhat to individuals as well. So I thought I should share it.
Here is a summary of my advice to him