Circle me on Google+Author Archives: Jeff Sonderman
Live updates from ASNE / NAA conference sessions Tuesday
I’m attending many panels at these news media gatherings in Washington, D.C. Below are some of my favorite moments. This will update as the day goes on. [View the story "Live reporting from ASNE / NAA conferences" on Storify]
CNN crew tapes its risky path out of Syria
CNN correspondent Ivan Watson and his news crew videotaped their dangerous journey leaving Syria. Says CNN photog Joe Duran: “I’ve done some tough assignments, I’d say this is the most difficult one for many reasons. … It’s been not just scary, but … Continue reading
Most unfortunate Santorum headline ever?
From AccessNorthGa.com: h/t to Roger.
Paton: ‘Crappy newspaper executives’ are biggest threat to journalism
Digital First Media CEO John Paton, in a speech to Canadian journalists: I am struggling hard to teach this old dog new tricks. Struggling to accept that much of what we know is no longer valid. And trying to come … Continue reading
White House Tweetup live blog
I was invited to attend the holiday edition White House Tweetup on Monday. In the morning we will ask questions of many administration officials including CTO Aneesh Chopra, economic adviser Brian Deese, first lady chief of staff Tina Tchen, director … Continue reading
My career v3.0: Writing and teaching mobile, social media for Poynter
A little over a year ago I blogged here about starting version 2.0 of my journalism career for an ambitious local online news startup in Washington, D.C. TBD.com has been an incredible experience, with some bumps along the way but … Continue reading
The TBD community shows what it’s about
I felt like I needed to write something about today’s announced changes at TBD, which consist of widespread layoffs of the news staff. Rather than talk about the changes themselves, which you can read about many places and will take … Continue reading
How to customize the appearance of Storify on your site
Storify is growing in popularity and being used by more and more sites to tell stories by curating social media. But while you see Storify embedded on more and more sites, you’ll notice it looks exactly the same on all … Continue reading
2010 in review: Top blog posts and tweets
As we all do when a year comes to a close, I’m taking a look back at 2010. Below are my most-read posts from this blog and my most-retweeted posts from Twitter for the year. Most-read posts My career v2.0 … Continue reading
Silencing WikiLeaks
What I have found most significant in the WikiLeaks release of U.S. diplomatic cables is not the information itself or the fact it was leaked, but the moves by governments and large corporate web services to cut off avenues of … Continue reading
Video: Watch the sessions from ONA 2010
Many of the sessions from the Online News Association conference here in Washington were streamed live online. For the benefit of those who weren’t there, or even those who were and want to watch again, I’ve pulled together as many … Continue reading
Amy on TV again
My wife Amy was interviewed on local TV news in Winchester for the local MDA lockup she organized. As always, a great performance. Continue reading
My first TBD TV appearance
Talking about Halloween trends from our user survey.
Malcolm Gladwell’s errors on social media activism
New Yorker writer and sociologish author Malcolm Gladwell has a new essay out in the New Yorker that seeks to draw a line in the sand between social networks and “real-life” relationships when it comes to producing significant social change. … Continue reading
Newspapers are getting the obit business fatally wrong
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 … Continue reading
Read the study: “Citizen Journalism Web Sites Complement Newspapers”
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 … Continue reading
Answers to 10 key community engagement questions for news sites: The best of #wjchat
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 … Continue reading
Google’s secret micropayment strategy for publishers – is it a trick?
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 … Continue reading
2011: The year mobile takes over
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? … Continue reading
Find me at Digital Capital Week (#DCweek)
Digital Capital Week kicks off with a big party tonight at and around Long View Gallery in NW. There are a ton of great events (including one hosted by TBD) over the following week for the DC area digital/tech community.
What is journalism school for?
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 … Continue reading
What “TBD” means to me
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 … Continue reading
My Career v2.0 (beta)
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 … Continue reading
Awards for great journalism
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 … Continue reading
Tips for institutions (and others) to succeed on Twitter
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 … Continue reading
Social networking recognition
I’m taking a moment to brag about a great accomplishment at our newspaper. The Times-Tribune won the Best Application of Social Networking Tools in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s 2010 Newspaper Excellence in Cyberspace awards. Here is the judges’ statement: “Great … Continue reading
Reuter’s social media policy: “You should do nothing…”
There has been much Twitter sharing of Reuter’s social media guidelines today. To add some new analysis to the discussion, I uploaded the entire text to IBM’s Many Eyes data visualization tool. Check out the “word tree” below: It shows … Continue reading
A reenactment and discussion of the Pentagon Papers saga, to benefit CJR
CJR is putting on a play about the Pentagon Papers saga this month as a fundraiser. I received this e-mail, and since I don’t see details online anywhere I’m posting it here so others can see and share: mike hoyt … Continue reading
The myth of ‘inevitable’ paid content
In almost any article examining the changing news media business, either the author or some pundit will throw out a comment like this: “Eventually, you’re going to pay for good online content.” Here’s a new and particularly blatant example from … Continue reading
A great conversation on the new news system
Spend some quality time with this: A five-part video of NYU professors Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky interviewing each other about what’s happening to news. Total runtime is about 52 minutes, broken into five segments. It’s well worth the time.
