Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 9:12 am. 0 comments
In preparation for our little chat Saturday at Indiana University in Bloomington, here are some links:
People you should be following on Twitter:
Matt Mansfield, president of the Society for News Design and professor at the Medill School of Journalims at Northwestern University.
Jay Rosen, press critic, writer, and professor of journalism at New York University.
Yuri Victor, Product Development Manager for Gannett Digital and former Editor in Chief of The Purdue Exponent. Also, former Online Editor for the Northwest Indiana Times.
Jeff Jarvis, former television critic for TV Guide and People magazine, creator of Entertainment Weekly Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner.
David Cohn, founder of Spot.us and other amazing things.
Dave Winer, web pioneer/media hacker.
William Couch, multimedia/interactive designer/editor/person of amazing things for USA Today. He sends out good links from time to time and also keeps you up to date on what he’s having for dinner.
Tyson Evans, Interactive Engineer for The New York Times.
And of course…
Me, if you want to.
Jon Sweeney, Director of Digital News for The Indianapolis Star, and my boss.
IndyStar.com, our live Twitter updates. We also have news feeds, but this one is actually controlled by an online person.
Note: I’ll be editing/updating this throughout the week as the conference approaches.
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:38 am. 0 comments
Blog more. I’m going to be doing that. For those of you who might check this from time to time, I will be back. In force. Soon. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @josephjames and @joeymarburger.
Posted 11 months ago at 2:39 pm. 0 comments
It seems the biggest problem of Web 2.0 profits is just that… Profits.
In the latest issue of Technology Review, there is an article that you should read: Social Networking is not a business
What I gained from the article is the idea that ads on sites such as Facebook don’t attract the “clicks” that corporations are looking for. And with all of the ad blockers, short attention spans, etc., those clicks probably aren’t coming.
Television had this same problem when TiVo came out. “Oh crap! People can fast forward through commercials! We’re doomed.” Not so much.
My philosophy is the old saying “If you build it they will come.” If you have a great ad on the site, something non-intrusive, something creative, the clicks will come. I’ve actually gone back on TiVo and watched commercials because they are good. Bizarre? No. Attention grabbing.
Viral marketing is king online but so is content. The phrase “content is king” applies everywhere. If you have a well-built ad with great content that attracts the user you will see those clicks. And no, I’m not talking about a leaderboard with a gopher saying “Stomp the gopher!”
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 1:24 pm. 0 comments
New photo blog: http://joeyphotos.wordpress.com
Posting mobile photos from the iPhone.
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 12:32 pm. 0 comments
Got the iPhone wordpress app going. Time to start mobile blogging. Yay! More pointless chatter…and dog photos. We’re lounging today.
Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 6:41 pm. 0 comments
I’m happy to announce I have enter the realm of homebrewing.
Three weeks in. Three beers going. I started with an extract IPA and a wheat. I brewed my first all grain batch today. Bottled the IPA on Sunday and did a little pretasting today. It’s surprisingly good.
The wheat is going in the bottles tomorrow. It’s a Bavarian wheat with blueberries, blackberries and sage. Did some pretasting on that… Wow! Could be a winner.
But, the real rock star is coming up… Stout. I did an all grain batch with some special ingredients. I won’t divulge the recipe yet though. And yes, I will post pictures very soon. My brewing rig is growing by the day.
What an awesome hobby! Check back soon for updates and recipes. The blog is going to turn into my brew log for a bit.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 6:29 pm. 1 comment
Pretty much everyone knows newspapers are struggling. The topic was even featured in a Simpsons’ episode. But one thing I haven’t heard much about in the ways of struggling media is the problem of staffing.
Newspapers, and other media, are undoubtedly dealing with the fact that readership is declining. Older readers, in blunt terms, are dying off and younger readers just aren’t that interested. So what has been done? Online. Well, most older readers don’t want anything to do with the Web and most younger readers prefer sites such as YouTube and Digg not their local newspaper’s site. That’s another topic though. What I’m getting at here is that this mirrors the one thing that could be the spear in the side of the newspaper industry: employees.
I was talking with a friend’s father the other day and he said something about our generation, mainly referring to his son who is not in the newspaper industry. He said, “Your generation doesn’t want an entry-level job. You all just want to be CEOs.” I think he meant this in a somewhat negative and somewhat positive way. He seemed to be saying that it’s great a lot of the youth in my generation are motivated but it’s also a problem that we’re impatient with a low threshold of boredom when it comes to work and jobs.
I know I am a rare breed. As a youngin’, I love newspapers. Both print and online. But what I’ve been noticing lately, take the Washington Posts recent round of “buy outs,” is that newsrooms are miniature markets of our readership. The older, seasoned veteran journalists are either retiring, being bought out, or sadly, dying. Technically, it’s great for business because newspaper companies can hire younger, less experienced journalists for less money. This makes the accountants and shareholders happy but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Most fresh out of college journalists aren’t going to walk into a newsroom and win a Pulitzer the next year. Duh.
Yes, I am one of those younger and cheaper employees. I love what I do though and I feel like I do a good job. Yet, one thing I learned in college from my many writing and journalism classes is that a lot of my peers, to put it straight, sucked. Most of them got into journalism/liberal arts because they “didn’t know what else to do and it seemed easy.” Well, it’s not easy. Most find this out the hard way, which is why media/journalism has a high turn over (burn out) rate. And these are the kids being hired for, survey says, “less money.”
Sure, most prestigious papers aren’t going to hire people like this. I mean I’ve been told by many newspaper people that their paper “only hires the best.” Now I haven’t been at a ton of newspapers but I can tell you that based on where I’ve been “only” seems to fall short. However, I work with some of the most talented and fantastic journalists in the country. That’s due in part to me being at the biggest paper in Indiana and working for the #1 Web site in the state and all of the Gannett corporation. What I’m worried about is the future, as most hardcore newspaperites are. I see the die hard young journalists come around and it’s great. But will they be able to match the number of spots being vacated by the generation before us? Probably not.
My generation wants to work on the cutting edge for big name companies and make tons of money. Sure, not all of us think that way and I’m sure plenty of kids are satisfied with any job at all. Yet that’s the feeling I’m getting as I talk to my peers in the industry and my friends working in others. So what’s the solution? Newspapers need to add another item to the list. We should not only be trying to attract young readers but young employees as well. And not purely because they are cheaper. We should hire them because as talented as your editor or publisher is, he or she isn’t going to live forever.
Innovation can come from anybody as long as the person feels they have something to innovate with. After reading a story in Inc. magazine about an old company reinventing itself, I thought of something:
Don’t think of the newspaper industry as dying. Think of it as a 300-year-old start-up. Give or take a few years of course.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 8:31 pm. 0 comments
Sadly, this is my new addiction. I’ve had two of them today.
I’m not a huge iced coffee fan, but Starbucks somehow slipped its sultry hand into the Joey glove and changed my mind. So, I suggest you try one if you’re looking for a summer time jolt.
(Ahem, I’ll take my advertising check now. Ahem.)
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 6:22 pm. 0 comments
Spain is being the United States in pledged download numbers. Once G-Dub gets around to “The Google” on the “Interweb” no Spaniard will be safe…
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 7:40 pm. 1 comment
I am a proud employee of The Indianapolis Star but I must say leading up to the Indianapolis 500 reminds me why I work here. Great. Great. Great. Coverage from our entire team. I am consistently amazed by our production from reporting to graphics to design to online (no, not myself).
I really have to bow to my fellow employees. We had great lap-by-lap coverage today for the 500 and we rocked out online and in print every day leading up to the race. It all started with a few meetings more than a month ago. I was still new and I was sitting in a conference room with some people I already admired before I came to work here (just comes with the business I guess).
We tackled this year’s race from all fronts, not to say we haven’t in the past. But, this is the first year I’ve been here. I grew up around the Indy 500. I always acknowledge it as “cool” and “something to do in May.” Now, I have a whole new understanding and a whole new lingo, knowledge, appreciation, etc., for Indy car racing.
Enough of my ramblings though. Here are some links to our online coverage, interactives, galleries, and more. I must say though, when I held our print special sections in my hand at home, I wanted to walk around the neighborhood and let fellow subscribers know to check it out. Designer Phil Mahoney, who sits a few desks over from me, poured some time into them and they turned out awesome. Not to say he was the only one. Everyone did a top-notch job. Thanks guys!
Links time:
IndyStar.com - Great special web design we used for the race. We had a lap-by-lap race tracker that auto-refreshed in the right-top rail. Great for those not at the race or not able to watch it on TV thanks to the blackout.
Panoramic view of the starting grid - Awesome interactive by our multimedia editor Matt Dial. He shot along the horizon and brought the photos together using Zoomify.
IndyStar.com/500 - Our Indy 500 online special section. It includes all of our race coverage, galleries, videos, interactives and more. Good stuff.
Check back for updates on this blog as I am sure I will update with more and more great stuff.
