Last week PC World editor Harry McCracken tendered his resignation after the magazine’s new CEO told him to kill a story titled “10 Things We Hate About Apple.” What a difference a week makes. Today, McCracken has his job back and that CEO has been demoted to VP of online strategy. The whole story involves […]
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One day lists will rule the world
So the other day I wrote up a list of 5 gadgets for podcast and radio producers on a budget. This was part of a “group writing project,” where hundreds of bloggers are writing top 5 lists. The contest/project has been hugely popular, partly because there’s a chance to win $1001 dollars, and partly because […]
5 gadgets for producing radio (or podcasts) on the cheap
Darren Rowse has given me a good excuse to write a post I’ve been meaning to get around to for months. He’s asking bloggers to write up “Top 5” posts as part of a group writing project. So I’m going to write that how to set up a home studio on the cheap post I’ve […]
CNN to offer free access to presidential debates
You know how they say “information wants to be free?” Well, when it comes to news, that hasn’t always been the case. Sure, there’s fair use, which lets you use small subsets of copyrighted material under certain circumstances. But if say, CNN hosted a presidential debate, they could restrict viewers from posting clips of that […]
It’s all in the presentation
I spent a fair amount of time juggling in high school and college. Not metaphorically, but literally. I can toss three balls, clubs, torches, whatever up in the air. On a good day, I can do five balls for a few seconds, but I’ve never quite managed to get very far with higher numbers. I […]
Top news sites that don’t get RSS are driving readers away
The International Center for Media and Public Agenda released a study this week examining RSS use by 19 top news sites. The results? Most just don’t get it. Or to be more precise, they don’t give it. While all 19 news sites offered an RSS feed, those feeds varied widely in utility. Some sites put […]
Search engine traffic to new sites continues to rise
Hitwise has released some data on online news trends over the last year. A few interesting facts: News aggregators such as Google News, Yahoo! News and the Drudge Report continue to be the leading source of traffic for news web sites. Google and other search engine traffic for news sites is on the rise: in […]
Local politics moves (slowly) into Web 2.0
So I’m putting together a story for NPR on the mayor’s race in Philadelphia. I’ve attended a couple of debates, interviewed a few candidates, and talked to people on the street. Today I sat down to spend some quality time with the candidate’s websites and check out their television ads. But on a whim, I […]
PC World editor quits in stand for editorial integrity
Wired’s Epicenter blog is reporting that PC World Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit after parent company IDG’s CEO Colin Crawford told him to kill a story titled “Ten Things We Hate About Apple.” The piece was meant to be light-hearted, but Crawford allegedly told McCracken it wasn’t advertiser friendly. Apparently Crawford had also been pressuring McCracken […]
Joost free-for-all
I went and checked my Joost invitation status today, and wouldn’t you know it, I’ve got 999 invites. Well, 993, since I sent out a few to anyone who entered my recent contest. Now, I don’t have the time and energy to give away 993 invites one at a time. But if anybody wants an […]
Top umpteen reasons to quit/keep your job
The internet likes lists. OK, the internet’s an inanimate network of computers and could care less what you write. But people like lists because they’re easy to digest. Give me a topic, and I’ll show you a list that’s been made into an email forward, submitted to Digg, and plastered all over the internet. But […]
Do journalists or bloggers inspire confidence?
The End of Journalism poses an interesting question about bloggers, journalists, and the public trust. If journalism is one of the least trusted professions, and people are keenly aware that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, especially blogs, where does that leave readers looking for information? The truth is, you can get […]
Joost contest ends tomorrow
This is just a quick reminder. If you’re in the market for a Joost invite, my contest ends Wednesday at midnight. I’m giving away my last two invitations. All you have to do to enter is: Click on this link for my contest page. Leave a message in the comments on that page. If you […]
ABC News redesign adds more video, user comments, and citizen journalism
ABC News is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its website this May by launching a new site design. The site design is a bit cleaner, and has some nice features like icons next to each headline to easily let you know if there are photos, videos, visitor polls, or just text. The site also makes […]