The future begins with P: Privacy, personalization and payment

What will sustain journalism in service of democracy? Because of the rise of the Internet and the financial challenges faced by legacy media organizations, that question tugs at those who write and produce the news. Conferences, reports and columns run through the same checklist: Advertising going digital and mobile and increasingly controlled by technology platforms … Continued

How the Denver Public Library ended up owning the Rocky Mountain News archive

Among the many stories shared at the recent “Dodging the Memory Hole” forum at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, none were more gripping and significant than the tale of how the Denver Public Library ended up owning the Rocky Mountain News archive. Like any good investigative report, the backstory is important to understand because … Continued

Videos from Dodging the Memory Hole: Saving Born-digital News Content

In today’s digital newsrooms, a software/hardware crash can wipe out decades of text, photos, videos and applications in a fraction of a second. Digital archives can easily become obsolete due to evolving formats and digital systems used by modern media, not to mention media failure, bit-rot and link-rot. One recent survey found that most American … Continued

MobileVideoDIY giving away 10 free mobile gear bags to student journalism programs

Columbia, Missouri ­­— Journalism teachers are no longer limited in their ability to add video to their curriculum because of the high cost of professional cameras and gear. Using smartphones and many free supporting apps, videos can now be shot, edited and shared with the world with a quality consistent with professionals. Teachers and students … Continued

News companies as tech companies: Some venture capitalists say yes

For years, the drumbeat among venture capitalists has been that content is expensive and is not worth their investment. But we’ve seen a turnaround, and the question is, why now? The answer may simply be optimism. As Hamish McKenzie and Sarah Lacy wrote in Pando Daily of the return to content: Large funding rounds don’t … Continued

‘Losing a piece of you’: The fragility of digital news archives

In 2002, The Columbia Missourian received a shock when it lost a significant portion of its digital archives. A server crash wiped out 15 years of precious and painstaking work of journalists, photographers and editors. The data loss also weakened the paper’s link to the who, how, what, when and why of changes in mid-Missouri … Continued