Monetization of news

In the face of decreasing revenues and increasing costs, news agencies everywhere are exploring creative methods of extracting more funding from their products. Some methods are more suitable to larger organizations and others to smaller ones; each one has drawbacks, and for many, they are a gamble.  However, some of these gambles have become viable … Continued

FL#175: Shortcut from This American Life

Sharing audio with a new tool called Shortcut A new tool called Shortcut from This American Life allows listeners to share clips from episodes of This American Life. Users can select text from episode transcripts, which the app turns into short videos that can be downloaded or posted to social media. Reporting by Hailey Godburn … Continued

How do we engage news consumers in the digital world?

If you operate a nonprofit newsroom, email appeals have likely become an essential fundraising tool. Yet while recommendations for how to grow your mailing lists are readily available, it’s much harder to find good information about retaining subscribers and engaging them as active community members. As a result, many successful efforts to gain subscribers are … Continued

Tim Regan-Porter: Packs vs. Lone Wolf Newsrooms

Tim Regan-Porter, Center for Collaborative Journalism Tim Regan-Porter is the founding executive director of the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University. The Knight Foundation-funded center is a collaboration between the university, The (Macon) Telegraph, Georgia Public Broadcasting and WMUB/ESPN that trains students and serves the community using the “teaching hospital” model of education. Previously, Regan-Porter … Continued

Block by Block: Imagining the sequel(s)

The online community news leaders and their shared passion for local news was the most impressive part of Block by Block: Community News Summit 2010. More impressive — and challenging — is where local editors and publishers take it from here. A big tip of the hat to online publishers, including Susan Mernit, Andre Natta … Continued

Debunking the replacement myth

The tired idea that born-on-the-Web news sites will replace traditional media is wrong-headed, and it’s past time that academic research and news reports reflect that. Jay Rosen, the New York University professor and media critic, calls them “replaceniks,” and it’s an apt term. Rosen is talking about people who insist on evaluating new, born-on-the-web news … Continued

Michele’s list: Promising local news sites

This site list was last updated in June 2010. The list led to the establishment of Block by Block, a network of community news sites. The Michele’s List website is now available here. These are exciting, chaotic times for online news. Many startup news outlets come and go, but others are moving forward, learning and … Continued