On the Job RSS
Thu, 3 Apr 2008
Think You Know Your Web Traffic?
Think again. The scramble for online measures
By Posted at 09:00 AM Comments (1)
If you hopped into a time machine that spat you out sometime between 1996 and now, you could almost pinpoint the year by the words used to describe an organization’s Web traffic. Hits? That would be 1998 or so. Page views? 2003-2005. Unique visitors? 2006-2007. Odds are that 2008-2009 is going to be the year of “time spent,” as in,... Read More
Thu, 17 Jan 2008
Blogonomics
Bloggers of the world, unite!
By Posted at 09:00 AM Comments (7)
As a journalist and especially as a blogger, I sure picked a hell of a time to move to Los Angeles. No sooner did I settle here late last fall than my fellow writers in the film and television industries went on strike. I’ve never done their kind of writing in a professional capacity, but the more I’ve engaged... Read More
Mon, 4 Jun 2007
The Wiki Defense
What Floyd Landis taught the press about drug testing
By Posted at 08:30 AM
It was a partisan crowd in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and they gave their local hero, Floyd Landis, a standing ovation that went on and on. The cyclist came home in March to raise money for his campaign to clear his name. Landis shot to fame in July 2006 as only the third American to win the Tour de France,... Read More
Tue, 8 May 2007
Unspoken
Foreign correspondents and sexual abuse
By Posted at 08:30 AM
The photographer was a seasoned operator in South Asia. So when she set forth on an assignment in India, she knew how to guard against gropers: dress modestly in jeans secured with a thick belt and take along a male companion. All those preparations failed, however, when an unruly crowd surged and swept away her colleague. She was pushed... Read More
Thu, 1 Mar 2007
Dark Days
Labor loses more ground in the newsroom
By Posted at 08:30 AM
A week before Christmas, the mosaics and stained glass in the sanctuary of Congregation Rodeph Shalom framed a somber scene. About two hundred members of The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, representing white-collar workers at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, had gathered to consider a tentative contract that wasn’t exactly a holiday gift.
The three-year... Read More
When Beats Collide
When an oil refinery blew, reporters at The Houston Chronicle got a lesson in synergy.
By Posted at 08:30 AM
Virtually every story can be boiled down to one thing: money. Who has it? Who doesn’t? Who’s successfully lobbying for it? Who’s disenfranchised and deserves more of it? Economics is at the heart of most stories worth reporting, and yet it is the one subject journalists, collectively, are rarely expected to understand with any depth.
In journalism school, professors... Read More
Mon, 1 Jan 2007
The Tales We Tell
A young reporter winces when his big story lands on the Dr. Phil show.
By Posted at 08:30 AM
I first began to notice the wisp of a girl with long black hair as I drove home from work in the evenings. She was usually standing on a corner beside a gas station in downtown Annapolis, her sliver of a face pockmarked, her dark eyes locked onto each passing vehicle. Her ragged clothes and weary demeanor were conspicuous... Read More
Digg This
A top 'Digger' worries about his power to drive traffic.
By Posted at 08:30 AM
As a young journalist, I begin my day by perusing stories written by top reporters at the major newspapers, as well as the offerings of some trusted blogs. At the end of my morning reading, I take about twenty minutes to zero in on three or four pieces that are particularly engaging, and then I submit them to Digg.com,... Read More
