File this one under: Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks. Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune officially launched its ChicagoNow.com site, which brings together a network of more than 70 Chicago-related blogs written on a variety of subjects by a variety of local writers including: “a socialite, a cop, a divorce lawyer, a sports fanatic, a comedian, a gardener and more.” The site, which has been in beta form since May 26 and is billed as “Huffington Post meets Facebook,” is a good effort to grow an online presence and get voices already in the community to bring the conversation to the Tribune’s porch — and away from competitor HuffPo Chicago. But the article on the print newspaper’s Web site announcing ChicagoNow’s debut is missing one crucial thing — a link to the new blog site. Good luck with that whole, Internet thing, Tribune Co. Here’s the missing link.
The Kicker
12:05 PM - August 11, 2009
The Missing Link — How Not to Launch a Web Site
#Realtalk: This isn’t another ‘golden age’ for print - But it is one for media
Social media in smaller markets - How three social media managers deal with smaller markets and more local coverage.
A rally for laid-off Sun-Times photogs - A protest Thursday morning drew about 150 picketers to the newspaper’s headquarters
Reporting, or illegal hacking - Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Exchange Watch: California Dreaming - Low healthcare premiums on the West Coast were trumpeted as a big, good-news Obamacare story. But: “Compared to what?”
One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn’t live to write
Michael Hastings: my friend and his enemies
Hastings was fearless and shook things up - especially with his McChrystal expose. The haters in the media couldn’t forgive him
Journalism is about finding flaws and magnifying them, and surely someone who would spill massive loads of state secrets must contain a few broken parts, right?
Call it the Politico rhetorical crutch
The inside-the-beltway publication’s go-to phrase
Rachel Maddow’s tribute to Michael Hastings
“Michael was angry … he was angry about things that weren’t right in the world. He was angry with war and with loss, and that drove his reporting.”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
