MediaShift

NewspaperShift

FT's Long Room Uses Velvet Rope Approach to Online Community

by Roland Legrand

What determines a successful community? The number of unique visitors or page views? The number of comments? Those metrics can be important, but there are also qualitative aspects to consider. Are the discussions on your site respectful and insightful? Are members deriving value from the community? Or are you hosting flame wars that lack intelligence and decorum? In order to...

• November 5, 2009
• 1 comment

Digging Deeper

@FakeAPStylebook Editors Explain Their Overnight Success on Twitter

by Mark Glaser

For anyone who has suffered through reading the entire AP Stylebook for a journalism class, there's a cathartic release when reading the dry wit of the @FakeAPStylebook feed on Twitter. It combines parody of the journalism usage bible with funny repartee and the absurd. That mix has brought amazing success to the people behind the feed: more than 40,000 followers...

• November 4, 2009
• 5 comments

PoliticalShift

10 Projects that Help Citizens Become Government Watchdogs

by Katie Donnelly

With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office -- and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates. Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use "the revolutionary...

• November 3, 2009
• 3 comments

Hyper-Local

TheDigitel.com Brings Human Context to Local News Aggregation

by Andria Krewson

Many news websites are working to refocus on local news, and often this means turning to automated aggregation. One hyper-local startup in Charleston, S.C., is blending links, community and visuals to try and redefine aggregation by giving it a human context. TheDigitel.com was launched by Ken Hawkins in June 2008, and recently received its first round of venture capital funding...

• November 3, 2009
• 5 comments

PoliticalShift

Politicians Use Social Media to Bypass the Press Corps

by Steven Davy

Politicians are figuring out what social media technologies like blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have to offer: direct access to voters. More than ever before, they can bypass the professional press and deliver an uncensored, unfiltered -- and unchecked -- message. "[Social media] allows me to gives my thoughts on the events of the day and the complete text of...

• November 2, 2009
• 1 comment

4MR

4 Minute Roundup: Scoble on Twitter Lists; Time, Newsweek Hurting

by Mark Glaser

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at Twitter Lists and how they allow people to group the people they follow on Twitter. Some say they might replace RSS feed readers. Robert Scoble answers Just One Question about how Twitter Lists have changed his life. Plus, magazines are hurting once again, with Time...

• October 30, 2009
• 3 comments

Legal Drama

It's Now or Never For Citizen Journalists and Federal Shield Law

by Rob Arcamona

When Sen. Charles Schumer amended the Senate's bill to exclude unpaid reporters, bloggers, and citizen journalists from a proposed federal shield law, many in the Internet and journalism community were outraged. In the wake of the change, MediaShift published an article that argued Why Bloggers and Citizen Journalists Deserve a Shield Law. [Ed. note: please see update at the bottom...

• October 30, 2009
• No comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Harold Evans Sees Bright Future for Print-on-Demand Newspapers

by Mark Glaser

Evans is the editor-at-large for The Week magazine. He has written numerous books, but his most recent is called "My Paper Chase," a fascinating memoir covering his early years as a cub reporter, copy editor and eventually editor and publisher over decades of distinguished work. He connects what happened in those early years to the changes wrought by technology and the Internet, and what he sees as he watches his wife, Tina Brown, co-found and manage The Daily Beast.

• October 29, 2009
• 1 comment

Legal Drama

Why the Future of Online Speech Depends on Net Neutrality

by Clothilde Le Coz

Late last week, the Federal Communications Commission announced it was seeking public input on draft rules that would codify and supplement existing Internet openness principles. This was another chapter in the ongoing "Net neutrality" debate. On one hand, the White House was calling for a "free and open Internet" and endorsed a bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. Yet,...

• October 29, 2009
• 6 comments

MagazineShift

Did the Web Kill Gourmet Magazine?

by Susan Currie Sivek

The murder happened in the kitchen with a laptop. That possible explanation for the death of Gourmet magazine sounds like a solution from the game Clue. The 68-year-old food magazine met its end this month when publisher Condé Nast cut it and two other magazines. Some blamed Gourmet's demise on the Internet and its theft of the print audience. It's...

• October 26, 2009
• 26 comments