Cancer strikes again too close to my home

Was it playing in the neighborhood park? Did we expose them to something on joint vacations? Or feed them bad food at family meals?

My daughter and I joke, coming up with all sorts of reasons as to why a cousin who just turned 25, also has cancer. Humor helps us.

But we also have questions: Second opinions? Tests to see if it has spread? How many cases of people your age has the doctor handled? Some we share, but some we hold on to, knowing it is too overwhelming to hear everything at once.

We remember the newly diagnosed woman being amazed that my daughter got out of bed every day, found things to laugh about and carried on. "I could never do that, she said. Now, she will.

I watch my daughter log onto the Internet, heading to her favorite cancer sites. That's how I learn she's been answering questions on a forum. She says her experiences now can help others necause so many of the others with camcer had it long ago. As she shares some of her current answers, I learn about some early fears and worries that escaped my mother radar.

Finally, I have to ask her to stop. No more questions. No more guesses. No more fears. I need space to breathe, I need sleep to rewire my brain. I need to pretend life is wonderful for just a little while.

She lets the three yelpers out for the last dog run of the night, turns and asks me why.

Yeah, why?

55th movie critic gone; the honor of names

An email alerted a blogger that another movie critic
will no longer review movies for $$.

What I like best is the list that ends the post. The names, with what publication, the date and why, helps me recall the people behind the stark numbers.

Is anyone building a list of Michigan journalists who have been bought out, laid off, leaving or left? I remember when writers publically said goodbye to the community. Or an editor would do a roundup of farewells.

Ex-Newhouse reporter sees Virgin Mary in coffee stain

Jonathan Tilove was a reporter for more than 30 years, most of them at the Newhouse bureau in Washington. He's been bouncing around lately as one news operation after another has given up on reporting in Washington D.C.

Over on Romenesko's share of Poynter Online, he shares a photo of the coffee stain that looks like the Virgin Mary to him as well as his tale of traveling from news organization to news organization to .... Now this! New career? Or is someone pulling my leg again.

And oh, how folks are talking about this one in Oh Good God ... and Vision of Mary saves journalist can start you off.

...and who is that patron saint of journalism anyways? And do buyouts, layoffs and kickouts include compenstation for depression counseling?

Related posts:
Search uncovers danger

Speaking of swine, did you see this Pearl?

I routinely use bits of comics in cards that I make. I admire cartoonists for their ability to sum up the complex simply. Did you see this on newspaper experimentation?

Actually, the latest Sunday funnies had quite a field day with newspapers. Besides Pearls before Swine, newspapers popped up in Garfeld, and Crankshaft. Do you think cartoonists are worried about a shrinking number of smaller newspapers on fewer days.

One last thing on swine flu. We are armed with a prescription just in case the flu symptoms strike and we can't get into a doctor. We got it the day we watched how quickly a sore toe became infected. (Oh, MRSA how I hate you.) Within two hours of thinking her toe hurt, my daughter was able to see a doctor and get started on a treatment that brought her fever down enough that Tuesday's chemo was done.

There even was a bonus - one of the nurses on the toe visit recently had a masectomy so that visit became part support group meeting.

Search uncovers danger: Syracuse Communications School

Imagine my surprise when an an item from The Web Town Observer blog reported an upcoming name change at Syracuse University.
My first reaction was that it seemed odd that a place that benefitted so much from the family would choose now when the family business is in turmoil to yank Si Newhouse's name off its School of Communication.

I know that journalism schools are trying to signal that they are with the times and being named after a non-print person certainly could help.

But since naming honors usually involve donations I wanted to know how much the new honoree donated. That's when I confirmed the whole entry was only clever writing.

Oh well, the searches gave me a chance to really explore the Syracuse site.

Obits by phone comes up in Delta College's FM Forum

Michigan editor John Hiner tells a radio audience of a plan to make obituary information available via phone.

The statement came during a discussion of changes coming to The Bay City Times, The Flint Journal (where I once worked) and The Saginaw News.

Hiner, who serves as executive editor of the three Booth (Advance Publications) newspapers tells readers to watch for an upcoming announcement in comments under a video recently posted

(One of the last things I did for The Journal was shut down a service that delivered local weather, lottery numbers, music of local bands, breaking news and other information by phone.

Still working when I left was Newsline, a service through the National Federation of the Blind that converted all editorial newspaper content and paid obituaries to audio files on demand. Those files also were retrieved via a touchtone phone. Earlier, The Journal had worked with a Flint non-profit that first organized volunteers who read the news.

Michigan editor on replacement staff in Bay City, Flint, Saginaw

Michigan editor John Hiner responds to my questions on an ad for Valley Publishing
and replacement staff at three newspapers in comments attached to a post explaining upcoming changes at The Flint Journal (where I once worked), The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times.

An April 24 post here started the conversation.

freefromeditors: Flint Journal pension is frozen, not terminated

Todd Seibt helped clear up some confusion over pensions from The Flint Journal in  
freefromeditors: Pension is frozen, not terminated

Seibt explained he was told that the plan stands, will be funded but is frozen. The paperwork employees and retirees received is required b the government and explains "what COULD happen, not what WILL happen."

Head to Pension is frozen, not terminated for the rest of the explanation, including an explanation of the sources.

The Flint Journal is part of the Advance Publications chain of newspapers.

Advance editors weigh in on fate of newspapers

Editors of two newspapers in the Advance Publications (Newhouse newspapers group) are out on the web about the plight of newspapers.

Oregonian executive editor Peter Bhatia recently was on a panel that discussed what happens to democracy if newspapers die. On Sunday, an edited version of his prepared thoughts are published in "Plight of newspapers."

Bhatia doesn't paint a rosy picture, but he shares what he calls the uncovered story:

"No one really knows if newspapers will go away. No one really knows where technology will lead media and information. No one can predict the future, because the technology is moving so quickly and it -- not talking heads -- will determine the future of newspapers."

He also explores the difference between newspapers and newspaper journalism. You should be able to listen to the panel discussion through Wednesday. The edited text of his prepared remarks will be online longer and is worth reading as he explains why

"The Oregonian isn't going away. There are important and major differences between our situation and other papers you've heard about or read about."

Meanwhile, back in Michigan the online editor of the mother Booth newspaper spoke with journalism students at Cornerstone University. Meegan Holland shared why she believes the future of the Grand Rapids Press remains strong.

She also shares how the newspaper is learning to use Google, Twitter and live chats to effectively engage readers and draw them to the online home of what is now Michigan's largest daily newspaper. She also told the students that how to pay for the online news is a struggle.

“We committed the original sin of giving it away for free,” Holland said, adding that readers now feel entitled to the news. “Once one paper did, we all had to and we can’t go back now.”

Holland, who headed up the Booth Newspaper's Lansing Bureau before it was dissolved, told the journalism students about recent success and challenges in the article.

She pointed to the newspaper's use of Twitter, a micro-blogging Web site, for giving eraders aneasy way to communicate directly with Press editors.

“We really blew off Twitter for a long time until we realized the power of it,” she said. “We’ve started conversing with people … and it’s given a face — a Twitter face — to the newspaper.”

By the way, one of the strongest Tweeters from the newspaper GRGonzo, who has covered a number of events live via Twitter and used it to solicit input on stories for several years.

The battle for survival goes on.

Those at Bar Camp News Innovation pass along thoughts on Web ninjas, other topics

A bunch of folks gathered in Philadelphia on Saturday to discuss innovations in news at BarCamp Philly.

Many shared what was happening via Twitter, live streaming and live blogging. Some folks put together videos. And I'm sure once they catch up on sleep, we'll see more posts like this one from Karl Martino.

I've started collecting links to over at Publish2, using the tags #BCNIPhilly and news innovation. (#BCNIPhilly was the hash tag over on Twitter.)

And I hope to pull together some of those thoughts for ideas I'm most interested in - like the Web Ninjas, "a rapid development team focused on creating innovative ways to present news and information." The ninjas shared some of what they are doing at the Washington Post.

Steve King'spresentation is online and Greg Linch liveblogged the session.

Joining King, the "editor of innovations," were Dan Berko, a developer new to the team, and Jesse Foltz, interface developer.

The presentation included King showing off TimeSpace, (see illustration and check out a MediaShift post for an idea of the power of ) the interactive map showing news by location. CKrewson tweeted "TimeSpace sold for the first half of the year for just under $1M - the work of 3 full-time staffers. "

King also talked about the new version On Being series. how it works with the newsroom and web operation being separate and working with the business team/advertisers.

Another tweet from @ckrewson: Visual comments around @washingtonpost.com's OnBeing videos - this feels like the new Web grammar. #bcniphilly (VERY cool also).

I "heard" from several places that folks liked hearing that removed comments are still seen by commenter and only the person who put the comment up. Definitely worth checking out.

One person noted that the feature is using django for comments. Not sure if this tweet from @ckrewson is related to that topic, but I hope so as commenting is so important to building community. Chris Krewson reported that King said "We build in a way that's a re-usable framework - so we can scale to our other sites,' but then maybe franchise out."

@howardweaver tweeted: "WaPo ninja mission = do cool stuff and make it pay."

The web team, which is separate from the newsroom, works closely with the sales staff. It was reported out that the "Washington Post team sells cool techie projects to advertisers together. Journalism/developers show off, sales closes the deal." That attitude is explained more in a Cujo's Byte post on the relationship between editors and advertisers.

The team does try to let sales know what's going on as the projects are developed, so that sponsorship might be possible before launch.

A tweet from @ckrewson: "New firewall - 'Advertising knows I don't need to be in the room when they cut that deal. So I'm protected.

Several folks said they noticed the money angle of the news business came up more throughout the day than it has at other news/journalism events. But I think @etanowitz summed it up nicely: "as journalists, we all need to think about revenue even though it freaks lots of us out. no way around it."

It's not all $$ at the Washington Post, though.

King is quoted as saying that "if one of five projects doesn't sell, that's OK; still do cool stuff, not just make stuff to bring $.

King also talked about integrating with the newsroom and how the relationship is changing. If he needs something, he walks around newsroom to ask. Also, they have monthly presentations to show something cool on Web, which they might not even get to, and then something they could do really easily. Finally, they show something they've built -- in the middle.

King also is quoted as saying non-web reporters have been doing a lot more Web stuff ... there's a lot of shaky video, which can sometimes be used to complement piece ... they rarely provide the kind of video their Web team videojournalists typically do.

Sounds interesting. But then the whole BarCamp does. A big thank you to the folks who took the time to go and the time to share. I enjoyed earning another credit at the college of change.

Revenue 2.0

Check out this SlideShare Presentation from Matt Mansfield - presented at SND Orlando Invent the Future Summit April 17, 2009. Also discussed at BCNI Philly Saturday

Revenue 2.0

View more presentations from SNDupdate.

Company Confidential Reporters Jobs in Ann Arbor, Bay City, Flint, Saginaw MI - MLive.com

Free From Editors found the Valley Publishing jobs ad online if you want to see it.

The post headline is the ad's online head.



Sent via iPhone (which 'corrects' me all the time ...and I don't
always catch ... sorry)

Why is Valley Publishing seeking help?

Updated 5/3/09

I am very confused about what's happening with three Michigan newspapers. See, in March I read The Flint Journal to lay off 82, and reorganization plans for the Flint newspaper, Bay City Times and Saginaw News.

The April 24th Flint newspaper has an ad (see thumbnail) seeking full- and part-time reporters, part-time sports reporters, sales representatives, classified sales professionals, and customer support representatives. The same ad, which includes the logos of the three newspapers but asks that replies be sent to hr@valleypublishing.com, seeks a full-time interactive media manager and a full-time interactive media coordinator.

I can't find an online version of the ads as of 11 p.m. Friday or I'd let you see them for yourself. I think that's wrong on two counts. First, if you're seeking people with online skills shouldn't you look online too? Second, the company that asks firms to pay extra to put their jobs online should model the desired behavior by putting their ads online. (The ad was found the next day, with a publication date saying it was published April 24. It's was not up on May 3, most likely because such ads are usually 7 day buys.)

The company is described as a "Mid-Michigan Publishing and Internet News Company." Based on the hr email address, I assume it is Valley Publishing, which was created in 2003 when Advance Publications' Saginaw News and Bay City News decided to share a printing press. The building is in Bay City. A published report said 141 employees worked there in 2008.

By the way, a Great Lakes Bay Area publishing company has been advertising for nearly a week for a graphic designer(s). The headline says designer, but the first line says immediate openings for creative individuals, so I am not sure how many positions. The replies go to a blind box at The Saginaw News.

My favorite line in that ad is the one saying be comfortable working "with shifting priorities and schedules." Isn't that necessary to get any regular paycheck these days.

Oh well, I'll send off a few emails and try a few calls because I am curious. It is times like these I wish the industry was more transparent, or at least covered by a reporter.

About the updates: I published this entry before I added links to supporting articles. Those are linked now.

About the deleted comments: That's a whole 'nother post. Basically, I don't believe in anonymous slams and I do believe in fairness.

Daughter blogs on happy dance

My daughter gives her update in happy dance as she inches closer to the end of another round of the cancer fight. She describes her mood as cheerful, but I have seen better cheerful.

She did smile a bit at the news that a five-month job search may have landed her boyfriend a 20-hour a week job. Not easy in a market where jobs disappear faster then lemonade on a hot Michigan day.

Big week coming up - the tumor board reviews her case Monday to determine how much of the breast will go. Tuesday is chemo day plus new job day. I have 2 deadlines for freelancing jobs, a need to unscramble the latest online mess that ended my eight prescriptions nine months early and a date with more financial forms for a parent and daughter. (Yes, the joys of paying for health care in America. But I am trying not to rant, so I will stop)

MacLeese, Moore pops up in Cavanaugh's blog

The colorful language and life of Al MacLeese crops up in the latest post on Peter Cavanaugh's blog.

The line describing him as "a grizzled old time newspaper rogue" was so true and sent me down a memory lane. But it's late and the day was long and bumpy so I'll share another time.

The Radio Free Flint post also talks about Michael Moore. Pure coincidence that it was posted on Moore's 55th birthday.

And Moore and MacLeese together. Well, as Cavanaugh says:

"In terms of chemistry, there was one additional perspective. Al MacLeese thought Michael Moore was an “ignorant punk” and Michael regarded Al as a
“typically untalented Flint Journal lap-dog.” Both had often expressed their views in print. For what more could I hope?"

Perhaps it's time for a scotch on the rocks.

Childhood can prepare you for anything

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol, 1968

Some answers are unexpected. The question was why is Howard Bragman so good at crisis management and helping people become famous. The answer:

"I grew up fat, Jewish and gay in Flint, Mich. It made me a very empathetic guy."

Who knew that was a career preparation path?

But that childhood sent Bragman into a successful career as a publicist and author, according to an article in JewishJournal.com.

And, since the world has changed so that anyone can be famous for 15 minutes, the man whose clientele includes Stevie Wonder and Ed McMahon is working to ensure people know how to build the right image.

"If you do something stupid in public, somebody’s going to capture it on their phone and it’s going to get out there."

That's just one of the reasons why Bragman cautions folks to learn to whisper before shouting out on Twitter or Facebook.

He's learned:

"A publicist no longer has the luxury of control; what a publicist can do is manage."

And, if you can't afford a publicist at least buy his new book, "Where’s My Fifteen Minutes?" It isdesigned to help everyone build their own images - in Hollywood or out.

"I have lots of examples for people who might be a lawyer, or a community activist, or own a small business. You still need to get your message out. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the Flint Journal or you do it on Twitter."

Read the Jewish Journal article for more background and advice from the Flint native who founded Fifteen Minutes, where he specializes in entertainment, crisis management and the gay/lesbian market. Here's another bio and a link to a Flint Expatriates post on him.

That post also has a Flint Journal story you'll like, especially if you've ever tried to tell your grandmother what you do for a living.

And that unexpected answer? A search of the Internet shows it is a line that Bragman has used countless times. Still, now I know a little bit more about Flint.

California project another one for the radar

I should have known when I checked out the New Voices grants issued the other day that the Oakland Local had transplant Susan Mernit involved. It's just one more reason I'll be watching the updates on the hyperlocal journalism efforts in this grant-funded program.

Susan worked with Jeff Jarvis back in the mid1990s, designing the first "newspaper" site for Advance Publications. I put newspaper in quotes because nj.com was a pretty independent effort despite the Advance-owned New Jersey Star-Ledger right there.

In web time, the 1990s was a long time ago so don't expect aother nj.com. Here's how Susan described her Knight Foundation-funded project in a blog post:

"So what's the funding for? It's to kick start Oakland Local, a new site for Oakland.
Oakland Local will be a daily-updated Web site and mobile service with a focus on environment, climate, transportation, housing, local government and community activism in Downtown, Uptown, North Oakland, West Oakland, Fruitvale, Lake Merritt, and the Dimond District.

We will have an editor, a publisher and three paid part-time reporters who will produce content, along with community contributors. We'll be very mobile-friendly and the site will geotag content to an XML data map, encourage users to interact via cell phones and employ a range of social networking tools to surface, share and make discoverable so much of the amazing organizing and activism in Oakland."

She describes the goal:

"The vision here is to marry a deeper aggregation of community and non-profit content with more considered, analytical coverage of a narrow set of issues that have huge resonance for so many people in the O--and see what we can learn from the mix.

"There is so much happening that needs to be better surfaced--and an opportunity to blend organizational work from so many of the groups engaged in creating change and policy--and to actually cover it as well."

You can get an idea of why I'll watch what Susan does in this post "Being a generalist, staying focused" (though if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know I've been watching Susan and her inspiring work for awhile)
Possible related posts:

• Michigan experiment in hyperlocal gets grant
• Talent will outlast jobs, careers
• Facebook's 25 things
• No roll of blogs, but I read 'em

News not dead, only newspapers - panelists

Update: A video of the discussion is posted with the article.

A student at Central Michigan University covered the panel discussion on newspapers in Michigan. Catch the article online to learn that news isn't dead. Here's background from a previous entry from me.

Michigan experiment in hyperlocal gets grant

A Michigan effort at community journalism grabbed a New Voices grant today. Only 8 of 204 possible projects aimed at news in specific geographic communities were selected for grants up to $25,000 over two years. (No, I'm not missing a any 0s.)

The press release describes the Michigan project:

GrossePointeToday.com - Wayne State University’s journalism program has recruited more than 20 displaced, retired and otherwise available professional journalists to write and edit content from citizen contributors and online journalism students at WSU and the University of Michigan-Dearborn for a full-service news and information site about Detroit’s five Grosse Pointes.

Professionals have pledged $20,000 in seed money to support the first year of the program. The site will receive a 30 percent commission on all advertising sold by a 35-year-old, highly successful community directory called “The Little Blue Book.“

It's a project headed up by Ben Burns and Nancy Nall Derringer, who has been blogging some about her efforts in posts like Boats against the current and V.2.0. Oh, even My plea.

Another grant goes to what could be a competitor to an Advance Publications effort.

Bill Bostic, who was a free-lancer for the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News, and founder of the Linglestown (Pa.) Gazette, will expand his model to develop a network of four to six independently operated hyperlocal Web sites, to be updated daily, for communities in suburban Harrisburg, Pa. Backyard News will seek joint ventures to provide local content for the region’s daily newspaper and radio and TV stations. The project will also work to deliver content to cell phones.

Who can "reboot the news" or create a supply store that will survive financially?

An earlier version of this post appeared on Wired Journalists

Can the geeks and the last remaining news organizations create something new?

It's a question that Robert Scoble asks in a blog post that lists 15 things newspapers gave away for free and another 12 that they probably will.

Geeks and journalists are not a new combination. Northwestern University's journalism program got a grant to train programmers to be journalists. Techies and journalists are propelling projects like Spot.us and Printcasting and everyblock.com

It's the tools of the net that let even those who can't travel to learn what's happening around the world and drop in on conversations like the "Rebooting the News" conversation between Jay Rosen and Dave Winer and follow some of the resulting discussion in the FriendFeed room Rebooting the News. The podcasts are much more satisfying then the 140-character limits of Twitter or even FriendFeed conversations between Jay and Dave.

Rosen has been a journalism professor since 1986 at New York University, involved in projects like NewsAssignment.Net and on the Wikipedia Advisory Board. He's written about civic journalism and blogs at PressThink.

Scoble describes Winer as "a geek that helped either birth or bootstrap all sorts of publishing technologies including blogging, RSS, OPML, XML-RPC." And Winer has had a long time interest in the news business, especially in how it develops online. Check Winer's post "how newspapers tried to invent the web or "blogs have a job" or check the reboot of journalism for a good catchup.

The series of Winer-Rosen conversations now has a name, Rebooting the News, "because it's got the technical side with rebooting, and boot is the first part of bootstrapping. And news is what it's all about," Winer says.

This week the two talk about the digital migration of journalists, and curmudgeons. Also Max Headroom and Oprah on Twitter. (Isn't everyone?)

Catch up on the previous podcasts:

• April 12, 2009 mp3 - business models and the future of journalism come up.
  

• March 29, 2009 mp3 The "Blog Brothers" talk again, including some on the Huffington Post's $1.75 million investigative fund, and Rosen's role. Here's a tease:
  

"Just as modern professional journalism was optimized for low participation by the users, readers, viewers, modern professionalized politics was optimized for low participation by voters."

• March 22, 2009 mp3 It's a little lighter in this version of "Click and Clack the Blog Brothers."

• March 15, 2009 mp3 The second interview makes Twitter the focus, including a debate on suggested Twitter users. Check Winer's post for four links mentioned.

• March 8, 2009, mp3 Winer says in the post on the recording they talk about curmudgeons, then on to rebooting journalism, Meet The Press, and the broken government. Also, Who wants to be Daniel Victor's Assignment Editor and Why Rush is Wrong and Winer's own Point of View is Everything.

• Or go way back to Sept. 8, 2008 for an earlier Rosen- Winer podcast. It's politics, though, as Winer explains why in this post.
  

Scoble follows up his listening to the April 19 podcast with a list of what newspapers gave away:

Classified advertising to Craig’s List, photography to Flickr and the distribution of news and the ranking. Most of all, the industry gave away News. News of all types - local and business; front page and small-community information like births, deaths and birthdays; new like crowd-sourced and fun like astrology, comics and restaurant reviews. Oh, and traffic reports.

Scoble even links to what replaced the items newspapers gave away before sharing what they still have to lose: Distribution system, understanding of local community, journalists with time for long-term projects/stories; objectivity and accountability; sources and resources; relationships, and systems for archiving & aggregating.

He also suggests newspapers have:

Meal left #6 (partially eaten): they have brands that many people who are older, and therefore understand politics, business, sports, news, influence, wealth, and many other topics, love a lot more than Facebook or Twitter.

He even praises curators, known in some circles as editors:

"People who understand the news. Understand their communities. Who pick the top stories and who add understanding onto them with photos, graphics, headlines, etc. Believe me, I’ve been watching most bloggers and most of them suck at packaging their stories."

Unfortunately, Scoble does not think they will hang on to their resources long. He'd like to see the geeks and newsies get together to plan something better - and monetized - than Facebook and Twitter.

Meanwhile, Tim Windsor on the Nieman Lab also shares what he got from the latest recording.

Ignore Windsor's post title, though, as Winer says in the comments:

"I don’t want to save journalism, I want to reboot it. That’s why I got started blogging in 1994 and podcasting in 2004 and RSS somewhere in between.

As I said above, I don’t think the current system is functional, it lets too many things through the cracks and encourages a kind of footsy between the reporters and the people they cover and it exempts too many influential people from coverage (e.g. the employers of the reporters).

The people you serve want to save journalism , not me. I want a fresh start."

David Muir listened to the latest, liking the way Rosen described community and agreeing that change is needed, but disliking calling all of this the downfall of journalism. In Probate of the Fourth Estate, Muir says:

"Things do change, so roll with it."

His comments on community and even journalism are not surprising giving previous posts like "Local content means high touch" and "the news is dead; long live the news!" and "Comfort in media."

John Zhu listened to two podcasts and blogged about it, finding the discussion on suggested Twitter users amusing.

But back to Scoble, who has zeroed it on one of the challenges: How to make money online. In his post, he suggests looking at the buying process and how news business might effectively intersect with that.

He gives suggestions for what a good local search engine could do, why movie feedback in real time would work, how to really share news (actually archive it) and give product feedback in a meaningful way.

His post reminds me of a recent one from Chris Brogan who suggested supply stores I need right now. There was the Storyteller Farm, the Stat Hunters and Promotion Swarm. He was careful to point out he didn't need a particular person with those skills; he needed "pirates who come complete with their own sailing ship, crew, and battle tactics. "

I'm off to listen to those Winer-Rosen podcasts again.
future of journalism