#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – comprehensive Twitter guide for journalists

The Knight Digital Media Center has produced an incredibly in depth tutorial which offers both a basic introduction to Twitter and its many uses for journalists and a series of detailed guides on specific techniques to make the most of the platform. This includes how to increase engagement, carry out advanced searches, and even draw up newsroom guidelines on how it should be used professionally.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Knight Center: What the Waco Tribune-Herald has learned from its premium content model

Four months ago, the Waco Tribune-Herald launched a premium content payment model, keeping breaking news, obituaries and other sections free but introducing levies on more in-depth work.

Knight Digital Media Center blogger Michele McLellan has posted an interview with Tribune-Herald editor Carlos Sanchez, and although he can’t divulge the numbers it sheds some light on how communities may respond to such a model.

Q. How do you decide what content is for online subscribers only?

Our strategy from the beginning was to keep things as simple as possible. Generally, if it’s a wire story that is available at other websites, it’s free; if it is something locally produced, it’s behind a pay wall.

There are broad exceptions: staff written blogs, breaking news and, most important, obituaries (are free). Our thinking behind the blogs was that our reporters could offer more of a social media feel, with links to content behind the pay wall. Ideally, it would replicate the kind of banter that we hear every day in a newsroom in which the story behind the story becomes just as fascinating as the story itself.

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OJR: Journalism’s problem isn’t the internet or advertising, it’s attitude

What’s the biggest problem facing the journalism industry? The online explosion of content and competition, jobs cuts, the advertising crisis? According to the Online Journalism Review’s Robert Niles it’s none of these – but instead the attitude of some journalists.

There are too many journalists, he says in this post discussing the Knight Digital Media Center News Entrepreneur Boot Camp in May, who are “wallowing in a culture of failure” and he urges more to step off of the familiar pathway in journalism.

You won’t be the first journalist to do this. That means that others are available to help show you the way. But you’ll need to start listening to these new voices, and tune out the pessimism, frustration and even scolding you might hear from the colleagues you leave behind.

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iPhone 4 a ‘serviceable web video camera in breaking news situations’

Len De Groot, from the Knight Digital Media Center, has a useful first-hand account of using the iPhone 4 for reporting news.

Having taken his new iPhone out with him at lunch to put its tools to the test, he agreed it would prove a valuable tool for reporters.

Suddenly, the iPhone can be a serviceable web video camera in breaking news situations or unplanned interviews. It allows you to shoot and edit video, add lower thirds and titles and upload directly to the web.

It will not replace professionals and professional equipment, however. It fits into “the best camera is the one you have on you” category.

In his post he discusses his experiences of audio quality, uploading a full HD video to quicktime and then getting the clips onto youtube and vimeo as viewing platforms.

See the full post here…

Related reading on Journalism.co.uk: iPhone 4 developments herald a mobile future for news

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Knight Digital Media Center: Mobile news ‘is not internet lite’

The Knight Digital Media Center’s News Leadership 3.0 blog has a post rounding up the best advice from a recent conference on mobile news. Top tips from newsrooms and editors already developing mobile strategies and applications include:

• Remember content AND convenience;
• Don’t treat mobile news as a ‘lite’ version of your website;
• Don’t just cater for high-end handsets – think about how text messaging can be used.

Full story at this link…

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Robert Niles: ‘Communities are key in building websites’ advertiser support’

Robert Niles looks at the monetary benefits of an online community over on the Knight Digital Media Center’s OJR blog: “If a website’s editorial mission focuses on building community, as I’ve argued, so should its advertising sales strategy focus on community as well. Don’t fall into the trap of selling potential advertisers nothing more than numbers; don’t neglect to sell them on the opportunity to support the community that you are building.”

Full story at this link…

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Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – training courses online

Training: 10,000 words has a round-up of some of the best journalism and digital journalism training resources on the web. Try free tutorials in video, audio, blogging, databases and more from the Knight Digital Media Center or J-Learning. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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ReJurno: ‘The New Metros’ – local journalism or ‘nichification on steroids?’

Jane Stevens on the bleak future for local news – she reckons newspapers could face shut-down with just one or two days notice. So, ‘what’s to take the place of that one large metro news organization?’ she asks. “Many small ones. Mini-metros. Nichification on steroids,” she begins… Full story… (also picked up at the Knight Digital Media Center blog).

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Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – building your website for the long-term

Building your website: Try to build templates for your site that you’ll be able to use again, rather than for a one off use – more on this from Eric Ulken at the Knight Digital Media Center. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Online Journalism Review closes, “good night and good luck”

Online Journalism Review has closed its doors after a decade of covering developments in new media publishing.

The website, run by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, aimed to “help mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production”, and now intends to continue to do so via the Knight Digital Media Center and its blogs.

OJR author Robert Nile has now left the University of Southern California but continue to write about new media and journalism at his new website SensibleTalk.com.

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