Print extras in today's Milford Daily News

The viability of print whether newspapers or magazines is being questioned everyday. I think the local paper is doing something strange here. They are putting exclusives in the print edition and using social media to advertise that fact.

What's so odd about this?
I have seen more print publications advertise exclusives that can be found online behind their firewall. and how successful are they? Not very, folks don't like the firewalls.

So maybe it would be better to use the print edition for the exclusives. What is strange about this is that the advertisement about the exclusives in print appears in the social media channels (as in this RSS feed) after the normal working folks would have had a chance to stop for the paper on their way to work. If they waited until after, the odds are they may not get one on the way home.

The paper has been doing this for several weeks now, how successful they are remains to be seen.

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Print extras in today's Milford Daily News

via The Milford Daily News News RSS by Staff reports on 1/9/11

Every day, The Milford Daily News prints stories you will not find anywhere else. In today's print edition, find out which fields are the stablest forms of employment in Wicked Local Jobs; celebrate 60 years of marriage with a Framingham couple in Jenifer Lipson's Family Line; learn why the state fire marshal is asking residents to adopt fire hydrants in Safety Matters and get to know two friends from Framingham and Wayland spending their retirements 'doing nothing' in The Buddy System.

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to The Milford Daily News News RSS using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Watchdog Reporting Workshop for Bloggers, Citizen Journalists, and Activists

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting is piloting a powerful one-day training program for citizen journalists, bloggers, and others who want to learn the secrets and tools of professional investigative reporters. It will be held Saturday, October 16th, from 9 to 5 on the campus of Boston University. The session will be taught by Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill, seasoned, award winning reporters. A full course description and information on our organization appear below. Registration is limited to 20. The cost for this pilot session is $200. To register contact NECIR@bu.edu.

What would you learn?
At the conclusion of this training you would know:

• The Big Picture: How to do excellent investigative journalism with limited time and experience. What resources to use. The importance of knowing and using freedom of information laws. Types of stories and investigations that can be done.
• Using Freedom of Information and Open Records Laws: How to use federal and state laws. How to write an open records request the right way. How to appeal and challenge denials.
• Effective use of the Internet. What citizen journalists need to know. From better search techniques to the invisible Web, how to find documents and databases, and where to find reliable Web sites that can help you dig deep. The craft of better searching and not wasting time. Handling issues of credibility and ethics online.
• Creating Paper and database trails. How to find and get documents and data you need for any topic.
• Dissecting a Business or Non-Profit organization. How to investigate a large or small corporation or non-profit. Where to find information when tracking a company or organization, both in person and online and the key documents to examine.
• The Art of the Interview. The best ways to approach sources as well as prepare for and handle the interview process. Advice for conducting video interviews for your Web site. Plenty of tips and strategies for handling tough situations, ethical trouble-spots, etc.
• Computer-Assisted Reporting Hands-on training on using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to analyze specific databases for trends and story ideas.

Who is NECIR?

Democracy depends on a vigorous, free press. As citizens we need reliable, objective and independent information to sustain the common ground of facts we stand on to debate and decide our critical issues. The economics of corporate media can no longer meet this need. The digital revolution has too often left us with too much information and too little trusted common knowledge.

In response to this situation The New England Center for Investigative Reporting, (NECIR-bu.org), a grass roots not-for-profit news organization, was founded by two veteran investigative journalists - Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill. Our goal is to arm citizens with the information needed to fully participate in the democratic process. NECIR has been working successfully on two major priorities: researching, writing and widely distributing investigative news stories that serve the public interest, and training the next generation of investigative reporters and citizen journalists. You can learn more about our purpose, progress, and people on our website. (NECIR-bu.org)

content and provenance

Two good articles on news, journalism, blogging and what it all means in today's world.

The war between journalists and bloggers at the Washington Post

from Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard by Scott Rosenberg

and

The importance of provenance

from BuzzMachine by Jeff Jarvis

The key takeaway from Jeff Jarvis as a content creator is:

In content, as creation becomes overabundant and as value shifts from creator to curator, it becomes all the more vital to properly cite and link to sources and even to add value to those links, explaining why the click is worth the time and encouraging people to take the trip. Good curation demands good provenance.

The story behind the story

A new study just published provides data on where a story originates.


http://www.journalism.org/node/18897 


I need to look closely at this. At first read, I think the study is flawed. What do you think?

Journalism twist

Paige Williams is looking for more than a tip. She is a journalist who has worked on a story that hasn't been picked up by any of the standard media outlets. Now, she is self publishing the story on the web and looking for reimbursement of her reporting expenses.

You can read about the story here http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/support_the_journalist.php?page=all

Be sure to click through to Paige's site to read the story itself.

What do you think about this method?

EFF: Legal guide for bloggers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has introduced a Legal Guide for Bloggers:

Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

Click through to find out more about this legal guide for bloggers here