I won't Iditarod my way into the spectacle of Sarah Palin appropriating feminism as her very own dogma. But it's just one recent example of women having what can be most diplomatically described as a classification problem. Men are lucky they don't have to deal with this much. "Boy toy" is... read more...

I will be leading a webinar this afternoon for the Online Media Campus, Developing a Mobile-First Strategy. My slides are below. Here are some previous mobile-first posts that may help participants in the webinar: News organizations need mobile-first strategy News companies need to help local businesses pursue mobile opportunities How news organizations need to change [...]

summary text

More on this tomorrow, but a quick update. Carl Wasco, Bill Robertson, Joe Sosnowski and Frank Beach spent almost two hours with the Rockford Register Star Editorial Board this afternoon. They’d come straight to the News Tower from a meeting with Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey. The Editorial Board did not start easily, due in some part [...]

I know fans think this way and I do too when I'm a fan. I know when I'm coaching, I worry about everyone and prepare the same way for an undefeated team to a winless team.

The headline on today's story says it all:Lights. Camera. Action.It's Friday Night Football. Probably should be in ALL caps. The season hasn't even started, and the pitch is at a record frenzy in Manatee County. ESPN is in town to broadcast the Manatee Hurricanes' Kickoff Classic tonight against Tampa Plant. John Lembo gives us the inside scoop read more...

Glenn Beck is holding his “restoring honor” rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow. Here’s some information about it from the man himself. And here’s Jon Stewart’s take on the event. I’m still a little unclear on the reasoning behind Beck holding the event, but I’m sure we’ll find out! Update 8/31: Looks [...]

  The American Society of News Editors has had another busy week advocating for the First Amendment. It’s supported a decision in a Colorado Open Records case and it has urged member papers to write editorials advocating for a Federal Shield law. In these days of fading influence for everything mainstream media I am pleased that it [...]

OK that's too much punning and metaphorization but hey it's my blog. Following my last post about how articles are morphing into topics, on Old Media New Tricks, Robert Quigley details his first attempt to use Wave to cover a topic -- Austin News: I posted a link to the Texas constitutional amendments that are up for a vote, and people immediately began discussing why anyone should care about them, which are the the

Whether or not a Muslim community center and mosque in New York City is built near the former World Trade Center site remains to be seen. And whether or not a Kansas-based church can continue its anti-homosexual protests near military funerals remains to be determined — quite likely in the U.S. Supreme Court. In both instances there are heartfelt objections from those who have suffered, either from the Sept. 11 attacks or the loss of a loved one in combat. But beyond the passion, politics

Twenty years ago, we would have reporters in Wilmington, Morehead City and Nags Head, awaiting Hurricane Earl. It wouldn't matter that it's not expected to make landfall in North Carolina. The threat that it might was good enough. Besides, a hurricane is an exciting story to cover and every journalist wants to cover an exciting story whether it's needed or not.read more

One of my college classmates planned to become a newspaper reporter, but instead he has grown up to be a United States senator. I can’t figure it out. He seemed so thoughtful. I could have seen it coming, you know, because there are similarities in the way some journalists and politicians approach their jobs. For one [...]

CAIRO (May 17, 2010) — From across the Nile, the call to morning prayers beckons. It’s not yet 4:30 in the morning, but it is one of those rare moments when the melodious chant can be clearly heard above the din of Cairo’s busy streets. I am finishing up my fourth visit here in 13 months, [...]

Civil Beat went live with a new look today, one that responds to reader feedback and better reflects what we're doing on the site. It's hard to believe that we've been publishing for just four months. read more...

(By Rick Thames, rthames@charlotteobserver.com) We all know what the Observer's Tommy Tomlinson can do with a single column of type. He is a master storyteller capable of making readers laugh, cry and reflect, all in the span of 600 words.So, I had to catch my breath recently when I got word that Tommy wanted to step away from his longtime local news column.

Funny, how things like this just pop into your head, but I really enjoy reading the newspaper. I’ve always been a reader and I got my start reading newspapers when I was 9 or 10 years old. By the time I was in high school, my dad would bring home the New York Daily News in [...]