Epic fail!

That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez when a reporter asked how many people had signed up for the site. Mr. Jimenez didn’t know the number off the top of his head, so he asked a deputy sitting near him. He replied 35.

Michael Amon, a social services reporter, asked for clarification.

“I heard you say 35 people,” he said, from Newsday’s auditorium in Melville. “Is that number correct?”

Mr. Jimenez nodded.

Source: The New York Observer

And if that is not enough bad news to give most journalist a headache, the paper had to dole out $4 million to redesign the website and set up the paywalls in the first place. By my calculations, as long as the 35 members live another 476 years and don’t cancel their subscription, Newsday will recoup that investment

Seminars offered during the boot camp include:
•    Covering Higher Education (Kavita Kumar—St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
•    Writing Killer Editorials (Gilbert Bailon—St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Page Editor)
•    Investigative Journalism, especially crime (Jeremy Kohler—St. Louis Post-Dispatch Investigative Reporter)
•    Amazing Photos
•    Headlines That Rock, Design that Dazzle
•    One-on-one editing sessions that pair you with a pro who will edit your photos or stories
•    Covering Entertainment and other specialty beats

The boot camp is free and open to any college student in the St. Louis metro area. Lunch will be provided. Street parking or Laclede Garage available. Space is limited and the last day to register is Jan. 27. Reserve your place by emailing: Shera Dalin – shera@carismedia.com or 314-223-8743 or
Tammy Merrett-Murry – tmerret@siue.edu or 618-650-3597

Scalded Dog Web Hosting, a company owned by the Globe-Democrat's new owner Dan Rositano, is blacklisted on Google for being potentially damaging.

The announcement that the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a newspaper that folded in the ’80s, would be revived in an online-only format was greeted with a bit of enthusiasm by people like myself (future unemployed journalists). A new outlet and possible place to freelance, I thought. Plus, the guy in charge, Dan Rositano, is the owner of an IT firm and former IT director for a TV channel.

Maybe an IT guy that understands technology better than some journalists is the right guy to start an online-only news organization?

After looking into Rositano’s business ventures, however, I am not convinced of that anymore.

Scalded Dog Web Hosting, one of Rositano’s businesses, has managed to get blacklisted by Google.

SDOGINTERACTIVE.COM, the domain in question, was registered June 13, 2007 through GoDaddy.com. According to the Missouri Secretary of State website, Scalded Dog Interactive, LLC was created January 15, 2008. It was registered by Rositano under the same address listed on the application for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, LLC.

A call to Rositano was not immediately returned, so I don’t have his side of the story. But, the fact that a Web Hosting company is blacklisted on the Web doesn’t leave a good first impression about the future of the new Globe-Democrat.

According to Google, the warning means that the website in question may try to install malicious software:

We want our users to feel safe when they search the web, and we’re continuously working to identify dangerous sites and increase protection for our users. This warning message appears with search results we’ve identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer

The website is also blocked by Mozilla:

Here’s an example of the great jobs the awate those with great writing abilitys, curtosee of GetAFreelancer.com:

Yes, you read rite: “Quality Writers needef ro big project”

So, is you a quality writer? Cause if you is, you could make big money on this big project.

Heres the down-low-and-dirty-skinny on this bizniss:

Hello,
We are looking out for professional writers for a long term Job.
We want writers who can write high quality articles(magazine style) and can easily deliver 25+ articles in a day.
Our main concern is quality and we want only writers who can write high quality articles.

Our price for 500 words original article is $2.
We pay only through paypal and payment is on a daily basis.

Conditions:
—————————————
Should be able to write High/excellent quality articles.
Should check each article in copyscape to ensure its 100% copyscape passed.
Should be able to deliver a minimum of 25+ articles/Day.
Should be able to write in wide niches.

If you are following the above conditions then feel free to BID with your samples.

We have 2000-4000 articles per month project so if anyone winning this will have a full time job for a very long time.

If your writing is simple english then Plz dont bid as i want only high quality content.

Before you apply for this super sweet gig, please read the last line carefuly. “If your writing is simple enligsh then Plz dont bid as i want only high quality content.” Yous prolly askin yourself what simple english is, rite? Well, simple english is the stupid version of english when yous have to captalize nouns and get all the rite letters in the rite order a.k.a. spell rite.

The reporter, Finbarr O’Reilly, uses his photos to tell the story, while his narration reflects the mood and actions taking place. There are a lot of shots of soldiers marching,  soldiers in frantic combat, soldiers engulfed in dust clouds. The reporter talks about the “fog of war” and the lack of a clear strategy; the uncertainty felt by soldiers about a war that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. The selection of photos and the tone of the narration work together perfectly to paint the picture of an uncertain and dangerous situation.

Another reason I love this slideshow is for its lack of cutlines. “Every photo needs a cutline” is a line that most journalists have probably heard before. But for a slideshow like this, I believe cutlines would only distract from the photos and narration.

Of course, most of us are probably more comfortable writing cutlines than recording narration. But you don’t have to be Morgan Freeman to be able to speak into a microphone and tell a story. View the slideshow below and consider how it would be without narration and with text at the bottom of every photo. It simply wouldn’t work.

But another thing the bill does is define who is covered by it. According to S. 448, a journalist is somebody who is engaged in:

the regular gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.

In other words, a journalist is somebody who does journalism. The interesting thing about this definition is that it does not mention working for a “media” organization anywhere. That means bloggers, student journalists and freelancers are also covered.

The SPJ announced its support of the current version of this bill yesterday in a press release.

Leaders of the Society of Professional Journalists welcome the compromise the Obama administration, senators and news organizations reached on a federal shield law that would protect journalists, their sources and the public’s right to know. Although SPJ does not believe S. 448 is a perfect bill, the Society’s leaders carefully examined the proposed legislation, and on behalf of its more than 8,000 members, have decided to support the protections granted to journalists.

SPJ now urges the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass S. 448 quickly so that the full Senate can consider the piece of legislation that is vitally important to a free and independent press.

I’ve actually been thinking about buying myself a police scanner, and while searching for them online I came across this website.

Luckily they have a feed for St. Louis. I’ve been listening in over the last couple of days and it’s been somewhat interesting. You get to hear cops calling in suspicious cars, license plates, getting IDs back from dispatchers, and other pretty routine cop stuff. It’s raining outside right now and there is tons of traffic about accidents and overturned trucks.

Listening to all these calls coming in I started wondering how many journalists were actually tuned in and waiting for something interesting to happen. I guess it’s kind of hard to wait for something interesting to happen when you are doing the job of three people, as most reporters working at metro-dailies now are.

I guess this is where the holes are; holes that can be plugged by bloggers and journalists working independently. While I’m somewhat dubious of the “crowd-sourcing” concept, I can see how it can be applied to something as essential to newspapers as listening to police radio traffic. A blogger could tune in, update the blog frequently with the most recent incidents, and others could go to the location to do reporting, take photos and videos and upload the content over a phone or laptop. The only question is, of course, could you make any money doing that?

wpToGo

wpToGo is a free WordPress client that allows you to post, edit posts, and attach photos and videos from your phone.

AP Mobile

AP Mobile is a client that gives you the latest headlines from the AP and can be customized to also include local news sources.

Listen

Listen is a Google app that allows you to subscribe to podcasts and have them automatically downloaded to your phone.

Qik

If you have never seen Qik before, it’s time you check it out. Qik allows you to broadcast live video directly from your G1 to the web. Go to http://www.qik.com and set up a free account, then download the Qik client and start broadcasting from your cell phone.

AK Notepad

This notepad application is far better than the standard that comes with the G1. AK Notepad has a reminder feature which allows you to set an alarm for a text file to remind you to update it.  It also gives you the option of sending your text files through email, SMS, or other applications such as a Twitter client you may have installed. You can change the appearance through themes and adjust the text size. AK Notepad also lets you put a sticky shortcut to a text file on your home screen.

Twidroid

This is by far my most favorite Twitter client for the G1. It has a nice user interface and gives you quick access to your profile, your favorites,  mentions, and direct messages.

Voice Recorder

Seemingly a simple voice recorder, the option that sets this one apart is the ability to email your recorded voice memo immediately. This can be useful if you simply don’t have a notepad handy, or if you want to walk around an event describing the scene and the people without drawing attention by speaking into a voice recorder. Once you’re done recording, this app gives you the option to title and send the recording right away, or to save it for later.

Pandora

Last but no least, there is finally a Pandora client for Android phones. Now you can listen to your favorite Pandora stations on the go. This one is bandwidth heavy, so unless you have a good 3G or WiFi connection it might not work perfectly.

Just a quick recap of my by-lines in the last 8 weeks:

• 15 articles published in The Journal
• 1 article published in the St. Louis Journalism Review
• Photos published in 2 newspapers and 1 magazine (all from the same event).

Now, while that may not seem like an overwhelming amount of work,  it adds up once you factor in editing articles, production nights, coming up with 6-7 story ideas per week, reporting from events, interviews, transcribing, investigations, tax documents, digging up 20-30 year old clips from the archives, etc.

And on top of all that there are classes, work, papers, homework assignments, and trying to have a life somewhere between all of that. If this is starting to sound like a whinny rant, it’s because it is. I’m busy! Leave me alone!