Fine Old Cannibal

What was the key to the 153-year-old magazine, The Atlantic, making a successful transition to a multiplatform presence? According to its president “In essence, we brainstormed the question, ‘What would we do if the goal was to aggressively cannibalize ourselves?’ ” See this New York Times piece which details how the magazine--still graced by long-form pieces--prospered by starting to think of itself as more than just a printed product.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/business/media/13atlantic.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Silo Busting

The Times reports that next year will be the first time in fifteen that the four largest magazine companies in America are scheduled to have new top execs. The event is seen by at least one industry leader as "the changing of the guard from an older school to a newer school." One of the newcomers promises bringing "ever-more complex print and digital packages to their clients," breaking down silos that may still exist between the two means of delivery.
See the complete story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29mag.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Read Awl About It

The Awl -- an eclectic website unafraid of long-form journalism -- has a glowing writeup in the New York Times. According to media writer David Carr, "In an age of hyper-targeted vertical sites, The Awl is all over the road.  In the last week, the site published a column about foreclosures, [1,300 wds] a piece describing what it feels like to be chided by Gene Simmons [4,000 wds], an illustrated essay on the virtues of the breaststroke, tips on picking up obnoxious hipster girls [1,600 wds] and yes, poetry in the, yes, poetry section." The piece notes how the site, started by a blogger and some pals, has nearly a half-million unique visitors a month, earns about $200,000 in annual revenue and has spawned a couple of spinoff sites.
See the piece at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/media/25carr.html
See The Awl at: http://www.theawl.com/

New Yorker Mag Goes iPad

The venerable New Yorker magazine has joined a host of others who have created app versions of their publications for Apple's iPad tablet. Magazines such as Time, GQ, Car & Driver, Wired and many others have taken their products to this platform which offers the closest electronic equivalent of a quality paper magazine experience and is very long-form friendly. See a video at http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/09/jason-schwartzman-ipad-video.html.

New Tech Pushes Long Forms

More expensive (and long) long-form journalism such as that found in magazines has had a more difficult time finding a home on the web compared to shorter News McNugget pieces.

According to "Long Form Journalism Starts a New Chapter" on the online UK Guardian, however, "With the help of [@IfYouOnly on] Twitter and sites such as Long Form and The Awl, longer articles are finding a new lease of life as people take the time to find and read them."

See also:
Longreads
Give Me Something To Read

Markets for News Features

In i-less days gone by, freelancers had a cumbersome time searching for local news outlets to place their stories. Today, digital resources can help locate local markets no matter where you live.

Google
Use a simple Google search to find local media.
[Town name] +newspapers OR news 

Community Media Sites
Community news and information sites are a comparatively new way of serving the news function in an area, often serving up hyperlocal information.
See a directory of these sites at the Knight Citizen News Network
http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/

Newslink
Lists news outlets from around the world to around
the block.
http://www.newslink.org/news.html
Note: some papers listed as "inactive" are simply
inactive links.  Try the newspaper name on Google.

Yellow Pages
Use "Yellow" services to find news outlets in
an x-mile radius from your town.
www.yellowpages.com
e.g. Toledo, OH newspaper listings:
http://www.yellowpages.com/toledo-oh/newspapers?refinements[radius]=25.0

Chamber of Commerce
Check the local Chamber site for listings of local media.  You may find the
list under "Relocation resources" or other headings.
The C of C for Toledo, Ohio, for example, has an extensive listing of local media.
http://www.toledochamber.com/cwt/external/wcpages/community/local-media.aspx

Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media
A media directory which contains thousands of listings for media organized by
geographic area.
Ask your librarian if this resource is electronically available or
see a hard copy in your library's reference section.

"Recurring Reader Affection" from Longer Pieces

Conventional wisdom is that short stuff works best on the web. Countering that notion, Slate magazine has invested in longer magazine pieces (2,000 words +) requiring that every editorial staff member at the online mag take up to six weeks from their regular job to produce one in-depth piece.  These have included Tim Noah’s analysis of why the U.S. hasn’t endured another successful terror attack since 9/11,  Julia Turner’s look at the complexities of signage, June Thomas’ examination of American dentistry, Dahlia Lithwick’s crowd-sourced foray into chick-lit authorship, and John Dickerson’s reclamation of risk-taking after the financial crash gave it a bad name. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab article on this initiative to build what the editor calls "recurring reader affection."

Feature Writing: Hot Career

A trend study from the University of California San Diego Extension lists "Feature Writing for the Web" as one of its "Hot Careers for College Grads."  According to the report "These are exciting times for news journalism reported on the Web. The technology has transformed journalism, creating new ways for how news is reported, delivered and read. The new medium also allows for much more interactivity, as readers respond via comments or blogs. Web/online journalists have the opportunity to shape the future."

Magazine For Mobile Readers

A group of former magazine journalists and editors plan to publish a weekly digital magazine titled Nomad Editions. It's scheduled to start in October 2010 and include content created specifically for mobile technology. (NYT 8/10/2010)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/business/media/11nomad.html

Ideas Day 1

Today class members discussed ideas derived from three main sources: observation, experience and media.
New media can be excellent sources of ideas.  For example, using Google Zeitgeist, one can find up-to-the-minute trends to write about.
It's important to remember that one never goes out to "get" ideas, but must learn to recognize and become an excellent receptor of ideas.

Some of the ideas discussed were:
• A piece about how people seem so easily angered when driving, as distinguished from how polite people are otherwise.
• A piece about the people in a political campaign and how they are passionate about their candidate.
• A piece about how some people are using work as a place to run other businesses. The example was given of an employee at a company who was selling items on eBay in his down time.
Many other interesting ideas were discusssed.
Class members were encouraged to follow their interests in developing ideas.