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Online Journalism Review
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New articles from Online Journalism Review
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A message about OJR from USC Annenberg's School of Journalism
By Geoffrey Baum: A message from USC Annenberg Journalism School director Geneva Overholser:
Thank you for your interest in OJR. The fast-moving changes in digital media are more compelling every day, and they remain an important area of focus for the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
We are committed to keeping the archives of OJR available online and are exploring ways to continue the School's efforts to increase understanding about the revolutionary transformation of news and information.
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Goodbye
By Robert Niles: After a decade, the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication has suspended publication of OJR.
One of OJR's goals over the years has been to help mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production. I'm pleased to say that USC Annenberg will continue to provide support in that area, through the Knight Digital Media Center. I encourage OJR readers to click over to the KDMC website and its blogs, if you are not already a regular reader there.
I am hopeful that OJR will continue to live at the KDMC, and that the publication might be revived under the KDMC's blogs.
The decision to suspend OJR for now means that I have left the University of Southern California. But I am not going offline. I will continue to write, daily, about new media and journalism at my new website, SensibleTalk.com. I hope that many of you will click over and visit me there.
Finally, on behalf of OJR, I want to thank you. Thank you for your readership, tips, corrections, kind words and support. And I want to wish you success as you work to build engaging, informative and sustainable websites, to better serve your audiences.
So... in that spirit, I suppose that I will borrow a classic sign-off from the world of journalism, one that's been borrowed by another recently:
Good night, and good luck.
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McClatchy Washington bureau shines as bright example for online journalism
By Robert Niles: The past decade has brought the journalism industry some of its darkest moments. On the business side, management teams that grew used to local monopolies could not react swiftly enough to protect their market share as thousands of online competitors emerged. Revenue tanked, readership declined and layoffs became a seasonal task at many newspapers.
On the editorial side, many newsrooms blew or missed one major story after another, from the Whitewater "scandal," hitting the snooze button on the global warming alarm, the emergence of al Qaeda before 9/11, the Bush administration's phony case for war in Iraq, to the abandonment of mortgage lending standards that inflated a housing bubble.
But not every news organization blew it. Indeed, as journalism has suffered some of its darkest moments over the past decade, a few news organizations stand apart for their bright triumphs. On the Washington beat, perhaps no single news organization so often has gotten the story right as the McClatchy Washington bureau.
From providing one of the few domestic voices to consistently challenge the Bush administration's bogus claims before the Iraq War (The New Yorker being another), to dogging the administration over the politicalization of the U.S. Justice Department, the bureau, and its website, www.mcclatchydc.com have become the must-click destination for readers thirsty for clear, accurate, spin-free reporting. The bureau will publish this weekend an in-depth investigation of the situation at Guantanamo Bay, where the United States has been holding alleged terrorists, in violation of due process rights, according to a Supreme Court ruling this week.
I spoke with McClatchy Washington Bureau Web editor Jim Van Nostrand by phone this week, and asked him why McClatchy's had such success, and why the bureau took the unusual step of launching its own, stand-alone website. An edited transcript of our conversations follows.
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OJR launches individual reader blogs
By Robert Niles: OJR now allows its registered members to maintain individual blogs on OJR.
Just click the "Post Blog Entry" link near the top of the right navigation rail to get started. OJR's editors and I will read all the submissions, then select ones to go on the OJR front page feed. You can find links to all the most recent reader-submitted blog entries under the "Recent Blogs" header on the right rail.
You can start a free blog just about anywhere on the Web, from Blogger.com and beyond. And many of you likely already have a blog. So why would you post anything on OJR?
It's simple: for the readers. A front-page post on OJR will reach several thousand readers via the website, our e-mail newsletter and RSS feeds. OJR readers aren't your average Web surfers, either. They include editors, entrepreneurs and bloggers at many top newspaper and independent news websites.
So, if you want to draw the industry's attention to some really neat new work from your shop, you want to comment on something you've seen in the industry that's bugging you, or you want to rant or rave about a new tool or widget you've tried, we think OJR provides a pretty good platform for you to do that.
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It's a lo-o-o-ong way from Lawrence, Kan., to Loudoun County, Va.
By Tom Grubisich: The headline on the Wall Street Journal story about the Washington Post's widely watched venture in local-local journalism on the Web was unambiguous: "Big Daily's Hyperlocal Flop."
So how bad actually is LoudounExtra.com? Let's look.
On the LoudounExtra homepage, I am greeted with this above-the-fold spread:
My squinting eyes try to read the reverse-type blurb, but before I can finish, a new image/blurb is automatically rotated in the space.
After figuring out how to retrieve the original blurb, I pull up the story. Big mistake.
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