8 Ways for Journalists to be in Business

Recently on the site Poynter Online, Steve Myers wrote a post dealing with ways that a Journalist can be more like a businessperson. He said that being a entrepreneurial journalist is more than a check and a good idea.

1.) Unfortunately, cash does make a difference. Assuming invoices are paid on time, your income statement will show how much cash a business will have.

2.)Watch for the quickness in paychecks. Focus is mainly on the contracts but actually it should be more on the paycheck. You must make sure you are paid as fast as possible.

3.) Complementing Revenue streams. There needs to be a well balance of multiple ways that revenue is created and a variety of options.

4.) Knowledgeable in pro and cons of Revenues. Advertisement is crucial but risky. You will not receive payment till after you provide your service.

5.) Be open. Don't limit yourself to what your core is. Branch out and do a variety in the field.

6.) Increase advertising with certain networks. Google is great for your ads. They are able to pinpoint your to those who would care about it.

7.) Never stress over the site. Meet your goals and target audience. If the hyper local site is outside the area, you are not reaching your target audience.

8.) Page views are unequal. The further you get with the site the more opportunities that are given. Let ones that register and subscribe receive more access than those of visiting the site.

While this is mostly on business, i still think that it is good for a journalist to keep in mind.

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Onaf's 13 Steps of Blogging

Blogging is the news reporting of the future and Ant Onaf has 13 tips that will help young journalists get their start online.

1.) Start Free

Onaf suggests that young journalists should start with a free blogging site. Going this route allows them to focus on the content of their stories and not have to worry about scripting, hosting or programming. This way, if your blog does not become successful, you are not out of any money either.

2.) Niche

Young bloggers need to decide on a product, topic or service to write about. Bloggers are trying to appeal to specific audiences and will come to your blog expecting to read about the specific topic you cover. The topic does not have to be extremely popular if it has an audience then it works.

3.) Update Daily

Consistency is important to keep brining readers back to your blog. They do not want to be stuck reading old things and the more frequently and consistently you post the more audience you get to follow what you are writing.

4.) Traffic

Young writers are going to need traffic to attract attention to their blogs. The distinct ways to spread word of you blog is through advertising, search engine marketing, viral marketing, RSS feeds and word of mouth. Even if they run over it by accident they may be interested by what they see.

5.) Track You Blog

Do not panic if none of your readers are commenting on your page. The majority of blog readers do not comment on articles you write and there are several ways to find out your traffic numbers differently. Onaf suggests a free page counter like StatCounter.com.

6.)Listen to Your Audience

You should check and see if readers are finding your blog through search engine searches. If this is the case then find out what word they use to find the blog and write your blog around that word or topic.

7.) Multiple Blogs

Once you really get into the grove of things you should use multiple accounts to blog. Having blogs on many different sites is a great way to increase reader turnout and a great way to create more traffic to the blogs you are writing.

8.) Short and Concise

Onaf feels that except for a weekly blog summing up your findings for the week your blogs need to be as short as possible. Readers have short attention spans and if they are reading novels every time they come to your page they will lose interest.

9.)Digital Aft

Include pictures and other forms of art on your blog entries. Graphics perk up your blog and can bring color and life to the stories you are pursuing and reporting.

10.) Keep It Personal

Include personal experiences that have to do with your blog topic. It is fine to write in the first person and use a more personal voice in a blog.

11.) Interact With Your Visitors

You now have a great following of loyal readers that go out of their way to see what you have to say. You owe it to them to put out the best product you can. Knowing that they will visit frequently Onaf suggests using daily tips and other devices to keep them intersted.

12.) Make Money

Once you have established your self in the big time you need to start trying to profit from the stories you are putting out. This means buying a page for yourself and checking its domain availability. Use advertising as a source of income and well as a way to create more traffic.

13.) You're a Professional

The last twelve sets have all led up to this point. Now you have a following, you have a specific niche, you are making money and life is good.

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10 Rules for Brands to Folllow on Twitter

Mashable journalist, Jolie O'Dell, recently conducted research on how people think brands should utilize Twitter. O'Dell compiled a list of 10 items in which consumers expect companies to follow.

1. "Don't Be a Showoff" -- Tell users about special deals and make sure the features and benefits are known. To determine whether a tweet is acceptable, ask yourself if you would care to read about it if you didn't work there.

2. "Don't Use Poor Grammar or Spelling" -- It seems obvious, but far too many people misspell words. If this happens and you catch the mistake, I would suggest going back and fixing it. You may also want to delete the incorrect tweet. Don't use abbreviations for words, or at least keep them to a minimum. Avoid using shorthand terms, such as "LOL" and "Thnx," and emoticons, such as the smiley face.

3. "Don't Get Too Personal" -- Don't use your company's Twitter account to tell people about your favorite things or what's going on in your personal life. If you are representing a business or brand, remember to keep it professional.

4. "Don't Auto-Tweet" -- The purpose of Twitter for companies is to be "personally engaging" not entirely promotional. While it may be OK to set up a tweet or two to roll out while you are away, avoid setting up an entire feed. Also, don't automatically direct message new followers as it is considered spam by consumers.

5. "Don't Leave Air in the Conversation" -- If you are having a conversation with someone via @replies, don't wait too long to respond. People expect responses in a timely manner.

6. "Don't Overtweet" -- If you're not using Twitter to engage with consumers, but you're constantly tweeting, people will feel as if you are "shouting" at them.

7. "Do Shout Out to Users Who Mention You" -- If a person tweets something that is favorable toward a product or your company in general, tell them thanks. If it is a negative tweet, be cautious about replying, but never ignore them.

8. "Do Monitor Keywords and Competitors" -- Knowing what people are saying about a competitor helps keep you informed and can also allow you to gain a potential costumer.

9. "Do Make an Informative Profile" -- Use your company or brand logo as your avatar and make the purpose of the account known in the "bio" section.

10. "Do Fish Where the Fish Are" -- Determine if your brand or company needs to be on Twitter. If your general target market is an older demographic, use forms of media that they engage with. However, it may be beneficial to know what is going on on Twitter. If you are trying to tap into a younger market, you may want to consider setting up an account.

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Newspaper Circulation Still Declining

Newspaper circulation is still falling according to Monday's figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations as reported in The Huffington Post.

Overall circulation is down 8.7 percent, for the period October 1,2009 through March 31, 2010 compared to that same period last year. Circulation for Sunday papers is down 6.5 percent.

Free news on the Web is still considered a factor. Publishers have increased subscription costs to adjust for lost advertising revenue and of course others have stopped or reduced delivery in certain areas.

The Top 25 newspapers in the country showed major losses.

• The Washington Post is down 13.1 percent; 8.2 percent down on Sundays.


• USA Today lost 13.6 percent - partially contributed to the slump in travel because it is popular in hotels and airports. It is now at the number two spot.


• The Wall Street Journal had a gain of .5 percent and now has the highest circulation at 2.09 million as it surpassed USA Today as the top newspaper. Although this is somewhat misleading because looser auditing standards allows it to count its digital online replica in the subscription count. In essence providing a double count. The Journal's paid online circulation rose by 31,000 offsetting the printed editions decline of 20,000.


• The New York Times has the third highest circulation at 951,063, which is a 8.5 percent decline.


• The San Francisco Chronicle is down 23 percent.

The Wall Street has launched a metro edition in New York City to compete even more agressively with The Times, its biggest competitor in the region.

The president of the Newspaper Association of America, John Sturm, says that you can't judge the industry by these declining numbers, because more and more people are turning to the Web for their news and 100 million adults still say they read a newspaper daily and 168 million read news in print or online daily.

These facts and figures help to paint a clearer picture of the state of the newspaper industry and how it is affecting journalism. I don't know that I would refer to it as a death spiral for the newspapers because people are still reading the news; where they are getting it has changed.

There are just so many options available. It is apparent that the business model has to change as we have heard from various sources throughout the BNR course. Perhaps charging for access does make sense in some instances. I also agree with the idea of public funding to protect the integrity of journalism and insure that students who want to go into journalism for the love of writing and reporting get the opportunity to do so without living in poverty due to thier chosen career.

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Integrating Facebook's New Tools

Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has introduced several new tools on its site. These features include using the "Like" function on various sites such as IMDb (a movie database site) and news sites. Another feature is the Recommendations Plugin, which tells you what others on Facebook recommend. The purpose of this tool is to make it easier to share your interests with others.

Sites such as CNN.com have incorporated this function onto its website, which could possibly benefit news sites. If more and more people are recommending news stories to their friends via Facebook, it could generate more traffic to the site. Also, if people notice that a story has been recommended by several people, they may be more inclined to read it. However, companies obviously should not depend on this to stimulate interest in what they are reporting. People aren't going to recommend everything they read nor will everything they recommend be read by others.

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Being Held Captive

Most people will never know what it is like to be held captive in a hostile country. Unfortunately, journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have an intimate understanding of this. For four months Ling and Lee were held captive in North Korea. The journalist were there on assignment, working on a story about human trafficking. They crossed over into North Korea, without visas, briefly. After help from former President Bill Clinton, North Korea pardoned both journalist. For the first time they will speak on camera about their experiences being held captive. On Wednesday, May 19 at 10/9c, Current TV, will feature the Vanguard special, “Captive in North Korea.” This special will have interviews with both Ling and Lee.

Ling and her sister Lisa Ling, also wrote the book, “Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home,” that comes out May 18.

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Make YouTube Work for You

We've been hearing it a lot lately. Facebook and Twitter are two social networking sites that can help your business thrive.

But one very important Website is getting lost in hustle and bustle of new sites: YouTube.

Whether you're an individual starting your own private company, or a large corporation, you can make YouTube work for you. After all, it's called YouTube for a reason.

According to Mashable's Amy-Mae Elliott, there are 10 major ways to use YouTube to its fullest extent.

The first tip is all about your YouTube channel. Elliott suggests customizing it with company information, logo and colors. A second tip is to subscribe to similar companies' channels and appropriate content. Make YouTube 'friends' that have similar interests to what your channel will provide.

Next, go the extra mile and provide subtitles. When getting your company name out there, you don't want to exclude any particular person or group. However, tip number four suggests taking action to remove offensive material. If a user is continually posting irrelevant and inappropriate comments on your videos, remove and/or block them from commenting.

If you remove other users' irrelevant and annoying comments, don't post your own as well. Tip number five is a warning against too many annotations. Annotating your video is sometimes helpful, but having too many comments overlapping the video can be overwhelming for the audience.

If you really feel the need to tell your audience more about your videos, use tags. Tags are helpful because if someone is searching for a certain keyword that you tagged your video as, your videos show up in the search results.

Tagging is a great way to promote your videos, but don't forget about your other options. Use Facebook and Twitter to notify followers and friends of your latest video or content.

Tip number 8 encourages organization. Make sure your channel is organized and professional. You don't want visitors to leave because they can't find their way around your content.

Elliott also promotes using YouTube's analytical tools to stay on top of your followers. These tools can help you figure out who is watching your videos, how do they get there and how often do they revisit your channel.

Last but not least, don't let your hard work go to waste. Everybody hits a dry spell. Don't let it affect you and your channel. Keep it up to date, even if you don't have anything new to post. There is always going to be something you can update. So comment users back, post some pictures and accept those friend requests; just don't leave your channel dormant.

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Investigative Reporting on Twitter

Investigative reporting is changing because of the internet, but it is not going away.

Infact an article in the Taipei Times argues that the internet is becoming one of the best sources for information beneficial to investigative reporters. Many reporters feel that the best way to get information is to announce that there is an investigation going on. What better way to do this than to post it on twitter

"I wasn't convinced about Twitter at first, but it quickly turned out to be quite useful for investigating," the Guardian's Paul Lewis says. "Twitter is not just a Web site and not micro-blogging, it is entirely different medium - like e-mail, fax or even newspapers. The way in which information travels on Twitter - the shape of it - is different to anything that we've previously known."

These journalists feel that a great way for them to get the information they need is to tell the Twitter world that they are investigating a subject and let the information role in. They are also using it to bounce ideas off each other and receive ideas from their followers.

They also understand that Twitter cannot just be the end all solution for them getting stories. The fact that anybody can create an account on Twitter and can say anything bothers them so they have developed "Help Me Investigate," which is a crowdsourcing project that allows them to establish a known and trusted audience.

This does not mean that they are edging away from Twitter, though. When it is all said and done with all of the reporters spoken to feel Twitter is a great way to help with investigative reporting.

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SEO is More Important Than AP Style

Robert Niles of The Online Journalism Review makes a compelling point. As journalism shifts more to online content, so should the style in which it is written. So say good-bye AP style and hello SEO.

Some may wonder, what is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. This allows readers to find you based on the information they are searching for, instead of you going to readers through ads.

Instead of you ad just popping up at random, it will pop up because you have posted something with several keyword matches the potential reader has been searching for.

SEO techniques help to provide clear cut writing that stays to the point and on topic. It also helps to frequently reference words and phrases that match the articles topic.

This would be great if, like AP style, there was a book to tell writers how to do this effectively. One day though, SEO might just be the new AP style and taught to journalism students through out the country.

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Avoiding Collapse Through Blogging

The media as we know it may soon be coming to an end. In a recent article for MediaShift, writer Roland Legrand tells of how another media scholar and writer, Clay Shirky, believes that traditional media outlets have become too big for their own good, destining them for collapse. This may seem disconcerting to journalism students such as myself, however, as Legrand continues he details several ways future journalists can save themselves in the face what I am titling, with inspiration from John Stewart, "mediapocalypse."

In examining the newspaper industry, it becomes evident that the structure and functioning of a large newspaper remains extremely complex. First, as Legrand points out it must employ, reporters, editors, news managers, graphics editors, printing, and sales and circulation departments. Also, with new online technologies, papers must employ people involved in digital news, who produce stories and video often 24 hours a day.

With all this complexity and need for employees, Shirky points out that traditional media entities will soon not be able to produce profit and will collapse in on themselves. Yet, in his article Legrand provides a well argued case for how blogging can help. First, blogs provide an interactive community and running them is far less complex. In following three simple rules, Legrand believes individuals and newspapers can find success with blogs.

First, newspapers must keep their blogging staff at a minimum and utilize simple software. Using simpler software will make the blog more manageable and limit the need for a more complex technical staff.

Second, blogs must be run similarly to small businesses. Although Legrand does not expound on this idea, in my opinion, this rule involves a local and creative approach to the news.

Lastly, bloggers must be granted freedom of control over their blogs. While it may be tempting for large news organizations to enforce too much control over bloggers, ultimately this will limit the creativity and life of the blog.

I agree that Legrand's approach to blogging is good sound advice for students such as myself. The last concept he discusses is the blog's ability to create a personal brand for an individual blogger, an idea that will come in handy for journalists after "mediapocalypse." As we've discussed in class, there remains a good chance that future journalists may someday be forced to take control of their own business and work independently. So, take Legrand's advice and continue to develop your brand as a blogger, your future may depend on it.

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Who Really Reports The News?

In today's changing media, who really reports the news? Every morning when we wake up, we are positive the paper will be on our doorsteps full of news. When we turn on the evening news, we are sure there will be something to report. Where does it really come from?

If newspapers were to die, how would it affect our media landscape? Would that change what our communities know and seek to find out everyday? What is taking up the slack for the decreasing number of people who get their news from TV, print, and radio?

According to journalism.org and the Pew Research Center's project for excellence in Journalism, the answer is a moving target. Actually the tracking and the pursuit are nearly impossible. Newspapers are still the overwhelming choice as a traditional media vehicle inwhich audiences are getting their news. The study shows that eight out of ten news stories are repackaged or repeated from previously published information. Of the stories that were new, 95% came from traditional media.

Some of the findings include:

1. Of the 53 different news outlets, 12 did not produce any new or local content.

2. Of the six major new threads studied, only 17% actually contained new news content.

3. General interest newspapers only produced half of that.

4. Almost half of the newspaper stories studied were online rather than print.

5. 63% of new stories were initiated by the government officials.

Of the media vehicles, TV news was the most locally focused, and 80% of straight news accounts were written by local staffers.

What does all of this mean? When we look to our papers, TV news anchors and radio personalities, we assume they are reporting the news first. As time passes, it seems like every bit of "news" we absorb, isn't really "new" after all.

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The New Mobile News

Huge name companies including NBC, Fox and Gannett Co. Inc. are combining to form a new national mobile content service.

They are using the current broadcast spectrum but this agreement allows the companies involved to provide mobile content to those who may not have originally able to access all these companies content. The services that are available to mobile phone users now are live and on-demand video, local and national news from print and electronic sources and sports and entertainment programming.

The spectrum these companies are using is Fox, NBC and Telemundo and ION. The other nine companies providing content will be Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannet Co. Inc., Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media.

By joining together these companies will allow them to offer mobile video and and print news content to over 150 million people. The deal helps fulfill the Federal Communication Commission's initiative to reduce congestion on the nation's wireless broadband networks while offering the same amount of content to customers.

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iPad Developing Ideas

The iPad is earning the label of "idea creator."

Much fuss has been created since the release of Apple's newest creation but most of that has been technical news. Chuck Frey is arguing in his blog that the iPad is going to be the best way to create and develop ideas, as well as share those ideas.

Frey points the portability and battery life of the iPad as a major pro for the spread and share of ideas. The iPad can be taken anywhere and especially if you purchase the 3G version it can be used to find information for that story you have been trying to write.

The bigger screen and new technology in the iPad allows you to browse mediums of news not only quicker but more efficiently to find the information that is important. It is a tool meant to tap all forms of media and because of this owners of the iPad have a world of information at their fingertips.

The iPad is also helping the ideas it creates be implemented. The iPad allows you to download full books and allows authors to publish books and blogs that may not have been published otherwise. Frey feels the iPad will never take the place of a computer or a laptop, but its versatility and ability to tap information that those two also can makes it a prime source for developing and implementing your ideas.

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Generation Touchscreen

Once dubbed "Generation Z" or "digital natives," the new hipper term for those under the age of 15 is "Generation I." Analysts at Gartner have predicted that over 50% of the computers purchased for this age group will have touchscreens by 2015. That means the idea of typing on a keyboard will be gone.

Gone will be bedtime stories from a book chosen off a bookshelf or even drawing on paper with crayons. Board games and shuffling a deck of cards - will this generation even learn to do this? Tangible objects with a feeling of permanence will be replaced by an application on a computer.

The computer that used to be a tool, a means to an end, is now everything. It is 160,000 applications with more added daily. It replaces books, TV's, DVD players, coloring books, a canvas, a globe, and so much more. Also predicted is that over half of U.S. schools will specify touch and/or pen input within the next 5 year - and this seems to be accurate prediction.

As we adjust to smaller and smaller hand-held devices, smaller keyboards and keys, and now touchscreens - the logical next step will be voice activation.

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Paid Tweets in Twitter Searches

Twitter recently announced that is is testing the concept of advertising through "Promoted Tweets." This comes after pressure to turn its wide usage into profits since growing rapidly from 2006.

The Promoted Tweets will appear as ads on top of search results, so users would see the new ads when they search broadly for topics being tweeted about.

Twitter invited a test group of advertisers, including Virgin America, Best Buy Co, Sony Pictures, and Starbucks Corp. The ads are not expected to bring in much money during this initial phase, but it should eventually turn into a paid model.

About 69 million people worldwide used Twitter in March, up from roughly 4 million at the end of 2008. Investors have valued the site at $1billion. Twitter is making an undisclosed amount of money by providing Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. with access to messages for their search engines.

The catch? If a Promoted Tweet isn't replied to or forwarded by other users, it will disappear. With advertising bombarding our emails and virtually every website visited, I don't know how logical it would be to expect viewers to forward ads. It will be interesting to see if the concept is successful.

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Who Do We Hold to What Standard

People are very passionate in their opinions about whether or not The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is "news." Most explain this opinion is because the show doesn't present equal sides of the issues as journalism should. The problem I have, is that the media itself has labeled show as "news", which is something that Stewart never claimed the show to be. Per the show's website, it is intended to be a nightly half-hour series "unburdened by objectivity, journalistic integrity or even accuracy". With that in mind, should the public hold Jon Stewart, who has no degree in journalism, political science, or communications, to the same standard as we hold other commentators who hold those titles and assume that responsibility?

Bernard Goldberg believes so. On April 15th, Stewart aired a clip of Goldberg and several other commentators from Fox News complaining about the media generalizing the Tea Party based on the actions of a few individuals. Stewart agreed that the media had done so, but then pointed out that Fox News in particular was guilty of the same generalizations against liberals. He proved his point by airing several clips of Goldberg along with Bill O'Reilly and others making generalized statements that portrayed liberals in a negative light. Goldberg responded to this by appearing on O'Reilly's Fox News program and agreeing that Stewart had a point, but he went on to say that Stewart himself had failed as a news reporter and social commentator because he did not treat liberal guests as roughly as conservative ones.

"But if clearly you want to be a social commentator, more than just a comedian and if you want to be a good one, you better find some guts because even though you criticize liberals as well as conservatives, congratulations on that, when you had Frank Rich on your show, who generalizes all the time about conservatives and Republicans being bigots, you didn’t ask him a single tough question. You gave him a lap dance. You practically had your tongue down his throat.."

Stewart addressed the critisism on his show April 20th. He pulled together the entire clip of Goldberg and his comments, pausing inbetween to offer challenge points and elaborate a few of his own points.

There was one in particular where Goldberg claims that Stewart isn't as edgy as he thinks he is. "You're just a safe Jay Leno, with smaller audience, but you get to say the F-bomb, which gives your incredibly unsophisticated audience the illusion that you're courageous and you're renegade, but it's only an illusion."

Stewart responded with mock horror, exclaiming "Wait, Wait... I'm not a courageous renegade? But I've always considered myself the Lorenzo Lamas of late night." Stewart continued, explaining that he never labeled his show as edgy, or claimed to be renegade. He accused Goldberg of trying to hold his show to the standard proclaimed by the Fox News tagline "always fair and balanced." "You can’t criticize me for not being ‘fair and balanced.’ That’s your slogan. Which by the way, you never follow..."

Stewart ended the segment with a gospel style skit in which explained that, even in his personal beliefs, he is not perpetually on one side or the other. He closed by calling Fox News the "lupus of news" and offered the same insult he had given to them in the clip on April 15th. "Fox News, as long as fair and balanced is how you sell yourselves, Go F*** yourself," to which the audicence clapped and cheered and the choir behind Stewart broke out into a gospel style chorus of the insult.

The whole clip was amusing to me on many levels from both sides, but what struck me was how Stewart is constantly being portrayed as a journalist, which he is not. Fox News has been critisized by not only Stewart, but other sources (News Hounds and FAIR for example) for being biased in its commentary. Fox News responds not by changing the way it portrays news, but by hurling back superfulous accusations against the accusers, and calling them what appears to be their favorite insult: liberals.

For consumers of media, what does this approach provide to us? From either side, whether you choose to watch Stewart and his openly comedic biased social commentary, Fox News with its right-wing tilt to everything, or another source, if the journalism being provided by our largest news corporations isn't accurately giving us the facts, how can we make informed decisions on all the issues that affect us?

For me, when I watch Stewart, I am fully aware that I'm getting his opinion with the jokes. I completely understand that he might be a little biased, and he can be, because he's never claimed to be a journalist and I don't hold him to those standards. But Goldberg and others are journalists, and there is no warning on Fox News that states "the opinions expressed on this channel may not portray all accurate portions of the story." Which, in my opinion, means Fox News is selling me a false product.

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Berman to Stay

Chris Berman, the face of ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" and "Monday Night Football," is staying with ESPN.

Along with his involvement in ESPN's NFL coverage Berman is the host of ESPN's U.S. Open golf coverage. Berman is the six-time national sportscaster of the year award winner and has been with ESPN since October of 1979, soon after the network was launched. Berman has become the face of the NFL branch of ESPN and is the anchor for all their NFL coverage.

The decision was not a quick and easy one for Berman. He was pursued by two major broadcasting companies, DirecTV and NFL Network. Berman has decided to stick with the network where he got his start, however saying, "Home is where the heart is."

The next time you can catch Berman on ESPN will be Thursday night where he is set to host ESPN's live coverage of the NFL draft at 4:30 p.m. (ET). Berman has hosted the NFL draft since 1987.

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Tumblr wants your money

The three year old company Tumblr wants your money.

What is Tumblr? It's a service that allows people to quickly and easily set up lightweight blogs. They currently have 4.5 million users.

What makes them stand out is they do not charge their users for their service. They also do not sell advertising on pages they generate.

In the past Tumblr has received millions of dollars from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Together they recently poured another $5 million making them the sole investors in Tumblr.

Now Tumblr wants to sell "digital stickers" to users at a dollar each. Users will buy these "stickers" to spruce up their pages, like bells and whistles.

Peter Kafka says this "strategy is a little more seat-of-the pants, but the bet is that it may be easier to coax money out of people a couple dollars at a time."

Although I had never heard of Tumblr before, I think that it is a great starting place for new journalist to get a start blogging, and get the feel of blogging. Because there is no cost associated with their service, new journalist don't have a huge financial investment, but allows them to start a portfolio of work.

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Entire Rolling Stone Archive Online

All 43 years of interviews, reviews, and other articles from Rolling Stone magazine will soon be available online for a price.

According to AFP, Rolling Stone plans on making most of their content free, but in order to see all of the content a user would pay $3.95 per month or $2.50 per month with a yearly subscription. The magazine will also be redesigning its Website, adding more audio and video.

Mashable writer Brenna Ehrlich argues that Rolling Stone is setting up its paywall in a smart way. Rolling Stone not only released more content, they also added a lot of new content.

She points out that putting up 43 years worth of content online is "no small feat." When media consumers are considering whether or not to drop $30 a year into a subscription, they will have to take this work into consideration also.

Ehrlich makes a good point, but will consumers agree with her?

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Poynter Points to FCC to Stop Media Crisis

Remarks at today's FCC workshop should be of interest to fellow BNR students.

In remarks made in her testimony at today's FCC workshop, Karen Dunlap, President of Poynter Institute said that cross-ownership of media wasn't the immediate crisis. Whearas she urged the FCC to keep watch to insure that relaxing cross-ownership rules wouldn't affect independent, local and community provided news, she urged them to consider a wider issue.

She is concerned about the media transformation, anyone can have a megaphone now. She quotes Michael Smith, executive director of Northwestern University's Media Management Center. Who said to a group at the Newspaper Association of America meeting that "an eight-year old –- let's say an affluent eight-year-old -- has more publishing power in her bedroom today than publishers in 1999."

The FCC is concerned about owners of mass media and the power they hold; but mass media now shares the stage with the masses. And the FCC should also be concerned about that; because "Almost anyone can post almost anything to friends, a community or the world. Drawing an audience, of course, is another matter, as is the matter of producing news and information that is of value to society. The megaphone simply speaks to the means of commanding attention, of gaining influence."

She also discussed declining audiences of all traditional news media, people are selective in where they are getting thier news. She mentions the decline and loss of jobs in the newspaper industry, newsrooms, news magazines and the loss of ad revenue. "The decline was greater for journalists of color." according to Dunlap.

Dunlap told the FCC, "The problems that I have outlined are a threat to an informed democracy. We are seeing the deterioration of informed civic discourse as we drown in information, opinions, debates, half-truths and lies."

She encourges the FCC to consider their role in insuring an informed population.

She urged the FCC to:
1. Assist local communities to make sure daily, local, national and international news gets to them - using public funding, government, foundations and citizen contributions.
2. Promote diversity in the field of journalism.
3. Take a stand against hate speech and raise the "level of exchanges to stop the civic discourse."

This article addressed similar issues we discussed from the speeches of McChesney and Nichols and emphasizes the amount of concern there must be out there, particularly by academics. I hope the FCC can take some action that doesn't trample on First Amendment rights and yet makes sure we can sustain journalistic integrity within the newsrooms. And I hope they can save jobs and make sure that local communities continue to have news service.

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