This could be a game changer for book publishing. A new company called Offbeat Guides produces personalized travel books based on your itinerary and travel details. It was founded by Dave Sifry, a serial entrepreneur (and friend) from San Francisco who previously led Technorati and LinuxCare. Dave has participated in our We Media conferences for […]
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will make $5 million in grants in the next round of its News Challenge. The News Challenge supports innovative uses of media and technology to help meet the information needs of communities in the connected culture. Think fast. The deadline is Nov. 1. Apply here. Andrew NachisonAndrew […]
One of the loveliest social media startups I’ve run across in the last few years is Scrapblog. I say lovely because it’s well designed and design itself is a core value of the service and the user experience. Users create multimedia collages with Scrapblog, then share them with embed codes, just like you share YouTube […]
PC pulls an advertisement in the guise of an editorial, called “Stop Switching to Mac”, from the sacrosanct news wall on today’s front page of NewYorkTimes.com. Washingtonpost.com, too. A godlike Mac watches and comments just below the nameplate. Dale PeskinDale is co-founder emeritus of We Media. www.wemedia.com
The Society of News Design has announced the World’s Best Designed Newspapers, an award I conceived as chair of SND’s design competition back in 1995. Once again no American newspapers. Papers in Europe, Mexico and former Eastern bloc countries have dominated the World’s Best competition, reflecting the emergence of free expression and the flourishing of […]
Earlier this week I was mesmerized by two young adults playing Madden NFL 09 on a big screen at the neighborhood Best Buy. The experience was a lot more fun than watching the Skins-Giants snoozer on NBC last night, even with analysis from Madden hisself. This Sunday, ESPN merges video game graphics with real-life analysts […]
The magazine Editor & Publisher has long been the must-read trade rag for anyone in the U.S. newspaper business. Which is another way of saying: Like the industry it covers, Editor & Publisher in print has been fading for years. E&P in print switched from a weekly to monthly in 2004, while its web site […]
Two related announcements today from a U.S. journalism institute reflect the changing nature of how journalism is produced, distributed and experienced globally – and also the expanding role for non-profits and philanthropy in paying for U.S. journalism. Andrew NachisonAndrew Nachison is founder of We Media. He lives in Reston, Virginia. www.nach.com
In an open letter to craigslist, Steve Outing asks its founders and operators to help save the newspaper industry from itself. My response: Steve, It takes real chutzpah to ask Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster of craigslist to help newspapers salvage their classifieds businesses and thus save democracy, or at least the part of it […]
What would you do to provide a better news service for your community? Or for any community? David Cohn, one of our We Media Fellows at this year’s We Media Miami conference, is trying to ferret out good ideas for one community, San Jose, California, from an obvious source: people who live there. On April […]