The News Frontier
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February 7, 2012 06:00 PM
Drawing the News Ain’t Easy
Editorial cartoonists struggle for funds, but not eyeballs
When The New York Times sent an e-mail to editorial cartoonists on Monday announcing that “The Sunday Review section is bringing back editorial cartoons!,” several recipients didn’t share the paper’s enthusiasm. The e-mail requested that work be “original (not syndicated)” and be submitted on spec; one cartoon will be selected each week and published for a payment of $250.
Romenesko...
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January 24, 2012 01:38 PM
Teaching Cyber-Security
Confidentiality promises often require technical skill
Since 2007, Steve Doig, an investigative journalist, has been giving a talk called “Spycraft: Keeping your sources private.” He’s presented at conferences for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting, explaining a number of specific technological tips for reporters: using Tor for online anonymity, the benefits of no-contract cell phones, and how to trick keyloggers,...
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January 12, 2012 03:27 PM
Tell Me a Secret
Soliciting leaks has its rewards, and challenges
When news website 100Reporters launched this past October, it had everything you’d expect from a promising journalistic startup: top journalists, funding, partnerships with established news organizations. But 100Reporters also came equipped with Whistleblower Alley, its own WikiLeaks-style leaking portal.
Started by Diana Jean Schemo and Philip Shenon, both former New York Times journalists, 100Reporters covers...
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January 9, 2012 12:42 PM
Spying on Journalists is Easy
Lax computer security creates easy targets
When promising anonymity, discreetly stashed notes and a tight lip are the precautions of journalism’s past. Reporters have gone to jail rather than share the information they’ve gathered for a court proceeding, but as reporters increasingly depend on technology to correspond and collect material, the fruits of that labor can be accessed without a summons, subpoena, or the journalist even...
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January 6, 2012 02:02 PM
Twifficult
Tweeting the change you wish to see is easy. Global attention is as elusive as ever
I was alone on a drive from Maine to Massachusetts in early December when a crazy idea hit me. Listening to Christmas music along a snow-lined I-95, my epiphany was to write a letter to rockstar Pink and ask her to sing a Christmas duet with me, the proceeds from which would be given to Doctors Without Borders to help...
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December 16, 2011 12:23 PM
Two Weeks after Launch, New Worries Take Hold
Launch Pad: The Classical
CJR’s Launch Pad feature invites new media publishers to blog about their experiences on the news frontier. Past Launch Pad columns from Bethlehem Shoals and others can be found here.
I have a confession to make: up until this point, these posts have been heavily vetted acts of organizational messaging. The Classical didn't yet exist, or only sort of...
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December 14, 2011 03:47 PM
Calling Dr. Crowd
News outlets rely on the masses for public health stories
When we feel ourselves coming down with something, we look it up. If you type the words “I think I’m getting” into Google’s search box, the suggested next-word options are “sick,” “the flu,” and “a cold,” though these recommendations and their order can vary slightly. In 2008, Google put that search data to use with Google Flu Trends,...
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December 7, 2011 05:36 PM
Where’s the Party?
News startups bring their readers together offline
Burnt Orange Report, a popular political blog based in Austin, Texas, held its first Republican “debate watch party” in September at The Tavern, a local pub. “Misery loves company,” said the post publicizing the event, “and there's nothing more miserable than watching the state you love be destroyed by a self-serving politician.”
The bar was...
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December 5, 2011 11:43 AM
A DIY Version of a Large-Scale Project
Launch Pad: The Classical
CJR’s Launch Pad feature invites new media publishers to blog about their experiences on the news frontier. Past Launch Pad columns from Bethlehem Shoals and others can be found here.
The Classical launched right when everyone was leaving their desks last Friday, two months and five days after completing our Kickstarter fundraising. Thanks to the contributors whose...
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December 1, 2011 03:36 PM
The Landman Cometh
Innovation Trail and other New York outlets help readers prepare for fracking prospectors
Knock, knock. Who’s there? It’s the “landman,” offering quick cash to extract natural gas on your property using a technique called hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” Please take a look at this colorful brochure.
It’s a scene that has played out above gas-rich shale formations across the United States. Long before the environmental and public health risks of...
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November 21, 2011 01:11 PM
The Merits of the Two-Speed Model
Launch Pad: The Classical
CJR’s Launch Pad feature invites new media publishers to blog about their experiences on the news frontier. Past Launch Pad columns from Bethlehem Shoals and others can be found here.
As it turned out, no one much cared that The Classical began life as a Tumblr. No one commented one way or the other; if anything, our...
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November 21, 2011 11:32 AM
Will the IRS Derail Nonprofit Journalism?
At a crucial moment, the taxman drags his feet on granting tax-exempt status
In an era of newspaper closings and reporter layoffs, there has been one significant bright spot: an explosion of local, nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism enterprises focused on the kinds of accountability reporting that protects taxpayers and enriches democracy.
So it is beyond baffling that, according to CJR and other press reports, the Internal Revenue Service appears be slowing...
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November 21, 2011 11:10 AM
Know Your Journalists
New transparency website compiles personal data on reporters
In 2006 Adrian Holovaty, then a programmer and journalist of some reputation, wrote a blog post entitled, “A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change.” In the five years since he published it, Holovaty went on to win a Knight News Challenge grant, launch EveryBlock, sell it to MSNBC.com, and become one of the leading programmer/journalists working today....
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November 17, 2011 02:57 PM
What I Saw at the Hyperlocal Revolution
Without journalism jobs, we don't have journalism
When I quit The Sacramento Bee after nearly twenty-five years as a reporter and columnist in 2007, I looked like a fool. Who would leave a great job at a fine paper, without a buyout or even unemployment insurance?
But I was restless and bored, and two years later I looked less foolish: after my departure from The Bee,...
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The News Frontier Feature
The News Frontier Database
A searchable, living, and ongoing documentation of digital news outlets across the country.
Featuring originally reported profiles and extensive data sets on digital news organizations across the United States, the NFDB is a tool for those who study or pursue online journalism, a window into that world for the uninitiated, and, like any journalistic product, a means by which to shed light on an important topic. We plan to build the NFDB into the most comprehensive resource of its kind.
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About The News Frontier RSS
The News Frontier, our exploration of the future of journalism in the digital age, will serve as a scout into the shifting news terrain. We will report on the new ways of gathering, presenting, and financing the news, and we curate some of the best general thinking about the future of news, in order to provide an informed and collective vision of that future.
Desks
The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: Off the Hamster Wheel, The Dumb Money, iPad Newspapers
- Mostly Skimpy Coverage of JPMorgan’s Overdraft Settlement
The Observatory Science
- What Drives Public Opinion About Climate Change? Politicians, economy more influential than media coverage, study says
- The Presidential Energy Narrative Campaign coverage takes on a green hue
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- Some Mistakes at MoneyWatch A little more homework needed on Social Security, please
- It’s Caucus Day in Colorado: Where’s the Content? Campaign presented as theater in the Denver Post
