As the Online News Association annual conference unfolded last weekend, my coworkers and I were eagerly watching and griping at the same time. It would have been awesome to be there.
As tightly scheduled, financially struggling journalists, these big industry conferences seem more and more out of reach to attend but they also offer the greatest payoff in an industry where networking and skill sharpening is nearly the only way to stay afloat.
Lori Todd and I coauthored …

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One of the biggest issues plaguing print journalism with the rise of the internet is the inability for a newspaper to encourage interactive reader discussion. This usually takes place online in story comment sections or community forums. In print, this kind of audience sound-off can only take place among the few letters that are selected to print in “letters to the Editor” section.
These days, readers are talking and discussing and ranting more than ever. Even according to the 10,000 …

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Inspired by this blog post at Journalistopia from Danny Sanchez (@dannysanchez) of the Orlando Sentinel, I was forced to come face-to-face with reality.  As an online producer, what I do isn’t exactly technical rocket science. I am lucky to have a job at a transition time when most people have not had the chance to keep up with the online learning curve. And for most people, it’s no fault of their own, in my opinion.  Reporters are busy digging up …

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The 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
We’ve been prepping for the event all this week and will be continually adding new content to the homepage of MiamiHerald.com through the big dance on Tuesday. We will be staffed with five producers all assigned to different tasks to keep new info coming cleanly and smoothly. I’ll personally be tweeting from my own account (@malcolli) and you can catch all headlines from @MiamiHerald.  Stephanie Rosenblatt (@steph_rose) is building a graphic to contain all the good content …

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After a long and patient wait spent folding clothes at Banana Republic, ladies and gentlemen, I have landed a job. Actually, I’ve been at said job for about a month now and every week gets more and more exciting and challenging. You know all the stories and photos and videos that are posted on your favorite newspaper’s Web site? Well there isn’t some robot there posting all that content.  Computers aren’t doing it either. Producers who monitor, edit and select …

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