NY Times: For five years, the man who infuriated professions unused to scrutiny has taught a journalism seminar annually at his alma mater, Yale. Now he and his wife, Cynthia, former Yale classmates, are donating about $1 million in endowment money and additional operating funds for a program to train and provide career guidance to students interested in journalism.
Seattle PI abandons dayparting
Seattle PI.com was an early adopter of dayparting, where the web site’s focus would shift to reflect people’s interest at various times of the day — news in the morning, entertainment in the evening.
Now they’ve abandoned the effort, according to Brian Chin’s Buzzworthy. (T)wo years of hard-won experience made it clear that we can’t be all things to all people all the time. People might want to play games or shop or read celebrity gossip, but they weren’t coming to our site for that (well, maybe for the gossip).”
Finding little-known work by authors means gold — sometimes
Boston.com: interesting story about editor who publishes old articles from famous authors that are now in the public domain.
Executives who think it’s safer to buy a franchise than start a business need to think again.
Fortune Small Business The scant research that exists suggests that, as risky as starting an independent business is, buying a franchise is an even bigger roll of the dice. In the early ’90s Timothy Bates, a professor at Wayne State University, studied Census Bureau data on 20,000 new enterprises and found that 38% of franchise units failed over a four-year period, vs. 32% of independent startups.
If being an entrepreneur sounds appealing, try the tests at WSJ’s StartupJournal.
Bad Blood: Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis
NY Times: An estimated 800,000 adult New Yorkers now have diabetes, and city health officials describe the problem as an epidemic.
First-person reflection on W. Va. mine disaster coverage
Derek Rose: sago mine disaster/ media flubbub:
Looking back, I think we all did get caught up in the euphoria of the celebration, as Alexa told me. Perhaps we just put aside our natural skepticism for a bit.
But put aside journalism for a second … what kind of human beings would we be if we didn’t get overjoyed about the rescue of a dozen miners?
Beyond Their Martian Dreams: Two Rovers Are Still Informing Experts Two Years Later
NY Times: The plan was for Spirit and Opportunity to explore for 90 Martian days, but the rovers have spent hundreds of days on the Red Planet.
Scientists thought the rovers’ solar panel would become covered in dust and become ineffective, but occasional mini-tornadoes on the surface clean the panels.
Governments Tremble at Google’s Bird’s-Eye View
NY Times: Google Earth, software that marries satellite images and mapping capabilities, has caused alarm over its display of sensitive sites.
Photoshopping a new appearance
Media Photoshop Retouching. We wanted to show how easy it is to change someone’s appearance in this campaign. Interesting presentation of how photos are retouched to define beauty. Link from boingboing. Here’s a link to another piece on boingboing: Photograph retouching expert’s gallery about photo retoucher Glenn Feron.
When I need inspiration …
Online Journalism Review: ‘Why do I love online publishing?’. Includes comments from the editor in chiefs of NY Times, Cleveland.com, Craig Newmark of Craigslist.org and others.