Random Mumblings

• Tennessee Newspaper Network takes another step in its growth

  The four largest newspapers in Tennessee are expanding content sharing to collaborative coverage in the Tennessee gubernatorial race.
  
  The first result of that is a piece on the finances of the GOP candidates from the Knoxville News Sentinel's Tom Humphrey that is on the front pages of the [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 11:32am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Snowy morn in Knoxville

  
  An HDR photo of snow on the trees and our Christmas decorations. The star is a Moravian star. Taken Dec. 5, 2009.
  

  
  

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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 8:43am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Video training in Nashville in early January

  From the Freedom Forum folks:
  
  An Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp will be run by the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, Jan. 6-10, 2010, at the John Seigenthaler Center in Nashville, Tenn. The course is open to any journalism educators, professionals, college students and others  who know the basics and [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 2:23pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• The most needed in a democracy

  
  
  Nice piece from Sigma Delta Chi and the Society of Professional Journalists.
  Make a donation to Sigma Delta Chi.
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 11:57am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Google Wave: Coolest places in Knoxville

  The number of Google Wave users is growing and people are find interesting ways to use it. Here's one that is aimed at crowdsourcing the "Coolest Places in Knoxville." If you're on "Wave," contribute to it.
  

  
  

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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:31pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Online legal issues links

  I'm doing a Webinar today on online legal issues, another in a series E.W. Scripps is doing with journalism professors at Hampton University using Skype and DimDim. These are some interesting conversations.
  
  I've put together a set of links for them and I thought others might [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:30pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• A day golf's Mike Strantz would have enjoyed

  I don't play golf and I never met golf course designer Mike Strantz, but I think he would have had fun yesterday' [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:42am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Jugtown vase

  
  At the Celebration of Seagrove Potters on Friday night, I picked up this vase made by Travis Owens of Jugtown Pottery. Jugtown was recently featured on a PBS Craft in America show and Travis Owens is in that [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 10:33am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• From gatekeeper to "sense-maker"

  Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, discusses the future of journalism. The gatekeeper role may be gone, but there are other roles for the Press to play, like "sense-maker." (via Reportr.net)
  
  
  

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Training and focusing on content quality even in tight times

  E.W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne is getting some kudos for focusing on editorial quality and training even as the economics of the media business have forced painful cutbacks.
  
  A large training program focused on storytelling has launched amid the media industry [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:30am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• You cell phone is Big Brother (but which one?)

  Fascinating blog post from Jeff Jonas about all the data that little cell phone you're carrying is collecting:.
  
  The data reveals the number of co-workers that join you Thursdays after work for a beer, and roughly where you all go. It knows where these same co-workers call' [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:05pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Scripps Twitter list

  I recently created a Twitter list of E.W. Scripps folks. If you're with Scripps and want to be added to the list, fill out the form. Either way, consider following it.

  
  

  ' [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 4:17pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Comment management draws lots of comments

  I had a great time doing a Webinar at the Poynter Institute on Thursday with Howard Finberg and a big assist from Elaine Kramer, who manages the Associated Press Managing Editors' Online Credibility Roundtables. Our topic was management of online comments and Michele' [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 7:58am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Ethics in journalism's digital age

  I'm talking to a group of faculty members at Hampton University this afternoon about journalism ethics in the digital world.. As part of preparing for that talk, I rounded up some journalism ethics links that I thought others might also enjoy. (Special hat tip to Steve Buttry and Bob' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 1:48pm EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Halloween 2009

  
  
  Halloween jack-o-lanterns this year. Hallowween decorations from earlier years.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 10:17am EST
  by Jack D. Lail

• Hauling a tool chest of ideas back from Missouri

  
  
  The speed version of the better part of last week during my stay in Saint Louis. My hotel was just across the street from the arch, but, unfortunately, I never made it to it.
  
  Here are some resources and thought-starters from the Associated Press Managing Editors [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 6:11pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Newspaper becomes the story in comment case

  Some of the coverage of the federal subpoena for information about a commenter on the Knoxnews.com Web site.
  
  Jack McElroy: KNS turns commenter info over to FBI
  
  Say Uncle: Saying dumb things on the internet
  
  The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the' [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 2:29pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Living a "Gutenberg Moment"

  On Sunday, I caught up with an excellent podcast with former MarketWatch CEO founder Larry Kramer that was posted in late September.
  
  Kramer is a reporter turned editor turned entrepreneur who still loves journalism and believes content is king.
  
  He is interviewed by [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Newsroom cuts hurt economic health of newspapers

  Interesting budget season reading (emphasis added is mine) from Editor and Publisher:
  
  This summer, Esther Thorson, dean of graduate studies and research at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, as well as Shrihari Sridhar and Murali Mantrala from Missouri's Trulaske College of Business, presented research taken [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 11:26am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Of “net neanderthals” and Google promiscuity

  Like News of the Weird headlines: "Net neandertahals" have found alive online and Google unintentionally encourages promiscuity.
  
  Danny Sullivan breaks is all down.
  
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 9:00pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Wither the 'Average American'

  The 2010 Census data (being collected now ... we completed our form last weekend) won't begin to be available until 2011, but experts already are making projections:
  
  "The iconic American family -- married couple with children -- will account for a mere 22% of households."
  
  "The'" [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 7:52pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A better job would be ...

  “We have to go from a world in which we try to do a better job of covering the same news as everyone else to a world where we’re bringing our audiences news that no one else is.”
  
  - From ABC News President David Westin at the Media [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 5:26pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• 5 questions that keep Ken Lowe up at night

  1. Will media consumers pay for quality content on interactive platforms?
  
  2. Shouldn't we be worrying about our privacy?
  
  3. Can we find a better way to measure audiences across platforms?
  
  4. Why are you still watching commercials if you use your DVRs?
  
  5. What' [...]
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  Posted: October 17, 2009, 11:05am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Something to say

  
  The next couple of weeks seem to be all about giving talks.
  
  Doing a roundtable discussion with Kevin Slimp and Tom Chester tomorrow at lunch at the Institute of Newspaper Technology. This session meets at Regas and should be fun. The institute cranked up on Thursday. [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 4:07pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Scripps Networks in play?

  A trade publication fuels rumors that Knoxville-based Scripps Networks will be acquired by a larger media player by saying it looks ripe to "be nibbled at or gobbled up whole."
  

  
  

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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 7:52am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Good listen for October

  
  
  I'm liking this title cut and other tunes from the new  I And Love And You Avett Brothers album more with every listen.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 10:12am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The tomato paste libel case

  I've been doing a lot of research, thinking and writing about online comments for a Nov. 5 webinar on comment management for news sites for the Poynter Institute and APME.
  
  So the story about a libel suit against the owner of a pizza restaurant just blocks' [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 6:56am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Knoxnews wins breaking news award

  I was watching the Livestream.com Web live video of the Online Journalism Awards presentation while I was updating knoxnews/govolsxtra Saturday night. The Tennessee-Auburn game had just ended and it was busy. When Rich Beckman announced knoxnews was the winner in the medium-size category for [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 6:50pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Lessons from the Rocky

  

  Lessons from the Rocky Mountain News - Presentation at the UC Berkeley Media Technology Summit at Googleplex in Silicon Valley from John Temple on Vimeo.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 4:42pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• History at 11

  Google has a cute logo today celebrating its turning 11 (it was founded Sept 4, 1998).
  
  It went public in 2004 so you can't see the complete picture of the success the company has had in its stock chart, but nonetheless,' [...]
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  Posted: September 27, 2009, 9:40am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Webinar Series coming on "difficult online news issues"

  (I am doing the first of these Webinars on Nov. 5. I hope you'll be able to join us.)
  
  Poynter's NewsU and APME to Kick Off Online Credibility Webinar Series: New Approaches to Dealing With Difficult Online News Issues
  
  The Poynter Institute's News University (NewsU) today announced' [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• At the fork in the road, take both

  The newspaper of tomorrow is going to break down into two distinct paths and only one of them includes paper of any form. Local information is always of value and this is the form that printed versions will likely take.
   
  The second path that newspapers will follow is [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 12:16pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Journalists running toward burning buildings as fast as they can

  E.W. Scripps Vice President of Content Rusty Coats, speaking to the Knoxville Social Media Association on a humid Tuesday evening, talked about the future of journalism, social media and journalism and how Scripps is remaking itself in an reorganization announced less than [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 8:24am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Murder In The City

  
  
  A little Avett Brothers as a shoutout to Pirate fans as they get ready for Saturday's football game in Chapel Hill. Scott Avett went to East Carolina. I think this version of Glory Days is pretty cool. As you can see from their YouTube channel,' [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 3:09pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Knox County campaign contributions are to get a lot clearer

  This is a major step toward greater transparency in local campaign finance.
  
  An online, searchable database of local candidates' campaign finances could be up and running for public use in time for the August 2010 county primary election, said officials with the Knox County Election Commission.
  The initiative is' [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 3:08pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• And I didn't know Kanye West even read my blog

  Here's what he said about my blog (and yours, too).
  
  The back story.
  
  (Thanks to Gizmotastic for this tip.)
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 8:36am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Newspaper stocks soaring

  Are the same people that drove newspapers to historic lows and into penny stock range just a couple months now doing this?
  
  
  

  
  

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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 6:25am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Feed frenzy

  

  It certainly is a good time to subscribe to this blog:

  [...]

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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 10:07pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Michael Moore: Newspapers 'Slit Their Own Throats'

  
  
  "One year or two years from now," filmmaker Michael Moore predicted, "we are not going to have daily newspapers."
  
  More at The Wrap.
  
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 9:14pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Remix of famous New Yorker cartoon

  
  
  On the Internet,
  Nobody Knows You're a Dog
  -- July 5, 1993, The New Yorker
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: September 13, 2009, 7:16pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Not just fish wrapper yet

  With that in mind, it looks like E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) could very possibly be the first newspaper stock to climb its way back  to beat its 52 week high of $7.85. Trading of SSP was off a bit today, closing down a penny to $7.63. It's still very' [...]
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  Posted: September 12, 2009, 12:34pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Internship opp

  The pitch: How would you like to learn new media skills while having a positive impact on the college media environment? Join us for a semester of new media opportunity as the intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media for Fall 2009.
  
  Details.
  

  [...]

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  Posted: September 11, 2009, 3:54pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The real "health care" issue

  Is it "health care" or "healthcare?"
  
  The red underline in my browser says "healthcare" is misspelled, but sometimes browsers are better at surfing than spelling, especially in areas where popular use is evolving a spelling or word meaning.
  
  To slightly modify a favorite saying of media iconoclast [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 6:33am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Good advice for innovating from another era

  Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
  -- Andrew Jackson
  
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: September 05, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• New is ...

  News itself is becoming less of an easily digestible summary of events and more of a grotesque entertainment reality show with heavy emphasis on emotion and sensation and a swaggering comically theatrical sense of its own importance.
  -- Aaron Swartz
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 6:13pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Damn, they know how to stroke my ego

  Woohoo, I got an email this morning that this blog had been named one of the Top 100 Journalism blogs by The Daily Reviewer, which I wasn't familiar with, but which seems to be a Web title of Times-Shamrock Communications in Pennsylvania. Whoops. It appears to have been' [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 7:00am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Barn at the end of the road

  
  
  This is a barn at what was the Stanley family homeplace, where my grandmother grew up in Southwest Virginia. I took it, among others, during a Stanley Reunion this past Sunday at the Caney Fork [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 12:01pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Disaster is spelled I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T

  Lauren Rich Fine on what has happened:
  
  "Traditional media failed to realize the competitive challenge created by the Internet as it allows all media to compete directly and without any competitive advantage," said Lauren Rich Fine, a former media analyst at Merrill Lynch and now a Practitioner [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 5:25pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Trend lines still perilous for newspapers

  Martin Langeveld, analyzing, the latest Newspaper Association of America revenue data:
  
  As I've argued previously with regard to the NAA's views on how newspapers are doing in the online arena, where they enjoy less than 1 percent of consumer attention, this data shows the crisis relates to [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 1:33pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• No photo of government transparency available

  It's outrageous that a school board and a state school board association would base efforts to limit cameras at public meeting on an attorney general's opinion that has been declared unconstitutional.
  
  But that's what the Loudon County (Tenn.) Board of Education would like to do.
  
  It' [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 11:06am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Finding news in all places

  
  
  Jeff Cutler posted this video to Qik.com of fellow panelist Bill Adee, editor of digital media at the Chicago Tribune, during our session on link journalism Thursday afternoon with Publish2 CEO Scott Karp at the SPJ convention in Indianapolis.
  
  Adee talked about [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2009, 1:12pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Spotlighting "Sunshine issues" also spurs open government opponents

  Ironically, one of the outcomes of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's 2004 public records audit, the first such statewide audit in Tennessee, is that lawmakers are filing more bills to close records.
  
  In this year's session, Tennessee legislators filed three times as many exemptions to open meetings, [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2009, 9:43am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Do you believe in the "sanity clause?"

  Groucho: "That's in every contract, that's what you call a sanity clause."
  Chico: "You can't a fool a me there ain't no sanity clause"
  -- Groucho/Chico Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie)
  The Southeastern Conferencde issued a revised Media Credental Policy on Thursday that comes a lot closer to being [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2009, 8:19am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Credential Crud continues; victims fighting back

  The Associated Press and Gannett say their reporters will not sign the new Southeastern Conference Media Credential Policy.
  
  "The credential restrictions would be untenable," said Mark Silverman, editor of the Tennessean, which covers the SEC's University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University. "They fail to recognize that we are'" [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 2:14pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• SEC Media Policy = #FAIL

  Several media-related groups have signed a joint letter protesting the Southeastern Conference's new  Media Credential Policy.
  
  From the letter:
  
  We understand that media coverage of sports is changing. New media and channels for disseminating information, including ownership of distribution channels by leagues or teams themselves, require adjustments' [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 4:32pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Lean and mean, newspapers now positioned to rebuild

  
  
  Recommended listening.  "Fresh Air" interview with Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and part of a fourth generation family-owned media company based in the upper East Tennessee' [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 5:34am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• SEC finds X's and O's of Social Media not as easy to learn as in football

  
  I posted a mega link package on the SEC and Social Media at GoVolsXtra.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: August 18, 2009, 7:39am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Soon they'll be tailgating Tweet Parties

  More Rich Hailey on Twitter.
  
  And more comment on the SEC's plans to limit fans in the stands.
  
  SEC controlling the message, profiting off taxpayers | No Silence Here | knoxnews.com More reaction coming in on SEC's draconian policy | No Silence [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 3:16pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• SEC Media Policy doesn't get better with study

  After reading the new SEC Media Policy and re-reading it, it's becoming clear the revised policy isn't much of an improvement over the restrictive draft policy that was floating around before Friday's official release.
  
  It's like a doctor saying to a patient: "It's not terminal, just fatal." [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 10:32am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Send them away (to get them back)

  A fundamental rule of the Internet.
  
  That's why this works so effectively.
  

  
  

  ' [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 9:31pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The SEC's troubling approach to news on the Internet

  The Southeastern Conference's new "finalized" media credidentials policy is still troubling to news organizations that regularly cover the storied football schools of the South, despite some concessions from the draft that was leaked last week to an Alabama news organization.
  
  The outrage over the stricter draft' [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 5:55pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Blame it on Twitter

  This was a great idea and I hope it proves successful in Knoxville:
  
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 14, 2009 Knoxville Twestival Announces Charity Selection After Innovative Social Media-Driven Selection Process Knoxville, Tenn - Organizers for Knoxville Twestival (http://www.knoxville.twestival.com) announced today that The Salvation Army of Knoxville ([www.uss.salvationarmy.org])  has [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 4:53pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Drive page views and user stickiness with outbound links

  Kurt Greenbaum on "link journalism" for ASNE.
  
  Linking out is such a dead simple traffic builder, it's hard to see why "curating the Web" isn't embraced more enthusiastically.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: August 13, 2009, 9:35pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• What the SEC needs is a good coach controversy

  Because their new media policy has grabbed the media attention (like a two-by-four to the forehead). Is Rick Pitino available?
  
  Knoxville News Sentinel blogger Michael Silence with the latest developments on the new SEC Media policy.
  
  Seriously, hopefully the foggy thinking that brought this was [...]
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  Posted: August 13, 2009, 12:24pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Send in the tsarina to make a play

  The Southeastern Conference is reacting to criticism of its iron-fisted media rights policy by saying it'll tweak the rules a bit.
  
  The emphasis is on a bit. A conferences spokesman said SEC execs will definitely look at the provision that says only full-time employees of media organizations can' [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2009, 8:17am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• React to the SEC's new media policies (or hand over that cell phone)

  Some react to word of the new Southeastern Conference media policies that place new restrictions on journalists and fans taking photos at game, blogging or using "real-time" services such as Twitter and text messages.
  
  The new rules also severely limit the posting of video even from press conference!
  [...]
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  Posted: August 09, 2009, 3:24pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Still on keeping on

  
  
  Remembering Jerry Garcia.
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: August 09, 2009, 2:46pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Blogging has its limits in the SEC

  The Southeastern Conference is seeking to control how many blog posts or, presumably, even Twitter updates, can be done during a football game as well as control even video from press conferences.
  
  The more restrictive rules disclosed Friday are in the credential agreements journalists covering SEC games [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2009, 6:02pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Punk cabaret

  
  
  You have watch to the end to learn the amazing story of this video or you can just read TechDirt's post.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: August 05, 2009, 8:15pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A Twitter success tale that doesn't involve a get rich quick pitch

  Still wondering about this Twitter thing.
  
  Mark Schaefer, a Knoxville marketing guy who's developed an expertise in the emerging social media marketing area, has parlayed Twitter into more publicity than his marketing budget could buy - by well over 1,000 percent by' [...]
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  Posted: August 05, 2009, 1:38pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Social media guides for journalists

  A quick list of social media guides for journalists from former Knoxville resident and University of Tennessee jounalism teacher Bob Stepno.

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: August 03, 2009, 2:38pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• John Temple on being an organizational man

  Former Rocky Mountain News Editor John Temple reflects and looks forward.
  
  So I charted a different course, ending up inside an old and large organization where I built a life that supported my family and provided me great satisfaction. Then came last fall's economic collapse. The Rocky Mountain' [...]
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  Posted: August 01, 2009, 10:29am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A stranger than fiction story line that's true

  I go out of town for a couple of days and return to the surreal. Liberal Randy Neal and conservative Brian Hornback united in defending a blogger for the News Sentinel, a media company neither has been shy about calling out when they've felt moved to do so. [...]
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  Posted: July 29, 2009, 8:41am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A tool for creating clear understanding and agreement

  
  Shaketool.com, a new site from a veteran group of Knoxville online entreprenuers, is going into wider beta testing.
  
  What is Shaketool? It's a Web-driven system for reaching agreement and, along the way, increasing mutual understanding.
  
  Is it for you? Beats me. Give' [...]
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  Posted: July 28, 2009, 6:22pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• And you wonder about what's wrong with newspapers

  Seth Resler found the newspaper itself a barrier to advertising. And the sad truth is, he could repeat experience in many cities. A tale of #fail.
  
  (via Bob Benz)
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 6:02pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Tennessee journalist honored with lifetime achievement award

  SPJ news release from this morning:
  
  INDIANAPOLIS - The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to honor pioneering Tennessee journalist Robert Churchwell with the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement. Churchwell, who died Feb. 1, 2009, was the first black journalist to work as a full-time reporter for [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 1:47pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A push-start for three innovative media ideas

  In case you missed this from earlier in the week, the McCormick Foundation funded three proposals from new media women entrepreneurs at $10,000 each so they can launch within a year.
  
  Here are the three plans::
  
  ChickRx - Harvard MBA student Stacey Borden and partner Meghan [...]
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  Posted: July 18, 2009, 9:48am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Respite from the media dog days of summer

  Just when the summer sultry heat convinces you the future of media is the bleakest of deserts along comes something or someone that says otherwise.
  
  There's Michael Van Popel, who at 17 started the Twitter breaking news service Breaking News Online. Now a mere 20, he's [...]
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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 12:02pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Recapping the "open government" agenda in the Tennessee Legislature now that lawmakers are safely home

  The two biggest surprises from the just-ended legislative session were the unprecedented high number of bills affecting open records and meetings, public notices, and an assortment of other First Amendment issues and the failure in the Senate to close gun carry permit files.
  
  The 30 bills represented three times the norm [...]
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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 8:37am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A not-so-secret scuffle over what's secret

  The Knoxville News Sentinel finds itself in the middle of a semantic veg-a-mantic between Us. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and MSNBC's news personality Rachel Maddow.
  
  Maddow picked up on a Michael Collins piece in the News Sentinel/knoxnews on the Washington conclave known as the "C Street House," which' [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 11:27am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• I read that, too

  Much of the Internet is simply counter-intuitive. I think that's one of the first thing you have understand to figure it out. The largest Web site on earth, Google, gets its traffic, for instance, by sending users away. There are other examples that, I'm sure, you've noticed.
  
  But' [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 11:33pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The political liver

  
  
  Glenn Reynolds thinks health care delivery might get easily entwined in politics as a result of a large government presence in health care reform. "I don't want someone looking to see who I have donated campaign money to before they decide if I get a liver'" [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 2:33pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• On social media

  
  
  From George Korda's "State Your Case" radio show  on WNOX Sunday afternoon that I was on with Glenn Reynolds and Michael Silence.
  
  

  
  

  ' [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 7:53am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Hydrangeas

  
  
  I love hydrangeas and they were particularly pretty during our vacation on Chincoteague Island. Here are a few I photographed on Main Street and some info.
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: July 12, 2009, 8:25am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Join us Sunday afternoon on the radio

  University of Tennessee Law School professor and blogger Glenn Reynolds, News Sentinel columnist and blogger Michael Silence and I will be on George Korda's "State Your Case" Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on FM 100, WNOX.
  
  You can listen live on the' [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 7:10pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A new look for knoxnews

  We've launched a new version of knoxnews. A thumbnail view of the new home page is at right. Here is a how the last four designs have evolved. All of these redesigns were led by Herb Himes in our corporate Scripps Interactive' [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 4:25pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• More beach ponies

  
  
  Ponies on Assateague Island, Virginia. The annual Chincoteague Pony Swim is coming up July 29.
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 6:39am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The Michael Jackson breaking news moment

  
  The above comic by John Campbell is a cynically funny view of news coverage of a celebrity death whether it's Michael Jackson, whose death inspired the above, or former NFL quarterback Steve McNair's yesterday in a bloody Nashville condo.
  [...]
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  Posted: July 05, 2009, 10:01am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Patriotic ... in the sense of citizen protest

  It looks very patriotic on the week of the Fourth of July, but I think it covered up a disputed sign on the side of the building of the Purple Pony.
  
  (And [...]
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  Posted: July 04, 2009, 9:21pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The Internet Age that vanished

  There are no yellowing, faded newspaper Web sites. Except for the WayBack machine -- the best we have, but admittedly spotty -- the whole dawn of Internet newspapers from the mid-1990s on could vanish, never to appear in a yard sale or a treasure proffered up on the PBS's' [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 10:15am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Assateague Island pony

  A wild pony on Assateague Island National Seashore. This foal and its mother were walking along and in the road that leads to the beach on the Virginia end of Assateague Island on Monday evening.
  
  Here [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 9:09am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• The future of journalism is in safe hands

  A talented practicum student we had at the Knoxville News Sentinel during the University of Tennessee's spring semester has created an interesting new Web site called sfevent.tv
  
  Franck Tabouring, who came to the U.S. from Luxembourg to go to college, received a bachelor's degree in journalism [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 9:14am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Birds at the beach

  
  
  
  
  These photos were shot at dusk from the porch of the condo where we're staying in Chincoteague Island, Va. On a nearby pier is a bar where' [...]
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  Posted: June 28, 2009, 10:02pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Anonymity is not a guarantee for online commenters

  
  Federal prosecutors who had made a broad request for user information of commenters on the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Web site backed down a bit, but an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing four anonymous commenters on the newspaper Web site says it's still an important, precedent-setting case.
  [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 1:47pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Running the numbers

  We journalist types typically eschew focus groups and market research about news coverage, saying we know what a news story is and we don't need no stinkin' survey to figure it out. But we are learning to measure ... and are finding it [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 10:22am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Multimedia boot camp for journos planned in Nashville

  The Freedom Forum's Diversity Institute is putting on an intensive week-long multimedia boot camp in mid-August.
  
  The program is designed for journalism educators, students or professionals with limited multimedia skills.
  
  
  
  

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 5:33pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• A big newspaper bet

  Nobody is investing  in print newspapers, right?

  
  

  [...]
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  Posted: June 21, 2009, 11:58am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Not your local TV station's news show

  Can a newspaper do local TV? One of the most ambitious efforts yet just launched in Las Vegas with a brassy party. Hey, it's Vegas, baby.
  
  Greenspun Interactive is doing a half-hour show called 702.tv on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the 10:30' [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 2:01pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Tell a story like it's about your mother

  "My mandate for news teams is that I want them to shoot every story like it's about their mother, brother, sister, father, and cousin. Tell it that way. That's the road to clarity, truth, understanding and fully becoming global."
  -- Ann Curry, NBC

  
  [...]

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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 6:12am EDT
  by Jack D. Lail

• Psst! .... Aggregation

  It's great to see the Miami Herald launch a local blog aggregator, South Florida Blogs, with journalist-turned-entrepreneur Dave Mastio. There's some explanation of what they're up on the Knight Digital Media Center Web site.
  
  It's an idea I've long thought was a no-brainer. Maybe that because' [...]
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  Posted: June 16, 2009, 4:23pm EDT
  by Jack D. Lail