Rob’s Megaphone

David and Goliath analogies predicting the shattering of the traditional press by the new media and citizen journalism has inched closer to fruition according to Bill Kirtz’s Poynter.org column: Future of Journalism: New Media, New Money.  In his commentary covering the “Future of Journalism Conference” held at Harvard, on June 20-21, Kirtz revealed common ground [...]

When considering your next newsworthy post or freelance article, it is important to consider the following news values: prominence, proximity, impact, conflict, timeliness, novelty/bizarre.
Prominence deals with the characters you include in your piece. If it is relevant, include the most well known people. Some folks shy away from picking up the phone and speaking to [...]

1.  Always avoid alliteration.
2.  Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3.  Avoid cliches like the plague—they’re old hat.
4.  Employ the vernacular.
5.  Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6.  Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7.  Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
8.  It is wrong to ever split an [...]

All week your staff works hard to create a paper for the vast campus just outside your newspaper office. You check your facts, you proofread your stories, you look for just the right photograph – and then you hope people will pick it up and read it.          
But are you doing a good job? Do [...]