ONA Local
ONA NYC panel: CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien, Entrepreneur Hank Williams, Jason Samuels, Lead Producer of CNN’s “In America” documentary unit, and Mario Armstrong, radio and TV host.
ONA NYC, in partnership with Time Warner’s Office of Corporate Responsibility Group and Time Warner/Turner/Time Inc. Black Employee affiliate groups, hosted over 200 people for a Screening & Discussion with Soledad O’Brien, “Black in America – Silicon Valley,” last night at the Time Warner Center. Be sure to check out the event and documentary’s hashtag #BlackinAmerica and tune in to CNN Nov. 13 at 8 pm ET to watch the film. To learn more about the group and for notices of future events, join the Meetup group.
ONA Philly invites you to meet area digital journalists and learn about Philadelphia Media Network’s recent tablet initiative on Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Inquirer Building. All writers, editors, photographers, producers, technologists, students and anyone with an interest in the production of news for digital presentation are welcome. For more information and to RSVP, head to meetup.com.
ONADC joins forces with the ONA Student Club at American University for its Inaugural ONADC Student Meetup, featuring an unconference event on the future of journalism as part of DCWEEK 2011. All Washington-area college students are strongly encourage to attend the free event, held Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. at the American University Ward Circle Building. For more information and to RSVP, head to meetup.com.
ONA Boston is calling all area digirati to a special event on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., when it will host a networking event and tour of The Boston.com/Boston Globe Lab, a space at the Globe dedicated to understanding, imagining and demonstrating the (near) future of news and advertising. With only 50 available spots, don’t sleep on "RSVPing. For more information and to register, head over to meetup.com.
ONA–SPJ Seattle will feature two-time Pulitzer winner David Horsey Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at Jillian’s, where he’ll talk about transforming cartooning art and journalism from print to digital. He’ll discuss how the craft has changed, how he’s added blogging and even slideshows to his storytelling, his experiences as a nationally syndicated cartoonist with Hearst, and where he sees it all going. For more information and to RSVP check out meetup.com.
Reports, volunteer opportunities and fellowships
‘Getting Local’: Knight study explores revenue models for nonprofits
A just-released Knight Foundation study, “Getting Local,” offers a detailed look at some of the country’s leading online local nonprofit news ventures — many of them ONA members – providing data on how they are generating revenue, engaging users and cultivating donors. It also provides a glimpse into how foundations and others interested in supporting nonprofit news can think about and assess the sustainability of these types of emerging organizations. While none of the sites profiled has developed a clear business model yet, some of the key ingredients needed for success are becoming increasingly apparent. Profiled are the Bay Citizen; ChiTown Daily News; Crosscut; St. Louis Beacon; MinnPost; New Haven Independent; Voice of San Diego and Texas Tribune. See details here.
Volunteer to help students become news literate
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is looking for journalists across the country to volunteer either in person or via Skype in middle school and high school classrooms. NLP is an educational non-profit that brings journalists into schools to give students the critical-thinking skills to sort fact from fiction in a digital world and become better students today and better-informed citizens tomorrow. Now in its fourth year in the classroom, the project is working with about 35 English, government, history and humanities teachers to reach more than 2,000 students in 23 schools in New York City, Chicago, Bethesda, Md., and Washington, D.C., its newest location. The project has more than 185 journalists enrolled, including broadcast correspondents, authors of best-selling books and winners of journalism’s highest honors. There is no minimum commitment. Can’t donate time, but can donate old equipment? NLP is looking for camcorders, audio recorders, SLR cameras and other multimedia equipment for use in programs to start in January 2012. For more information or to donate, contact darraghworland@thenewsliteracyproject.org. More details here.
Call for Nieman Fellows
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard is now accepting applications for the Nieman Fellows for the 2012-2013 academic year. Fellowships are awarded annually to at least 12 international journalists and 12 U.S. journalists of accomplishment and promise who participate in a year of learning and exploration at Harvard University. The application deadline is Jan. 31, 2012, for U.S. fellowship applicants and Dec. 1, 2011, for international applicants. Full-time staff and freelance journalists with at least five years of experience who work in all forms of news media are eligible to apply here. For questions, contact john_breen@harvard.edu or call (617) 495-2238.
New in Nieman Reports
The Fall issue of Nieman Reports, available at niemanreports.org and on its way to ONA members in the mail, focuses on reporting on cold cases involving racial murders from the civil rights era, online coverage of racial dynamics in America today, and the troubles and possibilities for the Arab press in revolutionary times. Featured are Robert J. Rosenthal, executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, on uniting journalists across the continent in the Civil Rights Cold Case Project; Ben Greenberg on how blogging about his father’s life eventually led him into cold case reporting; Jean Marie Brown, a columnist at the Maynard Institute, on the ways that familiar storylines about race persist in online media; Jillian C. York, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on the role of blogs and social media in Arab nations; and Italian journalist Nicola Bruno on how motion graphics tell news stories and other insights from his book, “The Monkey That Won a Pulitzer.”