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Mary Peskin
Associate Director, American Press Institute, Reston, Virginia Appearing at: Visual Journalism Workshop (Texas) 01/16/2009 - 01/16/2009 Visual Journalism Workshop (Florida) 02/06/2009 - 02/06/2009 Visual Journalism Workshop (Kentucky) 02/20/2009 - 02/20/2009 Seminar Schedule
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Marketing / Advertising: How the Internet Can Drive Advertising Revenue The Internet still holds unexplored opportunities for advertising, but tapping into this rich market requires new sales approaches and creative products. At the American Press Institute's seminar Internet Strategies for Community Markets, Bruce Annan of Classified Intelligence, Rohit Bhargava of... By | June 29, 2006 Media Business Trends and Issues: A Tale of Three E-Cities While it may seem like the worst of times for newspaper circulation, it's also the best of times for those newspapers looking towards the internet as an opportunity. For its "Internet Strategies" seminar, the American Press Institute invited three speakers... By | June 28, 2006 Media Business Trends and Issues: Big Thinking for Small Papers: 5 Easy Ways to Improve your Website. "New" doesn't mean "radical" but it does mean implementing innovative twists. Community newspapers can do this without hiring completely new staff or spending lots of money: chances are they already have resources they can tap into. At the American Press... By | June 27, 2006 Writing Tips: Roy's Toolbox available soon as a book If you've been reading these tips by e-mail before they went on the web, you might have grown tired of my frequent plugs a couple years ago for Roy Peter Clark's Fifty Writing Tools series. But if you followed the... By Steve Buttry | June 24, 2006 Marketing / Advertising: Use Less to Get More: Mark Barry on Marketing Strategies for Smaller Papers "When you don't have a marketing department and you need one and you know there's a critical element of who is going to be doing your promotion work and who is going to be handling your data and your research capabilities, you need to make a decision. I chose to focus on the data end. Without a marketing department, I first put a contract together with a local ad agency to handle promotional work with someone I had known who had a lot of newspaper knowledge." By | June 20, 2006 Design: Four C's of Front Page Design Creative design and innovative front pages are keys to increasing newspaper readership. Original front pages cannot be rarities reserved for special events, but must be long-lasting trends that come to define the paper. A sustainable creative culture will build both... By | June 19, 2006 Design: Expanding Page One for the Web Neil Chase of nytimes.com dispells common myths about website content including the ideas that releasing articles on the Web dampens print circulation, using Internet feedback in the print edition can attract more readers, and adding more content to the Web site means increasing cost. By | June 19, 2006 Circulation: Andy Eick on Improving Circulation Departments "Accomplishing "more with less" will become a reality for every circ exec in the land. Better to have a plan when that time comes than to have one forced upon you, so [you need] a strong sense of your stars, their skills, and their capacity to reinvent themselves going forward." By | June 19, 2006 Marketing / Advertising: Martin Till's Advice for Advertising Leadership "The days of the ad department being singular in their goal - as the ones who find the new revenue - are over. It's not just the responsibility of the ad department, distribution, or circulation. Everybody has to be a part of the planning." By | June 19, 2006 Marketing / Advertising: Jeff Bergin on Innovations in Advertising Leadership "Not only do we compete with traditional media companies, we also compete with new media companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, which are changing the dynamics of advertising. We're not used to reacting at the speed at which we now have to react." By | June 19, 2006 Marketing / Advertising: Bob Morgan on the Information Enterprise "Newspaper companies need to think of themselves in a different way - not just as the daily newspaper, but as an information enterprise. By that I mean that your overarching objective is to be the pre-eminent info provider for your region." By | June 19, 2006 Design: Opening Up the Front Door: Strategies for Better Page Ones Juan Antonio Giner shared front page tactics from around the world including how to use less to say more and the importance with window reporting with API members at a recent seminar. By | June 16, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Does it matter that the press is under siege? First and foremost, it marks yet another loss of ground in journalists' efforts to report thoroughly and fairly on an increasingly secretive federal government. Sources are getting more and more skittish as new policies crack down on whistleblowers. The courts defer more and more to access restrictions and fail to balance government claims with the press's need to inform the public. By | June 15, 2006 Writing Tips: Advice on making that toughest call One of the toughest calls journalists have to make is to interview the family of someone who just died. During war, more of us need to make those calls. Chip Scanlan offers good advice from two veteran reporters in "Calls... By Steve Buttry | June 12, 2006 Training Tracks: Lessons for journalists in tragic stories The heartbreaking story of the mistaken identifications of Laura VanRyn and Whitney Cerak was doubly mystifying for me. As you heard that the wrong family had buried one young woman while another wrong family spent five weeks waiting for another... By Steve Buttry | June 03, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: The flag amendment: Reverence confronts reason And it is the Bill of Rights generally, and the First Amendment in particular, that guarantees some of our most cherished freedoms. To change those charters to protect the flag is to contradict what the flag stands for. To protect a symbol from physical desecration, we would desecrate the constitutional covenant securing real freedoms. When we salute the flag, we salute our commitment to free speech and the right to protest. By | June 01, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Coaching for better interviews Gregg McLachlan has a helpful piece about coaching a reporter into a better interview and a better story at his NewsCollege site: Tim Porter has some blunt advice for newspaper leaders: "Reinvent or die. It's that simple." Read his piece... By Steve Buttry | May 30, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Casting a digital driftnet over freedom Chances are, in fact, that you would never know about a possible invasion of your personal privacy, even when government investigators put your data-self through an algorithmic lineup to see whether a "suspicious pattern" turns up. By | May 18, 2006 Writing Tips: A reporter looks back with some regrets George Rede, a friend who is director of newsroom recruitment and training for The Oregonian, recently encountered to a woman he had covered 30 years ago when he was a young reporter in Bend, Ore., and she was bludgeoned with... By Steve Buttry | May 18, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Bob Rivard explains the moratorium on pun heads I invited Bob Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, to respond to yesterday's tip about his ban on pun headlines. He welcomed the invitation and here is his response: The moratorium is a temporary one, but it will remain... By Steve Buttry | May 17, 2006 Writing Tips: Check out "No crying in journalism except ..." I have long objected (yes, I chose that verb deliberately) to the claim that journalists are, should be or even can be objective. Yes, we should strive to be fair. Yes, we should maintain our independence. But we lie to... By Steve Buttry | May 16, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Beware that a ban doesn't spawn snake rules I don't know if you've followed the commentary about Bob Rivard's temporary ban on puns in headlines at the San Antonio Express-News (links below). Enough has been written about puns. I'm not going to join that fray, but I will... By Steve Buttry | May 16, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Watch out for studies about TV harming kids Studies that claim harm to children from excessive consumption of sex- and violence-oriented programming on television are often little more than tenuous reflections of adults' fears and embarrassments. Before we move to restrict such programming we should remember that The First Amendment protects it. It is not violence or sex that's being protected, but speech. And it is not someone else's speech, but our own. By | May 09, 2006 Writing Tips: Arguably awesome, or at least viable, tips Chip Scanlan has some interesting observations about plagiarism in this column about Kaavya Viswanathan's literary theft. I have written before about cutting down on the use of quotes. Dale Swenson of the McKenzie County Farmer, a reader of Writing Tips,... By Steve Buttry | May 01, 2006 Training Tracks: Reminders of Knight-Ridder at its best Before Knight-Ridder fades into journalism history, a crowd of journalists in Wichita, Kan., heard reminders this past weekend of the stellar journalism for which that newspaper chain once was known.... By Steve Buttry | May 01, 2006 Training Tracks: When disaster hits, newspapers deliver Newspapers have lots of issues to work out as we seek the right niche products, delivery channels and business models for our future in a fragmented marketplace. But don't try telling the people of New Orleans or the Mississippi Gulf... By Steve Buttry | April 28, 2006 Training Tracks: Unleash the watchdogs -- and their trainers A good watchdog needs good training. A theme of this year's convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors is "Unleashing the Watchdogs." Listening to the panel on investigative reporting Thursday morning, I was ready to proclaim a secondary theme:... By Steve Buttry | April 27, 2006 Training Tracks: What will happen to our civic mission? As people envision different ways of delivering the news, newspaper editors automatically think, and sometimes ask aloud: What will happen to our civic mission? You know, the watchdog role, the public conscience, the guardian of the public purse, the First... By Steve Buttry | April 26, 2006 Training Tracks: Editors and CEOs share hope for newspapers You hear it every day, Rick Rodriguez said: Newspapers are dying. Rodriguez, executive editor of the Sacramento Bee and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, asked his colleagues Tuesday whether they believe that newspapers face extinction and the... By Steve Buttry | April 25, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Sometimes it's not nice to be nice, and other lessons for editors Five more veteran editors pass along their advice to members of API's New Editors' Survival Guide.... By Steve Buttry | April 23, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Questions to ask of every story Newsroom coach Rosalie Stemer led a group of new editors through a discussion of "Skeptical Editing" during the recent New Editors' Survival Guide seminar at API. The editors came up with a list of questions for editors to ask with... By Steve Buttry | April 23, 2006 Training Tracks: How do you speed up a reporter? I swear I've heard this question before, several times: "What kind of tips do you have to speed up a reporter? She's a talented young journalist, but she is one of the slowest writers I've ever had to work with."... By Steve Buttry | April 23, 2006 Writing Tips: Belated recognition of a call for originality I actually got an e-mail today asking if I'd done any tips recently. The sender wondered if his spam blocker had somehow caught a tip. You like me! You really like me! Or at least one of you does. Anyway,... By Steve Buttry | April 20, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Leadership lessons from veteran editors For the recent API seminar, the New Editors' Survival Guide, API asked some veteran editors to share with the new editors important lessons they learned as new editors. I will share some of them here over the next few weeks.... By Steve Buttry | April 20, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Poking holes in our history in pursuit of leaks Journalists committed to reporting fully and responsibly on national-security issues and developments are being hauled into court and threatened with prison if they don't give up their sources inside government. By | April 20, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: FCC to TV viewers: Watch what we say We take our TV viewing seriously, and we take it personally. Just how personally is reflected in a new poll conducted by Russell Research. This survey finds that 82% of us prefer to make up our own minds about what we watch, rather than wanting the government to regulate those choices. By | April 07, 2006 Training Tracks: Tips from a newsroom survivor Linda Grist Cunningham closed out the New Editors' Survival Guide with some valuable advice on time management and perspective: You don't have to work 12, 15 or 18 hours a day to succeed as an editor. "If I am the... By Steve Buttry | March 31, 2006 Writing Tips: Writing tips (and trash talk) from Mark Twain No advice from Buttry this time. I won't try to top the advice that Mark Twain offers in the current issue of "Above the Fold," Laurie Hertzel's outstanding newsletter for the Star Tribune staff in Minneapolis: And it's not just... By Steve Buttry | March 31, 2006 Writing/Editing: Guelph Mercury Puts Seminar Lesson into Action How one city editor shook up coverage of their province's annual budget based on what he learned at API's City and Metro Editors seminar. By | March 31, 2006 Training Tracks: API receives grant for newsroom ethics seminars The American Press Institute wants to help your newsroom examine some of the important ethical issues facing journalism. A grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation will let us bring a two-day seminar, Our Readers Are Watching, to... By Steve Buttry | March 20, 2006 Writing Tips: "Enrol" at NewsCollege I have passed along some of Gregg McLachlan's tips from his Write Way newsletter before to people who have been receiving my writing tips by e-mail for a long time. I didn't pass them along more often because they weren't... By Steve Buttry | March 20, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Secrecy makes democracy dysfunctional As in all dysfunctional relationships, communication is the problem. Over the last few years, the information flow between the government and the public has become increasingly torturous. By | March 09, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Discouraging words: The war on information Louis Fisher is one of the nation's foremost experts on American government and separation of powers. For 35 years, he has provided nonpartisan research for members of Congress and their staffs as a scholar at the Congressional Research Service, a part of the Library of Congress. Now he's being called on the carpet for being insufficiently "neutral" in his outside work. By | February 23, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: E-Mail Misunderstandings and Newspaper Next I call your attention to Jill Geisler's column, "E-Mail Misunderstandings." She includes this advice on writing e-mails when you're angry: "If you care enough about something to stand up for it, then care enough to speak with someone personally -... By Steve Buttry | February 21, 2006 Writing Tips: World Affairs Fellowship deadline approaching If you have a great idea for an international story, but your company won't spring to send you abroad to do the reporting, apply for the World Affairs Fellowship of the International Center for Journalists: The deadline for 2006 is... By Steve Buttry | February 21, 2006 Training Tracks: Peanut butter lessons in project management A good trainer can find a lesson in something as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I collaborated this week with Kelly Wirges, president of ProMax Training & Consulting on an API Tailored Programs seminar for middle managers... By Steve Buttry | February 15, 2006 Circulation: Enhance single-copy success by figuring out and delivering what retailers want In one important sense, single-copy retailers are no different than other media consumers: they want what THEY want, not necessarily what the newspaper industry wants them to have. Some observations from the retailers' panel at API's seminar . By Elaine Clisham | February 10, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: Drawing fire and blood: free speech and religion Words are powerful. But when it comes to the power to provoke or incite, nothing compares to images. When those images depict religious matters, especially in a critical way, the results are neither predictable nor, in some instances, containable. By | February 10, 2006 Training Tracks: We need to re-educate our gut Newspaper people learn early to trust our "gut feeling." Your gut often proves right in covering a news story or operating a newspaper in the traditional market. Your gut, of course, is just the voice of experience. When it comes... By Steve Buttry | February 10, 2006 Training Tracks: Newspaper Next: Important jobs to do A message of hope from the Newspaper Next Symposium: Those non-readers that we don't cater to represent a huge market with jobs we can do for them. By Steve Buttry | February 09, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Seeking lessons for new editors API would like your help for a seminar we are presenting in late March called the New Editors' Survival Guide. We are excited about the lineup of discussion leaders we will bring here to Reston for the seminar, which is... By Steve Buttry | February 01, 2006 First Amendment / Free Speech: No place to hide: Privacy invasion and censorship Most Americans are always ready to tick off any number of reasons they value their privacy. One of the most important reasons does not come quickly to mind, however, and that is how important personal privacy is to freedom of expression. By | January 31, 2006 Writing Tips: A rant on negative writing I love a good rant. Bob Baker goes on a nice one here in the latest entry in his Newsthinking web site, "Don't tell me what it's not, tell me what it IS." I love persistence, too. And I can't... By Steve Buttry | January 25, 2006 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Storytelling, etc. If you and your staff still think mostly in terms of telling stories with ink on paper, I encourage you to explore "The Elements of Digital Storytelling" by Nora Paul and Christina Fiebich at the Institute for New Media Studies.... By Steve Buttry | January 25, 2006 Training Tracks: A week of stretching our story muscles Journalists in Compelling Storytelling Innovations spent an eye-opening week examining different ways to tell stories. By Steve Buttry | January 20, 2006 Writing Tips: Writing about abortion I call to your attention this piece by Stephanie Simon of the Los Angeles Times, which gives a detailed look at the issue of abortion through a doctor who has performed 20,000 abortions and the women who visit his clinic.... By Steve Buttry | January 11, 2006 Writing Tips: Two good pieces on the mine disaster I have been too busy to write a column myself on the misreporting of the non-miracle in the West Virginia mine. But I want to call your attention to one of the best things I've read about the journalism issues... By Steve Buttry | January 10, 2006 Training Tracks: Never say no for someone else Don't presume you won't get that interview, story assignment, fellowship or job that you want. Ask. Presume that the answer will be yes. By Steve Buttry | January 09, 2006 Writing Tips: Above the Fold Check out the most recent issue of Above the Fold, the newsletter on writing and editing that Laurie Hertzel produces for the Star Tribune newsroom in Minneapolis. Laurie's "Scenes: The backbone of narrative" piece This is actually the second of... By Steve Buttry | January 05, 2006 Training Tracks: News in the news business isn't all grim Amid lots of sour news in 2005, here are developments, organizations and people who give cause for hope. By Steve Buttry | December 30, 2005 Writing Tips: New blog on language Man, you should have seen all the auto-replies I got when I just sent out a leadership tips note. Good thing I didn't set up my own holiday auto-reply first or they would have been replying to each other... By Steve Buttry | December 21, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Custom-Tailored Time Management I haven't sent out any leadership tips notes for a while and wanted to send one off this way, along with my best wishes for a happy holiday season. If you have trouble managing your time (and if I didn't,... By Steve Buttry | December 21, 2005 Training Tracks: Unnamed sources should have unpublished opinions We've seen some excellent examples recently of the kinds of important stories that journalists couldn't tell without using confidential sources. Unfortunately, we also see stories that let unnamed and unaccountable sources snipe and spin. By Steve Buttry | December 19, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Too much secrecy is a challenge to justice Because nearly every matter of consequence and controversy in our society eventually winds up in court, Americans have a vital interest in staying informed about how well justice is delivered. By | December 16, 2005 Writing Tips: Dick Weiss has retired Dick Weiss, one of the best writing coaches in the business, has retired (graduated, he says) from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, taking a generous buyout offered to help cut staff. P-D columnist Sylvester Brown Jr. passed along this advice... By Steve Buttry | December 08, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Racy downloads become more daring -- and portable Handheld devices such as cell phones and digital music players offer much in the way of features and convenience. Most also are capable of providing adult content: pornography to go. By | December 05, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Society of Metro Editors Many of you are metro editors, city editors or assistants on a city or metro desk. I hope you have joined the Society of Metro Editors, a fledgling group that started this year from discussions that started at API's City... By Steve Buttry | November 28, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: The profound impact that editors can have We read and hear a lot to dampen the enthusiasm of newspaper leaders. I want to share some stories that illustrate the profound impact that editors can have. The stories are about a friend I lost a couple weeks ago... By Steve Buttry | November 23, 2005 Writing Tips: Silence is probably 'the most underused reporting tool' Read some good advice from Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, now with the New Yorker, whose talk at Northwestern University was covered by the campus paper. She notes that readers, even her mother, don't want to read about some of... By Steve Buttry | November 21, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Leaks keep the ship of state afloat Without an elaborate system for circumventing secrecy and information management and manipulation, there would be no way or no one to hold accountable those entrusted with our government. By | November 18, 2005 Training Tracks: Uganda's press loses a leader with a passion for training Kevin Aliro worked tirelessly to train journalists in Uganda, where Idi Amin had exiled or exterminated an entire generation of journalists. By Steve Buttry | November 13, 2005 Writing Tips: Looking for mentors Welcome to the people who joined this list and/or my list of leadership tips after a Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors seminar in Halifax last weekend. (And if you just meant to sign up for the leadership tips, please... By Steve Buttry | November 11, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: A rousing call to arms for editors I call your attention to a rousing call to arms for editors from Bob Baker's excellent �Newsthinking� web site. We don't have to look hard for bad news about the newspaper industry. I remain optimistic and believe we will be... By Steve Buttry | November 11, 2005 Training Tracks: Remember the old editor's advice: Check it out Judith Miller isn't the only journalist who accepts her sources' word too readily. Journalists are getting too many stories wrong because reporters and editors are paying too little attention to verification. By Steve Buttry | November 11, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: The crime of speaking ill of your betters Defenders of criminal-libel laws insist that they are needed to ensure public order and government stability. If those rationales ever had any validity, they no longer do. Instead, such laws are a pernicious assault on our First Amendment principles. By | November 03, 2005 Training Tracks: Don't let partisans dictate our terms People waging the political battles of our day try to frame the issue in terms that favor their viewpoints. Trainers should teach journalists to avoid using loaded labels such as pro-life, pro-choice, judicial activists and strict constructionists. By Steve Buttry | November 01, 2005 Writing Tips: Example of outstanding writing from Northwest Florida Daily News Sometimes I like to pass along examples of outstanding writing in addition to the usual pieces about writing. This story is by Cal Powell of the Northwest Florida Daily News (and thanks to his online editors for setting it... By Steve Buttry | October 27, 2005 Writing Tips: Using quotes powerfully but not the way most of us do Take a look at two different stories that use quotes powerfully but not the way most of us do, sprinkling them wantonly through stories that lack sparkle: Cindy Lange-Kubick of the Lincoln Journal-Star wrote a story about mothers dealing... By Steve Buttry | October 25, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: The role of leadership in the lives and deaths of two foreign-language newspapers Here’s an interesting commentary on the role of leadership in the lives and deaths of two foreign-language newspapers: http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/alexander2.htm... By Steve Buttry | October 25, 2005 Training Tracks: What do you get for your money? An API survey shows the value that leadership development programs can deliver. By Steve Buttry | October 25, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Motivating older workers and getting the story you want Michael P. Smith of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University provides some valuable advice in this article, including tips on motivating older workers and getting the story you want: http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/updates/mangagementtips.asp And I want some tips from you. I’m... By Steve Buttry | October 24, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Fear of dissent is a fear of freedom One does not have to endorse or defend anti-war or anti-military sentiments raised in peaceful protests to recognize the risk that suppressing dissenting voices poses for a vital democracy. Whether stifling such voices is done in the name of good order or disagreement with the message, such actions reflect a fear of dissent. By | October 20, 2005 The API Experience: Rave reviews for Media Center's We Media event in NYC About 250 people attended The Media Center's We Media conference last week at The Associated Press, with that number swelling to about 280 during Al Gore's keynote address. The energy at the conference shot through the roof at the unexpected appearance of Tipper and the entire Gore clan. By | October 14, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: New Supreme Court needs new First Amendment direction Sooner or later, the nation's most vexing disagreements over our most vital issues wind up before the Supreme Court. None quite penetrates to the core of our democratic being more than those involving First Amendment rights and values. By | October 06, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Advice for editors on helping their reporters develop characters Laurie Hertzel of the Minneapolis Star Tribune does an excellent training editor for her newsroom. The current edition of “Above the Fold” has some terrific advice for editors on helping their reporters develop characters. The advice comes from on character-building... By Steve Buttry | October 03, 2005 Writing/Editing: Newly Formed Society of Metro Editors Offers Support Metro, city and news editors now have their own professional organization—the Society of Metro Editors—to rely on for support and training. The national group was formed in September by several editors who attended an American Press Institute seminar for city and metro editors in early 2005. By | September 28, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Journalists in jail: bad news for a democracy We are much more circumspect when we threaten journalists who irritate government officials or confound government procedures. We try to follow the law and we respect the Constitution. But we still find ways to send journalists to jail. By | September 22, 2005 Training Tracks: Journalists need to acknowledge our trauma We need to ask reporters after traumatic experiences to reflect on what they experienced, so they can acknowledge the emotional cost of a story (and we can refer them to the appropriate help if they need more than a debriefing). By Steve Buttry | September 13, 2005 Training Tracks: Our Readers Are Watching API offers a Tailored Programs seminar to help newspapers clarify, teach and uphold their ethical standards. By Steve Buttry | September 08, 2005 Writing Tips: The importance of word choice An update on the photo of white people who "found" food items in the flood (while another cutline on a similar photo of a black person with food had "looted"): I noted in yesterday's tip that the photographers might... By Steve Buttry | September 02, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Found vs. looted An update on the photo of white people who “found” food items in the flood (while another cutline on a similar photo of a black person with food had “looted”): I noted in yesterday’s tip that the photographers might... By Steve Buttry | September 02, 2005 Writing Tips: Heroic work in covering the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina Deadline situations and big stories bring out the best in a lot of journalists. They also cause us sometimes to let down our guard in situations of fatigue and stress. These two postings ask valid questions about why news... By Steve Buttry | September 01, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Constructing a red light district on the Internet Pornography fighters and some pornography producers have joined forces to oppose a seemingly uncontroversial proposal to create a special .xxx domain on the Internet to help protect children (and others) from adult content By | September 01, 2005 Training Tracks: How do you learn from disasters? A slightly updated column from last year about learning from disasters and some links where you can read about the journalists who are covering Hurricane Katrina. By Steve Buttry | September 01, 2005 Writing Tips: Don't settle for writing a routine story Sometimes a seemingly mundane assignment is your opportunity to write a great story. Ruthann Robinson's editor at the Times of Northwest Indiana came to her with a press release about National Missing Children's Day. "After the requisite grumbling," she... By Steve Buttry | August 26, 2005 Writing Tips: Giving away the ending Read this fabulous story by Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=87455 Then read Chip Scanlan's instructive interview with Pang, "Writing as Magic: It Only Looks Easy": http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=87449 I'll add one point to the discussion they have about editors... By Steve Buttry | August 19, 2005 First Amendment / Free Speech: Censorship by any other name is so much easier Given the strong views Penny Nance has expressed as an activist and lobbyist and in congressional testimony, her arrival at the FCC may signal an invigorated FCC campaign against allegedly indecent programming. By | August 18, 2005 Training Tracks: Don't let obstacles become excuses We have to make an obstacle part of the war story of our success, not the excuse for our failure. By Steve Buttry | August 16, 2005 Innovation and Leadership Tips: Why diversity is not simply a matter of political correctness Eugene Kane’s column in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel shows why diversity is not simply a matter of political correctness but a matter of ensuring accuracy. In a newsroom where journalists of color are well-represented and their views welcomed and respected,... By Steve Buttry | August 12, 2005 Writing Tips: Finding fascinating stories in your community Have you ever seen someone or something interesting in your community and thought there must be a good story behind that, then continued about your busy day without pursuing it? And then the next day or next week, you... By Steve Buttry | August 10, 2005 |