Category archive for ‘News Media’ rss

  • ChicagoNow You See It, Now You Don’t

    Last week, ChicagoNow pulled a controversial post from popular blogger “Joe the Cop” after a day of protest personally led by Time Out Chicago editor-in-chief Frank Sennett. Sennett called Joe a racist on Twitter in a day-long stream of 100 tweets. I think the real question is whether that makes Sennett an Internet bully.

  • “The archives will remain online”: The Troubling History of Geoff Dougherty

    Media entrepreneur Geoff Dougherty ran two multimedia news ventures into the ground. Now, the embattled Chicago Reader has hired him as associate publisher. Maybe they didn’t read his press. Here’s a look at the track record the Reader’s new owners may have missed.

  • The Status Quo Vs. The Local Blogger

    In Chicago, how people feel privately about the status quo and what they say about it in public are rarely the same. That applies to Chicago’s blogosphere, too. In a new-media space where dissent makes people run for cover, how can local bloggers hope to make change happen?

  • The Past Imperfect of ChicagoNow

    You can’t run a 21st-century blog network at the speed of a 19th-century newspaper. I wish someone would tell the Chicago Tribune. Here’s how institutional lethargy, inadequate tools, inscrutable navigation, and newsroom pushback make it hard to be a successful ChicagoNow blogger. (This post has now officially become the top-rated Windy Citizen story of all time.)

  • Chicago Weekly Aims to Cover Hyde Park

    As major Chicago media increasingly search for inroads into community news on the Internet, some existing sites are doing a good job of covering neighborhood-level news all on their own, especially on the South Side. One of them is the University of Chicago-based Chicago Weekly, an alternative weekly taking on the responsibility of keeping the Presidential first-neighborhood informed.

  • You’re Invited to the Chicago Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!

    This week, Windy Citizen editor & publisher Brad Flora (@bradflora) had a great idea–ask a group of local bloggers to throw their names behind a community Christmas party for our readers. It’s an all-inclusive community holiday meetup–and if you’re reading this post, you’re invited!

  • “Here’s a lesson from the media…” –Bill Leff, WGN Radio (Update)

    (Update 2/23/10) Today, Bill Leff relinquished his weekend gig as host of WGN’s ChicagoNow Radio. Here’s a look back at my experience with Leff and his former radio show from last November. Back then, an angry Leff told me I was ‘replaceable’ a minute before air time. Ah, karma.

  • Yesterday Robert Feder Opened His Mouth to Change His Feet

    This week, former Chicago Sun-Times TV columnist Robert Feder (@robertfeder) managed to stick his foot in his mouth while sticking his tongue in his cheek. The usually scrappy Feder slapped down ChicagoNow’s new WGN-AM Radio weekly show from the pulpit of his own new blog at the web-centric Vocalo Radio. Boy, could I say something about that. But fellow blogger Alexander Russo, the nationally prominent scribe of the popular District 299 Chicago Public Schools watchdog blog, got there first.

  • On Chicagosphere: OS Wars, Nonprofit Hijinks, Meatball Sundaes, Trailblazing Bloggers

    While I settle down from the throttling I got from my fellow Mac users over my recently announced decision to migrate to Windows 7, here’s a look at the no-less debate-worthy topics I’ve covered lately on Chicagosphere, my byline about the local blogosphere on the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow network.

  • Are News Exclusives the Meatball Sundaes of Web-Based Media?

    Last week, local dining-industry PR shop Restaurant Intelligence Agency wrote a blog post telling clients to concentrate on exclusive media pitches or risk being blackballed by angry reporters. As long as three years ago, however, media watchers began warning that exclusives can actually do more harm than good in a highly interactive, Web 2.0 media world. Who’s right?