The future of media....

is something like this:
http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/06/new-york-times-api.html

The NY Times is opening up its content to be used by anyone who can write code. It's releasing an API, application programming interface, that lets people access NYT content to power other applications.

Newspapers have used mashups in other ways but this is the first time a media company is opening the gates to share its content. The exec in this interview says they'll make money off the API this way: "There may be a licensing model for commercial use but in general we plan to monetize these through increased traffic back to our site, not through licensing fees."

To me this is earthshattering - imagine the ivory tower opening up its doors for everyone to go inside. Historically newpapers have been very protective of their content, it's how they make money. I wonder how this API will change the revenue model for online news for not just the NYT but everyone else in the mass media biz.

There's a first for everything

- and here's mine on multimedia reporting:

East Stuart

This launched from my old employer's Web site after I left, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (I know, I know, I'm violating all kinds of web2.0 tenets by posting this long after it hit the web, sue me)
This is my answer to a question I asked in fall 2007 - how can you do a profile story of a neighborhood using the Web? What would it look like? What's the news hook that makes people explore it? How do you keep the journalism strong?

I don't think it's a rousing success, but I'm glad it's finished.

The most important thing I wanted in the story was to make it choose-your-own adventure. The viewer can explore the site as he/she likes. The shell of the site (the jumping-off point) is an aerial map of the neighborhood, with waypoints on the map that point to different locations with historic or future significance. There are a half-dozen gentlemen as "tour guides" who describe features of the neighborhood. I don't know if it's successful but the goal was to tell a different, more powerful story than what I could do with words, images and maps in a newspaper.

Did it work?

We're back?

Obviously for a long time this was a dead blog. Let's hope it comes back.
Quick update:

New boss: the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
signed me up at the very end of 2007.
Woohoo! Different state, different weather, different political/social zeitgeist, different size paycheck (bigger of course) and different terrain than anything I've seen before.

Old boss: Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers
almost two years there.

Onward and upward!