MOVE BOOKMARKS, FEEDS AND ATTENTION TO CHRISTOPHERWINK.COM

03Jul09

Until the final transition is complete, this WordPress.com version will remain, but soon enough all that will be left will be ChristopherWink.com. Please reflect the change. Thank you.

Filed under: Personal   |  1 Comment
Tags: Announcements, My Web sites

A freelancer needs a niche to survive

02Jul09

Of course they do.

Because just like news organizations, the niche pays and the general does not.

I’m not writing this from experience, of course, because as a young freelance journalist, it’s nothing I’ve developed. But, in more than a half year, I have at least learned that any freelance writer, journalist, Web developer, grant writer or anyone else who gets their own work independently must develop an area of focus and attention.

I don’t know Jen A. Miller much at all, but the still young though experienced freelance journalist is developing herself as a byline quite synonymous with the Jersey Shore.

Filed under: Internetworking   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Freelance advice, Jen A. Miller

The big fat move to self-hosting: ChristopherWink.com

01Jul09

There’s still a lot to figure out in the transition, with clean up and usability, but for those who have bookmarked or somehow subscribed to or just regularly check in on ChristopherWink.WORDPRESS.com, rather than ChristopherWink.com, well it’s time to make change.

Check out ChristopherWink.com.

I’ll clean up all the mess here and there in coming weeks. Let me know how it looks, thanks!

Filed under: Personal   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Announcements, My Web sites, Notes

Three stories from one interview: Kevin Kiene of ezLandlord Forms

30Jun09

It started with a call about ezLandlord Forms, an e-commerce site with meaningful traffic that was based in Philadelphia.

I interviewed Kevin Kiene, the CEO and founder of the online provider of property-management legal documents with 300,000 members nationally, for a story for Technically Philly. During our conversation, I found out he was a Fox Chase native who now lives in Frankford, the same neighborhood I now call home, so I wrote a story about him for NEast Philly, too.

That got picked up by the father and son team at Frankford Gazette, who do a great job of chronicling the bad and more importantly the good of their native ‘hood. Suddenly, a few hundred new eyeballs know about Kiene and his product.

After the jump links to both stories I wrote, a couple quotations that didn’t make it into either and the video that prompted it all.

Filed under: Commentary   |  1 Comment
Tags: Clips, My Web sites, Technically Philly

A loose steer makes for a great test of local news coverage

29Jun09

Phillipsburg Patrolman Kevin Cyphers attempts to corral the bull Wednesday night after it first got loose. Express-Times File Photo | TIM WYNKOOP

When local news is at its best, it delivers coverage no one else on the planet it can. So, it’s important to take it seriously.

A friend revisited with me a story from northeastern Pennsylvania earlier this year that exemplified it wonderfully: a steer gets loose from a pen the night before a high school agricultural fair. For more than two days it runs wild. The local press, highlighted by the Easton Express-Times and then the Morning Call when it got particularly ridiculous, chased the high school teachers — friends of mine — and the students and administrators as they chased the steer.

It made great, fun, well-followed news. If lessons can be made from when news outlets make mistakes, they can certainly be made from their triumphs. And, livestock or not, this was a triumph. Follow the news feed from that magical May week and what seemed to work.

Filed under: Commentary   |  2 Comments
Tags: animals, coverage, Easton Express-Times, livestock, Newspapers

Six Twitter applications I actually use and recommend for news organizations

26Jun09

The world doesn’t need another Twitter post. But, with the surging number of third-party Twitter applications and posts and stories surrounding the buzz service of the moment, I find it’s easy to get lost.

Admittedly, I’ve done my fair share of Twitter coverage here, as with social networks generally, but I wouldn’t take the title of social media guru if it was gifted me. I just thought it was worth sharing the few services I do find helpful, particularly for those using the tool to grow a Web product.

Because, despite the buzz and the more likely reality that it’s probably a bit more of a tool for the few than for the masses as it’s currently being portrayed, I think it has the potential to be one of the most valuable social media tools.

The conversation and link-sharing employed by those whom I most like to follow are testaments to what is good about Twitter. …And believe me, there is plenty of bad.

Below, peep six Twitter tools that are actually worth your time.

Filed under: Internetworking   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Social Networks, Twitter

Are Twitter and Facebook slow on monetization for fear of advertising?

25Jun09

The funny thing is that with all their growth, Twitter and Facebook haven’t made a damn dime yet — despite all the hemming and hawing about their influence, most recently in the Iranian post-election dramatics.

With their incredible traffic, there was a time when advertising would seem like a natural choice. Even though they are considered among the most powerful Web products, they seem to be missing monetization possibilities, if not outright ignoring them.  Twitter is trying “innovative” revenue streams like, maybe, TV shows.

Could it be part of the fear that advertising prices could be in trouble?

Filed under: Commentary   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Facebook, Social Networks, Twitter

Philadelphia Inquirer John Yoo controversy doesn’t seem to be much of a controversy anymore

24Jun09

Well that was a lot about nothing, no?

A Web site, Fire John Yoo is tracking all the news of the now dying coverage of John Yoo, who wrote controversial legal notices on torture during the Bush administration, and the virtriol surrounding his being retained as an op-ed columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

There were protests across the country calling for Yoo to be fired. He wasn’t. And, as news is want to do, it seems to have all but quieted. That’s how John Yoo became a household name and will soon be forgotten.

Inquirer Editorial page editor Harold Jackson, if not perfectly, did, I think, correctly assess the situation and why the controversy may not have been worth it all.

Filed under: Commentary   |  1 Comment
Tags: controversy, Inquirer, John Yoo, Newspapers, Will Bunch

Grid magazine: Philadelphia factories are repurposed sustainably

23Jun09

Courtesy of Grid magazine

The sustainable renovation of the Globe Dye Works, a former manufacturing complex in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, is the focus of a story I have in Grid magazine this month.

For five generations and 140 years, the Globe Dye Works dyed and wound yarn, and employed hundreds at its peak. In 2005, unable to continue fighting the globalization and outsourcing that moved other businesses, Globe closed, ending another vestige of Philadelphia’s past as the Workshop of the World. Its 11 buildings and 165,000 square feet, located off Torresdale Avenue in the Frankford area of Northeast Philadelphia, were shuttered and left vacant. Read more here [PDF].

Check out the PDF and read the story on Page 18.

I also did a small feature on Globe Dye Works for NEast Philly. Grid is a fairly new magazine focused on Philadelphia sustainability and environmentalism, and it’s quickly growing attention for good reporting and sharp design. I’m proud to be a part.

Below see what didn’t make it into print.

Filed under: Clips   |  1 Comment
Tags: Clips, Freelancing, Grid magazine, sustainable

Technically Philly vies for Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism

22Jun09

Grant money in journalism is flowing freely in a tightenend economy and a historic juncture in print media.

Seems like an opportunity.

So, my two partners and I, who founded Technically Philly, applied for the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, a $10,000 grant to support new ideas in news. See our submission here.

We thought bringing together two niches — the geography of Philadelphia and the industry of technology and innovation — and diversifying revenue streams — going beyond advertising — was a new enough model that it might catch the eye of a judge or two.

We walked into a meaningful business, social and startup community in a major metro region’s creative economies and began reporting, relying on our interests in social media, community reporting and professional and ethical journalism.

We recently introduced advertising — a small first step in monetization –and feel that a grant for $10,000 could afford the three of us an opportunity to work fulltime for perhaps as much two months or more. Considering how pleased we are with our traffic growth and the response from the community, we’re thrilled by even the chance at the opportunity to give full time to a project none of us have been able to offer even part time thus far.

Unfortunately and entirely unsurprisingly, there is some stiff competition from the nearly 100 submissions that were entered.  Below I share some of the more interesting submissions I saw and my thoughts on our viability.

Filed under: Personal   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Business, grant, Knight-Batten Awards, Technically Philly