Dad? What's a Newspaper?

The First Newspaper to Go Online-Only?

It looks like Hearst will soon stop publishing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as a print newspaper, and reduce it to an online-only publication -- with a staff of 20.

The surviving staffers will have their salaries cut, and their benefits (accrued severance and vacation, health insurance) will be lost or diminished. This would be the first major metropolitan print daily to make the complete conversion to the Web. Presumably we'll see many more to follow this year. Details here.

Twitter's Evan Williams Explains It All to Charlie Rose

Evan Williams, who founded Twitter (and, before that, Blogger), explains how 140-character micro-blogging is revolutionizing instant communications and information dissemination. Fast-forward to 15:10 for his discourse on how journalists are (and will be) Twittering.



Crowd-source editing? Collective intelligence algorithms? Charlie seems to be sold. Are you?

KobreGuide: February's Top 10 Video Stories

KobreGuide had a record amount of traffic in February. Here are our ten most popular video stories last month, reflecting the eclectic and sophisticated tastes of our rapidly growing community of videojournalism aficionados:

1. Skateistan
2. Nazi Doctor's Egyptian Escape
3. Pit Bulls: Companions or Killers?
4. Conjoined Twins
5. Charles Darwin in Song
6. Zora Neale Hurston's Hometown Legacy
7. Photographing the President
8. Bolivia's Women Wrestlers
9. Air Guitar Champ
10. Acid Attacks

Concentra: And The Winner Is...

Congratulations to Washington Post videojournalist Alexandra Garcia, winner of the Concentra Award for Videojournalism for 2009. KobreGuide previously showcased her entry, "The Healing Fields," which chronicles three days when more than 800 volunteer health-care workers come to Wise County, Virginia, to provide free medical care to those who cannot afford it.

Jury chair Michael Rosenblum reports:

The 10,000 Euro prize, along with the statue will be awarded to her as soon as she returns from her current shooting assignment in Botswana. We were, however, able to Skype her live into the conference for the awards ceremony so she could directly address the audience.

The quality of the shooting, the reporting, the editing and the story telling were all outstanding. A stellar achievement for the VJ who until only a few years ago had never even touched a video camera. What made this particularly impressive is that she is a full time newspaper journalist.

View all 8 Concentra finalists here.


The Healing Fields - Alexandra Garcia, winner of the Concentra Award.

KobreGuide Welcomes New AARP Channel

KobreGuide proudly welcomes a new channel: AARP, whose online bulletin has begun to produce high-quality video stories.

While most of what you see on KobreGuide has been created by newspaper staffs, we're finding that even non-media organizations and institutions are seizing the opportunity to communicate cost-effectively with online video. As with newspapers, they're forging a new hybrid medium that derives elements from TV news and film documentaries, but is distinguishable from each, both in purpose and style.

AARP's first KobreGuide entry is "A Day With Francisco," a video profile of a retired printer who got bored and decided to go back to work in a whole different capacity -- cheering up not only himself, but also his customers and fellow employees. We'll be showcasing more compelling video stories from AARP in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!

NPR in Gaza: The Video

NPR photographer David Gilkey spent a month covering the recent hostilities between Israel and Gaza. He talks about the images he made and the stories behind them in this powerful video slideshow, produced by John Poole.


NPR in Gaza, A Photographer's Journal from NPR .