JaySmall.com/old

Links with enough dust on them to prove how far behind I became in reading and blogging:

Design and UX stuff

• Introducing Typekit: Taking advantage of emerging markup/style practices that allow fonts other than the overexposed "Web-safe" selections, this service appears to be the most meaningful development for better Web typography in a long time. (Here's hoping widespread adoption of new font capabilities will make my ancient Text Style Sampler finally obsolete.)

I commend to you Steve Yelvington's detailed roundup of lessons learned and organizational advice from mergers of print-focused and online-focused content organizations. One of many key points:

"Done right, it's a big win. 'Convergence is, overall, a huge help to innovation,' said one online producer. A senior editor agreed: 'It's a monster plus. Convergence puts you in a position to succeed.' But, he continued, it only opens a door, and you have to walk through it. 'It doesn't guarantee success. That comes from leadership and teamwork. But it puts you in a far better position to head in one direction as a team.'

Ever-industrious Tim Harrower, working on a new edition of one of his textbooks, recently asked me some questions about journalism, online and the intersection of the two. My replies follow. I know he asked others in online media, so I hope maybe some of those folks will share what they said, too -- start of a new meme, perhaps?

On to the Q&A:

Question: Most journalism students are intimidated when professors tell them that, if they want to become reporters, they'll have to write stories, shoot video, narrate slideshows, record podcasts and create Flash graphics. But really, how realistic is that?

Presentations and discussions led for the Online News Managers seminar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla., May 2006.

Juan Antonio Giner calls this "commodity non-journalism": newspaper front page after front page, all carrying the same photo and strikingly similar, unfulfilling headlines trying to cover the scary crises in high finance.

I agree. Few in American journalism take on the challenge of explaining a story this severe and complex in terms that would be truly useful to everyday people that don't happen to be economists.

Links in search of steady work: