Kelly McBride

Kelly spent 14 years covering saints and sinners in Spokane, Wash. Now she's at Poynter, searching for the soul of American journalism.


Reddit2

Newsrooms say referrals from Reddit are increasing

Throughout 2013, Reddit has been referring more and more users to news sites, according to several online editors.

Gary Nielson, digital news specialist at McClatchy Interactive, noticed this recently. First, an online producer in Charlotte spotted huge traffic for … Read more

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Beth Serrano

How journalists can provide fair coverage when reporting on rape charge in Cleveland case

Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus are household names. The three women, freed from a house in Cleveland after they were separately kidnapped as teenagers about a decade ago, are the central characters in a story that has dominated … Read more

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Screen Shot 2013-05-02 at 8.12.04 AM

When police wouldn’t release a gang map, Toledo Blade crime reporter drew her own

When the Toledo Police Department refused to release a gang map that showed which gangs claimed which neighborhoods in the small city 60 miles southwest of Detroit, crime reporter Taylor Dungjen decided to create her own.

That’s the short version … Read more

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USA Today launches new sports site

USA Today launched For The Win, a new sports site, today.

The launch date was originally set for last Monday, but a few glitches delayed it, Jamie Mottram, director of content development, told me last week at a paidContent Live event in New York.

A site dedicated to making feel-good sports stories and clever lists go viral could have found a role in the middle of the Boston Marathon bombing. But it seems unlikely that the staff would have been prepared to switch gears on the first day.

A welcome article includes a video of a 7-year-old cancer patient running a play with the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Some of the verticals within the site are more built out than others. The site features content on all the professional American sports (including NASCAR and NHL), plus college football and basketball. There's also soccer and UFC, which has only one item so far. (more...)
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Gosnell story raises questions about when national media should cover local stories

The media question of the day is why the Philadelphia trial of Kermit Gosnell is not garnering national media attention.

Gosnell is a Philadelphia doctor on trial for murder for performing late-term abortions that resulted in living babies that he … Read more

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Are you really willing to go to jail over your anonymous source?

When reporters want my advice about whether to grant a source anonymity, this is the question I ask them: Is your story significant enough that you’re willing to spend six months in jail?

When they’re working on a substantial story, … Read more

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BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith interviews Sen. Marco Rubio in February (Screengrab

Three lists about BuzzFeed’s serious journalism

A little more than a year ago, BuzzFeed made the leap into the realm of serious journalism. It hired some known journalists and a lot more hungry young writers, expanded its verticals, and announced a plan to create serious content … Read more

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Steubenvillerape

Why railing against CNN for the Steubenville coverage is a waste of time

Momentum is building against CNN for clumsy things anchors said about the teenagers convicted of rape in Steubenville, Ohio.

It’s a misplaced anger that will do nothing but further confuse the public about issues of rape and sexual assault, particularly … Read more

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moneypuzzle

Most everyone gets asked to write for free, only some people say yes

The debate over how much professional writers should be paid — sparked by Atlantic’s request to publish Nathan Thayer’s work without paying him — is a window into how dramatically the Internet has changed the system of creating and distributing … Read more

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violence

Powerful photo essay on domestic violence stirs backlash

A photo essay vividly documenting domestic assault lit up the Internet this week after Time Magazine published it as part of its LightBox series.

Ohio University graduate student Sara Lewkowicz didn’t set out to take pictures of domestic violence. Instead, … Read more

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