Poynter. » Media Lab

How The Tuscaloosa News’ post-tornado tweeting helped bring home a Pulitzer Prize

Jeff Sonderman — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:45:22 +0000

When the Pulitzer Prize Board announced last year it would emphasize real-time reporting for the Breaking News category starting in 2012, some speculated whether we would someday see a Pulitzer Prize for tweeting.

As it turns out,… Read more

KOMU-TV tries, tries again with groundbreaking interactive newscast

Jeff Sonderman — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:08:54 +0000

KOMU-TV in Columbia, Mo., is scaling back its social media-driven interactive newscast for the second time in its eight-month lifespan.

The experiment launched in its most ambitious format in September, replacing the “Oprah” show with an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast… Read more

How the Detroit Free Press used Facebook to involve readers in a controversial publishing decision

Jeff Sonderman — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:26:22 +0000

It’s not uncommon for readers to object after a newspaper decides to publish or withhold sensitive information — public employee salaries, sexual abuse allegations or an underage victim’s name.

But an exchange on the Detroit Free Press’ Facebook… Read more

What journalists should know about Instagram, bought by Facebook

Jeff Sonderman — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:56:37 +0000

A thriving social network, an imaginative content-creation app and an innovative tech startup — any one of those ought to get a journalist’s attention these days, but especially when one company combines them all.

That company certainly made Facebook take… Read more

Zite adds featured sections for partner publishers

Jeff Sonderman — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:36:55 +0000

Zite mobile apps are expanding beyond topic-based aggregation to offer personalized news sections for partner publishers.

: Bleacher Report is one of the featured publisher sections being added to

Amazon, Kindle Fire users buying lots of content through apps

Jeff Sonderman — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:10:37 +0000

Flurry | China Economic News Service
More evidence that Amazon’s Kindle Fire is pulling far ahead of other Android-powered tablets: A study finds the average Amazon app store user spent almost four times more money on in-app purchases than a… Read more

AOL websites give best stories a second life in weekly iPad magazines

Jeff Sonderman — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:36:36 +0000

The mobile team at AOL is finding success with a new publishing model that plucks the best longform and enterprise writing from an otherwise fast-paced website and republishes it in a design-rich tablet magazine.

How BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski mines the Internet for video gold

Jeff Sonderman — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:25:54 +0000

In a Dickens novel, Andrew Kaczynski would be The Ghost of Statements Past — haunting political candidates with visions of years-old contradictions, hypocrisy or embarrassment they would rather forget.

Study: The most credible tweets come from people we trust, follow

Jeff Sonderman — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:08:11 +0000

Twitter users place the most faith in items retweeted by someone they trust, according to recent research, a finding that should make journalists and other influencers cautious about passing along suspect information.

“A retweet from someone you trust” is the… Read more

What happened to Posterous & the lessons for journalists

Jeff Sonderman — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:24:07 +0000

Posterous now belongs to Twitter.

For Posterous Inc. and its venture-capital backers, this is considered a successful “exit” — cashing out on an investment. For the users who blogged, shared photos or even did journalism there, it’s a… Read more