Poynterevolution

By Bill Mitchell
Director of Poynter Online

Some of the most interesting stories start out as ideas considered too hot to handle. They might offend someone. They might be misunderstood.  They might make people uncomfortable.

Stories about racial slurs, about sexual orientation, about affirmative action.

Those are the sorts of stories, among others, that we'll be exploring in a new Poynter blog.

Building on the good work of former Poynter faculty member Aly Colón and others who powered the Journalism with a Difference column over the years, Naughton fellow Mallary Tenore has created the Diversity at Work blog. (Thanks to Poynter Dean Keith Woods for coming up with the name.)

As we've done with Rick Edmonds' Biz Blog (and as you'll see soon in a couple of other upcoming new features), Diversity at Work reflects a new emphasis on timely, effective, engaging content that we aim to deliver with the new version of Poynter Online.

Journalism with a Difference provided occasional essays about diversity issues that often involved significant reporting and editing; Diversity at Work will provide much shorter and more frequent updates. They'll still be thoughtful, but might be limited to one or two thoughts, and may focus more on questions than answers.

You'll see more of the new design of the site next week. But we're not waiting for the launch of the redesign to introduce Diversity at Work and other new stuff.

Matt Thompson, one of Mallary's predecessors as Naughton Fellow and one of our advisers for the redesign, urged us to introduce new material gradually. As Poynter Online Editor Julie Moos points out, there's only so much users can absorb at once. So we're trying to ease users into our/their new world.

You can get involved with Diversity at Work now at www.poynter.org/diversityatwork. Our plan is to do a soft launch later this week (adding to the right rail of the home page), and then look for a centerpiece to give Diversity at Work a more boisterous kick-off.

Be sure to take a look at some of the resources that Mallary has assembled on the left rail of the new blog, especially a customized Del.icio.us page pegged to diversity topics. If you have ideas to improve Diversity at Work, please add them in the feedback area below or shoot Mallary an e-mail.