Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Day 1,095
So where do we go from here?Simply put, we don't know. (As if you couldn't tell that from our retrospectives.)
We've wrestled with what to do with the blog as we approached our deadline. It's our baby, so we'd love to see it continue, but we're different people now than we were when we first started this journey and we'd have to account for that. For sure, Ten95 as you know it will be taking a hiatus - likely brief, but potentially permanent - while we decide where we want to go with this. And when, or if, we decide to restart Ten95, it will likely be in a very different form than you've come to know it.
Know this: the "Ten95 Experience" has been a great one and that's thanks to you. From day one we got great, insightful and encouraging comments regarding our work and our lives. We had a community to vent our feelings to, and people who looked to our experiences as affirmation that they weren't alone in their struggles. We met young journalists who came to us for advice (which was humbling) and readers - seasoned veterans and rookies - who congratulated us on a project with such a unique perspective.
This experience has been one that we can safely say, made our first three years as journalists good ones and shaped our identities in the industry.
And for that, we thank you.
Sincerely,
The Ten95 Crew
The Ten95 Crew
P.S. -- For those of you who may need a Ten95 fix and will be in the Tampa area for the NABJ convention, 1/2 of the crew will be on a panel entitled "Reinvent Yourself, Not the Wheel"on August 4. And the rest of the crew will likely be hanging out in the audience, if you'd like to say hello.
Labels: convention, for journalism's sake, fun, growing pains, heart, inspiration, journalism, love, milestones, musings, NABJ, the industry, unity
continue...Friday, April 10, 2009
Master Teachers
A quick shout out to Ten95er Darren who has been live blogging the Master's Tournament for his paper since the tourney kicked off yesterday.For those who are golf inept, a primer (via Wiki): The Masters Tournament, also known as The Masters, or The U.S. Masters outside of the United States, is one of four major championships in men's professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, it is the first of the majors to be played each year. It is held each year at the same location, Augusta national Golf Club in Georgia. The winner of each tournament is awarded a green jacket, which must be returned to the clubhouse after a year.
Darren is showcasing his vast golf knowledge while peppering his coverage with nostalgia, cool facts and a little humor. Check out a few of the posts that stood out to me from Day 1 coverage:
11:41 -- Anyone but me still get the chills when you hear Verne Lundquist's 1986 call of Jack Nicklaus's birdie putt on No. 17? "Yessss, sir!" Crazy.
11:54 -- One of the things that I love about this tournament is its reverence for its past champions. You can see their competitive drive; no one is content to just show up, play for two days. Case in point: 1976 champion Raymond Floyd just missed a birdie try that would have moved him to 3-over par. His knees buckled, he grimaced, he hated settling for par. That's awesome.
12:50 -- Don't underestimate the solid par the ever-eclectic Shingo Katayama just made on No. 11. He's keeping pace nicely with the field's fast start, at 2-under. (update: He just stuck a pin-high iron on the par-3 12th to about three feet. Should be an easy birdie.)
I don't really know what that last post means, but it sounds authoritative, doesn't it?
In addition to blogging the tournament by the hole (pause), Darren is Twittering (follow him here) and word on the street is that he's done some live chats as well. He's like a little bald multimedia machine.
He's back at it again today covering Day 2. Fore!
Labels: breaking news, fun, inspiration, online journalism, sports, technology, Web sites, youtube
continue...Monday, January 19, 2009
Inauguration Day for the rest of us
I'm not in the Capitol, but that doesn't mean there's a void of inauguration coverage out there for those who will have to miss out on the historic event.The New York Times put together an interactive time line of presidential inauguration speeches using the word bubble feature seen often in blogs. As you click on each president, you see which words he used most, and which words he used more in that speech than he did normally. Pretty sweet.
They also had this story -- which I heard about on NPR -- about how the president can choose whether to affirm his oath, or swear to it.
I'll admit, though, the Washington Post has been my go-to guide for all things Obama. I figure, who else better to cover Washington than the Washington paper? Their blog, 44: A Transition to Power, is bookmarked on my toolbar. Lots of cool, short stories with breaking news and fascinating little tidbits about PEOTUS.
Here's a by the numbers breakdown of the resources and support needed to pull off the inauguration compiled by the Washington Times.
In case you miss the entire thing all together, I'm sure this guy will be doing a recap of the highlights. Here's some of his earlier work. Not bad, huh?
And just for the hood's sake, a little something in case you need a soundtrack to the nonstop TV coverage on the inauguration weekend. And if you're looking for something a little more soulful? Try this. Or this.
Labels: DC, fun, inauguration, multimedia, NPR, Obama, president, Washington, Web sites, youtube
continue...Saturday, May 03, 2008
And the winner is...
Not me.So, I didn't get first place.
Or second place.
You're looking at the winner of two third place finishes here.
In other words, I'm a second place loser.
But it's cool.
We had a great time. The swordfish was banging. My plus one and I coordinated nicely (black and gold, please). And my newspaper racked up the awards. So we rejoice with those who rejoice.
It was crazy because I told you we're the paper of record here, right? So, beginning of the night, the MC starts talking about the contest. Says something about how proud he was that a lot of the little papers had a good showing in the contest this year. Then he says, "and the bigger outfits, not that they don't deserve to be here too, because there's some great journalism there as well, they did okay too."
I cocked my head to the side. I did. Was he trying to do a backhanded dig at my employer? See, my paper is at a handicap in these awards. Anything that originates from the main sheet staff is not eligible. That means no page designs and no photographs from us can be submitted. And each of our bureaus is treated as a seperate paper. So, essentially, we're all competing against one another.
Good and bad, I suppose. I think that sometimes, just to keep us in line, they limit the number of stories they'll let us be finalists in. The cool thing is I think that in just about every category we were nominated for, we won a first place finish.
In the spot news contest, I was competing against another Journal reporter who wrote about a fatal crash, and a local paper, who also wrote about a fatal crash. Mine, as you recall, was a trial verdict. I think the subject matter hindered me a little bit. Trial coverage can't compete with a fatality. Or maybe I'm just making excuses. In the comments section, the judges wrote about my story "nice detail, gave good sense of emotion."
Yup.
In the in-depth feature category, I honestly don't know who I was up against. I know I got third place and the judges wrote of my shoe cobbler story "reminds us that technology isn't everything." I don't know why, the comment kind of got under my skin. It just did.
But we won first place for personality/profile, sport feature, news series, most unusual story, environmental reporting, spot news, and I think that's it. Basically, everyone except me won a first place finish (a couple reporters were nominated for two awards).You'd never know it though, after the ceremony. There were hugs and huge smiles all around. It was actually really cool. It was almost like we were all a team and when one of us wins, we all win together.
That was the best part.
Labels: awards, fun, milestones, musings
continue...Thursday, May 01, 2008
Do It Big, then
I was searching through the newsletter for the Chips Quinn Scholars program (of which, I'm an alumna) and look who I found:This guy.
He may have told me before, but I have a horrible memory.
So, anyway, congrats to Aaron and the rest of the Chipster class of 2008!
And he shouted out the blog in his biography. Gotta love him.
Labels: diversity, fun, inspiration, journalism, seminars/workshops
continue...Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I kid you not
I literally just had this exchange with a female caller about my story on the porn ordinances I wrote about earlier today:"Hi, I'm calling about the article on porn that was in today's paper," the woman says.
I take a deep breath and prepare to hear that I'm a bad person for even writing about it.
"Yes?"
"We say we're a country under God, but what mother or father would want their kids doing porn," she says. "For us to say we're a country under God is a lie because God does not want people doing porn."
She goes on like this for a few moments. I give her some time, thinking maybe this was a tangent and that the real point was coming. I should have cut her off earlier.
"Ma'am, did you read the article"
"Yes. I read it," she says. "But to say we're a country under.."
"Then you know the gist of the article was that yes, they've allowed these places to exist because they can't legally block them, but they've made it so undesirable and so implausible that no porn shops will likely ever come to town," I counter.
"I get that," she says. "That's good. But we shouldn't be allowing it anywhere."
I'm thinking this woman should be calling the president or the moral majority, not some reporter at a local newspaper. "Um hm," I say. "Well, you can write a letter to the editor to that effect and we can publish it."
"Maybe I'll do that," she says. "My point was that a country under God would not even allow porn in their constitution"
"Okay."
"Alright," she says. "That's all."
*Click*
Labels: Free Speech, fun, musings, readers
continue...So, funny story...
I forgot how much fun writing can be.I was writing a filler story yesterday about an ordinance on porn shops coming into the town I cover. It was passed at the last Town Council meeting. Nothing spectacular. I needed a story and this was it.
I sat down, did my interviews and started writing. As a habit, I tend to write things pretty straight. News-y. Dry.
But the story was inherently funny. See, the ordinance allowed porn shops, but didn't allow them within like, 5 football fields of any church, school, playground or anywhere children congregate and a host of other places. My town ain't but so big. Probably is barely 5 football fields wide in some areas. So the Town Council, in passing this ordinance, had essentially created a red light district without creating a red light district while at the same time, discouraging porn shops from locating to the town.
Funny. To me at least.
I was telling the story to a friend of mine and he laughed. So when I started writing, I took a stab at my lede:
"The town council has passed an ordinance governing the creation of adult entertainment shops in town. But porn shop owners probably don't feel too welcome."
I wrote the rest of the story and went back to read it over. It was boring. How was this story that was literally gift wrapped comedy boring?
I let my friend read it. He told me to write it just as I'd told it to him. We talked some things through and without too much effort, came up with this for a lede:
"WEST WARWICK — If you want to open an “adult entertainment” business in town, you can do it.
Just be sure to keep it away from schools.
And churches.
And neighborhoods.
And playgrounds.
And funeral homes.
And any place that sells liquor.
And any other “adult” shops.
Other than that, come on in."
I chuckled. He chuckled. And I filed it. He wanted me to put porn shops in, but since the ordinance also governs any place with live nude entertainment and adult movie theatres, I figured porn store was an inaccurate term.
So I called Marty, the copy editor, to see if he got my story.
"I'm looking for it now," he says. The next thing I hear are chuckles coming from the other end of the phone. "This looks like fun. I've got it. I'll call you if I have any questions."
And that was it. Looking back, even though the story was a nothing story -- I'm really proud of it. Like, I'd use it as a clip, maybe. It was fun. And it shows that I do have a sense of humor. And that I'm thinking -- not just reporting mindlessly.
But mostly, I like the story because it reminded me that writing is fun. And that's part of the reason I became a journalist. Because I got to tell funny stories and meet cool people. And also, being funny isn't as hard as we think it is. Just stop thinking about it and the funny will come.
Today, I came into the office and asked my boss if she read my porn story. My coworker chimed in from across the room "I LOVED your lede!"
It made me smile.
Oh, and Marty put porno in the headline.
Chuckle. continue...