May 2013
2 posts
5 tags
9 tags
The Advocate vs. the Times-Picayune →
Would normally stay away from posting industry news, but apparent Times-Picayune business model is about as troubling as it is laughable.
April 2013
1 post
3 tags
March 2013
2 posts
4 tags
8 tags
February 2013
8 posts
4 tags
5 tags
5 tags
5 tags
2 tags
Another departing line
“If you are not asking yourself every couple of years how to once more scare yourself to death, then you are living something of the coward’s life. Ain’t no room for cowards in journalism at this moment in time.”
- Joe Sexton, of The New York Times
2 tags
Last words
“No moping. No bitterness. Only fucking glory.”
- Joe Sexton, The New York Times
September 2012
2 posts
August 2012
3 posts
Departure of a Photographer
“Do good work. Do it with pride, and be brave…we are storytellers.”
-Sam Dean, The Roanoke Times
1 tag
Giving Agency to Inanimate Things
“The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sundials and brick walks and burning gardens — finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon, and...
July 2012
2 posts
Advice for Reporters
“Be nice.”
-Lucy Morgan, reporter for The Tampa Bay Times.
June 2012
10 posts
“Miss Thistlebottom’s hobgoblins.”
‘That’s how the former New York Times language guru Theodore M. Bernstein described overly fastidious rules and usage myths a grade-school English teacher might invoke to keep her pupils’ prose on a very narrow path.’
Thanks to Bernstein, I will continue to use “And” at the beginning of my sentences, only now it will be a guilt-free exercise.
Working Rewrite
“Handling obits and breaking news stories against deadline, the rewrite bank reveled in camaraderie. During lulls, when we weren’t on meal breaks or playing cards or working on outside writing projects, we analyzed the early edition—the stories deserving praise and those we deemed mediocre. And we griped about the latest petty edicts of the reigning editors.
What most earned our ire...
May 2012
14 posts
Some Essentials of Good Leads
“Introductions rank high among the essentials of newspaper writing even if we call them nothing but leads. Many a story is saved by its lead and by the same token many a story is sunk by its lead — dull, heavy-witted, inadequate for its subject which may be itself very interesting.
In essence, I should say the very first requisite for a lead is directness. Directness means going...
December 2011
1 post
