In blogging, clear over clever works best

Be clear, not clever.

That should be a rule for just about anything online. Maybe it should have been a rule in all those headlines we've written of the years for our print editions, too. But online, there's no substitute for saying exactly what you mean.

Why? Well the most obvious reason is that one of the ways people are going to find what you write on line is by searching for it. And search engines still don't work as well as the human mind for making connections. If you're writing about the Seattle Seahawks, don't call them the Hawks. People might not think to search for that term. And if that's the only thing you've called them in print, a search engine might not point anyone to your post. You think it's obvious that the Hawks and the Seahawks are the same team. But a machine won't.

So what words should you use? Use the words you'd use if you were searching for your own post. If you're writing about New Media in Seattle, use those words. (Smart for my blog title, eh? And you thought it was just boring.) If you're writing about traffic on I-5, make sure you use those words.

Simple clarity is important in headlines, the body of your post and even in the name you choose for your blog.

Poynter's Bill Mitchell writes about the choice of clear over clever today. Click here for his bits of wisdom.

And Rachael Money on CyberJournalist.net adds interesting perspective about how the clarity that this sort of optimization for search brings to writing may actually help journalists write better. Click here for her post on CyberJournalist. Rachael, by the way, writes a lot about online journalism for WordTracker. Click here for more from her on the topic.

Grant money for local journalism: Deadline Feb. 12

There's a lot of talk about philanthropic funding for news in the brave new world of journalism that we're entering in this bleak economy.

Many of the proposals are for something grandiose. Some may be a simple as Seattle's Crosscut website's announcement that it would explore evolution into a nonprofit. But what if you -- all on your own -- want to find grant funding for a niche? Is there any money out there?

The answer may be yes. Check this out:

The institute for Interactive Journalism invites you to apply for funding to launch a participatory news venture in your community. J-Lab will select eight projects in 2009. Each project may receive up to $25,000.

Click here for more details. Proposals are due Feb. 12, 2009.

Editing and writing for a blog differs from print

More than a year ago, Lee Rozen, in his role heading the copy desk at the Seattle P-I, helped me come up with some guidelines for editing staff blogs. As a journalist, several of the points we outlined then would still be helpful guidelines if you blog as a journalist, even if you're not affiliated with a media organization.

So here are a few thoughts, adapted from those guidelines:

• Blog content does not have to conform to the more rigid writing style of print. Be relaxed in your writing style, try different things and be conversational.
• What you write should meet journalism’s ethical and legal standards in every respect. Don't use unnamed sources except in very rare circumstances.
• If you're blogging as a reporter, be fair, balanced and avoid opinion. If you're a reviewer or your blogging niche is more like that of a columnist, your opinion is an integral part of what you do. But in any case, avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
• Link to other published articles to help lend credence to research you've done beyond interviewing. Full credit MUST be given, for links, however. Copyright law is not suspended on the Web. Lengthy quotes could violate copyright. Keep any excerpt short. Give credit along with the link.
• Links must be tested before the post is published.
• Be sure you know where photos you're using came from. Copyright law applies. You don't automatically have a right to use photos, even ones that were published with stories you've written for the P-I or elsewhere. And when you use a copyrighted photo from someplace that allows you to do so, be sure to note it is copyrighted and that you're using it by permission. Don't pick up photos from other blogs. Many bloggers aren't good at identifying where the content originated and, if they got permission at all, it might not have come from the copyright owner.

Correction: This post has been changed since it was first published to correct the spelling of Lee Rozen's last name.

Starting a new blog? ProBlogger has some tips

A new post today on ProBlogger offers a lot of links to posts that'll help you get started with a blog. (Click here for the links.)

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger showcases ProBlogger's posts including what to think about before you get started with a blog, tips to successful blogging, choosing a blog platform, figuring out your niche, ways to promote your blog and even how to make money with a blog.

Ryan Thornberg, in The Future of News today, also has great thoughts about blogging for journalists, including a debate over whether it's a good idea to force reporters to blog (not!).

Check it out.

Finding photos in the public domain

One of the P-I’s staff bloggers, Robert McClure (Dateline Earth), gathered together a lot of sites that offer photos in the public domain – meaning photos that are often available for use without violating copyright. Some are a bit enviro-oriented, he says, because that’s the nature of his blog. But you may find them useful.

Please, please, please, follow his cautions however. Not everything on all these sites is available for use in the public domain, so be certain you check on anything you use.

Here’s his list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources
Note: If you're going to use these, you have to make sure you carefully read and understand the usage terms. Only use the ones that are absolutely and unquestionably public domain.

http://www.pdphoto.org/
Everything at this site is public domain.


Below are sites that are government collections and, unless otherwise noted, are usually available for use. But check carefully to make sure a photo is not copyrighted:

http://www.epa.gov/nerlcwww/images.htm

http://www.epa.gov/newsroom/pictures.htm

http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov/photolibrary/index.jsp

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/fliers/se-0801.shtml

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pubs/photogallery/about.html

http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov/gallery/images.htm

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html
(and how to link to NASA images:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html)

http://www.eurekalert.org/doe/page.php?view=imagegallery

http://plants.usda.gov/gallery.html

http://www.doedigitalarchive.doe.gov/

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/for_images/imagegall.htm

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/photos.asp

http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/multimedia.html

http://search.usgs.gov/query.html?col=usgs%2Bfaq&rq=1&qt=photos&Submit2=Search



http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/

US Dept of Interior: http://www.doi.gov/photos/gallery.html
Natl Biological Information Infrastructure: http://images.nbii.gov/
US Fish & Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/pictures/
Va. Institute of Marine Science (Part of the College of William & Mary):
http://www.vims.edu/newsmedia/iv_bank/index.html
energy related: http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/searchpix_visual.html

yellowstone NP: http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/index.htm

Is it ever alright to manipulate a photo?

News photos shouldn't be manipulated. In fact, use of software such as Adobe PhotoShop should be aimed at reproducing the image in as close approximation as possible to what a person with normal vision would have seen looking at the event.

John Dickson, photo editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer made that point last week during his presentation on photography to staffers at the P-I.

He made a number of other great suggestions about how to use a camera, that we'll try to get to in future posts.

But if you're interested in more discussion by journalists about manipulating photographs, mark your calendar for a Feb. 5 Poynter live chat with the institute's Sara Quinn and Kenny Irby with McClatchy's director of photo services, Harry Walker.

For more of my suggestions from the staff photo seminar and to get tips on how to use Picnik editing software, click here.

Finally, in case you missed it, Michelle Nicolosi also responded to questions about where you can find photos you can use on Flickr, and spells out how to tell if they're in the "public domain" or subject to copyright protections (click here for that).

Tips on writing a blog that isn't 'blah'

University of North Carolina educator Ray Thornberg has several common-sense suggestions for doing a blog that isn't blah, as he puts it. He offers one bit of philosophy about how a blog differs from the kind of writing most journalists have been doing that I think is especially valuable:

A post is not an article. It is a single idea. If you think to yourself “This post needs a better transition” or “I really did a good job reflecting all sides of the issue” then your post is probably too long.

It reminds me of a bit of wisdom from old media: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). But catch all of Thornberg's thoughts on how to make what you write connect with readers. Click here.

Blogging is about conversation

Traditional journalists don't usually react positively to the idea of engaging their readers in a conversation.

I can remember getting a phone call a decade or more ago from someone who wanted to take issue with what we'd written in the paper. I tried to deal politely with the reader. But I was on deadline and I just couldn't get him off the phone. No matter what I said ... stuff like 'we were just reporting what we observed,' the caller wanted to take issue with me and with the story.

I finally, and probably with a hint of irritation in my voice, said: "This isn't talk radio. I'm sorry but I just can't debate this with you. You're entitled to your opinion, our story tried to play the facts right down the line."

Obviously the guy wasn't very satisfied. I finally had to tell him "I'm hanging up now, thanks for calling." Click.

Well, that was print journalism. It isn't blogging. The expectation of the audience for blogs is that you will engage them in conversation. You'll encourage their comments. And when necessary you'll respond to them.

For years, it's been policy that reporters at the P-I -- and everywhere else I've worked -- aren't allowed to respond directly to readers. Even when seattlepi.com introduced "Soundoffs" at the end of each staff-written story, reporters were not permitted to respond directly to the reader.

That's because editors have believed that, when it comes to stories, the purpose of a Soundoff is to let readers have their say. We aren't the last word.

But the expectation in blogs is different. Journalists didn't make the rules for blogs, and by the time most of us came to the world of blogging, there were already established expectations. One of them, and an important one, is that blogs are the initiation of conversation.

So, while P-I reporters still have to submit any response the have to comments in a blog through an editor before it's posted, reporters can respond. In fact, the expectation is that the will.

Regardless of where you blog, whether your blog is personal or about news, you should expect to engage readers in conversation. Answer their questions. Let their comments inform your view. Correct their erroneous impressions and admit to your own mistakes.

That said, be sensible. Recognize the difference between a belief (which can be argued) and a fact (which can't).

But know that some people are just baiting you. These folks, in Web parlance, are called "trolls." They love to engage in an argument for the sake of the argument. They like to get a rise out of you.

The rule of thumb in dealing with trolls is to ignore them. Don't feed the trolls.

I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.

-- George Bernard Shaw and others

So don't respond to someone who's obviously just trying to get a rise out of you or your readers. But remember you're not writing from an ivory tower. You live in the same world as your readers. And you're having a conversation with them.

It's not a rule. It's just good blogging practice.

Slate: How newspapers tried to invent the Web, but failed

Newspapers' failures haven't come for want of trying, at least on the Web. Check out Jack Shafer's interesting post on the topic from earlier this month. Click here.

From NYT: This idea puts blog posts back into print

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been talking about its "Web First" strategy for years -- that is choosing to push breaking news onto the Web even before publishing it in print.

Now a Chicago startup is basing its whole business model on the idea. Read Claire Cain Miller's story in The New York Times, click here.

From NYT: A college student turns SEO knowledge into a paying job

College student Nick York turned what he learned about search engine optimization into a full-time job. Check out The New York Times story today, click here.

Editing photos using Picnik

Add photos to your blog to help illustrate your points, show off your photographic skills, or just plain dress up your blog's index.

To do this you'll need digital images, of course, and some photo-editing software. Professional photographers use high-end, extremely capable programs such as Adobe PhotoShop. And while you could learn these programs, there are a couple of big drawbacks unless you ARE a professional photographer. The first is they're expensive. The second is there range of capabilities makes them tougher to learn.

So try using some of the free software programs that are available. We used to recommend Picasa for the P-I's bloggers. It's free and does pretty much all you'll need to upload photos for a blog or website. Its downside is that you have to download the program into your computer.

Another free program that's at least as capable of meeting your blog and website needs is Picnik. The photos shown here were edited with Picnik before being uploaded using Blogger's photo uploading system.

Picnik tips

Picnik is pretty easy to use. You don't have to download the software. And you don't have to sign up for the service. Just go to the url and click "Get Started Now."

It will take a moment, then give you a new screen that offers demos and some background on Picnik. But all you need to do is click the button that says "Upload a Photo." That will launch a new popup box asking you to select the photo you want uploaded from files on your computer.

To make it easier to sort through all the photos I have on my computer, I like to have a file on my desktop called "Working." I stash the photo or photos I want to upload in this file before I start editing. So when this dialog box asks what photo I want, I find the "Working" file on my desktop and simply select the photo I want to edit.

When it loads in Picnik, I'm ready to start editing the photo. Make any necessary adjustments for exposure or contrast and crop the photo to the image you want.

Then you'll want to resize the photo. This does a couple of things. I usually shoot photos with a camera set from about 5 to 10 megapixels. That's way more than necessary for the Web. If you upload huge photos like that, it'll slow the upload time for your website or blog. So I reduce the size of my photos. By habit, more than anything, I cut the size of any photo I want to run big to 450 megapixels, mid-size to about 275 and small to about 150. Picnik is set to resize in pixels so just enter that number in the first of two boxes for the dimension. As you've already cropped the photo, check the box "Keep Proportions" and it will fill in the second dimension of the photo automatically.

After you've cropped and resized the photo, you may notice it got a little fuzzier than you remembered when you started. That's typical. To fix that problem, click on sharpen and move the sliding bar to the right until the photo looks sharp again. Be careful not to overdo this; an image that's too sharp looks as bad as one that's fuzzy.

Now you're ready to save the image. Find the "Save and Share" button at the upper right of the window and click. On the next window, you will again have the option of resizing your photo. I prefer to resize earlier, as noted above, so that I can sharpen the image if necessary. But on this window, you will also have the option to set the "format" (which should be .jpg) and set the "JPG compression quality." Usually, you'll want it to be set around seven or lower for use on the Internet. This, the tool says, gives you "good quality, medium file size." Any higher quality is likely to slow your page, so when using photos for the Internet, get in the habit of using "medium" to "good" quality. So set it around 7 or less and click "Save Photo." You'll get another box asking where to save it. Just drop it back into the "Working" file that you created for it on your desktop. And now you're ready to upload it to your blog.

Uploading into Blogger

Blogger's blog software uploads photos in a snap. In the area above the editing box, you'll see a line of icons to the right of the drop-down menu for "Font." The third one from the right is a tiny image like a photo (just right of "ABC"). If you hover your cursor over it, you'll see it's the button to "Add Image." Click it and it will ask you which photo you want to upload. Click on the image you want in your "Working" file, select small, medium or large size and indicate whether you what the image centered above your type, floating in type to the left or right, or "none" and upload. It will do so at the top of your blog post almost immediately.

To position it where you want it, drag the image to a spot between graphs where you want it displayed. Then play around with it in the post until you make it look the way you want it to. You've just edited and uploaded a photo to your blog. Congratulations!

All the photos in this post were editing in Picasa and uploaded as small, medium and large photos. The top photo, from Grand Ridge in the Olympic Mountains, was uploaded as a "large" image from a 450 pixel-size edited version. The other two were 250-pixel-wide images. The flower, an image from my garden, was uploaded as a "small" image and the hiking trail sign as a "medium image," accounting for the difference in the size of the display.

This is something you'll just have to play around with to achieve the look you want.

Enjoy.

Seattle P-I beating Seattle Times online...again

Its future may be in doubt, but seattlepi.com is beating The Seattle Times' website in a significant measure of audience, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.

Both Seattle newspaper's websites managed growth in unique visitors during December, counter to the national trend for the top-30 news sites. Seattle had big storms and unusual sub-freezing weather that left streets an icy mess for part of the month. And bad weather can be counted on to raise traffic to news sites.

But the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's online edition, with more than 2.5 million unique visitors according Nielsen, also significantly outdrew The Times' audience of just under 2 million uniques. The P-I ranked 17th among newspaper websites in the monthly rating for December; The Times ranked 22nd.

Editor & Publisher has the whole story here.

From Knight Digital Center: A case study in post-newspaper blogging

Knight Digital Media Center recently had a post from Scott Joseph about blogging after a newspaper career. Check it out here.

Should a journalist become a blogger?

'Why should I blog? I'm a journalist.'

There are many reasons. It's likely, whether you know it or not now, you really do have something to say. Blogging can deliver that message to an audience, and help to burnish your credentials. The fact is, any "expert" who doesn't have a blog these days, probably isn't the expert he or she thinks. And any journalist who doesn't know about blogging, probably hasn't explored the possibilities of that career.

Blogging can help you get a job. It can even become your job.

Too many bloggers write trivia about their own lives. Much of it is about as exciting as watching water boil. ...Eventually it'll reach that point, right? Some point?

Well, you're not just anyone. You've got training in how to write, how to report, and how to be credible. You're a journalist. You must have some skills to have earned your living doing this for ...well for any length of time.

And I've seen evidence, after more than two years of watching staff and reader blogs at seattlepi.com, that skills as a journalist work well online.

• Writing done as journalism -- with clarity and purpose -- draws more readers than other forms of writing.
• People who write about subjects they know well, can build an audience for what they write.
• Writing frequently builds trust and audience.
• Niche writing -- regardless of the size of the niche -- works better in blogs that are focused than in those that wander from topic to topic unpredictably.

'Yeah,' you say, 'but I've covered city council meetings and school boards for most of my career. What can I write about.'

Simple. Write about something you love; the most successful bloggers are passionate about what they do. Write about something you know; the Internet's broad audience will prove you philosopher or fool in short order.

If the politics of city hall is what you know, and you love talking about it, chances are it'd make a good subject for you to blog about. If your passion is food, blog it, especially if it's been part of your life as a journalist.

But pick a niche that isn't overflowing with competitors with your skills -- journalistically or as an "expert" in the topic of your blog.

'I wouldn't know where to begin...'

Hey, beginning is the easy part.

Check out Google's Blogger tool, which is what this post was written with. Or WordPress, a tool some professional sites use in a souped-up version. Both are available to start a blog for free.

Start writing. Share your journalism.