Invisible Inkling

Ryan Sholin on the future of newspapers, online news and journalism education.

All About social-networking

“We know what to do, but we can’t get it done.”

November 3, 2007 – 9:35 am

To elaborate on the somewhat derisive one-liner (about Jay Rosen’s New Assignment plan for beat blogging with a social network) that I dropped into a post a couple days ago…
I think it’s a great idea. It will work. Good stories will come out of the project.
And that’s where I get off the bus, [...]

ReportingOn: An ever so slightly more detailed explanation

October 24, 2007 – 9:56 am

I gave someone a bit more detail about my nascent ReportingOn concept via e-mail late last night. Talking these things out in public always helps, so here’s a fresh draft of what I’ve been mumbling about:
This post was the beginning of the idea.
In short, ReportingOn.com would be a social network for reporters looking for [...]

Five ways to produce online news without asking the web guy for help

October 7, 2007 – 6:07 am

You don’t know what it’s like for the web guy at a newspaper.
All day long, requests and ideas funnel in his direction, with no end in sight, and little help.
Web guys, this is for you.
Reporters, listen up. Here are five ways you can put together something wonderful for the web without asking the web [...]

Your newspaper isn’t MySpace. Should it be?

December 18, 2006 – 12:11 pm

I’ve often heard conversations about launching a social networking site at a newspaper start with the words “Not that we’re trying to be the next MySpace, but…”
And it always begs the question, well, should we? Should a newspaper-hosted site be the social networking spot for your geographical area?
Here’s a few variations on an answer:
Lucas [...]

The local follies: Finding the horizontal bonds in geographic communities

September 29, 2006 – 12:17 pm

[Ed. note: Yeah, so that post title sounds like a clever research paper title, which it could certainly be, if I had the time and the inclination.]
The Knight Foundation is giving away $25 million over five years to people like you with hyperlocal community news site ideas.
Now that I have your attention…
Online newspaper execs might [...]