Year: 2018

On Spark Files

As a kid, I kept a marble bound notebook with aphorisms, phrases, rhymes and orders of words I liked. Some ended up in stories and essays I’d write. Otherwise, looking back, I now understand that I was also just practicing my writing.

As an adult, I learned this had a term: a spark file, or a collection of terms and story starts to incorporate you otherwise. There is a difference between phrases I want to capture and the practice of writing ideas succinctly. Both have their role, and I now do something similar for both: collect ideas, story starts and specific phrasing. Increasingly though, I don’t hoard but rather let loose.

Annie Dillard says you gotta write and let it go

Don’t try to be Silicon Valley: a SXSW panel

I moderated a panel on the topic of cities branding their entrepreneurship ecosystems.

In case you haven’t heard my ranting before: I think it’s silly for cities to talk about being the Silicon Valley of anything. Find my rants here and here and here. Funny enough, I was leading that panel at SXSW, another important vibrant national tradition I don’t want cities to try to copy.

Below are some questions I asked and a wrap video from the Amplify Philly house, where I did the panel.

Continue reading Don’t try to be Silicon Valley: a SXSW panel

9 examples of substance from nine years of Technically Media

My thoughtful coworkers brought in to the office a young Ben Franklin impersonator to discuss entrepreneurship and civic good in publishing last month. It was perhaps the most fun celebration of the ninth anniversary of starting what became Technically Media I could ask for.

(For some reason, someone shouted out that we should only have serious faces in the above photo. Believe me, we were having lots of fun.)

Afterward, I did a little Twitter rant I thought I’d save here for posterity.

Continue reading 9 examples of substance from nine years of Technically Media

Why is Technically Media not a nonprofit?

Because we at Technically Media produce journalism, I am often asked if we are a nonprofit. We are not, though we produce and distribute free information about communities, employ full-time journalists and pursue something resembling truth.

Since the question comes up often, I want to share a few of the very basic reasons why we are not a nonprofit. There are three stages to the answer.

Continue reading Why is Technically Media not a nonprofit?

You’re going to get criticized. Learn when to listen.

One effective way to divide the kind of criticism you’ll get for your work is to split the feedback between that which comes from someone who has done the work you’re doing and that which comes from someone else.

It doesn’t necessarily mean one category will always be effective or helpful or productive or not. Those are further distinctions. But when I’m receiving critical feedback —  on something I’ve written or presented or shared — often the first check I make is that one.

Continue reading You’re going to get criticized. Learn when to listen.

Reporting on something wonky? Where are the people stories

A treasured former coworker of mine posted a nice tweet, recalling that I got in her (and other reporters!) ear a lot about our beat (tech and business and blah blah blah). If you’re feeling lost, remember: Where are the people stories?

Boring interview? Lost in the details? Ask the person why they do what they do. Ask them how they ended up living where they do. Ask them what else would they do if they couldn’t do this job. Anything to get it back to the people.

Don’t wait for things you think you deserve

A version of this essay was published as part of my monthly newsletter several weeks ago. Find other archives and join here to get updates like this first.

When I think about mistakes I’ve made, one of the common causes of my blindness that led me there is entitlement. I thought something was going to happen because I deserved it.

Not because I had done the crucial work of understanding that outcome was good for all involved. Not because I worked to get a clear agreement or that I negotiated for it by offering something someone else wanted. No.

When I’ve really gotten something wrong, when I’ve been blindsided or made a miscalculation, a lot of times I just plain thought something was coming my way because I perceived I was owed it. Maybe I thought I had put my time in or I thought I was close to the person with power. Sometimes I admire the idea of how good for me it would be if this happened, or my friends tell me how great it would be.

Continue reading Don’t wait for things you think you deserve

Notes on local news membership

Just about everyone in local news is excited about reader revenue.

The term is for membership and subscription programs, and the enthusiasm is driven (as best as I can tell) by the hope that it’s an earned income stream that philanthropists and civic-minded folk approve. I’ve remained a holdout, in large part because I’ve seen the spreadsheets before.

Back at Technical.ly’s launch in 2009 and 2010, we looked seriously at membership models. And I was keen on it as a strategic bet for an ecosystem approach to local news. But the more I learned about the math, the local economics looked difficult. The math I got interested in: at $100 year from 500 members (which always looked ambitious for most small and niche media) would get you $50k a year. Trouble is that that almost certainly would need full-time support to manage, thereby costing more than it brought in.

No doubt it could work at wider scale — true town-square news orgs, like a metro newspaper, or a regional public media outfit, or the nonprofit newsrooms that filling full news deserts. But I’ve been less certain if the bench was deep of orgs that could step. Fortunately we at Technical.ly got a generous investment from the Lenfest Institute to explore more — and this month we brought together a coalition of news orgs to bring together our joint promotion. Last fall, I presented our early findings, and I got feedback I wanted to share.

Continue reading Notes on local news membership

Morocco

Driving through small towns in Morocco, you’ll see mosque minarets, like spiritual lighthouses.

I started with year after couple weeks welcoming in the new year in Morocco. It was the first time ever SACMW and I hired a translator and guide to help deepen our engagement. It was well worth the investment. (Much love to Badre (“full moon”) our driver!)

I used a little French and loved learning about the distinctive character of Moroccan Arabic. We started in Casablanca (though everyone finds it a dull, ugly industrial city) and drove through mountain and desert to visit Fez and Marakech with small towns in the middle. The food was lovely. Olives and Roman influence was a surprise, as was the Madfona Moroccan pizza

Negotiating: I like asking “what has someone else paid for this?” I often say I don’t want to insult the person with a low price and make them ask for one. Don’t translate into USD until a final check Find some other photos here.

[Itinerary]