The Jeff Beckham Weblog

The interactive portion of South by Southwest has been over for about a week, and a couple of things have really stuck with me. I was thrilled at my first opportunity to moderate a panel discussion, and gratified at the positive response. I’d definitely jump at the chance to do it again.
Aside from that, the [...]

[Read more →]

One of the members of my Designing for Convergent Devices panel at SXSW has a video interview up on the Vloggies blog.

[Read more →]

I’ve seen a few posts over the last week or so about hiring programmers or developers to join newspapers’ staffs. This is a fantastic idea and one that papers should be embracing wholeheartedly.
Further reading:
Adrian Holovaty: Work with me at washingtonpost.com
Adrian Holovaty: MediaShift covers newspaper developers
Dave Winer: Programming at newspapers

[Read more →]

Texas Monthly has printed an online preview of editor Evan Smith’s interview with Gov. Rick Perry. The two spoke on March 8, and in an editor’s note, Smith writes:
His answers were fascinating and, we ultimately decided, too of-the-moment to wait five weeks or more to share with you. So we’re previewing the interview now, online, [...]

[Read more →]

[these are raw notes and not direct quotes]
An inspiring session with Dan Rather, interviewed by Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake. Rather came out to a standing ovation and to the chorus of “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” He settled in, thanked the audience for a warm Texas welcome, turned to his interviewer, and said, “Let’s go to [...]

[Read more →]

This morning, I moderated the Designing for Convergent Devices panel at South by Southwest. Great attendance considering that it was at 10 am Sunday morning, the day after Daylight Savings Time kicked in, and there were parties going late on Saturday night.
The panel went great, with a good balance of commentary from each of the [...]

[Read more →]

First attempt at liveblogging. Here goes:
Kathy opens by proposing a dilemma for those of us in attendance: We’re responsible for evangelizing the products that make this interaction unnecessary. That’s the question. So are we saying, “We don’t need real humans”?
Real logical reason we’re here? Shows the slide: “I’m here to get laid.”
We need to put [...]

[Read more →]

Robert Kuttner’s story “The Race” in the latest issue of the Columbia Journalism Review (via paidContent.org) says that while the biggest newspapers and the smallest newspapers seem well positioned for a digital future, it’s the mid-sized regional metropolitan dailies that are at the most risk.
The story singles out The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Minneapolis Star [...]

[Read more →]

The Austin American-Statesman came away with three National Headliner Awards, a competition that recognizes journalistic merit in print, broadcast, and online.
Most notably, the paper’s online arm won an award for Newspaper Affiliated Online Journalism for its interactive edition of the paper’s Leave or Die series on racial expulsions
The Statesman’s other two Headliner awards went to [...]

[Read more →]

Over on the Alamo Drafthouse blog, owner Tim League is giving folks a chance to play around with the new version of their website. Tim reports:

That’s right, in a couple of weeks when you head over to www.originalalamo.com, you’ll be treated to a brand new interface and design! So get your fill of the classic [...]

[Read more →]