The Jeff Beckham Weblog

The Statesman’s entertainment site, Austin360.com, won a Newspaper Association of America Digital Edge Award for Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site in its circulation category.
The Digital Edge Awards categories, part of the Media Innovation Awards, drew more than 200 entries from U.S. newspapers of all sizes. The volunteer team of judges, who are all [...]

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Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith has found himself in the middle of quite the dust-up after pointing out that this month’s cover of Rhode Island Monthly magazine (”Steak”) bears a striking resemblance to the December 2007 issue of Texas Monthly (”Steak”).

Smith’s post has nearly 50 comments at this point, more than any other post in [...]

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The recent launch of local journalism site EveryBlock tries to answer a question that doesn’t always have an easy response: “What’s happening in my neighborhood?”
Beginning with Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco, EveryBlock pulls together local news and public information, then allows you to narrow the focus to your particular neighborhood of interest. You [...]

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When it comes to the right way for local media to embrace the online world, I’ve been tempted for some time just to link to Rob Curley and add “What he said”.
My man just hit it out of the park again, this time with a piece in Harvard’s Nieman Reports that lays the the strategies [...]

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One of my favorite bloggers (and a darn nice person, to boot) is Chuck Kuffner. His Off the Kuff blog provides a steady stream of Houston news and commentary, as well as a look at statewide political races.
This month, Chuck was honored as one of Texas Monthly’s 35 People Who Will Shape Our Future. It’s [...]

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Over on the Austin Chronicle’s sports blog, Mark Fagan passes along the welcome news that the NBA Development League has announced that they will be streaming video of every league game for the remainder of the season. According to league president Dan Reed, this is the first time any professional sports league has enabled free [...]

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I picked up the premiere issue of Men’s Health Living magazine yesterday. It’s the interior design/home spinoff of the successful men’s magazine.
My first impressions were all positive. It looks great and has useful tips on design, cooking, and home improvement, along with a look inside the Hollywood Hills home of The Transporter’s Jason Statham. All [...]

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The accidental innovator: The Economist profiles Evan Williams, the founder of both Blogger and Twitter. (The Economist)
Riddell starts shipping concussion-monitoring football helmets: Each helmet stores data about the last 100 impacts, which can later be wirelessly transmitted to a laptop for analysis. The University of Missouri and several other NCAA schools have already placed orders. [...]

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I’ve been neglecting posting here while I’ve been spending time posting over at Austinist, writing a couple of sports-related items per week. Along the way, I’ve discovered a hidden gem among Austin sports sites: Barking Carnival. Writing under pseudonyms like “ChrisApplewhite”, “EyesOfTX”, and “HenryJames”, the Barking Carnival crew has been putting out some of the [...]

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The Austin Chronicle rolled out its list of winners in its annual Best of Austin awards today. Congratulations to Eileen Smith of In the Pink Texas and Texas Monthly for a dual win in the Readers’ Poll, pulling down honors as Best Blogger and for ITPT as best Local Political Blog.
Also congrats to Allen Chen [...]

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