From the pages of California Publisher
"JournalismNext: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing," by Mark Briggs. (CQ Press, 2010; 360 pages.)
Mark Briggs’ previous guidebook, "Journalism 2.0," explained the tools for veteran journalists to adapt to a new-media world. His new book, "JournalismNext: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing," explains how to become a digital publisher from scratch.
Definitions, tools and free software suggestions are all in here. Briggs does most of the talking, but he earns extra points by including plenty of first-person explainers from veterans of this newish craft.
You might find Chapter 10, "Managing News As a Conversation," the most informative, if also the most nerve-wracking.
Also included are many of the skills and tools that college students are learning. In
fact, some journalism teachers are using it as a textbook.
Cover to cover or by tabbed chapter, "JournalismNext" is a quick way to get on top of publishing in the post-print era.
"Changes, even good ones, often make people nervous," Briggs writes.
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"Pulitzer’s Gold," by Roy J. Harris Jr. (University of Missouri Press, 2007; 476 pages.)
In a year that California was virtually blanked in the Pulitzer Prizes, here's the paperback version of "Pulitzer's Gold," an update of Roy Harris' 2007 journey through the diverse group of newspapers that have won the Gold Medal for Public Service.
The back stories are all told: of major metros utilizing massive resources to produce
monster enterprise packages, of no-name dailies later made known by a win, and tiny shops such as the Lufkin (Texas) News and California's Point Reyes Light, which won for gumshoe diligence and out-and-out bravery.
Harris details the beginnings and growing pains of the Pulitzer program by including insights from jury members and from editors with contenders in the race. The politics of selection and the plugging of finalist leaks are particularly enlightening. His recounting of the Public Service winners' stories also mentions the other medal finalists, adding welcome context.
The paperback version includes the 2009 Public Service prize, which went to the Las Vegas Sun.
Throughout the book is plenty of reminiscence and back-shop storytelling. And the appendix itself is worth a reference-shelf spot: It lists every Pulitzer winner in every category, and Harris includes details on many medal winners that were not covered in the main narrative.
OK, you California big guns and mighty mites, this is your textbook: Go out and get us another win.
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"The Imperfectionists," by Tom Rachman. (The Dial Press, 2010; 275 pages.)
Glimpses of individuals who make up the small staff of an unnamed English-language
newspaper published in Italy for a European audience could stand as short stories.
Taken together in "The Imperfectionists," they relate the life cycle of a mid-size daily, from founding to folding.
The characters and situations constructed by first-time novelist Tom Rachman, who has worked for the Associated Press as a Rome-based foreign correspondent, will ring familiar to many: The hands-off owner. The ladder-climbing top editor and her onetime fellow intern -- the latter still slogging away, big chip on shoulder, on the copy desk. The clueless wanna-be reporter and the fast-talking, opportunistic global correspondent. The technological changes and the busted personal connections. The empty cubicles and the old equipment -- still there because no one knows who’s supposed to tidy up. The outsourced printing. Doing more with less, again.
You've seen too much of it all. Truth is stranger than fiction at many newspapers, but "The Imperfectionists" is a fair snapshot of how it all went down at this one.
-- Joe Wirt
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