Lawrence Siulagi

Jeff Jarvis on his What Would Google Do? Facebook page comments on the AP distribution of nonprofit news

Distributing Investigations

I’m delighted that the Associated Press is going to distribute the reporting of four nonprofit investigative news organizations: the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica. That will get their work seen in many more print outlets. Print.

Except — and I hate to have another exception with the AP — online that isn’t necessarily the best service to the work. In a search-driven ecology, the better thing to do is to send all traffic to the reporting at its source so that can rise in search. It also means that as stories are updated, readers can get the latest. And it gives these centers the opportunity to raise money with readers who care about their work. So I hope that the papers that print these stories online also link to the source.

You can also read Jeff Jarvis’ blog for more news about changes facing the news media.

Sometimes the best stories arrive by accident as The Oregonian’s television critic and reporter Peter Ames Carlin discovered when Jeff Alan, former news director of Portland’s KOIN-TV, a CBS affiliate, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and exposed a larger-than-life character with a past. You know, things like

• Jeff Alan wasn’t his given name
• His Social Security number wasn’t his
• He left his wife and daughters in Los Angeles in 1986
• His ex-wife declared him dead in 1993

Oh, and did I mention he was present at the Ambassador Hotel when Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy; had a thriving career in television syndication; reinvented himself as a TV news anchor and executive; wrote two books; taught broadcast journalism at the University of Pittsburgh; and appeared on CNN and MSNBC as a media expert?

Does it sound over-the-top? Sound too good to be true? Sounds like it’s time for a sequel for Catch Me If You Can.

Read the entire series in Carlin’s three-part special.

Signage in front of the Baptist Church in my neighborhood. A possible response to Jeff Jarvis‘ book, “What Would Google Do?“?

Looks like someone's been reading Jeff's book.

In an interview with Wired, CompUSA’s chief technology executive has made available to customers every screen in every CompUSA store with a connection to the internet:

“We are using tech to change the retail experience for the customer and giving them access to all the information on the internet anytime they want during the buying process. ‘And there are no restrictions. Users can surf the internet, check their Facebook or even Twitter if they want,’ says Fiorentino.

Check their Facebook and Twitter?

Um.

Note to quasi-Luddites: make sure you guide your cursor using the mouse or the trackpad and click on the “Sign Out” link before you leave said computer. Why? Well, basically ’cause that’s like leaving your keys in the car with the engine running.

And while I think this is all a push in the right direction for tech retailers, let’s hope it doesn’t translate to other types of retail. Like Home Depot, for instance.

…the New York Times online features a story about Trekkie love for Kirk’s captain chair on their home page.

Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a command-chair building machine!

Good article discussing the Guardian going the API route by Jeff Jarvis. Truly insightful and worth reading if you’re into the future of content distribution.

I really think he’s spot on. The current news media companies, especially in America, are slow to this delivery method. Hopefully, they’ll wake up in time but I remain doubtful.