NEW LINK Webinar: “Building An Online Journalist Portfolio Using Pressfolios”

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Editor’s note: the Digital Journalism Task Force is working on programming that will take us right to the annual convention. To that end, we’d appreciate it if you could take this quick 5-question survey to let us know what you want. Thanks!!

Due to technical difficulties, the link to Tuesday’s webinar did not work.  We have worked with GoToWebinar and we now have a link that works.  Click here for the hour-long webinar on using Pressfolios.   As a reminder, the code for the private beta is NABJ.  Thanks for your patience!

Webinar: “Building An Online Journalist Portfolio Using Pressfolios”

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Last night we had the pleasure of hosting Marc Samson, co-founder of Pressfolios.   Pressfolios is a pretty simple platform created to help journalists, writers, reporters, bloggers, public relations and other media professionals to back up their news stories, design a beautiful online portfolio website, and showcase their personal brand. The best part is you don’t need to know how to code to use the online platform.

You can listen to a recording of the hour-long webinar here.  Finally. Samson was kind enough to give out a code to enter the private beta: NABJ.  Please give it a try and let us know what your think.

 

UPDATED – Creating Multimedia Stories With Meograph – The Recording

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Editor’s note: the Digital Journalism Task Force is working on programming that will take us right to the annual convention. To that end, we’d appreciate it if you could take this quick 5-question survey to let us know what you want. Thanks!!

UPDATE, 4/25, 11:15 A.M. Due to technical difficulties, we are unable to upload the recording of this webinar.  The problem has been fixed, and we shouldn’t have any issues with future webinars.  We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you’ll join us for free programming in the future.

On Tuesday, we did a webinar with Misha Leybovitch, the founder and CEO of Meograph, a four-dimensional multimedia storytelling tool. The tool helps journalists combine video, audio, pictures, text, links, maps and timelines that can be embedded on websites or shared via social media. Leybovitch  demonstrated how easy it is for journalists to take their stories to the next level using Meograph.

UPDATE – please look at these links to Meographs created by different news organizations.

• Trayvon Martin case
• Whitney Houston’s Life
• The History of Sisters Network Inc.
• Election 2012 Week in Review

 

Sign Up For StoriesLab Workshop In Washington, D.C.

By Felicia Pride, the Pride Collaborative

StoriesLab
Saturday, May 4, 2013 | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
American University | Washington, DC
Register here: http://storieslab.eventbrite.com/

Ancient storytellers captured narrative in paintings on cave walls or sustained them through the oral tradition. But modern technology has significantly enhanced the way in which our stories are told, collected, shared, and measured.

We want to highlight the advancements that the digital and technological landscape has brought to the art of storytelling, while also recognizing the importance of strong narrative.

Enter StoriesLab, a half-day interactive exploration into the possibilities of story to entertain, inform connect, and engage. We’ll look at transmedia storytelling as a tool of engagement. We’ll participate in a mini story hackathon. We’ll engage in a workshop on measuring impact for cross media projects. And we’ll be reminded about the power of narrative.

Join us.

StoriesLab is a project of StoriesLead and co-presented by Pride Collaborative and the Center for Social Media.

Calendar of Multimedia Training and Events

By Ameena Rasheed, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force Intern

Webbmedia Group has a great mega calendar of events that catches things not covered below. If you want to subscribe to the calendar, click here. You can also subscribe to this calendar so the information appears on your personal Google Calendar. Just go to the Webbmedia Google calendar, click the “+Google Calendar” icon at the bottom right, and then click “Yes, add this calendar” in the dialog box). The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism has its training calendar posted for courses through July 2013.

APRIL

• The National Press Club Institute is hosting a “Post Election Payback” seminar from April 26, 2 – 7 p.m. to April 27, 9 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The Center for Responsive Politics’ “Post-Election Payback” trainings aims to develop and nurture a more sophisticated level of media coverage by conducting three regional seminars that will train journalists to track campaign money’s effects on policy outcomes and on hiring decisions in Congress and in the new administration. April 26 includes a panel discussion from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and reception from 5:00-7:00 p.m. April 27 includes two panel discussions (morning and afternoon), breakfast and lunch included. Registration is $15 for NPC members; $25 for non-members. Register here.
• Learn how award-winning professionals work through the creative process of storytelling on a deadline in these on-demand video replays in the Video Storytelling with the Pros: Creativity on a Deadline training package.
• The American Society of Journalists and Authors is hosting its annual writer’s conference on April 25-27 in New York City. The conference is geared toward freelance writers who are looking to supercharge their careers.
• ASJA is hosting its 42nd Annual Writers Conference, ASJA2013: Fire Up Your Writing Career, which includes two full days open to the public, offering dozens of educational sessions focused on issues and topics pivotal to freelance writers. There will also be several social events designed to encourage professional networking.
• NewsTrain, the signature on-site journalism training program of the Associated Press Media Editors, will make its first stop in its 10th anniversary year in Springfield, Ill. Workshops are being planned for April 29 and 30 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Downtown Springfield. Click here for more information.

MAY

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “Getting the Goods – Interviews that Work,” on May 8-9 at noon or 4:00 p.m. EST. Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski will explore the core purposes, techniques and ethics of the interview process. She will reveal different interview approaches that work best in different situations and that apply to any genre of journalism. On Day 2, she will focus on interviews that produce not just information, but true stories, rich with character, scene and detail.
• The collaboration between the Human Resources teams at NPR and Twitter, #NPRTwitterChat, has now been extended to a quarterly series. The one hour chat, covered in the Mashable article, ‘How to Effectively Use Twitter as a Job Search Resource‘, brings together a mix of global subject matter experts at the intersections of human resources, recruiting and social media to share insights and tips with job seekers. The next #NPRTwitterChat will be held on Thursday, May 16 from 4 to 5 p.m. EST.
• The Sunlight Foundation’s 5th annual TransparencyCamp on May 4th and 5th at the George Washington University’s Marvin Center, Washington, DC. For the last five years, they’ve gathered together a variety of journalists, policy creators, technologists, concerned citizens, academics, watchdogs, and others to build community, share best practices, and problem-solve challenges to work in the transparency arena.
• Learn how to pitch articles and reach out to major media outlets to get coverage for your book with the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Marketing & Publicity Part 2 session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1.
• Expert John Low will show you the similarities and differences between print books and eBooks with  the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Format Your eBook for Publication session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8.
• Reporters who cover education and the difficult issues around teacher evaluation are invited to apply to attend “Grading the Teachers,” a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute on May 8-10 in Detroit.

JUNE

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “The Business of Me,” June 4-6 at noon or 4:00 p.m. In this three-day webinar with Mark Luckie of Twitter, learn how to brand and market yourself and to pitch your ideas, plus understand the basics of financial and time management. Identify five next steps to advance your career as an entrepreneur.
• The Knight Digital Media Center is taking applications for its two-week “Multimedia Storytelling Institute 2013,” June 10-21 at UC-Berkeley. This intensive two-week program provides seminar style and hands-on training in essential skills for digital media production. The institute is ideal for journalists, educators and communication professionals interested in a rapid-paced immersible experience in multimedia content creation through delivery. The cost is $5,400; there’s a 10% discount if you register before May 10.
• The Online News Association is partnering with the Global Editors Network to present several sessions at the Global News Summit 2013: Hack the Newsroom! (#GEN2013) conference on June 19-21 in Paris, France at Hotel de Ville, 5 rue de Lobau, 75004 Paris. The conference will feature industry experts giving you the tools and strategies you need to help seed, encourage and implement experimentation and start-up culture in your digital newsroom. Registration is open to all ONA members and you can save 30 percent on registration if you purchase your tickets by Feb. 18. Early bird tickets are € 839 ($1,119.95) for GEN and ONA members and € 1,199 ($1,600.31).

JULY

• The National Association of Black Journalists welcomes you to join us from July 31-August 4, 2013 as we gather in Orlando for the 38th Annual Convention and Career Fair! Thousands of journalists, media executives, public relations professionals, and students are expected to attend to network, participate in professional development sessions and celebrate excellence in journalism.

If you have items you wish to include, please email them to me at benet AT aviationqueen DOT COM. Thanks!!

 

10 Interesting Posts On How Journalists Covered The Boston Marathon Bombings

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Thanks to Flipboard and my myriad social media/journalism groups, I was fed a constant stream of information on how journalists covered the horrific Boston Marathon bombings.  Yet again, social media played a large role in how information was gathered and dispersed in real time.  Below, in no particular order, are 10 posts on how the bombings were handled.

1. BostonGlobe.com: 2013 Boston Marathon live blog
2. CNN: Complete Coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings
3. Nieman Lab: Social media and the Boston bombings: When citizens and journalists cover the same story
4. Poynter: How journalists are covering, reacting to Boston Marathon explosions
5. IJNet: How the media used social media, digital tools to cover the Boston Marathon explosions
6. PBS MediaShift: Social Media Offers Vital Updates, Support After Boston Marathon Bombings
7. PandoDaily: Boston marathon: Has social media coverage finally matured?
8. Forbes: Google Person Finder Helps In Boston Marathon Explosions
9. Washington Post: Boston explosions: Twitter acts as journalism’s ombudsman
10. Huffington Post: Reporters Ran In Boston Marathon Before Covering Tragedy

Calendar of Multimedia and Training Events

By Ameena Rasheed, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force Intern

Webbmedia Group has a great mega calendar of events that catches things not covered below. If you want to subscribe to the calendar, click here. You can also subscribe to this calendar so the information appears on your personal Google Calendar. Just go to the Webbmedia Google calendar, click the “+Google Calendar” icon at the bottom right, and then click “Yes, add this calendar” in the dialog box). The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism has its training calendar posted for courses through July 2013.

APRIL

• The Deadline Club has four $2,500 scholarships available for journalism students.  All applications, including supporting materials such as letters of recommendation, must be submitted via the scholarship website by the entry deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 19. For complete eligibility rules, or to submit an online application, go to the scholarship entry website.
• The National Press Club Institute is hosting a “Post Election Payback” seminar from April 26, 2 – 7 p.m. to April 27, 9 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The Center for Responsive Politics’ “Post-Election Payback” trainings aims to develop and nurture a more sophisticated level of media coverage by conducting three regional seminars that will train journalists to track campaign money’s effects on policy outcomes and on hiring decisions in Congress and in the new administration. April 26 includes a panel discussion from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and reception from 5:00-7:00 p.m. April 27 includes two panel discussions (morning and afternoon), breakfast and lunch included. Registration is $15 for NPC members; $25 for non-members. Register here.
• Learn how award-winning professionals work through the creative process of storytelling on a deadline in these on-demand video replays in the Video Storytelling with the Pros: Creativity on a Deadline training package.
• The National Association of Black Journalists will be hosting the 2013 NABJ Region V Conference on April 19-20. This two-day conference will include journalism workshops featuring media professionals and educators. Workshops will be offered in the following areas: radio production and programming, print journalism, television news reporting, social media and career preparation.
• Get expert advice in working with writers to generate better story ideas and tell them in ways that resonate with readers at the Editors Boot Camp 2013: A Poynter Broadcast presentation. Learn more about how to join us either online or in-person for this April 22 event at 9 a.m. Eastern time.
• The American Society of Journalists and Authors is hosting its annual writer’s conference on April 25-27 in New York City. The conference is geared toward freelance writers who are looking to supercharge their careers.
• Calling all entrepreneurs! The Ray Taliaferro NABJ Entrepreneurial Spirit Award seeks to encourage and promote journalistic entrepreneurship. The grant is awarded annually to one recipient as recognition for the introduction or significant innovation of a new or existing media enterprise. The winner will receive $5,000 and a trip to NABJ’s 2013 Convention in Orlando! The deadline is April 19.
• Blogalicious is planning its first-ever TECH Summit for aspiring and active startup founders, software developers and coders, bloggers with technology interests and tech thought-leaders on April 18 in Washington, D.C.
• ASJA is hosting its 42nd Annual Writers Conference, ASJA2013: Fire Up Your Writing Career, which includes two full days open to the public, offering dozens of educational sessions focused on issues and topics pivotal to freelance writers. There will also be several social events designed to encourage professional networking.
• NewsTrain, the signature on-site journalism training program of the Associated Press Media Editors, will make its first stop in its 10th anniversary year in Springfield, Ill. Workshops are being planned for April 29 and 30 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Downtown Springfield. Click here for more information.

MAY

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “Getting the Goods – Interviews that Work,” on May 8-9 at noon or 4:00 p.m. EST. Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski will explore the core purposes, techniques and ethics of the interview process. She will reveal different interview approaches that work best in different situations and that apply to any genre of journalism. On Day 2, she will focus on interviews that produce not just information, but true stories, rich with character, scene and detail.
• The collaboration between the Human Resources teams at NPR and Twitter, #NPRTwitterChat, has now been extended to a quarterly series. The one hour chat, covered in the Mashable article, ‘How to Effectively Use Twitter as a Job Search Resource‘, brings together a mix of global subject matter experts at the intersections of human resources, recruiting and social media to share insights and tips with job seekers. The next #NPRTwitterChat will be held on Thursday, May 16 from 4 to 5 p.m. EST.
• The Sunlight Foundation’s 5th annual TransparencyCamp on May 4th and 5th at the George Washington University’s Marvin Center, Washington, DC. For the last five years, they’ve gathered together a variety of journalists, policy creators, technologists, concerned citizens, academics, watchdogs, and others to build community, share best practices, and problem-solve challenges to work in the transparency arena.
• Learn how to pitch articles and reach out to major media outlets to get coverage for your book with the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Marketing & Publicity Part 2 session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1.
• Expert John Low will show you the similarities and differences between print books and eBooks with  the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Format Your eBook for Publication session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8.
• Reporters who cover education and the difficult issues around teacher evaluation are invited to apply to attend “Grading the Teachers,” a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute on May 8-10 in Detroit.

JUNE

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “The Business of Me,” June 4-6 at noon or 4:00 p.m. In this three-day webinar with Mark Luckie of Twitter, learn how to brand and market yourself and to pitch your ideas, plus understand the basics of financial and time management. Identify five next steps to advance your career as an entrepreneur.
• The Knight Digital Media Center is taking applications for its two-week “Multimedia Storytelling Institute 2013,” June 10-21 at UC-Berkeley. This intensive two-week program provides seminar style and hands-on training in essential skills for digital media production. The institute is ideal for journalists, educators and communication professionals interested in a rapid-paced immersible experience in multimedia content creation through delivery. The cost is $5,400; there’s a 10% discount if you register before May 10.
• The Online News Association is partnering with the Global Editors Network to present several sessions at the Global News Summit 2013: Hack the Newsroom! (#GEN2013) conference on June 19-21 in Paris, France at Hotel de Ville, 5 rue de Lobau, 75004 Paris. The conference will feature industry experts giving you the tools and strategies you need to help seed, encourage and implement experimentation and start-up culture in your digital newsroom. Registration is open to all ONA members and you can save 30 percent on registration if you purchase your tickets by Feb. 18. Early bird tickets are € 839 ($1,119.95) for GEN and ONA members and € 1,199 ($1,600.31).

JULY

• The National Association of Black Journalists welcomes you to join us from July 31-August 4, 2013 as we gather in Orlando for the 38th Annual Convention and Career Fair! Thousands of journalists, media executives, public relations professionals, and students are expected to attend to network, participate in professional development sessions and celebrate excellence in journalism.

If you have items you wish to include, please email them to me at benet AT aviationqueen DOT COM. Thanks!!

Calendar of Multimedia and Training Events

By Ameena Rasheed, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force Intern

Webbmedia Group has a great mega calendar of events that catches things not covered below. If you want to subscribe to the calendar, click here. You can also subscribe to this calendar so the information appears on your personal Google Calendar. Just go to the Webbmedia Google calendar, click the “+Google Calendar” icon at the bottom right, and then click “Yes, add this calendar” in the dialog box). The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism has its training calendar posted for courses through July 2013.

APRIL

• Join NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force Chair Benét Wilson for the next  DJTF TweetChat — Mobile Journalism Apps You Can Use — on Monday, April 8 at 8:00 p.m. EDT.  We’ll recommend tools for smartphones and tablets and take your questions. The hashtag is #DJTFChat.
• See how Spundge can help you cover a beat, research stories, collaborate with colleagues and create content and curated streams with its Content Curation and Creation with Spundge: A Digital Tools Tutorial webinar. This webinar is part of the Digital Tools Project at 2 p.m. Eastern time, April 10.
• Learn how award-winning professionals work through the creative process of storytelling on a deadline in these on-demand video replays in the Video Storytelling with the Pros: Creativity on a Deadline training package.
• The Society for Features Journalism is offering the 2013 Penny Bender Fuchs Diversity Fellowship for  journalists of color who produce arts and features content for news organizations or those interested in pursuing careers in arts and features. SFJ is hosting this  award in conjunction with its annual convention. Fellowships cover SFJ conference registration, airfare , hotel and a $300 stipend for other SFJ expenses. The application deadline is April 15.
• The Data Visualization Summit will be taking place on April 10-13 in San Francisco. The summit brings together leaders in Data Viz to explain and clarify the numerous benefits of using data visualization. If you would like to attend please contact Victoria Elton at velton@theiegroup.com.
• The National Association of Black Journalists will be hosting the 2013 NABJ Region V Conference on April 19-20. This two-day conference will include journalism workshops featuring media professionals and educators. Workshops will be offered in the following areas: radio production and programming, print journalism, television news reporting, social media and career preparation.
• USC Annenberg’s Knight Digital Media Center is hosting a Show Me the Numbers: Basic Metrics to Grow Your Project webinar on Wednesday, April 10 at 2 p.m. EST.  This free hands-on webinar will provide tangible strategies to use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and other tools to measure results and make strategic decisions about your online project or web site.
• Get expert advice in working with writers to generate better story ideas and tell them in ways that resonate with readers at the Editors Boot Camp 2013: A Poynter Broadcast presentation. Learn more about how to join us either online or in-person for this April 22 event at 9 a.m. Eastern time.
• Mark your calendars for April 12-13 when NABJ-MU and the Diederich College of Communication will host the 2013 Midwest Journalism Summit. More than 75 journalism students from around the region will gather for two days of networking, hearing from seasoned journalists and participating in workshops and panels designed to build their journalism skills and savvy in whichever type of media they choose to pursue.
• The American Society of Journalists and Authors is hosting its annual writer’s conference on April 25-27 in New York City. The conference is geared toward freelance writers who are looking to supercharge their careers.
• Calling all entrepreneurs! The Ray Taliaferro NABJ Entrepreneurial Spirit Award seeks to encourage and promote journalistic entrepreneurship. The grant is awarded annually to one recipient as recognition for the introduction or significant innovation of a new or existing media enterprise. The winner will receive $5,000 and a trip to NABJ’s 2013 Convention in Orlando! The deadline is April 19.
• Blogalicious is planning its first-ever TECH Summit for aspiring and active startup founders, software developers and coders, bloggers with technology interests and tech thought-leaders on April 18 in Washington, D.C.

MAY

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “Getting the Goods – Interviews that Work,” on May 8-9 at noon or 4:00 p.m. EST. Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski will explore the core purposes, techniques and ethics of the interview process. She will reveal different interview approaches that work best in different situations and that apply to any genre of journalism. On Day 2, she will focus on interviews that produce not just information, but true stories, rich with character, scene and detail.
• The collaboration between the Human Resources teams at NPR and Twitter, #NPRTwitterChat, has now been extended to a quarterly series. The one hour chat, covered in the Mashable article, ‘How to Effectively Use Twitter as a Job Search Resource‘, brings together a mix of global subject matter experts at the intersections of human resources, recruiting and social media to share insights and tips with job seekers. The next #NPRTwitterChat will be held on Thursday, May 16 from 4 to 5 p.m. EST.
• The Sunlight Foundation’s 5th annual TransparencyCamp on May 4th and 5th at the George Washington University’s Marvin Center, Washington, DC. For the last five years, they’ve gathered together a variety of journalists, policy creators, technologists, concerned citizens, academics, watchdogs, and others to build community, share best practices, and problem-solve challenges to work in the transparency arena.
• Learn how to pitch articles and reach out to major media outlets to get coverage for your book with the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Marketing & Publicity Part 2 session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1.
• Expert John Low will show you the similarities and differences between print books and eBooks with  the Self-Publishing Finishing School’s Format Your eBook for Publication session at 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8.
• Reporters who cover education and the difficult issues around teacher evaluation are invited to apply to attend “Grading the Teachers,” a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute on May 8-10 in Detroit.

JUNE

• The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is holding a free two-part online webinar, “The Business of Me,” June 4-6 at noon or 4:00 p.m. In this three-day webinar with Mark Luckie of Twitter, learn how to brand and market yourself and to pitch your ideas, plus understand the basics of financial and time management. Identify five next steps to advance your career as an entrepreneur.
• The Knight Digital Media Center is taking applications for its two-week “Multimedia Storytelling Institute 2013,” June 10-21 at UC-Berkeley. This intensive two-week program provides seminar style and hands-on training in essential skills for digital media production. The institute is ideal for journalists, educators and communication professionals interested in a rapid-paced immersible experience in multimedia content creation through delivery. The cost is $5,400; there’s a 10% discount if you register before May 10.
• The Online News Association is partnering with the Global Editors Network to present several sessions at the Global News Summit 2013: Hack the Newsroom! (#GEN2013) conference on June 19-21 in Paris, France at Hotel de Ville, 5 rue de Lobau, 75004 Paris. The conference will feature industry experts giving you the tools and strategies you need to help seed, encourage and implement experimentation and start-up culture in your digital newsroom. Registration is open to all ONA members and you can save 30 percent on registration if you purchase your tickets by Feb. 18. Early bird tickets are € 839 ($1,119.95) for GEN and ONA members and € 1,199 ($1,600.31).

JULY

• The National Association of Black Journalists welcomes you to join us from July 31-August 4, 2013 as we gather in Orlando for the 38th Annual Convention and Career Fair! Thousands of journalists, media executives, public relations professionals, and students are expected to attend to network, participate in professional development sessions and celebrate excellence in journalism.

If you have items you wish to include, please email them to me at benet AT aviationqueen DOT COM. Thanks!!

NABJDigital Profiles McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneur Grant Winner Diane Alverio

Diane Alverio

By Ameena Rasheed, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force Intern

When Diane Alverio first came across the 2013 McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneur Initiative online, she and her team decided to apply on a whim.

“We felt good about the product and felt that we had something new to add to the media,” said Alverio after stumbling across the grant opportunity.

Alverio, a seasoned journalist and president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in the early 1990s, founded her news project, the Latino News Network.

The Latino News Network is a nine-month-old English language news site based in Connecticut that focuses on Latinos and Latino issues in Southern New England.  She was inspired to start this project due to the lack of well-rounded media coverage of the Latino community.

“Clearly there was a need for quality coverage of Latino issues here in Connecticut as there is elsewhere,” Alverio said.

“It [mainstream media] offers only a thin slice of who we are as a people, and unfortunately, way too often it’s the negative side.”

The Latino News Network, which won $14,000 from McCormick’s New Media Women Entrepreneur Initiative, hopes to use the grant expand.

“Hopefully in the next couple of months we will move into Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” she said.

“It will be based in Connecticut and be an online site.”

While Alverio has strong roots in journalism, building the Latino News Network was took months of planning.

“You really need a multitude of skills because obviously good strong writing is important, but you have to be able to market your site to draw readers to it,” she  said. “When you’re creating a new infrastructure from scratch, you want to be sure that you understand the editorial side and the sales piece.”

Above all else, Alverio notes that you need to develop a strong foundation of individuals that you are working with who are passionate about your project.

“You have to have a passion for it and really believe in it, especially in the beginning because it takes a great deal of time to get it off the ground,” she said.

“You can’t do it by yourself.”

Editor’s note: Click here to read NABJDigital profiles of past McCormick winners Retha Hill and Michelle Ferrier.

NABJ-ers, are you looking to get grant money for your journalism projects? Check out Poynter’s 5 ways to get a grant that will finance your journalism careeer article.

A New Brydge For MyiPad

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

I’ve been using my iPad for more and more work-related tasks, thanks to some great apps and the device’s portability.  The one negative factor is trying to type stories using the glass keyboard.  I’m just no good at it.

I went on eBay and bought a cheap keyboard that connected to the iPad via Bluetooth.  It worked for a while, then became quite buggy and unreliable.  That left me with lugging my MacBook Pro or taking my Gateway Netbook.

But after attending several journalism-related events where I saw folks with cool keyboards attached to their iPads, I decided it was time to take another look at what’s out there — and spend some money.

So I did what I usually do — I crowdsourced my question about what folks thought were the best iPad keyboards on the market.  I considered the Logitech Ultrathin, ZAGGFolio, ClamCase Pro and the Belkin Folio.

But all bets were off once  I saw the Brydge, which was born from a Kickstarter campaign.  As a MacBook Pro user, I love the way this keyboard simulates that experience.  the clips allow you to adjust your iPad by 180 degrees.

The Brydge has a built-in speaker that really enhances the sound from your iPad.  It comes in Mac silver, but I bought the black polycarbonate version because I thought it looked cooler.

The speakerless aluminum Brydge costs $169.99; with speakers, it’s $199.99. My black version, with speakers, is $129.99 — and worth every penny.