JL's Blog of Blogs

And the immediacy of the Internet grows

2009-09-24T09:22:00.002-06:00

Mobile live streaming backpack for video...Who needs a live truck anymore?

Ami Vitale Interview

2009-09-02T11:21:00.002-06:00

Ami has absolutely followed her own path to photojournalism. Here's an interesting interview with her about her work and style.

Choosing Thomas

2009-08-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

Amazing work and story.

Have the content & audience, the rest will fall into place

2009-06-25T22:57:00.002-06:00

A post on the NYTimes photo blog LENS about a quarterly magazine that costs $25 an issue.

I've always thought that if you have a desired product that is of high quality that warrants a higher price it will work in the business sense. I bet this will work.

Competing with FREE

2009-06-09T10:07:00.002-06:00

Just another blog post discussing the issue of how newspapers are between a diamond and a very hard spot. As are many other "content producers." Found it in the wrath of links found inside this blog post on Time's website about "If the Journalism Business Fails, Who Pays for Journalism?"

There's a reason even MediaStorm has started doing commissioned work for the likes of Starbucks and now Global Governance Program.

Information wants to be free, still

2009-06-08T16:52:00.003-06:00

Found this link via my All Things Digital RSS feed this morning. It coincided with a discussion taking place on Facebook between some journalists I know and used to work with about the broken business model of the newspaper industry.

They were talking about former Rocky Mountain News ME and CEO John Temple's blog post about all the aspects the industry has been going about in a contradictory sense. Saying all the right things about building for the future but in action just holding on to the past.

Then throw on the grease fire this other post is talking about with the broken advertising model and Jeff Jarvis' thought that advertising isn't even needed anymore by the now penny-pinching advertisers.

There's a lot to read over and digest in these three or four posts, but they can all be boiled down to this: Because the monetary models of enormous margins of yore are broken and the recent history of the industry executives saying one thing while doing the opposite, the newspaper industry is a terminal cancer patient receiving huge doses of chemotherapy.

I hate cancer with a dripping passion, but this is the best way I can think of explaining the situation. Let's hope this thing ends sooner, rather than later. What's next will not come about until the institutions of monopolistic media and control –who are at the will of shareholders and double digit margins– have finally succumbed to their own demise. Then we can start talking about where journalism in the digital media age will go and flourish.

Recounting photographing Tank Man

2009-06-07T17:39:00.002-06:00

Twenty years ago a lone man stood motionless in front of a row of tanks in Tiananman Square in China. Here's a audio slideshow with Stuart Franklin recounting his iconic photograph. It's always good to hear from the photog about the background and what was going on as they work an image.

Jenkins is a very very smart guy on media users

2009-06-07T17:36:00.004-06:00

If you don't know about how people are using media these days, you might as well make steam engines from the 19th century for the 21st. Learn some media literacy by watching this video.

Henry Jenkins on Transmedia - November 2009 from niko on Vimeo.

An inside look at the sinking of The Rocky

2009-06-07T17:33:00.001-06:00

Long story in the Denver trendy mag 5280. Pretty slow start on the read though...

What's the new revenue model?

2009-05-25T09:43:00.004-06:00

Pretty interesting article talking about the changing landscape of Web start-ups as the ad revenue model is breaking down. How companies will be able to survive making money off of their audiences is of major consequence. Newspapers and magazines were just the start of the breakdown, finding the new way is key.

PDN Photo Annual

2009-05-24T18:02:00.001-06:00

Another great gallery of some fantastic images and sites. Lots of ideas to get new ideas from.

Colin nails it, again

2009-05-24T17:56:00.002-06:00

Gives more great advice on shooting storytelling video. There are a lot of elements to take into consideration when shooting and putting a video together. Have a read of his experiences and lessons.

Strong Photo Story on Pregnancy in Tanzania

2009-05-24T09:26:00.002-06:00

Story in the NYTimes about the death rates of mothers and babies in the dire conditions.

That's an awful lot of video

2009-05-22T14:29:00.002-06:00

Guess how much video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? Just a bit less than there are hours in a day. And this is a site that is losing millions of dollars every month.

Goes to show, online video is EXPENSIVE!!!!!

Sell your own photos on your site

2009-05-22T14:24:00.003-06:00

A pretty smart photog I know, Gerik Parmele, shared this link on his FriendFeed a few days ago. Still need to investigate it a bit more, but I'm thinking it may just work for someone with a niché market and audience.

So, Mr. Anderson. Why not make it free?

2009-05-22T14:19:00.002-06:00

James Ledbetter questions why Chris Anderson – editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, whose new book proclaims that giving things away for free is the "radical" new business model of the future – doesn't practice what he preaches with the analog version of the magazine.

Pretty good points in this column about how advertising works with regard to audience and magazines. But it doesn't take into account how the ad model is breaking down.

A short good read. Have a look.

Unique photo story

2009-05-22T14:14:00.001-06:00

Photo story from GOOD depicting personalities of people by what is in their refrigerators and freezers. Found this via 10,000 Words on Twitter.

Great variety of photography

2009-05-22T14:12:00.002-06:00

Here's a great gallery of images from the entire spectrum of the photography landscape. From photojournalism to fine art and everything in between.

Might open up your mind to some new ideas, really.

Making Art from the web

2009-05-22T14:10:00.001-06:00

Here is a very cool idea to take individual musical elements -that happen to be YouTube videos- and allow a user to create something new. It's called remix and it's pretty damn great.

Have a play...

Microstock and the devalued image

2009-05-22T14:05:00.002-06:00

When you see companies like this gaining traction of use and investment, it's a good indication for the overall value of images.

Digital cameras have made the creation of images climb rapidly. Now think of your simple business practices....supply and demand. If you have a ton of supply and there is not a demand to use the supply up, what happens? The goods get cheaper.

So, how do you separate your work in an effort to get a better ROI?

Fantastic Multimedia Production Post

2009-05-10T19:58:00.003-06:00

Eric Maierson's post over at the MediaStorm blog is money.

Read it.

Print it out.

Read it again.

Then tape the last tip on the base of your monitor and read it every time you sit down at the computer.

Simple Slideshows App for Mac

2009-05-10T11:34:00.004-06:00

If you don't have Soundslides or Final Cut and don't like iMovie you can use this free program, Slideshowmovie, to build quick and easy slideshows to be exported as a video file.

There's a ton of free apps on the Apple Downloads site.

NPR: How do you photograph Skid Row?

2009-05-09T14:20:00.005-06:00

Justin Maxon, 25, shooting a series of images on LA's Skid Row.

Pretty strong work. Had two days to gather photos for the production. NPR asks if it is worth covering something in a day, that typically should take a month of invested journalism? Have a look through the comments on the post.

Told you photo/video convergence was past tense

2009-04-29T13:44:00.001-06:00

They used the RED One to shoot the cover of Esquire magazine.

Bring on the Scarlet!!!

100 Days in Photos

2009-04-29T13:38:00.002-06:00

Pete Souza put together images from the first 100 days of the Obama administration and it's hosted on the White House's website. Interesting access issues to think about here.

Found via NPPA's RSS feed