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Digital journalist. Californian at heart, currently making great things happen in Seattle, Wash.

October 2008

Koci: Story of a multimedia guru

10/26/2008

Guru: Teacher of wisdom, literally, one who takes you from darkness to light. Richard Koci Hernandez seems to fit that description in the realm of multimedia. I first met him at an ACP conference in San Francisco last spring. It was the most inspiring seminar I’d ever witnessed. He talked about breaking the rules and Read More

Facebook: A newspaper's best and worst friend

10/20/2008

Guest blog by Ryan Chartrand The problem Newspapers have made some pretty desperate moves in the last few years. They’ve cut pages, cut staff, cut paychecks, but then decided to try to add social networking to their Web sites. Sure, it was a great idea; the problem was they were too busy cutting and scrambling Read More

Teaching audio slideshows in the newsroom

10/17/2008

Richard Koci Hernandez, an Emmy-winning multimedia photojournalist who just left the SJ Mercury News to work at Berkeley, said the switch from the newsroom to the classroom was easy. “I was already teaching in the newsroom, so it was a seamless transition,” he said via a recent e-mail interview. Newsrooms are a place where people Read More

Take better photos: Rule of thirds

10/11/2008

You’ve probably heard old photography rule of thumb, but do you understand it? I always thought the “rule of thirds” meant to compose your subject into one of three evenly-split sections, either horizontally or vertically. As I quickly learned in my photojournalism class: I was wrong. Rule of thirds: A photography/design guideline that composes the Read More

Google tools to use in the newsroom

10/10/2008

Google Calendars Things to schedule: Budget meetings Deadlines Must-cover events Special editions Why it’s useful: Can be shared with everyone on staff Collaborative – everyone can contribute Embeddable Google Documents What to use it for? Stories: If the newsroom server goes down, it’s good to have all your stories saved somewhere remotely (or, if a Read More

Make your résumé reflect your talent… visually

10/06/2008

If you know a thing or two about graphic/web design, make your résumé mirror your knowledge. When a “new media” journalist has a résumé made off a Microsoft Word template, it shows nothing about the creativity that person has. I recently redesigned my résumé to give it that Twittery feel. Why? Using elements that are Read More

Update: Chicago Tribune redesigns, drops "Trib" rumor

10/01/2008

The big Chicago Tribune redesign has been released and, not surprisingly, it’s not the version that was heavily circulated around the Web that featured the title “Trib.” Here are a few before and afters: A prototype that surfaced the web last week showed a front page the read “Trib” big and bold across the masthead– Read More

Blog tip #2: Write it down

10/01/2008

While walking to class, taking a jog or driving to the store, you probably always find yourself coming up with great topics to blog about. The only problem: six hours later, you have no idea what those topics were. So, today’s tip for other amateur bloggers — write the ideas down as they come to Read More