It requires real reporting

By Marc Johnson

As a very, very green – green as in no experience – aspiring journalist many years ago, I now know how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to endure a few months of sheer terror working under the knowing influence of a truly accomplished city editor.  At an impressionable age, those few weeks of education at the hands of an exacting news veteran have had a marked impact on all the years of my professional life.

My early mentor, at least as I remember him, always had a pencil stuck behind … [Read more...]

How long are your Google Searches?

By Nathaniel Hoffman

Marshall Simmonds, SEO guru for the New York Times, told a group of Boise reporters and PR flaks at a recent Idaho Press Club event that Google search queries are getting longer.

So how long are your searches? Do you type a whole sentence, or are you more about quality of search terms than raw, uncut length?

SEO, for those of you who have never even heard of it, is search engine optimization, and according to Simmonds, there is nothing wrong with it, nothing sinister. It is just … [Read more...]

President’s Column

An important resource for Idaho journalists

By Betsy Russell

If you're covering a story from Idaho's courts, or one that has anything to do with our state's judiciary, don't miss the newly revamped online "Media Guide to the Idaho Courts," which has recently been extensively updated.

The guide is located on the Idaho Supreme Court's Web site, www.isc.idaho.gov. In the bar on the left, click on "Media Guide," which gives you two options, a PDF to print out the entire thing, or the handy and highly … [Read more...]

Point-Counterpoint: Facebook

The Facebook dilemma for journalists: Who really should be your "friend"?

Marcia's View:  Assume it's Public
By Marcia Franklin

I'm what is known as an "early majority" adopter - that is, I'm skittish to try a new product until the "innovators" and "early adopters" have proven its reliability and ease.

So I ignored the first requests from people to be their "friend" on Facebook. To me, Facebook was the equivalent of MySpace, and I had stumbled across enough MySpace pages to know they weren't for … [Read more...]

Meet Your IPC: Natalie Hurst

Natalie is one of the newest members of the Idaho Press Club board having joined the statewide board this spring as our TV representative. We welcome her aboard!

Age: 38
Job: Anchor, CBS 2 News-KBCI
Education: B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University (print journalism/French). M.A. Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism (broadcast journalism)
Hometown: Bethesda, MD
Family: Parents, no siblings

Q: Describe your career path, how you got to where you are today.

A: After … [Read more...]

Media Moves

TELEVISION

KTVB- Char Jackson returns to KTVB as a news producer. Jordan Gray joins KTVB from University of Idaho as a web producer.  Caroline Sullivan leaves KTVB from role as producer.

KTRV - Shannon Paterson, anchor for Fox12News@Nine, left to be a mom and to start up her on-line venture, Anchormommy.com .

Mike Vogel,  veteran local reporter/anchor, came on board in June.  He is a reporter/anchor for the News at Nine as well.

[Read more...]