Zombie Journalism

TBD.com came out of the gates with a few community engagement experiments you might find helpful at your own news orgs.

Today is finally the day. Today, TBD.com has launched and all of us who joined this venture with high hopes of shaking up the news business get our chance to sink or swim.

It can be tough to be a new brand these days. Locking down namespace online is a huge part of a brand build – but much like potential mates, all the good ones seem to be taken.
We ran into that when we started building the brand for the soon-to-launch TBD. It’s a popular acronym, as [...]

I’m not sure where newspaper execs are getting their PR advice these days, but whoever/whatever it is needs to be fired. The print news sector has put out some head-shaking proclamations this week – all of which have a common theme of holier-than-thou insults directed at online news consumers.
First up is the absolutely appalling handling [...]

As we’re hiring new staff members for every position from web producers to listings editors and transit reporters, a lot of my job at TBD will be devoted to bringing all those new hires – plus some of our existing staff from News Channel 8 and WJLA – up to speed on social media tools [...]

Success in journalism doesn’t have to be measured by the size and fame of the publication anymore.

When you’ve spent your entire professional career in a newspaper’s newsroom, it’s pretty easily to get your mind blown at a startup. I can attest to that firsthand in my first few days on the job at TBD.
Instead of shoehorning some new media approach into a centuries-old tradition, we’re building something so new, it’s [...]

Allbritton’s Washington, D.C. metro site will be named TBD – and I think it’s perfect. News at the start of the reporting process is “to be determined” – and that’s exactly where readers should come in.