The Associated Press debuted its own custom zoomable world map today, which you can see on their first project with it — a world map that locates all active nuclear sites in the U.S., pictured below.

Michelle Minkoff, Interactive Producer for the Associated Press, told me this about the map via email:

“We are using our own worldwide HTML zoomable map for the first time today. AP Interactive has used other mapping systems in the past. We’ve had other worldwide maps and other zoomable maps in Flash. We also did two experiments with HTML zoom mapping in late 2011, but those were limited to the United States.

But this new system provides a more thorough base for some of the mapping projects that will come out of AP Interactive, and be distributed to customers.  That being said, it’s just the beginning, and we look forward to growing our capabilities.”

The tools and libraries they used to build the map:

• TileMill – to create the mapping tiles
• Leaflet - for javascript beauty

You can read Michelle’s full post about the project on her blog.

Author and journalist Susan Orlean (left) has written two nonfiction pieces that have been turned into films. She’ll discuss her new book, Rin Tin Tin, in Mediabistro’s first online Literary Festival & Workshops starting July 16. Other speakers include Rebecca Skloot, Jason Boog, and Jason Allen Ashlock. Register now.

It’s mid-May, which means it’s about time for journalism schools to send their army of relatively inexperienced student journalists and recent graduates out into the professional world for a test run. Yep, in a few weeks if not already, young, impressionable cub journalists will turn up in newsrooms eager to do everything.

If you’re among the intern ranks this year, here’s your short and simple to-do list for this summer gig.
Read more

When it comes to blogging platform Tumblr, Newsweek has always led the pack. The news magazine is at it again — this time posting six alternative, although ultimately rejected, versions of its mildly controversial “First Gay President” cover on its Tumblr.

The picture that made the cut for the May 21 issue shows President Barack Obama with a rainbow-hued halo above his head (shown to the right). On the bottom left are printed the words “The First Gay President.”

In the Tumblr post, Brian Ries, Newsweek‘s current social media editor, writes, “Ah, our favorite nwktumblr feature is back: the also-rans! These are the alternate versions of our ’First Gay President’ Newsweek cover that were left on the cutting room floor.”

See all six rejected covers after the jump.

Read more

Regional magazines sometimes feel like an exclusive club that you can’t get into unless you’re a local. But for the Chicago edition of Time Out, writers from beyond the Windy City are welcome to send in their stories, including music and concert reviews for its TOC website.

At over 3 million page views a month, the site isn’t a bad place for a beginner or a journalist passionate about his or her craft — not the money. And photo galleries are also a big deal on TimeOutChicago.com, so editor-in-chief Frank Sennett encourages budding photographers to look to the website to build up some credits.

Get editor contacts and advice on pitching features in How To Pitch: Time Out Chicago.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine then an image tagged with YouTube videos, audio from SoundCloud, tweets, photos from Flickr, songs from iTunes, Wikipedia pages and even links to e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay.

In just a few, painless clicks, ThingLink lets users do just that. After creating an account and logging in, the site lets you easily upload images from Facebook, Flickr, a website or your computer and then tag the pictures with rich media content. You don’t have to leave the page you’re on — all the content is embedded within the photo.

See how news organizations could have used ThingLink with this well-known photograph. (Just hover your mouse over the dots.)

Read more