Yesterday I delved into emotional design, and how to take the theory’s recognition of humanity – a “personality layer” – and bring it into the little details of all the things journalists regularly do in online space. Much of that dovetails with another characteristic people tend to like in real-life, and hopefully online, too: being authentic.

There are tons of engaging, seemingly honest personalities that do this right out there on the interwebs, but I thought I’d highlight one that was introduced to me earlier this summer. He’s especially worth learning from because 1) he does nice job with something that’s easy to have trouble with – an e-newsletter – and because 2) he’s grown a huge following for the e-newsletter—all as a side project. Read more

The traditional business models of publishing might be waning, but the shift to new media brings new opportunity to the industry. That’s something Jessica Bennett has taken advantage of. In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s “So What Do You Do?”, the executive editor of Tumblr’s Storyboard talks about breaking past the outdated lessons she learned in j-school, and how journos can score jobs that haven’t even been created yet.

“It’s hard to explain and it sounds very journalism-from-the-future, but it’s finding ways to pull out the really fascinating narratives and trends and issues that are coming out of Tumblr,” she said of her position.

“For example, we did this big piece about how fandom has changed in the Internet Age based around One Direction, the UK boy band, who is huge on Tumblr. It was the kind of feature story you’d read in a newsmagazine, but not so Tumblr-specific that it couldn’t be digestible to a mainstream audience. So, a lot of the ideas I come up with I’m getting from being on Tumblr and monitoring what’s happening on there.

Read more at So What Do You Do, Jessica Bennett, Executive Editor of Tumblr’s Storyboard?

And you can find great social media jobs on our job board. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

In the face of newsroom cuts and industry-wide belt-tightening, Richard Prince still thinks it’s a good idea to get a journalism degree. In Mediabistro’s latest So What Do You Do? interview, Prince remembers how j-school connections helped him land a gig at New Jersey’s Star-Ledger and Washington Post.

“Primarily, it gives you a leg up in terms of the contacts that you make,” the man behind the Maynard Institute’s “Journal-isms” column explained. “That’s how I got that first job in New Jersey. I was at the Society of Professional Journalists, they were having an induction ceremony, and the editor of the Star-Ledger came to the ceremony. We struck up a conversation, and that started me on the path to that first job. In fact, that’s also how my next job at the Post came about. They had a reporter call the journalism department at NYU and sort of say, ‘Who do you have?’”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute?

The latest cover of National Geographic features the story of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota. Alexandra Fuller’s well-written piece of long form journalism plus Aaron Huey’s series of striking photographs is standard fare in the magazine by now, but this cover story included a new form of storytelling. Huey, who has spent the past seven years documenting and befriending the Lakota teamed up with Jonathan Harris, creator of Cowbird, to launch the Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project. Cowbird is a storytelling platform focused on personal narratives rather than quick status updates, and the collaboration is an attempt to give the people of Pine Ridge a chance to tell their own stories. Users can use photos, audio and text on one seamless platform that attempts to build a library of human experiences.

Huey talked to 10,000 Words about the collaboration, which was made possible in part by the Knight Journalism Fellowship and the John and James L. Knight Foundation. He first started covering the community when he was doing a larger survey on poverty—Pine Ridge was one of the poorest counties in the nation. Though he didn’t know much about the history of the reservation at the time, he quickly became drawn into its story and evolution, eventually becoming an advocate for the community. Read more

Ebyline, a content management platform, connects freelancers and publishers to create quality content. Founded in 2009 by Bill Momary and Allen Narcisse, Ebyline’s software allows publishers to find freelancers, assign stories and deliver payments through one platform. Freelancers can pitch story ideas to publishers through the service, and the site includes a content marketplace for publishers to buy and distribute content.

Momary, CEO and co-founder of Ebyline, previously had roles with the Ventura County Star and the Los Angeles Times. He shared some of his thoughts with 10,000 Words on Ebyline, the future of content and changes in the media industry. Read more