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.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Photo by Nathan Wells, on Flickr

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

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.)

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For newsrooms, this site poses huge opportunity in terms of shareability of information across social media. Newspapers are the worst offenders when it comes to forgetting about graphics that make sense for the web. They’ll often repurpose something that ran in print, and often that graphic isn’t compelling enough to share on social networks — a space where visuals are constantly competing for users’ attention. But easel.ly is so easy to use that resources don’t have to pulled away from graphic designers; it’s a site that social media editors can use.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“We really feel like we bring more heart to travel and make it more meaningful and personal. There’s a real emphasis on giving readers a deeper dive, a sort of street-level view of a place,” editor-in-chief Julia Cosgrove explained.

Get contact info for editors and more guidelines in How To Pitch: Afar.

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.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Daily News has had much success in the digital arena lately. It has the third highest digital circulation in the country (after only The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal), and is beating its rival New York Post in terms of digital presence—in April, the Daily News had 10.2 million unique visitors, compared to the Post’s 6.6 million. The Post recently hired Remy Stern as a digital consultant, hoping to give more attention to its digital strategy, while the Daily News hopes to keep its lead in the digital realm with its click friendly slideshows and celebrity gossip headlines.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When I was in high school (which wasn’t that long ago, eh hem, a decade), I remember some kids entering a contest for designing and wearing duct tape prom attire. This takes it to a whole other, way more awesome level.

The Detroit Free Press encouraged local students to design prom dresses made from newspapers for the chance to win $500. And what the local girls came up with is nothing short of awesome.

Users can select their favorite dress and rank them to help determine the $500 winner.

The Freep says it received more than 20 entries. You can check out the photo gallery of the top eight newspaper dressmaker finalists here. And you can vote on your favorite until midnight Thursday.

This is a great example of a way for a newspaper to engage its readership — especially its young readers — and promote the print product in a creative way. They tie it together nicely with the smooth voting/ranking mechanism and online contest. Innovative and fun for participants and other readers.

Thanks to Poynter for pointing this contest out. They also have some fun links to other newspaper fashions, including this gallery of newspaper dresses.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The social media team at The Wall Street Journal might beg to disagree. In an innovative piece of social journalism, WSJ reporters and editors are using Facebook’s Timeline tool to cover Facebook’s initial public offering.

The news org has created a new Facebook page, www.facebook.com/GoesPublic, using Timeline to not only chronicle its IPO roadshow but to also tell the history of Facebook.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

But for all of that talk, there comes a point where you need to decide what action to take, if any.

Newsrooms today are bombarded with lists of best practice, how-to’s and draconian Do This Or You Will Perish blogs and articles.

Do you go with the herd, or do you hold your own and keep moving forward the best way you know how?

I’d really like to hear from some of our readers who are “on the ground” as a part of, or observing, their newsroom’s transformation and/or adoption of social media and online communities.

Not everyone is going to have an easy time of it, but there is certainly opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences.

If you have something to share,  please chime in with a comment below about the horror stories, or the tales of greatness at the news organization you work at.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When a potential employer Googles your name, you want your website — complete with all your best articles, social media profiles, videos and other work — to be the first thing that shows up.

An online portfolio is the new first impression and you want yours to be a strong one.

This doesn’t mean you have to b a web designer or someone who can code in their sleep. Luckily, more and more sites are popping up that make collecting your clips in one place and creating an online portfolio as easy as 1-2-3.

Here are five sites to visit if you are in the market to create your own online portfolio. They all offer the ability to create a customizable URL, are free (unless you choose the paid version), and don’t require you to know any code. The most work you’ll have to do is click the mouse or trackpad. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

WaPo’s digital revenue declined in Q1

According to PaidContent, The Washington Post newspaper division — which includes WaPo and Slate — lost $22.6 million for the first quarter. In the same quarter last year, they lost $12.8 million. Of that loss for 2012, here’s the breakdown for digital loss:

• Digital revenue slipped 7 percent
• online display ad revenue dropped 11 percent year over year
• Online classified ad revenue was down 1 percent continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Right now, about 5 to 10 percent of Food Network Magazine‘s content is freelance-generated, at most. ”We’re a hard pitch. I can probably count on one or two hands how many pitches we’ve accepted since we launched,” said deputy editor Tracy Saelinger. “That said, we welcome ideas from writers, but they just have to be newsy, quirky and fun. We get pitched lots of tired trends that feel like old news.”

Get more details in How To Pitch: Food Network Magazine.

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.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.