Last year, the contributors to 10,000 Words wrote a short post about what we were thankful for. My contribution? Blackbird Pie, Twitter’s tool that allows you to embed tweets.

This year, I thought I would go a little bit more in depth, by sharing with you three relatively different things in Web journalism that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday. And by the way, it goes without saying that all of us owe you—or readers—a huge debt of gratitude. You keep coming back for more, and keep offering us very nice compliments!

So, without further ado, here are (among) the three things I’m thankful in Web journalism this year. Read more

The Online News Association on Thursday announced the results of its annual board of directors election. Three new members were elected: John Keefe, Juana Summers and Burt Herman. In addition, incumbent board members Christine Montgomery, Jim Brady and Meredith Artley were re-elected.

Keefe is the Senior Editor for Data News & Journalism Technology at WNYC in New York. “For nine years, he has guided the station’s news operation and grown its capacity for breaking news, election coverage and investigative reporting,” according to a news release.

Summers is a national political reporter for POLITICO. A recent graduate of the University of Missouri, she previously reported for the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Herman is the co-founder and CEO of Storify, a very popular tool that allows journalists to create stories out of social media. He previously reported for the Associated Press.

Montgomery is chief digital officer for the Center for Public Integrity, Brady is the editor-in-chief of the Journal Register Company and Artley is Vice President and Managing Editor, CNN Digital.

The newly elected board members will begin their terms in January 2012.

Congrats to all those elected!

The Online News Association, the predominant organization representing digital journalists, announced on Tuesday the nominees for its upcoming 2012 Board of Directors election. ONA board members help shape programming, serve as representatives/spokespeople for the organization and are supposed to make ONA their largest annual charitable contribution, among other responsibilities.

The election — for two-year terms — promises to be highly competitive. Seven of the 15 seats of the board need to be filled, and one of the seven seats will be filled by appointment to allow for international representation. Seven new candidates and six incumbents are running for the remaining six seats. They are: Read more

Hurricane Irene, which slammed into the East Coast over the weekend, largely spared the New York area, which was forecast to take a direct hit.

Vermont wasn’t as lucky. Parts of the Green Mountain State were damaged by devastating floods. Whole towns, like Rutland, were cut off from the outside world by impassable roads.

The catastrophic damage in Vermont came as a nasty surprise, and many news organizations, including the Weather Channel, did not position crews there.

So how did the Weather Channel initially cover Irene from Vermont?

They used Storify, and curated pictures and video from Twitter and YouTube. Read more