It’s a sticky subject, for sure, and the centerpiece of a Social Media Week debate in Buzzfeed’s Flatiron District office between Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith and conservative blogger and The Dist Andrew Sullivan. To describe the debate as a blood bath is even a little bit of an understatement, as the two personalities clashed vehemently over the advertorial’s place online — and the effect it has on journalism at large. Here’s a quote from the debate moderator, the Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson, from his write-up of the event: continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(Note: I didn’t say GIFs about journalism, like these news cats. Hopefully you’ve already seen those.)

The success of GIF-infused content in actual news content has some media circles buzzing around a longtime internet graphic capability: “Is this an overlooked tool, or just a fad?, “Are we Buzzfeedifying maintsream news orgs, or is that a silly question now?”, and “should journalists embrace them, or are they somehow detrimental to the craft?”

They aren’t all simple questions, and I don’t have answers. (I actually posed questions here, too.) But I can comfortably say there are indeed reasons the animated GIF can work well to tell a story online.

Likewise, there are reasons it may not.

Putting other debates aside, here are five simpler questions for journalists to consider on a case-by-case basis before using an animated GIF to help digitally tell your story. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(L to R) David Carr of The New York Times, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith, WaPoLabs Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large Rob Malda, and Flipboard Editorial Director Josh Quittner.

In an event hosted by New York University’s Center for Publishing and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies last night, social media experts discussed the shift to social content and what that means for the media industry. Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, Rob Malda, chief strategist and editor-at-large of the WaPo Labs, and Josh Quittner, editorial director of Flipboard, opined under the moderation of the New York Times’ David Carr. The mood was decidedly optimistic—as Quittner said at one point, “I think we’re all techno-optimists on this panel.”

The Social Epiphany
The conversation started on the shift to social. “I don’t really surf anymore,” said Carr, “most of my content… comes from somewhere and it’s like this vast, human enabled RSS that is pushing things towards me.” According to Smith, there was a dramatic change between 2010 and 2011 in terms of BuzzFeed’s traffic. Within a year, their biggest referrer went from Google to Facebook. As people change their media habits from seeking content to more passively getting content in the form of their Facebook or Twitter feeds, will they be able to stay well-informed? continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

BuzzFeed has launched a new tech vertical, FWD. Yes, it is another tech site to bookmark. Yes, the market is getting pretty crowded with them. But please don’t ignore this new kid on the block.

Here’s why: FWD starts off acknowledging how important the social is. It wants to do more than just share news about Apple and new tablets. FWD is trying to turn the tech news niche into something personal and personable, and perhaps most importantly, social.

“FWD is a way to share things. To pass them on. To nudge the conversation about technology in a different direction–maybe not the next level, exactly, but at least a different one. It’s fundamentally social, which is simply the way more and more of the web works now. Social is the web’s new reality,” the site’s editor, Matt Buchanan, writes in his introduction of FWD. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“At Tumblr, there’s a recognition that Tumblr is better when you get better stuff on it,” Mark Coatney, Tumblr’s media evangelist, told Josh Sternberg in an interview.

It’s a difficult sell, as not much direct traffic is sent to publishers directly from Tumblr. But Newsweek senior writer Jessica Bennett told Sternberg that it’s a way “to connect with an audience outside the usual network of Newsweek/Daily Beast reader.” continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.