Congratulations are in order for 10,000 Words founder Mark S. Luckie who will be leaving The Washington Post to join Twitter as its new creative content manager for journalism.

“To say I’m thrilled is an understatement. I’ll be working to transform the way journalists report the news and connect with their audiences and really maximizing my creative skills,” Luckie posted on his Facebook page.

Luckie announced his new job on Tuesday. He later tweeted that his new role, which will be based in New York City, will include coming up with “creative ways journalists use the platform, increase engagement and elevate Twitter use in newsrooms.”

Luckie, currently a social media editor at The Washington Post, started there in October 2010. While at the WaPo, Luckie has been in charge of identifying and implementing different types of social media strategies. He helped train others at the news organization in social media best practices. He was also part of a team nominated for a 2012 Pulitzer Prize for local news reporting.

So why the switch from a more traditional newsroom to Twitter? Read more

It’s that time of year again where newsrooms across the country are inundated with summer interns.

The Washington Post is taking a light hearted approach to summer interns with a fun feature called “Have you seen THAT intern?” where you can turn your questionable intern experiences into a meme.

Make no mistake about it, interns are great. I’ve been an intern and remember how strange it can be to jump into an office environment where you are temporary. I have also had interns who rocked.

Unfortunately, there is always THAT intern. You know who I am talking about. And Jenna Johnson of The Washington Post definitely knows about iffy interns. She describes it ever so aptly:

With thousands of college students once again arriving in Washington for summer internships, everyone who lives here has resumed making fun of those interns. It’s just so easy to do.

Yes, it’s often cruel and unfair. And, yes, most interns are dedicated workers who contribute so much to our city. But for every handful of amazing interns, there’s THAT intern.

As in, the intern who wears flip-flops to work. Or the one who hooks up a lot. Or who is always late. Or who stands on the left.

For the past two years, Johnson has documented various types of intern blunders in a hilarious series of columns called “That Intern” on the paper’s Campus Overload blog. This year, Johnson has decided to “quasi-retire” from writing the feature but she wants readers to pick up the torch. Read more

Do good. Have fun. And make the world a better place for all.

This is the credo of the Stone & Holt Weeks Foundation, which is named after two young young men who were victims of a tragic car accident in the summer of 2009. It was established by Linton Weeks, national correspondent for Digital News at NPR and a former reporter for The Washington Post, and Jan Taylor Weeks, an artist, teacher, and volunteer. The Foundation has held a number of events since it was founded in 2009, and they recently announced their call for applications for the Stone & Holt Weeks Fellowship, a six-month opportunity for an up-and-coming journalist to learn the skills of the trade before jump-starting a successful career in journalism.

The Stone & Holt Weeks Foundation awards one fellow a year, and gives them exposure to journalism in a broad, connected sense with two of the nation’s most prestigious news organizations. The awarded fellow will receive one-on-one mentoring from professional journalists at The Washington Post and NPR, as well as several training sessions in key areas of journalism like radio and digital production. This also includes coverage on the air, online, and in the field.

The fellowship consists of two parts: 12 weeks at The Washington Post and 12 weeks at NPR. The fellow will also receive a weekly stipend of $800 for the duration of the fellowship, but they will be responsible for any living expenses. Employment with either The Washington Post or NPR is not guaranteed after the fellowship. The Stone & Holt Weeks Foundation has confirmed two fellows in previous years: Nathan Rott in 2010 and Teresa Tomassoni in 2011.

To apply for the Stone & Holt Weeks Fellowship, visit http://www.npr.org/about/careers/fellowships/weeks.html and download and complete the application form. Applicants do not need to have journalism degrees or experience as a journalist, but you must have a bachelor’s degree (or have received one by July 15, 2012). You must also include two recommendations, two or more writing samples, a resume, and a copy of your academic transcripts.

All documents, including the application form, must be postmarked by midnight on April, 30, 2012.

Today, Mark S. Luckie — the founder of 10,000 Words, and now full-time social media guy at WaPo – invited readers to subscribe to its staff on Facebook. He wrote:

Looking to connect with Washington Post reporters and writers on Facebook? You can now get updates from Post staffers on the social network using Facebook’s “Subscribe” feature.

The recently launched feature allows you to receive updates from Facebook users who have enabled the feature without having to friend them first. To get started, make sure you are logged in to your Facebook account and click the Subscribe button adjacent to any of the individuals listed below. You can also navigate to the profile of anyone who has enabled the feature and click the “Subscribe” button found at the top right-hand corner of the person’s profile.

The Post makes it easy to find and subscribe to its staff — the blog post contains a list of staff who have enabled the subscribe feature, and a one-click “Subscribe” button next to their names.   This isn’t an option to subscribe to a public journalist page, but, in most cases, the personal profile page of that individual.

Of course, staff members can still decide to hide some posts from subscribers by sharing those updates with only friends, or specific lists or groups using Facebook’s audience selector. If you want to create a similar post to publicize your staff, you can generate subscribe buttons at the Facebook Developers site by inputting the URL of the page and grabbing the embed code.

You may remember our post from back in August which featured fifteen journalism-related panels which were up for voting for inclusion into the 2012 SXSW schedule. Earlier this week, SXSW announced their 2012 schedule which includes over 5,000 events in the conference’s film, interactive and music tracks. Some events are still TBA, but the schedule will be updated the closer it moves to the conference’s opening date of March 9, 2012.

Here are just a few of the confirmed panels which should be of interest to journalists. This is a random sample of the entire schedule; you can search the full list of panels on the 2012 SXSW Schedule page.

Read more