Hogwarts J-School: Lessons from the Potterverse

I taught Speech, Film and Theatre in an Arizona High School for a few years before coming full-time to the news industry. While I was teaching I had one of the greatest compliments a school teacher ever received, when one of my students came to me dejectedly and declared, "Mr. Sundrud, you have ruined movies for me. I can't watch them anymore without thinking, and I hate thinking during movies."

It was hard for my student to realize that he was asking himself why we like something, or why something just doesn't work for us, rather than just simply liking …

Why we fight: Karl Schnibbe and newspapers

Karl Schnibbe, age 86, passed away this week.

He is the reason I believe in publishing today.

Schnibbe was 17 years old in Nazi Germany when he and his two friends, Helmuth Heubner and Rudolf Wobbe, decided that the German people must be told about the terrible things the Nazis were doing to their Fatherland. The three companions listened to clandestine BBC radio broadcasts and were horrified to learn what their government was doing without telling the German citizens. Fear was everywhere and people disappeared and were never heard from again.

Heubner convinced Schnibbe and Wobbe to follow him on …

I want a FastPass line for my Newspaper

I am 40 years old (at least for the next few couple months)

This means that I am right between the young "All I do is Twitter all day" generation (which they really don't... Twitter, I mean) and the more mature "I liked my New York Times when the pages were black and white and smeared on my fingers" crowd. So while I am not about to start telling people to "get off my lawn," I still need coaching from my son on who the last airbender really was.

But I found out last week what I want out of …

The Audacity of "Nope"

Pick up a newspaper. Today's word factory publishes paragraphs like these:

"According to the press release from Zerstorer Inc., 'We are fully compliant based on the audit conducted.' "
"In a statement released by Press Secretary Obfusman, 'The prime minister is away on a fishing holiday but wants to reassure citizens on this matter.' "
"Speaking from a prepared statement, Goalie Menteur said, 'Regarding the events of the past few weeks, I have put them behind me and will move forward. I ask that you respect my privacy.' "
"While Senator Ladro was unavailable for comment, his office reassured us …

Proven wrong about the cloud

I have always said that I know three things to be true, so with my apologies to William H. Macy :

1) Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone,
2) There is no difference between Good Flan and Bad Flan, and,
3) You cannot run Adobe Creative Suite apps remotely.

Turns out I was wrong on the last one.

It is a mistake that can easily be forgiven. Let me explain why I was previously convinced of that fact.

For many years DTI (and to be fair, our competitors as well) struggled with the concept of how to handle remote users. Rich …

Full Contact Politics

I love community dialog, but I have to admit that I am concerned about the direction of public discourse since the advent of free-for-all talkback forums. A brief review of talkback from any site (my personal favorite: www.sltrib.com ), will reveal a sad truth... lots of people are talking, few are listening.

This can create an interesting problem (opportunity) for sites looking to build audience and increase time on site, as it seems to draw in people who only want to shout rather than discuss.

Before we can find a solution to this problem, we need to identify the source. …

Management by Apathy

Gift cards are great! Last week, my parents sent me a gift card to the local hardware superstore which meant I could get whatever I wanted. In this case, I was able to get a brand new circular saw with laser guides. All that was left was to check out and take my new weapon of messy destruction home.

But I found myself behind Smart Shopper. She had found the dented paint can bucket and was buying a couple gallons of her favorite color marked down 40% (because as we all know, if the paint can is dented, the paint …

There ought to be a law...

(or "Why investigative journalism needs to step up...")

Last week, my buddy Aaron and I went through a rite of passage in Utah called the Concealed Weapons Carry permit class at Rangemasters right down the street from the mother ship . They ran a fabulous class and in the shameless hope of getting free range time, I will be happy to recommend this course to anyone. After 4 hours of safety indoctrination, fingerprints and prison mugshots, Aaron and I are now certified by the great state of Utah to stick a nine-mil in our sweat pants and feel superior to …

Inventing the Cardboard box

Act I: The World is my Oyster

I play World of Warcraft . I am not a hardcore player, but I enjoy the game (If you thought, "Armory Link, Please," here it is ). As much as I enjoy the game, I enjoy the forum sites that discuss the game. For those of you who think, "How weird is that," may I remind you that most of us here are involved in the news industry that makes its money analyzing whatever it can find .

Part of the reason I love the forums is to find out how different people …

A Few Good Customers

Sitting here, waiting for the doors to open on the final day of Nexpo... oops, sorry, mediaXchange , I am reminded of the words from A League of their Own when Jimmy Dugan sarcastically tells the team, "Let's get out there... dozens of people are waiting to see you play..."

Crowds here are so sparse that vendors outnumber buyers 40 to 1 based on the informal survey conducted by a content vendor who was willing to buy a yacht for anyone willing to sit and listen to his pitch (actual ratio of vendor to customers is not yet published). The …

"It Sucks to be Me..."

The Rocky Mountain News closed after 150 years of printing some excellent fishwrap. I won't go into a diatribe about what it means to us. I am a firm believer that there is a light at the end of this tunnel and we just have to survive long enough (months not years) before we get there.

But I was drawn to an excellent piece of journalism in the Columbia Journalism Review, " Rocky Mountain, Bye "

Rather than give their own spin on the events, the CJR allowed individual staffers the chance to express what it meant to them personally. …

Oh no, they didn't!

Village Voice is one of the great iconoclastic news outlets today. They made their mark covering the news stories that other more reputable publications felt were not "fit to print." One look at the photo essay on the "Idiotarod" (no that is not a misspelling), tells you all you need to know about the fun that group has.

Well, looks like they got their hands caught in the cookie jar when it comes to padding their online usage stats.

Ed Kohler from thedeets.com , just broke the story about two Digg users who have been systematically "Digg-ing" front page articles …

Saving newspapers one nickel at a time

So Time Magazine has thrown a new theory into the "Ideas to rescue newspapers," stewpot (a tip of the hat to Ray Ragone for cluing me into this article). How to Save your Newspaper by Walter Issacson outlines not only the path he believes newspapers took to ruin their revenue: elimination of reliance on subscriber and newsstand income, but offers a new suggestion to monetizing the web.

Issacson admits that internet advertising models provide some revenue, but he believes that relying exclusively on ad models misses part of the revenue equation. His proposal pushes for micropayments as a way to …

Why Today Matters

I live in Utah, the last state to have a positive approval rating for President George W. I am a white male who attends a conservative Christian church. I am no longer the majority...and I can't be more excited.

Sitting here in the office with the big screen playing the ceremony live I am surrounded by Republicans and Democrats alike. One of them said he is here because he is "an American."

That is what this is all about. Political Party does not matter today. It didn't matter in 1968 when Dr. King shook the mall with his speech. America …