Around the Wire: Your Guide to BlogHer, Jill Abramson’s Interviews and Weird Al’s Word Crimes
Welcome to the latest installment of Around the Wire, PR Newswire’s round up of journalism, blogging, and freelancing news from the past week.
1. Heading to Next Week’s BlogHer ’14? Stay Happy With WordPress’ Happiness Support Bar and Workshops (WordPress News)
BlogHer, the popular women’s blogging network, celebrates its 10th anniversary next week at its annual conference in California. In addition to giving bloggers the opportunity to network and develop their blogging skills at panels, organizations like WordPress will be in attendance.
It’s an excellent opportunity to meet and learn from the people behind your favorite blogging tools. Check out WordPress’s post on the in-person site support it plans to offer at its Happiness Bar, as well as the list for WordPress’ panels.
If you want to learn more about BlogHer, Search Engine Journal also interviewed Elisa Camahort, one of the organization’s founders, to put together an ‘Everything You Need to Know’ guide to BlogHer ’14.
2. Jill Abramson: “I’m Not Ashamed of Getting Fired” (Cosmopolitan)
Jill Abramson was interviewed on-air by both Greta Van Susteren and Katie Couric this week. But the prize for landing Abramson’s first major interview since her New York Times firing went to Cosmopolitan. It’s a comprehensive and interesting piece that covers her thoughts not just on what happened at the Times, but also the value of a strong support system, the professional challenges facing journalists and women, and what will happen next in her career.
The New Republic also has an interesting ‘Behind the Music’ of why and how Abramson gave her first interview to Cosmo.
3. New Jersey’s WFMU Wants to Build Open Tools to Help Radio Stations and Others Raise Money (Nieman Journalism Lab)
Using $400,000 in grant money from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey public radio station WFMU has developed an open-source content management system called Audience Engine. Although the project will benefit WFMU, allowing it to overhaul its website’s design, the station plans to offer it to other digital media in need of a customizable CMS. The platform’s features are focused on driving news organizations’ fundraising and community engagement efforts through pledge drive widgets and an annotated comments system.
4. Detroit Free Press Ends Its High School Apprenticeship Program After 29 Years (Columbia Journalism Review)
For 29 years, the Detroit Free Press offered a newsroom apprenticeship for area high school students. According to Free Press employees, that program will end in a few weeks.
“With (Detroit Public Schools) in such turmoil, this is the only newspaper outlet some of these schools had,” Emiliana Sandoval, copy chief at Motor Trend, who ran the program from 1999-2007, told Columbia Journalism Review. Alumni of the program are in the process of searching for other opportunities to save the program.
5. “Weird Al” Yankovic’s New “Word Crimes” Video is an Editor’s Dream (A.V. Club)
Writers and other grammarians have a new anthem this week, thanks to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s new album. His music video “Word Crimes,” set to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” addresses common misspellings, incorrect word usage, and other writing mistakes. Read about it on the A.V. Club or view the full video here.
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Amanda Hicken is a media relations manager with PR Newswire for Journalists. Follow her at @ADHicken for tweets about the media, comic books, and her love of Cleveland.
