About two weeks ago, I was wandering around the apartment with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.
A call went out for donations to save News Page Designer - the designated home of most all things related to newspaper design. My former paper, the Sun Journal, would stop hosting the site after six years and it would be transferred to the Society of News Design. The catch? They had to raise $2,500 in server costs to prevent any of the pages from being lost and to keep the site running.
They raised the money, and then some, in 24 hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of NPD. The site first came online in 2002 and I was just starting to teach myself beyond the basics of moving Quark boxes around on a monitor. I was just out of college, and the site was a godsend to me. I worked at a small newspaper in Selma, Ala., and NPD made me realize I could do so much more with a bit of work and ingenuity. It also made me want to work at the Sun Journal so badly that I was willing to hock one of my then-baby kittens for the privilege. I would get my wish two years later.
But, I couldn't help think of what $2,500 means to someone who is out of work. According to Erica Smith's "Paper Cuts" blog, nearly 14,000 journalists have lost their jobs this year - myself included. While NPD is a tool used in helping to get new jobs, I couldn't help but wonder why couldn't money of this type be thrown at a program to really help journalists get started in finding a new career.
Two days later, I got an e-mail from TypePad/SixApart announcing the bailout program.
It's a fantastic idea and an incredible gift to journalists trying to find their identity in a world of Flash, SEOs, and podcasts. I'm familiar with SixApart, having utilized their former blogging software, LiveJournal, since 2002. I've seem criticism levied against them by LJ users, but I'm gladly singing their praises now.
So what will this blog feature?
• First and foremost: It's my personal portfolio. You will find work here spanning from interviews with former boxers in Selma, Ala. to photo essays of balloon festivals in Lewiston, Maine to alternative presentations designed in Tucson, Ariz.
• You will also find other kinds of writing including book reviews, the occassional geek post (after all, the next Doctor will be announced soon!), the nature of working for newspapers, and how to broaden your skills to take on new tasks both in the newsroom and out of it. It's not as hard as you think.
• And finally, this site will be offering critiquing services. I first began critiquing over at Visual Editors back in 2004 and did so off and on until company policy at my last job prevented me from doing so. If you have a portfolio you would like to have critiqued, please send me a link to your site at savvylitblog@gmail.com. The resulting blog post will feature one of your pages, with a link to the rest, and constructive criticism about your work.
Please enjoy this site! If you would like to see anything written in particular, please let me know as well.
Welcome back to the blogosphere! :)
Posted by: Charles Apple | December 01, 2008 at 03:11 PM