While You Were Writing – 10/19/12

By Sara Castillo, under Trends, While You Were Writing. Sara Castillo is a blogger, entertainment writer and editor.

One of the biggest stories in journalism this week was Newsweek’s plan to end its print publication and what that means for staff writers. The Wall Street Journal writes it’s a “’30′ for some of Newsweek’s employees” and The Awl wants readers to help Tina Brown make the final Newsweek covers really shine.

And from across the pond, The Guardian conceded that it too was pursuing a future as a digital-only publication and would mix its stable of traditional journalists with enthusiastic citizens who would work for free, The Telegraph reports.

While newspapers and magazines are dying, the short story continues to survive and thrive. The Atlantic interviews The Paris Review editor Sadie Stein about how and why the medium endures.

You know that voice in your head? The one that tells you to write amazing things and never give up on your dreams? Even if those dreams involve Ryan Gosling chauffeuring you around in a life-size Barbie Dream Car? Yeah, those might be ACTUAL voices in your head, according to a recent study on mental illness. But don’t worry, PsychCentral reports you’re in good company.

Hate 50 Shades of Grey? What about the newest Nicholas Sparks? According to the Guardian, Peter Stothard, chair of this year’s Booker prize panel blames book bloggers for what passes as literature today. Well, he didn’t come right out and say 50 Shades of Grey specifically, but someone needs to take the blame. “If we make the main criteria good page-turning stories – if we prioritise unargued opinion over criticism – then I think literature will be harmed,” Stothard said to the Independent.

Now, that we’ve had job loss, insanity, and the death of serious literature, let’s look at something positive: making money. Nieman Journalism Lab offers advice on how to make your Kickstarter writing project succeed. “The No. 1 thing that a journalist has to offer is access,” Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler told Nieman. “You can offer access while not breaking any boundaries or crossing any lines that are drawn for journalists.”

If you happen to be a freelance data journalist, Visually wants to connect you to marketers on their new Visually Marketplace data service. Here’s the gist straight from the press release’s mouth: “Marketplace is able to match infographic commissioners — brands, companies, agencies — with designers based on shared interests and needs.” Basically, it’s an infographic escort service. The site is in beta right now, so, there aren’t a lot of reviews on how it actually operates.

And Twitter is pushing it self deeper into the writer’s tool box. The microblogging site will host a fiction festival Nov. 28 to Dec. 2. From the Observer: “The goal, according to (Twitter’s head of editorial programming Andrew) Fitzgerald, is to push the outward bounds of what people thing of when they think of content on Twitter.”

And finally … The Awl reviews the depressing reality of the Binders Full of Women online fall out, “A search for the Twitter hashtag #BindersFullofWomen does not lift the human spirit.” … and you might actually have to set foot in the office because the Economist reports people working from home are less likely to be promoted . … and in possibly the most fascinating and life-threatening use of Twitter, this Russian dissident tweeted his interrogation by the State Investigative Agency.

Image courtesy of The Paris Review Tumblr