The latest latest byline...

NYU's Journalism Institute has a news wire service called LiveWire. Papers across the country can pick up student work for free. Nice deal for them! My article on the Inauguration went up there.

It was picked up by The Epoch Times, on A2 in today's paper, and by The Orange County Register:

Cold, crowds and lack of cash dampen inaugural tourism [Orange County Register]

I've never read The Epoch Times-- it's a New York-based "independent voice in print and media," says its website. Based on the name, having an article in their pages makes me feel like a biblical prophet.

My latest byline...

On NYU's Pavement Pieces: Weather, Crowds, Cost Diminish Inauguration Enthusiasm.

I am not one of the unenthusiastic. I head down to D.C. on Friday to take part in the Inaugural mania.

Get GOOD for $1

One of my goals for the break was to restart magazine subscriptions that I let lapse during my time in Hong Kong. My father did me the favor of renewing my Rolling Stone subscription for Christmas, while The Week, The New Yorker, and GOOD Magazine are my responsibilities.

GOOD is a fairly new magazine. Its motto: "GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we've been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn."

I began subscribing in 2007 due to an innovative marketing campaign. The magazine threw an after-dark party at the Hirshhorn Gallery of Modern Art in D.C., replete with an open vodka bar, a D.J., and a gallery viewing. The $20 entry fee included a donation to a nonprofit of your choosing and a subscription to the magazine. Sounded too GOOD to be true. It was a fun event and I was surprised to find that I loved the magazine. In this cutthroat journalism environment, this kind of creative marketing is to be admired.

They must be focused more on building a subscriber base than making money though, which makes sense for a new magazine. When I went to resubscribe today, I discovered that you can get the magazine for a $1000/year... or $1/year. From their subscription site:

Choose your price. Seriously.

Because we want to help do good, we contribute 100% of your subscription payment to the nonprofit of your choice. Since we don't keep any of it, we figured we'd let you pay what you want.

All amounts give you one year of our magazine, full web access to GOOD.is and event invites.

> Pay $20 or more and also get one year of free admission to Choose GOOD parties.
> Pay $100 or more and also get one year of free admission to Choose GOOD parties
and your name printed in the magazine.
> Pay $1000 and get a lifetime subscription to the magazine, lifetime free admission to Choose GOOD parties, your name printed in the magazine, and a signed, limited edition bound copy of GOOD.

Taking a page from the Radiohead playbook.

Much as I wanted to pay $1, I paid $20.

Break in Progress

Winter break remains in effect. I enjoyed ten days at home in Florida over the holidays, and now I still have two weeks before classes resume. I forgot just how wonderful the student vacation schedule can be.

I do have some fun things planned--skiing in Vermont this weekend and a trip to D.C. for the Inauguration the following weekend--but I am also getting back to work. Over the next year, I am planning a series of stories around privacy issues for my Portfolio class.

I'm interested in the privacy backlash. I see this happening both in reaction to a desire for greater security--allowing surveillance cameras, wire tapping, profiling, etc. for a safer society--and as part of a culture that is embracing exhibitionism in the form of blogs, social networking sites, etc. To start forming a framework for thinking about privacy, I am reading some books in the field, starting with "Privacy: A Manifesto." Written by a German, of course.

At the same time, I have had a lot of time to work on Above The Law stories. It has been nice to be more involved in the breaking news stuff, as opposed to trying to catch up around classes. We're currently doing a 2008 in Review retrospective. This post on Law School Students of the Year has been especially well-trafficked. I created this nifty graphic. If the whole journalism thing doesn't work out, maybe I can just excel in some kind of Photoshopping career.

My other journalistic outlet is my Inauguration blog, which has growing traffic. Nearly 100 hits yesterday, which doesn't compare to the hundreds of thousands of hits we get on Above The Law, but still makes me feel like I am contributing something useful to my fellow denizens in cyberspace.

Talking about the Inauguration

Brian Lehrer show is online. You can listen to me blather about New Yorkers and Inauguration travel here. Click on "Inauguration Prep."

Things I didn't say that I wish I had:

--That I was a NYU grad student!
--That there are still plenty of bus and plane tickets available, though morning Amtrak trains are starting to sell out
--That I had known where to send New Yorkers coordinating travel to D.C.

My First Radio "Appearance"

My blog on New Yorkers and the Inauguration caught the eye of a producer at the Brian Lehrer show. It's an "under-reported story" and my blog is one of the few things out there on it. (Thanks be to my Writing and Reporting professor who forced the class to keep blogs to track their reporting on their final pieces). I shall be on the radio (WNYC-- 93.9 FM and AM 820) at 11:25 on Wednesday talking about New Yorkers and Inauguration enthusiasm waning. Stay tuned.

Would you call this a radio appearance, or a voice-pearance?

Finals... Busy... No time...

Last week of the semester. So busy. Working on this project for my Writing and Reporting Class: New Yorkers and Inauguration 2009. I have to maintain a blog to accompany a feature story I am writing.

The stress of this week and last force me to ask the question, Why am I paying NYU to do this to me?