Archive for January, 2010

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How to help Haiti

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on January 13, 2010 by macmystery

With Tuesday’s 7.0 earthquake devastating Haiti, the count of the injured and the dead are going to grow to staggering numbers in the next few days. And the need for immediate assistance is only going to be magnified.

Because of the likelihood that there will be difficulties flying in and out of the country, experts are suggesting that for those wanting to help, it would be best to support an organization that already has it’s feet on the ground in the country.

MSNBC.com has provided a list of organizations already working in the country.

Possibly the simplest way to give:

For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999” and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Even before the quake, only 46 percent of the population there had access to clean drinking water. After this disaster, that number will surely drop.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.

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And then comes the bad news

Posted in Journalism with tags , , , on January 13, 2010 by macmystery

It figures that I post something positive about journalism and it comes back to bite.

The Columbia State newspaper, owned by McClatchy, announced they were cutting 12 newsroom jobs on Monday. Among the layoffs was a sports reporter who worked with me here at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal … someone I consider a friend, though not a close one.

My friend is very good at his job. And he has a wife and children to take care of. And you might think the first statement would ensure the second one is a mere formality.

But in this business that’s not so. My thoughts and prayers are with him.

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A little good news, journalistically speaking

Posted in Internet, Journalism with tags , , , , , on January 7, 2010 by macmystery

When I started this blog in the summer of 2008 when I was at the Maynard Summer Editing Program at the University of Nevada in Reno, Nev., the general idea was that I would write about being a father and being a journalist.

Obviously, you can look down my list of posts and know I haven’t stuck to the format.

Writing about the kids is one thing, but when it comes to journalism, there hasn’t been a lot of good news to write about.

But in the past two-and-a-half months or so, there have been two nuggets of pretty good news — one for the paper as a whole and one for the sports section.

At the end of October, the now-defunct Editor & Publisher reported (Read our story here) that the Herald-Journal’s combined print and online circulation had grown 10.9 percent in the previous year. That percentage represented the fourth biggest growth nationally, behind only Luzerne County Newspapers in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., (14.6 percent), The (Greensburg, Pa.) Tribune-Review (13.6) and the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune (11.4).

Then, just before Christmas, the Associated Press Sports Editors named GoUpstate.com a Top 10 sports Web site (Read here) for newspapers with fewer than 1 million unique visitors.

Of course, neither of these guarantees that my job won’t go away next week, next month or next year. But a little good news is better than none.

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