Tag Archives: Yoosk

UK online journalism innovators – what questions would you ask them? (JEEcamp)

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Friday will see over 40 of the UK’s innovators in online journalism (plus some from other countries) gather for JEEcamp – the Journalism Enterprise and Entrepreneurship unconference. They include people who have launched journalism startups like Scoopt and Yoosk; local journalists who oversee hyperlocal and blogger projects; freelancers with an eye on the digital future; and national journalists who have built online communities around their brands (for a full list – or to sign up to attend yourself, see the JEEcamp wiki).

The unconference will, broadly, discuss five areas. These are:

  1. Business models (including advertising)
    • Audience development (including communities)
    • Funding
      • Legals
      • Online news models

      But that’s just the start. Within those areas, what questions do you think we should be discussing? What questions would you ask?

      Launching an environmental news website – four weeks in

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      As you have probably worked out, this year’s Online Journalism students have been building up towards launching an environmental news website. This week the site went public, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned so far…

      The Background

      The site is the final year project of two final year journalism degree students – Azeem Ahmad and Rachael Wilson. The decision was made to launch an environmental site because of the increase of investment in this area from a number of news organisations, and also because of a local connection – more of which later.

      Azeem is responsible for the more technical side of the site, which he has built from scratch using the open source content management software Joomla.

      Azeem has been blogging his progress with the software, including the frightening experience of having the site hacked into by the creator of a theme Azeem installed.

      Rachael has the responsibility for editorial, which means writing for the site herself, but more importantly managing 14 second year students on the Online Journalism module as they try to build a news site on a subject most have never written about. She’s also been blogging her experiences.

      Week One: Choosing a name, assigning beats, making connections

      After some cheesy brainstorming, the very literal name ‘Environmental News Online‘ was chosen for the site for the simple reasons of search engine optimisation and domain name availability. The abbreviation ‘ENO’ lent it more character. Continue reading →

      Review: Yoosk?

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      Yoosk.com
      What do they say it is?

      “Yoosk is a news interplay magazine and community where you, the members are the reporters. Put your questions directly to politicians and celebrities and watch those questions gain support as other Yoosk members vote for them. Our pledge to you is that any question which reaches 100 votes will be submitted by us to the person involved and we will do our best to get an answer” Continue reading →