The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will publish its last edition on May 3, 2026, after serving the city for 240 years. The paper’s closure comes on the heels of a three-year strike. On Saturday morning, Jan. 10, I spoke with independent journalist Natalie Bencivenga, a former reporter for the Post-Gazette. I worked with her at Healthcare forContinue reading “Natalie Bencivenga on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Closure”
Tag Archives: Journalism
A Discussion with Rob Kall, Founder of OpEd News
This evening I had a good discussion of new media ventures with Rob Kall of OpEd News. He is the founder of OpEd News. It is an open source progressive news site where with a model similar to the original Huffington Post where volunteers contribute articles and volunteers also edit them. We discussed the needContinue reading “A Discussion with Rob Kall, Founder of OpEd News”
The Need for Good Journalism
The first 6 months of Allegheny Independent Media have been productive. This week has been busy so this is my first post of 2023. I have been trying to line up interviews. One is set up on Tuesday with David DeAngelo of the blog 2 Political Junkies that I will post on Wednesday. I haveContinue reading “The Need for Good Journalism”
Ida, Nellie and Ida: Trailblazing Women Journalists in the Victorian Age
I thought I would take a break from the coronavirus pandemic and politics to take a look at the history of the craft we call journalism. The late 1800s were a period of yellow journalism led by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst where sensational headlines were what sold newspapers. There were trailblazing male andContinue reading “Ida, Nellie and Ida: Trailblazing Women Journalists in the Victorian Age”
Happy 10th Birthday for Data Journalism
I came across this article on medium.com on how the field of data journalism has evolved over the last ten years. It is an interview with Simon Rogers, a data editor at Google News Lab. He started out at the Guardian newspaper of London in 2009 as the founder of their data blog. He hadContinue reading “Happy 10th Birthday for Data Journalism”
An Update on Data Journalism and Darply
I’ve been forced to move back to Pennsylvania so it has been harder to find the time to post to this blog. The eighth anniversary of this blog is coming up and I will be preparing the anniversary post. I have found time to write an article on the new data journalism site Darply on hateContinue reading “An Update on Data Journalism and Darply”
Events in Annapolis Coincide with Posting on Local Papers
I was planning a post on a published study that showed how cities and towns with local newspapers have greater government efficiency. Events in Annapolis, MD yesterday seem to have added significance to the post. A gunman who was angry at the Capitol Gazette for reporting on his harassing of a woman, went into theirContinue reading “Events in Annapolis Coincide with Posting on Local Papers”
How is Washington DC an outlier? Let’s count the ways. (Repost from Data Driven Journalism)
My latest post on Data Driven Journalism is up an reprinted here. In my last post, I reported that Washington, DC had an extremely high rate of 30.83 hate groups per million residents in 2016 relative to the other 50 states (the national rate was 2.84 groups per million). DC also had an exceptionallyContinue reading “How is Washington DC an outlier? Let’s count the ways. (Repost from Data Driven Journalism)”
Don’t test me: Using Fisher’s exact test to unearth stories about statistical relationships (Repost)
This week I had an article published in Data Driven Journalism on the use of Fisher’s exact test with contingency tables. It is reprinted here. A common problem faced by data journalists is how to determine if there is a statistical relationship between two categorical variables such as gender, race, or the share of theContinue reading “Don’t test me: Using Fisher’s exact test to unearth stories about statistical relationships (Repost)”