Tricks and tips for multimedia: It's the new SPJ Digital Media Handbook

Want to know how to Twitter, take better video, or make digital slideshows? We've got the answers. The SPJ Digital Media Committee has published the SPJ Digital Media Handbook, a compendium of some of our best posts from the SPJ Net Worked blog. Yep, it's free. You can download it directly from SPJ's Web site at this link (it's about 50-60 megs, as I recall) or you can read it in a quicker Flash presentation via Scribd.com. (You don't need to register with Scribd to read it there, by the way.)

Positive vibes going out to our friends who were laid off from SouthComm

Seven people were laid off, and I know all of us fellow SPJ'ers are thinking good thoughts for them. (Details: Scene / Tennessean / Tennessean politics blog).

Early bird deadline extended to April 5 for regional conference in Knoxville

Our friends at the East Tennessee Pro Chapter in Knoxville, who are hosting the April 9-10 Region 12 conference, have extended the early bird registration deadline to April 5.

April 5 is also the deadline for booking a room at the conference hotel, the Holiday Inn Downtown at the Convention Center, Regional Director Sonny Albarado said in an e-mail.

The focus for the conference programs on Friday will be environmental journalism, and the focus on Saturday will be sports journalism. You can go both days or just one day. Go to http://etspj.org/ to register.

'Converging Media' discussion with Chattanooga online editor at Vol State April 7

Here are the details from chapter board member Clay Scott at Vol State:

Converging media is the topic for a discussion Wednesday, April 7, at 12:30 p.m., on the campus of Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin.

Ed Bourn, the online and technology director of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press (timesfreepress.com), will discuss the “new media” in the Rochelle Center of the Thigpen Library.

His lecture is titled, “Media: Emerging and Converging.”

Bourn develops the technology and business models that drive seven sites associated with the the Times Free Press.

Timesfreepress.com was named the 2009 Best Overall Website in 14 states by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.

This year, timesfreepress.com and its six sister sites won eight American Advertising Federation Addy Awards.

Editor & Publisher ranked the Times Free Press #22 among the Top 25 Daily Newspapers in Print and Online Growth last year.

Before coming to the Times Free Press, Bourn was the director of product management at Everstream, where he was managing over 250 newspaper and community online sites, powered by components developed by the company.

Bourn’s visit is part of Communication Week at Vol State. Events are planned throughout the week to celebrate the field of communication and the accomplishments of our students.

Bourn’s visit is funded by a grant from the Tennessee Press Foundation.

Environmental journalism topic of this year's regional conference in Knoxville

SPJ's Region 12 will have its annual conference next month in Knoxville, hosted by our friends with the East Tennessee Pro Chapter.

Here's some description we are shamelessly lifting from their Web site:

Programs for April 9 will focus on environmental reporting issues, taking advantage of our location in Southern Appalachia between two opposites: at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and near TVA’s 2009 Coal Ash Spill.

Programs for April 10 will focus on issues in sports journalism (where the hometown Vols have been the source of some recent controversy), social media, health coverage and “The Myth of Diversity.”

Also featured are a reception at the East Tennessee History Center with live music Friday night and the Mark of Excellence Awards banquet Saturday.

The conference hotel is Holiday Inn Downtown Knoxville @ Convention Center , in easy walking distance of plenty of unique restaurants, shops and clubs, and in easy driving distance of the Smokies, where you might spend some time before or after the conference activities.

Plus, Knoxville will be in the middle of its annual renowned Dogwood Arts Festival with its art fair and entertainment events going on in nearby Market Square as well!

You may register for either day individually or for both days at a discount. When you make a reservation at the Holiday Inn please do so HERE using the code SPJ. If you phone them, please say you want the SPJ block of rooms.

For more details, including a full schedule, see ETSPJ's Web site.

Channel 5 racks up the Emmys

WTVF-Channel 5 took home 15 regional Emmys Saturday night, including news excellence, best evening newscast and best investigative report.

The award for best investigative report went to Phil Williams' project on Davidson County General Sessions Court. Winning along with Williams were Bryan Staples and Kevin Wisniewski.

WTVF also had a second nomination in that batch as well.

WKRN-Channel 2 won for best daytime newscast and for best continuing coverage over a 24-hour period for coverage of the Good Friday tornadoes. Channel 4, which also had a nomination in the investigative reporting category, won for best continuing coverage of weather, also for the Good Friday tornadoes.

The Renaissance Center in Dickson and Bohan Advertising each took home two Emmys. WSMV-Channel 4, Nashville Public Television and Vanderbilt University News Service won one a piece. And WKRN's Anne Holt presented the Governor's Award to the Freedom Forum.

NewsChannel 5 wins the Pulitzer of TV news

My apologies to the Channel 5 folks for not having posted this earlier. Here's a snippet from the story on their site:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- WTVF-NewsChannel 5 has been awarded one of broadcast journalism's highest honors, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, for the station's investigation of Nashville's General Sessions Court system, it was announced Thursday.

That exclusive investigation – "NewsChannel 5 Investigates: General Sessions Court" -- exposed judges and court employees abusing their positions, as well as a judicial system in which ticket fixing and political favoritism was rampant. The project was led by chief investigative reporter Phil Williams, along with photojournalist Bryan Staples and producer Kevin Wisniewski.