'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.

Bob Battle, former Banner business editor, dies at 82

From the Tennessean obit:

He started working part time with the Nashville Banner in 1943 and spent a career as a reporter, covering police, politics, entertainment, business and other beats, and retiring as vice president and senior business editor when the Banner folded in 1998.

Beth Fortune, Vanderbilt University vice chancellor for Public Affairs, started at the Banner in 1985 and spent 7 years there. She said Battle helped show her and other young reporters the ropes.

“Newsrooms are filled with great characters, and Bob Battle was one of the greatest,” she said.

Dobie's latest project 'as close to heaven as it gets'

Former Nashville Scene editor Bruce Dobie is now with Dobie Media Inc., which produces the EvieSays online calendaring platform (did that phrase exist five years ago?) for major media sites. The company is raising $1.5 million in new capital, our former chapter president Milt Capps writes in a new post at Venture Nashville:

Although Dobie said he misses writing, he described the daily challenges of advancing EvieSays as being "as close to heaven as it gets."

He explained: "At this moment, as the media world is reinventing itself and transforming into something digital, my little company is at ground zero. We are right in the middle of the creative destruction. This is much more entrepreneurial than the Scene. The Scene was a copy-cat--we simply started something that had done well in other markets. You can argue about how well or poorly we pulled it off, but it wasn't truly original.

"But at eviesays," Dobie continued, "we're writing the rules. It requires looking around corners, lots of imagination. On top of that, our potential audience is not just Nashville, but it's everyone on the planet who has access to a cell phone or computer. When I come to work in the morning like I did yesterday, and my sales guy is yelling out that we've just gotten an email from someone in Macau asking for our calendar, and then we all rush to look up just where the heck Macau is, well, it doesn't get any more exciting than that."

Proud to be a 15-year member of SPJ

When I took my mail out of the mailbox this evening, I didn't know why I was getting a little package from SPJ.

When I opened it up and shook it out, out fell a letter from headquarters -- and my 15-year pin.

It's a little hard for me to believe it's actually been 15 years, but I'll take headquarters' word for it. And I'm proud to have been a member of SPJ for 15 years now.

If you're a journalist and you're not a member of SPJ, you should be. Join now by clicking this link.