Chris Snider

How all of this got started…

What if our number one goal was to publish a great web site? How would we do things differently?

Would our daily news meetings be structured differently? Would our planning budgets look different? Would people sit in different places in the newsroom?

Would we still have a separate online department? If so, would it be bigger? Smaller?

Would we post stories at a different time of the day? Would copy editors read stories before they went online? Would designers work on the web site?

Would we pay more attention to our mobile site?

Would we look for a different content management system?

Would we have different revenue streams online? Would we realize that craigslist isn’t anything special, but that it’s still much better than anything we currently offer?

Would we participate in our own story chat? Would that elevate the discussion?

Would page views go up? Visits? Unique visitors? Time on site?

Would circulation of the print edition go down? Was it going to go down anyway?

This time last year I was pretty new to the world of online media. Knowing that I needed to really ramp up my knowledge to succeed in my new job as digital editor at the Des Moines Register, I started to read as many blogs as I could find on the topic.

A year later, here are my 10 favorites (and three of my favorite posts from each).

10,000 words

Easily my favorite blog to follow, it seems like every post has information I can use in my daily work.

• Six ways to create a mobile version of your site
• The tools I actually use
• 21 free photo editing tools

Converstations

It’s a blog about bloggign written by Mike Sansone from Des Moines (which is a bonus). I regularly find links to new tools to try out from following this blog.

• Lunch N Learn with the Pirate’s Dilemna
• Find Relevant Photos (Likkety-Split) Fast with CompFight
• 6 social media tools every business should use

Mashable

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the volume of posts, but this is the place to go to be the first to know about a new online tool or service.

• 30+ great Adobe Air apps for designers and developers
• 30+ Plugins to make your WordPress blog more social
• 20+ tools and leagues for Fantasy Baseball

Rob Curly

He doesn’t post often, but each post seems to give me a months worth of ideas to try.

• The 5 Ps
• Lessons learned from Loudoun
• Nutritious French Fries

Six revisions

Very inspiring lists of tools and resources. I find more tools here that relate to my personal sites than my actual job, but sometimes that’s what I really need.

• 15 tools for monitoring a web site’s popularity
• 15 free tools for web-based collaboration
• 40+ useful cheat sheets for designers

Old media, new tricks

A fairly new blog, but already becoming a must-read for every journalist (in my opinion).

• Break the Twitterfeed habit
• Bring people in by sending them away
• Convincing your people to do just a little bit more

Journerdism

Kind of like the Drudge Report of online media. This site leads me all over the web – and keeps me coming back.

• 10 ridiculously cheap, relatively easy, small steps you can take to change an old school newsroom culture to be more forward thinking and web friendly
• 54 job boards and websites to find a new gig
• Be a multimedia McGuyver – 101 DIY tools and techniques for cool, professional photo, audio and video gear on the cheap

E-media tidbits

Poynter’s blog about new media really makes me think about how we can use new tools.

• Researching online journalism, the networked way
• NAA guide for mobile newspaper sites
• Instant messaging the news

Journalistopia

I didn’t even realize how much I liked this site until I noticed how often I star its items in Google Reader.

• 25 of Danny’s favorite multimedia tools
• Insider’s guide to getting into Google News
• Online crime map directory

Graphic designr

This is the site that inspired me to make Twitter a regular part of the Des Moines Register’s digital distribution plans.

• Newspaper endorsements compared
• Create a code-free Google map in three easy steps
• Create your own comic strip

Any suggestions for new media blogs I should be following in 2009?