SPJ Region 8 director Scott Cooper, Fort Worth SPJ president Eddye Gallagher and
SPJ national president Dave Aeikens at Cafe Aspen, Oct. 17.
John Ostdick, Sophia Dembling, Wendy Lyons Sunshine, Bob Booth and Kathryn
Jones, from left, at SPJ’s Becoming a Successful Freelancer workshop Nov. 1 at UTA.
Seen at the PRSA Masters SIG event Oct. 29 at The Vault, from left, Mary Burke;
Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA; Laura Van Hoosier, APR; and visiting journalist
Evita Neefs, foreign editor of the leading Belgian newspaper De Standard, a
radio commentator on U.S. elections and politics, and the author of several
books.
Linda Jacobson, APR (newly earned!), left, and Lisa Starnes, APR, are the first
recipients of the GFW PRSA Jim Blackmore, APR Memorial Scholarship.
next month ... Balcom throws a mini-bash, and PRSA paints the town
SPJ national update III: A proposal to create a free, national wireless internet
service got a boost as FCC engineers concluded that concerns are overblown
about such service interfering with other carriers. The FCC wants to auction
off airwaves to a bidder who agrees to offer free, national wireless internet
and is expected to begin the auction early next year. More here. ... YouTube continues to expand its presence in the political life of the
nation, this time to become a polling place watchdog. The Google-owned video
site teamed with PBS to provide a platform for videos on voters’ election-day experiences. PBS and YouTube also distributed 1,000 flip video
camcorders to “nonpartisan nonprofits” and local PBS stations to capture polling place activities. More here.
SPJ national update IV: “Idon’t think print is dead or even dying.” ... Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law Sept. 28 that protects high school and college teachers,
in addition to all other school employees, from being retaliated against
because of student speech. Senate Bill 1370 builds on other protective student
journalism measures in California’s Education Code. More here. ... Long defined by its radio programming, National Public Radio is
reinventing itself as a multi-platform force. More here. ... The Christian Science Monitor plans major changes in April that will make it the first newspaper with a national audience to go all online,
updated continuously. The changes will include enhancing the content on
CSMonitor.com, starting weekly print and daily e-mail editions, and
discontinuing the daily print format. More here.
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Sam Monreal has joined the Hondo Group as a business development associate working the
Austin market. ...
The Balcom Agency has joined Weather Decision Technologies, a global leader in
weather content and forecasting, in creating iMapWeather.com. The beta phase launched Oct. 28, with the full version expected in early ’09. Users will connect with the weather via photo sharing, video sharing and
micro-blogging, and the embed code can be copied and pasted on any web site.
Utilizing a proprietary Flash application integrated with Google Maps API, the
site offers Doppler radar, satellite images and a chance to see real-time
lightning. “We are merging geographic map technology, weather conditions and social media
into one beautiful map display,” said
Brian Blankenship, Balcom’s interactive creative director. “This has never been done.” ...
Two creative designs developed by Concussion will be published in prestigious
design trade journals. A National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame logo will
appear in LogoLounge 5, and a Christmas card developed for Clampitt Paper Co.
made Print’s Regional Design Annual 2008. More than 30,000 logos were submitted for the
spread in LogoLounge 5, which will be released in the summer. For the Print
design annual, more than 20,000 entries were submitted from almost every state.
...
Matador, a Latino communications firm, opened its doors last month with partner
and president Luis Caballero vowing “killer” new strategies for marketers targeting the growing U.S. Hispanic population. In
an 18-year career Caballero has devised multicultural and field marketing
campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as Yum! Brands, Subway and Church’s Chicken. Allen Wallach and Andrew Yanez, principals of Concussion, an 8-year-old Fort Worth advertising and public
relations firm, are partners in Matador Marketing Group.
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