A couple of weeks ago, a few of us sat down with Baltimore Sun Today Editor Andrew Ratner for about an hour-and-a-half. A Harford County resident himself, Ratner had been following The Dagger for some time and was interested in writing a story about us.
“The Dagger, a local news Web site, doesn’t do newspaper writing and reporting (or you could say newspapering) the way it is taught in journalism school. But it may be a glimpse into the way news will be covered in the future.”
The story continues with some interesting quotes from former Aberdeen Mayor Fred Simmons – “They also have people embedded in those places, and some of them write under other names;” ...Continue Reading
With the Baltimore Examiner on the way out, where are we supposed to get our news now? the b? The Examiner may have been an object of derision among people looking for more than shallow sips of news, and from people adverse to a paper with a right-wing slant, but it brought some important things to the table in Baltimore.
For one thing, it brought another voice to a competition-starved market. For another, it offered job opportunities to relatively inexperienced writers and photographers. Unlike the Sun, it was a place where a Baltimore kid with a college degree and some experience in writing could get a job.
The Dagger marks its first anniversary this week. A year that has seen the birth of the future of news and entertainment reporting in this area. No, The Dagger is not the first site of its kind. The Huffington Post comes to mind, as well as others, but it is the first site based in Harford County, that I’m aware of, that continues to inform and entertain. Inform and entertain literally by the hour and sometimes by the minute!
My first exposure to the Dagger came as the Aberdeen elections were heating up this time last year. Watching the back and forth between the candidates and the comments by those same candidates and the readers made for interesting reading. I think we’re all a bit of a voyeur and watching the exchange made for great reading. But it was the power of the Web, the interaction of the readers and ...Continue Reading
It’s rare these days to be in on a grand idea, an idea that for a short time is so free of the daily round of human nonsense that you are almost short of breath.
The idea was that a crew of mostly ex-newspaper writers could remake American Journalism the right way, the way that we thought we hadn’t been allowed to in our short years covering…, well covering.
Homestead Publishing Company, parent of the Aegis and Record newspapers, announced Friday morning that, in order to save ink, letters to the editor would be arbitrarily truncated – particularly if those letters make mention of a certain local news and commentary website peopled largely by ex-Homesteaders.
In order to save costs at the printing press, The Aegis today cut a few words from a letter to the editor written by former legislative aide and former District C county council candidate Brian Young. The (almost) same letter was published here February 19.
Here’s the closing paragraph from Young’s letter, as posted on The Dagger:
We are happy to announce a new feature to our site, a forum we are calling Citizen Reports. This newest extension of The Dagger aims to bring more relevant news, information and discussion to you by opening up the reporting to those who are most interested and impacted directly by the issues – you.
The future of journalism is on the Internet and will involve the integration of multimedia elements (words, photographs, audio and video), reported and relayed in real time around the clock – 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
New Journalism will also rely heavily on the participation of citizen reporters. These are the everyday men and women who are armed with cameras, cell phones and laptops, but more importantly their eyes and ears and minds, as they go about their daily lives. Turn on the television news any night of the week ...Continue Reading
The Dagger was offline this past weekend, quite literally at a wedding and a funeral. For everyone who’s still with us, a word of note: We received angry, angry emails from The Aegis and The Examiner over the past few days.
The Examiner editor reminded us that he’s worked for The New York Times, etc., and has “more than a dozen major awards to show for it.” The Aegis bristled and issued threats: “you guys are in way over your heads, but at least you have given more legitimacy to institutions like this one.” And, in a more sincere offering from a local newspaperman: “I believed you guys really had your hearts in it. But now I feel like it’s gone right to your heads.”
If we keep posting stories about ourselves, you’re sure to soon agree. And so, back to the election, folks…
