Participants from last year’s making Media Connections Conference share their experiences making connections, meeting experts, finding the right consultants and pitching the right journalists to get their story out. Check out more videos here

There’s a saying around here at Community Media Workshop, “When YOU succeed, WE succeed” and it can’t make us any more happier when we see participants of our training and annual conference shine.

Sounding a bit idealistic? Well… maybe, but for many of our participants, getting results is a very real thing – especially if you attend our annual conference. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in 1999, I knew it was time to move on from my seven years’ job when I realized I’d written the same business letter, on the same day as the previous year, to the same person, to make the same arrangement, for the same annual event we did every year. I still loved the event… but it was time to let someone else have a turn.

As I prepare to leave Community Media Workshop at the end of April, five years almost to the week after I started, I’m reflecting on how this departure is similar yet different. Every position has its routines. But it’s hardly settled down to sameness.

What a different Community Media Workshop, and a different world, than when I started. When I think back to the sleepier times when I started, it honestly seems like before and after the invention of the Model T Ford, or electrification or something.

But I’ve long thought the only thing that would pull me away from the Workshop was the chance to take a break from teaching and go back to working on an issue. But only a really, good, juicy opportunity to work on something that, a. matters to a lot of people, and b. offers scope to make policy change. I did not plan on but look forward to the fact that I’m not going to be the communications director, so that I can polish–actually, gain (don’t tell the new boss!)–some new skills.

I’m heading to National People’s Action to be their new director of operations. Ironically, that’s the place I left shortly after having that realization about time to move on back in 1999. It’s an organizing, policy, research, and training center for grassroots community organizations building power to reclaim democracy and advance racial and economic justice. It has changed some, what with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., and a few more people being concerned with its core issues of stemming foreclosures to foster community development and holding banks accountable for lending in communities.

Two office moves, changes in five staff positions, and literally about 2,000 nonprofit communicators I personally have gotten to work with over the years. I might get weepy and over-share in the blog between now and the end of April when I leave Community Media Workshop, but in the meantime what I’d most like to say is thanks.

PS I’m still here! Through the end of April I’m at the Workshop where my main responsibilities are making sure we are on track to complete the 20 Questions for Chicago-area online news sites (have you filled it  out yet?), help polish off the program for the Making Media Connections conference and of course leave our custom training work in good shape for the next person.

by Thom Clark
One year ago today, as we all awaited the final days of an historic election campaign, our mentor Studs Terkel passed away, his absentee ballot un-cast. The self described eclectic disk jockey, Pulitzer prize winning author and cheer leader for humanity would have railed against the media for it’s mis-coverage this past week of worker protests against bonus-buck bankers conferring in Chicago, just as I remembered him yelling at the tube’s cable talkers on a Sunday morning 54 weeks ago when I last visited him at his home. “Will Barack make it?” he wondered as the latest debate was being parsed. “What a mess the Cubs and Sox made of their seasons, again,” Studs moaned in the next moment. Then he moved onto our 2009 Terkel awardees (Scott Simon, David Jackson and Alden Loury). There was never a dull moment in Studs’ living room.We miss ya Studs!

If you know the Workshop then you know the summertime is when we update our annual media guide, Getting On Air Online & Into Print, draft new articles and how-to pieces for the front section.

The more things change

When it comes to getting your news releases and breaking news to metro outlets, little has changed. But when it comes to services available for media relations, Web 2.0 communications, and other tools–wow, there’s been a lot of change!

New services have sprung up, old ones have added services–and some prices have gone up while others have gone down.

Thanks to the Internet we have many, many more choices than we used to for gathering clips–for example if your boss appears on the morning or evening news, it’s much easier and more affordable to buy that clip than it used to be. Why might you want to do that? Well, to add to your own videos later, of course! Not only do online links to TV programs expire, the quality online may well be less than a DVD you can hold in your hot little hands. (Or a file you download from one of these many new services).

Here’s a list of top resources we’re planning to include in the upcoming media guide–please let me know in the comments or by email if we’re missing any: Read the rest of this entry »

Kara Carrell responds to a question at Making Media Connections (photo by Bob Black)

Last year, about half the folks who took our first-ever impact survey (an end-of-the-fiscal-year survey on what they did with what they learned from us) told us they did something different online as a result of what they learned.

Since this is the second year we’re doing it, we will be able to make some comparisons between now and this time last year–of course one of the things we hope to learn more about is how economic challenges of these days are affecting how we communicate for the better/for the worse.

Looking forward to hearing more about how you and others used lessons learned from The Workshop in the past 12 months! Take the survey yourself, it’s right here.

Oh, and when you’re done, give us your name and contact info so we can add you to a raffle to win an iPod Nano as a small thank-you for your feedback.

Thanks!

P.S. have you seen the gallery of photos from our most recent conference? Taken by Bob Black, Olga Lopez, and 1 or 2 other volunteers, they came out great!

Interesting day at the office with the unveiling of our NEW News report on Chicago online news.

I wished I was interviewing Phil Rosenthal instead of the other way around this afternoon, since he came up with the best soundbite so far:”It’s about the value, not the cost of local news.” Wish he’d said that in his column! ah, well.

It was nice to get a call from Alexander Russo of the District 299 blog covering Chicago Public Schools. It’s now appearing at Chicago Now and includes a brief mention of the report (good move, Tribune!)

Just a quick wrap up of other reactions: Read the rest of this entry »

Today, CMW is a booth ‘vendor’ at the first big conference being put on by Illinois Resource Net, a nonprofit based at Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. They don’t write your grant proposal for you, but they will help you navigate the process.

Richard Kordesh, co-director, just laid out federal funding so simply I totally understood it! Check it out, he says “every federal grant has a story” and they fall into some very distinct story types (please note this is just straight off of his slide presentation, I do not know that this is on the Web anywhere–so please contact Richard if you want to know more): Read the rest of this entry »

Our Studs: Chicago Journalists Remember Studs Terkel and the Media Awards from Community Media Workshop on Vimeo

Hey, if you could not be with us last Wednesday and want to hear or see some of the event, we’ve got the 10-minute video in which past winners of the Studs Terkel award comment on Studs’ legacy. and later today you should be able to hear their comments at the event (& see some nice pix) on Chicago Public Radio’s Chicago Amplified site. (use the pulldown to see content from Community Media Workshop).

CMW’s blog farm just added the back 40… Our new ethnic news project led by Steve Franklin, lives at Chicago Is The World.

A CNN crew interviewed Studs at the last benefit he was able to attend, two years ago.

… for our benefit tomorrow. Wait–you’re not on the list? Well, it’s full, but it’s not sold out, so you can still come to the door and get a ticket (5 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center, $115, in support of our mission to promote diverse voices in the news and public debate).

It’s funny, last year attendees were sort of fulminating about the challenges standing between doing our best journalism and its daily practice. This year, I think we’ll be holding up the promise of what news is, its ability to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, and its ability to tell stories from our neighborhoods, but with a little more fear than anger.

If you can’t be with us, find a friend, tell stories, and drink some cognac in Studs’ honor.