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08 Jun 2009 10:20

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About: Friendly reminder of the ways you can follow us online

  • Great news! We recently switched to a Facebook page – great for those who want news while defacing their boyfriend’s wall.
  • We also added a new FriendFeed account. Don’t know FriendFeed? Well, they’re like the Velvet Underground of social networking.
  • And as we’re sure you may know, we have a Twitter account that we update several times a day. Yes, we swear, we actually have a life.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2009 03:47

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About, Tech: New features: We’d like to welcome Apture to the fold.

  • This program was seemingly designed for ShortFormBlog. As we’re sure you know, our goal is to keep information simple and short for you guys, while allowing you to better find information from other sources. Which is why we’re very excited about the prospect of using Apture. Apture uses Javascript to create rich extra layers of content (from sources we like, such as Wikipedia and YouTube) above the main site. Among initial users include The New York Times and The Washington Post. What do you guys think? Comment here. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2009 02:06

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About: Hey guys! We’re looking for Summer interns in D.C. Learn more here.

  • Who you are You’re a college student who’s into journalism. You live in D.C. You like to write. You have naturally good grammar and your words are loaded with personality. You aren’t long-winded. (This is important.) You’re a newshound. You get the Internet and pop culture. You read DCist, Gawker and TechCrunch and think, “Hey, I can do that.” You want to build experience. You’re self-motivated. You like coffee shops. You hate ties. source
  • Who you are You’re a college student who’s into journalism. You live in D.C. You like to write. You have naturally good grammar and your words are loaded with personality. You aren’t long-winded. (This is important.) You’re a newshound. You get the Internet and pop culture. You read DCist, Gawker and TechCrunch and think, “Hey, I can do that.” You want to build experience. You’re self-motivated. You like coffee shops. You hate ties.
  • Who we are We’re a blog. We’re based in D.C. We focus on telling lots of good information in small amounts of space. We pull content from all corners of the Internet and grab the most interesting details. We recontextualize and add personality. We like short sentences and telling good stories. We have hundreds of followers on Twitter and some influential fans. We’re self-motivated. We like coffee shops. We hate ties. source
  • Who you are You’re a college student who’s into journalism. You live in D.C. You like to write. You have naturally good grammar and your words are loaded with personality. You aren’t long-winded. (This is important.) You’re a newshound. You get the Internet and pop culture. You read DCist, Gawker and TechCrunch and think, “Hey, I can do that.” You want to build experience. You’re self-motivated. You like coffee shops. You hate ties.
  • Who we are We’re a blog. We’re based in D.C. We focus on telling lots of good information in small amounts of space. We pull content from all corners of the Internet and grab the most interesting details. We recontextualize and add personality. We like short sentences and telling good stories. We have hundreds of followers on Twitter and some influential fans. We’re self-motivated. We like coffee shops. We hate ties.
  • What we want We have one to two unpaid internships available between mid-May and August. We have years of writing, editing and design experience in the newspaper industry, and we’ll bestow it on you. You get a built-in, growing audience that is literate of the Web and will hang on your every word. You set your own hours (although we’ll hold you to at least 5-10 hours a week). You work in a coffee shop. No ties. Curious? Send a resume. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2009 01:06

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About: Hey! This is our 1000th post. Here’s our five favorite posts so far.

  • And, well, this one, because we get to introduce a new posting style. Whoa.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

06 Mar 2009 13:18

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About, Politics: Why we’re adding a “Chatter” category

  • Ultimately, we need a spot for opinion. We’ve been wavering back and forth on this for a while, and while we do a pretty good job covering the news, there are some pretty smart things being said by columnists and bloggers worldwide that should get their due, too. And when we have an opinion – left or right – we should have a spot for it, too. Someone actually asked about this a couple weeks ago, and we didn’t have a good reason why we didn’t. Seems necessary in this day and age. Like it? Dislike it? Post your opinion here.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2009 01:27

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About: Happy March! Time for a “how the sausage is made” moment

  • 798 posts on the site since it launched January 1, just two months ago. Yeah, we’re surprised, too.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

25 Feb 2009 22:51

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About: Editorial statement from the ShortFormBlog staff: Sigh.

  • Dear economy, Why do you have to suck so much? Why do you have to ruin so many lives? Why is it that good people are losing their jobs? This is not funny anymore. It never was, but now it’s reaching a point where we can’t be irreverent about this. We’ve been trying. But you make it hard. And it’s affecting us just like everyone else.
  • Dear economy, Why do you have to suck so much? Why do you have to ruin so many lives? Why is it that good people are losing their jobs? This is not funny anymore. It never was, but now it’s reaching a point where we can’t be irreverent about this. We’ve been trying. But you make it hard. And it’s affecting us just like everyone else.
  • Dear Newspapers, We think you’re awesome. We think that media is important to a good society. You know journalists? They keep us informed: People chasing after the story. People editing it and organizing it. People informing the society at large. Why aren’t you looking out for them? Don’t lay them off, you stupid stupids. That’s an order!
  • Dear economy, Why do you have to suck so much? Why do you have to ruin so many lives? Why is it that good people are losing their jobs? This is not funny anymore. It never was, but now it’s reaching a point where we can’t be irreverent about this. We’ve been trying. But you make it hard. And it’s affecting us just like everyone else.
  • Dear Newspapers, We think you’re awesome. We think that media is important to a good society. You know journalists? They keep us informed: People chasing after the story. People editing it and organizing it. People informing the society at large. Why aren’t you looking out for them? Don’t lay them off, you stupid stupids. That’s an order!
  • Dear Readers, Time to level with you: We can’t pretend that it’s good times and nothing but. And as a blog that’s made approximately $19 in advertising before expenses, we’re obviously not in it for the money. So, if we make jokes about how bad this is, it’s because sad funerals suck. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink
 

02 Feb 2009 10:02

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About: A bit more about Ernie’s future plans

  • He has a job! A few of you asked, so we’ll answer. Starting today, Ernie will be working at Express, a free daily newspaper published by The Washington Post. It’s his third free daily newspaper in a row, but it’s also the biggest. He’s excited about the opportunity and plans to use his info-breakdown roots as much as he can.
  • He has a job! A few of you asked, so we’ll answer. Starting today, Ernie will be working at Express, a free daily newspaper published by The Washington Post. It’s his third free daily newspaper in a row, but it’s also the biggest. He’s excited about the opportunity and plans to use his info-breakdown roots as much as he can.
  • What he left behind He does it with a heavy heart. He wasn’t exactly looking to leave his adopted hometown of Norfolk, Va., but he did it because the opportunity made a lot of sense. He’s done a lot of moving in the last few years, and the last place felt like home. He already misses his favorite coffee shop, Elliot’s Fair Grounds. Sigh.
  • He has a job! A few of you asked, so we’ll answer. Starting today, Ernie will be working at Express, a free daily newspaper published by The Washington Post. It’s his third free daily newspaper in a row, but it’s also the biggest. He’s excited about the opportunity and plans to use his info-breakdown roots as much as he can.
  • What he left behind He does it with a heavy heart. He wasn’t exactly looking to leave his adopted hometown of Norfolk, Va., but he did it because the opportunity made a lot of sense. He’s done a lot of moving in the last few years, and the last place felt like home. He already misses his favorite coffee shop, Elliot’s Fair Grounds. Sigh.
  • But don’t worry … ShortFormBlog is still a priority of his and he plans to keep it going as long as he can. The nature of it may change slightly – to focus on interest and intrigue over the immediacy of a news cycle – but it’s gonna stick around. He may even bring on more staffers. Stay tuned to this dial …
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

02 Feb 2009 10:00

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About: Ernie starts a new job today. The transition time? Kind of long.

  • 45 number of days Ernie was unemployed before today
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

01 Jan 2009 12:06

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About: Let me explain what I’m doing

  • Hi, I’m Ernie Smith. I’m a 27-year-old journalist. I was recently laid off. So were a lot of my friends. It’s because the news industry is in decline. But news isn’t. So, maybe it’s time to figure out another road. Here’s one path.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 24 Comments • Permalink
 
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