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Tools of the trade
Journalism reading list

The business of journalism, once inexorably slow to modernize, has become one of constant change. Keeping up with the latest trends, standards and exemplars isn’t easy.

Here are some suggestions for ways you can find out about the latest trends and follow some of journalism’s thought-leaders.

• The Nieman Journalism Lab is the Nieman Foundation’s “attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age.” Content is broken down into sections on business models, mobile & apps, audience & social, aggregation & discovery, and reporting & production. The website also covers content from Nieman Reports and Nieman Storyboard. They send a daily or weekly update highlighting developments from the media landscape and the tech scene, structured with some featured stories and a suggested reading list. Subscribe here.
• Columbia Journalism Review sends a daily email, The Media Today, with brief commentary on the biggest media stories of the day, plus a roundup of notable pieces, and a weekly digest of CJR’s most popular stories. A third option, United States Project, offers a weekly email with the best articles from CJR’s coverage of local news markets around the U.S. Subscribe here.
• American Press Institute is the News Media Alliance’s (formerly Newspaper Association of America’s) non-profit educational arm. Its Better News website offers information about best practices in journalism, with a focus on newspapers. API publishes a daily email newsletter, Need to Know. Subscribe here.
• The Poynter Intitute’s website publishes news and commentary about journalism as well as information about Poynter’s vast offering of training and seminars through NewsU.
• Best in Visual Storytelling is a weekly email from Rachel Schallom, newsroom project manager at the Wall St. Journal. The free version links to projects she is checking out and what she is reading. The paid version (only $5) also includes who Rachel is following and job postings. Subscribe here.

Readers with other means of keeping up on news industry news are invited to email suggestions to fcguide@spj.org.

Last updated: December 2018

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