And we're off!

The gang of 15 is off and running, trying to keep pace with (and occasionally make sense of) the news media changes that are revolutionizing journalism. The best part for me about last night's class: the self-introductions, which showed what an interesting and wide-ranging group we are. We have people focusing on religion. We have people interested in paparazzi. (Wait a minute! That's the same person.) I'm excited about what we're going to learn this semester.

Already we have three new blogs created -- by Nikki Usher, Amber Mobley and my partner-in-teaching, Geoffrey Cowan. I've added the three to my links over on the right-hand side of my blog. Let us know when you're up and running with your blog and we'll add it to the list. Update: On Monday I added six more new blogs to the list.

Last night we talked about how change in the news media is happening so urgently these days. Today's Romenesko rundown on a (not-quite) day's worth of developments is a great example. Hearst is asking news staffers at its Seattle paper to help think about how it might be an online-only newspaper; Boston University is setting up the first university-based investigative reporting operation; Tribune Co. is in talks to outsource its national and international reporting to the Washington Post (oops, a new post says not quite so fast); Texas Christian University is building a convergence lab; a free-lancer talks about why she blogs for free at Huffington Post; Boston Globe to reduce newsroom size, and.... PHEW!

It sounds to me like there's a pretty lively discussion going on (largely beneath the radar) about which newspapers and newspaper companies will maintain separate national and foreign staffs. The Washington Post appears to be quite active in trying to persuade newspapers that they should buy the Post's reporting and shut down their own operations. This will be interesting fodder when we talk more in depth about Washington and international reporting.

Let us know if you need guidance on setting up your blog. Which reminds me. Here's the link for Richard Prince's blog, which someone mentioned last night.