Short Takes

from The Lazarus EffectPictures pack a punch. And so continuing in the tradition of our “What we’re reading” posts, one of the things we’ll be doing here at Nieman Storyboard…

AP Photo/Muhammed MuheisenSummer is upon us! Well, actually it’s kind of cold and gray outside here, but as you, our imaginary beachgoer, break out the sunblock and pack the Cheetos…

[One in an occasional series of talks with people highlighting long-form journalism online. Prior posts in this series include a look at Gangrey.com.]From “a really little town” in Berkshire County,…

When you think of using databases to plan a story—if you ever think of such a thing—do your eyes glaze over? Not if you’re Megan Prelinger. But then Prelinger tends…

Anyone interested in narrative journalism at newspapers should see David Duwe Stanton's master's thesis "The Miami Herald and the Miller Effect: Literary Journalism in the 1980s," submitted to the University…

Treme's Wendell PierceSunday night’s Treme debut found a companion in Monday morning’s Times-Picayune: “HBO’s Treme Explained.” The New Orleans paper will offer a weekly encyclopedic post explaining culture and geography…

When literary magazine McSweeney’s Quarterly jumped into the newspaper business for their winter issue, much of the buzz was about the concept. A literary quarterly does a newspaper? Layout was…

When it comes to wildlife narratives, writer Bryan Christy wants more accountability from reporters.Christy wrote us in response to our Friday issue of the Narrative Digest, which featured coverage of a zoo, a…

When it comes to writing profiles, Esquire’s Chris Jones is used to getting the last word. But a few weeks ago, when Jones worked his storytelling mojo on Roger Ebert,…

Cara Solomon sweats the small stuff.After a failed career as a television news intern and eight successful years as a print reporter, Solomon left her newspaper job on the West Coast…