Northwestern's Cherubs Shine Online

Hats off to the students and instructors in the National Journalism Institute at Northwestern University.

The 88 high school students who attended the summer camp collaborated on some really great multi-media material. They're just what we need. But do we have to wait until they graduate?

Check out their work.

News of New Job Broken on Facebook

Nicole Wong, who will join the Boston Globe on Sept. 17, was politely holding off on spreading the news until her new employer could announce it.

But her borther broke the news first -- on his Facebook account. Who would have thought ... ?

But we do now. Another sign of the times.

Back in the Classroom

You can just about feel the vibrations. Journalism classes are starting to resume (we just heard from a new student at the University of Miccouri-Columbia) and journalism students across this great land will soon be cracking the books again. (Well, the ones at Medill still have to wait a few weeks.)

Good luck to all!

Arizona State University Hiring Top Faculty

The parade of professionals joining the faculty at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Commnication keeps growing.

Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown will become a permanent faculty member in January.

According to the Phoenix Business Journal, Brown is the 12th professor to join the school in two years. Other big names include former Minneapolis Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire, BET Vice President Retha Hill and former Akron Beacon Journal Publisher Jim Crutchfield.

Credit Dean Christopher Callahan, who joined the program from the University of Maryland in 2005.

7 Schools Designing Digital News Solutions

You can practically feel the brainwaves.

Seven journalism programs are meeting this month at Ithaca College to hash out ideas for new methods for teaching digital journalism. They are supposed to offer their ideas at the Online News Association conference in Toronto in October.

The seven schools are Ithaca College, Michigan State University, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas,  the University of Kansas, Kansas State, Western Kentucky University and St. Michael's College.

These seven were chosen to share in a Knight Foundation News Challenge grant of $230,000 to create 'incubators' to foster creative thinking about solutions to  digital news problems.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: If you're not Canadian but plan to go to the Online News Association conference in Toronto, make sure your passport is up to date. The rules are getting tighter and the lines are getting longer.

What I'll be Looking for this Fall

This week I met with the Free Press apprentices, 10 people heading off to nine schools. (Two are going into the Medill School at Northwestern University.

They asked what I will be looking for when I visit campuses in the fall.

I advised them to learn as much as they can about journalistic fundamentals, using new tools and developing audiences.