"If we intend to have jobs 20 years from now, if we intend to own any validity in our fight for progress and reform, we have to reverse the trends that infect our business." That's Ben Montgomery, a reporter for the Tampa Tribune, describing why he created a blog devoted to "prolonging the slow death of newspapers" by showcasing great writing.
In his June 2005 inaugural post on gangrey.com, he argues, "We have to tell stories like David Finkel and W.C. Heinz and Anne Hull and Ernie Pyle. We have to inspire like Michael Brick and C.J. Chivers and Kelley Benham. We have to captivate like Rick Bragg and Barry Siegel and Kate Boo and Earl Swift.
"We have to make the people who pick us up in the morning say, "Damn, that was a good story."
"We have to get better."
Meg Martin, Poynter's Naughton Fellow, turned me on to the site. His storytelling manifesto, she says, "was his first entry (and one of the reasons why I SO love this particular blog, besides the fact that it's got fantastic links to incredible journalism."
That was all I needed to know.
Columns
- "Chip on Your Shoulder"
Poynter Online columns from Nov. 2002-Current
Books
Essays, Memoir
- My cancer time bomb
- Leave Me Alone, AARP
- The Hardest Habit to Kick: A Confession
Audio: A commentary on National Public Radio - "The Only Honest Man"
- "Reading the Paper"
Reporting
- "Made in the Shade"
A package on Southern writers: profiles, interviews and an 11-state directory of writers you may never have heard of but are worth your time. Appeared in Creative Loafing chain. - "Mass Appeal"
A day-in-the-life profile of a telegenic parish priest in Miami. Published in Catholic Digest, reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times - "The Liberation of Tam Minh Pham"
How the first West Point graduate from South Vietnam disappears after the fall of Saigon, only to be rescued by his classmates two decades later. A cover story in The Washington Post Magazine
Fiction
- Holly Wreaths Across America
A map of newspapers in the U.S. who published "The Holly Wreath Man" serial novel since 2003. - "The Needle" - A Work in Progress
Battling for Men's Minds - "Mad Looper"
A Caddy's Life
NewsU Courses
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March 2007
Favorite Blogs, Sites
- 43 Folders
43 Folders is Merlin Mann’s entertaining and motivational site about personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better - Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
- Most E-Mailed Articles - The New York Times - Past 24 Hours
- Powell's Books
Author Interviews, Readings - Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide
- Creating Passionate Users
Metacognitive explorer. - First Draft by Tim Porter
- Online Journalism Review
- David Allen
- Gangrey.com
Keeping Newspapers Alive with Great Storytelling - robcurley.com
- CyberJournalist.net: How technology, blogs and the Internet are changing the media
Online journalism pioneer - The Rhetorica Network: Analysis of Rhetoric, Propaganda, and Spin in Politics and Journalism
- Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media
- Sree.net: Sreenath Sreenivasan
A generous and web-savvy friend - The New Yorker: Main: Start
Always check Sunday night for selections of the week's issues posted online - gladwell.com
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