Kirsten Ballard

Contributing writer
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Fall Is the Perfect Time to Catch Up on These Journalism TV Shows

This year, we’re taking a look at the best TV shows featuring the news media industry that are worth binge-watching because it’s too cold to do anything else ... Read More
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10 Pulitzer Prize–Worthy Halloween Costumes for Journalists

It’s time for the third annual News Media Alliance Halloween costume round-up. As always, these costumes are easy for when you’re tight on deadline ... Read More
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Rising Star Steph Solis, Asbury Park Press

Steph Solis knew she wanted to be a journalist since she was little. “I was one of those obnoxious kids who has known since sixth grade,” she laughs ... Read More
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Rising Star Sarah Jarvis, Tribune Publishing

Sarah Jarvis was interested in journalism from an early age. Like many Rising Stars, she was on the yearbook committee in high school and she continued studying journalism in college ... Read More
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Celebrate Carrier Day and Honor Dedicated Workers

On Saturday, October 13, International Newspaper Carrier Day, we want to take a moment to recognize and honor these hard workers ... Read More
5 Answers with Karri Peifer, Richmond Dish
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5 Answers with Karri Peifer, Richmond Dish

Karri Peifer can recommend restaurants like a fortune-teller reading a palm – all she needs is a single one-on-one interaction to make the best recommendation. “And I do. And literally no one has ever acted on it,” she says. Karri ... Read More
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OAH Offers Journalists Free Database of Experts

Journalists seeking fresh, fast and thoughtful insight from the nation's foremost historians can now consult a database of experts assembled by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) ... Read More
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Rising Star: Sarah Krouse, Wall Street Journal

Sarah Krouse didn’t mean to get into journalism. Now, she’s a reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering telecommunications ... Read More
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5 Answers with Brian Manzullo, Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press has garnered attention for its hip and snarky Twitter account.They strike the perfect balance between lambasting the Lions’ terrible start to the season and somberly covering breaking news ... Read More
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Rising Star: Rachel Sadon, DCist

Rachel Sadon didn’t study journalism in college. Now, as the Editor in Chief of DCist, she looks back on her undergraduate career and laughs ... Read More
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McClatchy Papers Launch Sports Subscription Services

We caught up with Jeff Rosen, Assistant Managing Editor/Sports, to talk about Sports Pass in this edition of Alliance 5 Answers ... Read More
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Alliance 5 Answers with Rising Star Sally Hayden

Sally Hayden has traveled the globe reporting. She’s covered war-torn countries, but also has seen the perseverance of human kindness ... Read More
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Launches “To Love and To Perish”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s newest season of its true-crime podcast, “To Love and To Perish,” launches on September 12 ... Read More
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Rising Star: Melissa Turqman

For Melissa Turqman, age is only a number. At 27 years old, she is already a Vice President of Digital Advertising at Modern Luxury ... Read More
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Rising Star: Nicole Hong

Nicole Hong moved around a lot as a child. But when she moved from Pennsylvania to Indiana in the 10th grade, she found journalism ... Read More
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Rising Star: Lilly Chapa

Rising Star Lilly Chapa is an award-winning writer for Security Management, an association publication that serves security professionals ... Read More
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Rising Star: Jon Sindreu

Rising Star Jon Sindreu started out majoring in computer science. He realized he didn’t find the idea of coding and math to be a fulfilling profession ... Read More
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Alliance 5 Answers with Rising Star Katrease Stafford

Katrease Stafford is the city government reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Get to know this amazing woman with this edition of Alliance 5 Answers ... Read More
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Rising Star: Jeff Gray

Jeff Gray is on a mission to end homelessness. As the communications manager of Street Sense Media in Washington, D.C., he combines communication strategy, empathy and journalism to achieve this mission ... Read More
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Rising Star: Mark Hannallah

Mark Hannallah sees the forest instead of the trees. It’s what makes him a successful product manager at USA TODAY Network. “For me, the ‘why’ is about the forest, and that’s the first step in which other things are built ... Read More
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Rising Star: Adam Harris

Rising Star winner Adam Harris is the staff writer at The Atlantic, covering education. He had a winding path to journalism. He always knew he wanted to do something he found important and necessary. “I was always interested in telling ... Read More
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Rising Star: Georgi Kantchev

Rising Star Georgi Kantchev's career has spanned the dawn of the social media age. When he was first published, people were only beginning to talk about how important digital was. “It’s a competition for eyeballs in the end,” he says ... Read More
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Rising Star: Deborah Swearingen

Rising Star Deborah Swearingen has always loved to write. She’s a curious person who describes herself as “interested in people and in learning about people,” so it makes sense she found her way to journalism. In her current role at ... Read More
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5 Answers with Imani Jenkins, Communications Intern

Imani Jenkins joins the News Media Alliance staff this summer as the communications intern. She is a rising senior at Marist College located in Poughkeepsie, NY as a Media Studies and Production student ... Read More
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5 Answers with Rising Star Haowei Qin, Data Scientist, USA TODAY Network

Since he joined USA TODAY Network in 2016, Haowei Qin has fueled growth by changing how the company views and leverages data from a strategic and operational perspective ... Read More
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5 Answers with Margot Harris, Public Policy Intern

Margot Harris joins the News Media Alliance staff this summer as the public policy intern. She is working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction and hopes to apply these skills to journalism ... Read More
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Rising Star: Dorothy Edwards

Dorothy is a photographer for the Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY network. She started in 2015 after graduating from Western Kentucky University. She’d been interested in photography in high school and took portraits of her friends ... Read More
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Rising Star: Bridget Lane

Rising Star Bridget Lane supports real news from behind the scenes – and behind a screen. As a computer software developer at USA TODAY Network, she supports over 140 websites across the United States ... Read More
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Rising Star: Adina Solomon

Rising Star Adina Soloman has written for the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, and many more. She shares what it's like to balance life as a freelancer and how she became involved in the death industry ... Read More
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Alliance Summer Reading List 2018

It’s time for our annual News Media Alliance summer reading list. The staff of voracious readers is plugged in to the news 24/7, but this summer, we’re making time for these amazing reads ... Read More
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NC Insider Turns 25!

This year, the NC Insider newsletter celebrates 25 years of publication. We caught up with editor (and 2017 Rising Star winner) Colin Campbell to learn the secrets behind the publication’s longevity ... Read More
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Felonious Florida Debuts at Number One

“Felonious Florida,” the highly-anticipated podcast produced by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and presented by Wondery, premiered at No. 1 for its first week on the Apple Podcast chart nationwide ... Read More
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First of Three NewsLitCamps In D.C. Begins 4/21

Tomorrow the News Literacy Project kicks off the first NewsLitCamp in Washington, D.C. at the Newseum. This full-day, interactive program is focused on connecting teachers with Washington Post journalists and NewseumEd staff ... Read More
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News Media Alliance Announces Winners of 2018 Rising Star Awards

The News Media Alliance today announced the recipients of its third annual Rising Star awards. The program provides an opportunity to showcase the talent and knowledge that young professionals bring to news media companies ... Read More
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Celebrate Earth Day

To celebrate Earth Day, April 22, use these five tricks to get new life out of your old newspapers. From crafts to better ways to clean, newspapers can do more than just inform and entertain ... Read More
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Alliance 5 Answers with The Lily

As part of our celebration of Women’s History Month, we caught up with Amy King, editor in chief and creative director of Washington Post’s The Lily. This new publication launched last year with the mission of creating informing and powerful ... Read More
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The Undefeated: Diverse Journalism Gives Proof of Life

There is a misconception that diversity is not important when reporting the news. That news is a set of facts that exist in a linear timeframe. That anyone can do it ... Read More
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Dana Canedy on Improving Newsroom Diversity

Dana Canedy is a force to be reckoned with. She is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and the author of a book about to be made into a movie. She is the current administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes – the first ... Read More
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Scripps Howard Foundation Donates 100,000 Books

Scripps Howard Foundation has donated 100,000 books to children across the nation in the past two years as part of the “If You Give a Child a Book” literacy campaign. This was the second year of the campaign, which coordinates ... Read More
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El Vocero Celebrates Four Years and Great Hurricane Coverage

During Hurricane Maria, everyone in the El Vocero office was a reporter, photographer and editor. Even the newspaper’s president, Salvador Hasbún, chipped in, taking a photo with his cell phone that ran on the front page. “How many newspaper presidents ... Read More
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News Media Alliance Announces Annual Rising Star Awards

Media Contact: Lindsey Loving Manager, Communications lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org 571.366.1009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE News Media Alliance Announces Annual Rising Star Awards Winners to be recognized in April Arlington, Va. – The News Media Alliance today announced the launch of its annual Rising ... Read More
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Better Life Lab Creates Ways to Work Smarter

Are you feeling stressed? Unmotivated, listless and unable to do anything creative at work? It’s not just you ... Read More
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Driving Digital Subscriptions

One of the brightest spots for the newspaper industry in 2017 has been the continued growth of digital subscriptions ... Read More
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AJC Recaps 2017: The Year In Real Journalism

Publicly traded companies produce annual reports to stockholders, telling them why they are a good investment. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff realized they had the same opportunity to provide an end-of-year health report on what they accomplished. AJC Brand Marketing Vice ... Read More
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Holiday Gift Guide for Journalists

On the first day of Christmas, my journalist wants from me… 1. An Amazon Echo to read the news On the second day of Christmas, my journalist wants from me… 2. Two VR headsets, and an Amazon Echo to read ... Read More
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Accelerator Pitch Winner Sells to Google

The last time we saw Dave Gehring was on-stage at mediaXchange 2017, during the News Media Alliance Accelerator Pitch. Recognized by the Alliance as a promising start-up with solutions for news media companies, Gehring introduced Alliance members to Relay Media, an ... Read More
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The News Audience is Thriving

Forget what you think you know about news readers. Research shows that old stereotypes no longer apply when it comes to newspaper audience ... Read More
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5 Answers with Francesca Panetta, The Guardian

This fall, The Guardian gave away 100,000 Google cardboard headsets as part of their virtual reality program. The paper started its VR team last year and so far, the viewer reaction has been extremely positive, with the most popular experiences being ... Read More
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Journalism Movies to Binge Watch this Winter

What is better after a long day on deadline than curling up with popcorn and a good movie? ... Read More
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News-Worthy Halloween Costumes

Check out these classic, topical and easy Halloween costumes to be the hit of your newsroom this year ... Read More
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Providence Journal Partners with Hummel Report

Jim Hummel started as a reporter at The Providence Journal 35 years ago. He spent over a decade there before moving on to ABC6, where he became well-known for his “You Paid for It” segments. Now, thanks to a new ... Read More
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Publishers in Puerto Rico and the VI need you

This National Newspaper Week, I’d like to call attention to publishers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands ... Read More
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Support Real News in Puerto Rico

Take a moment today to read “United We Stand,” written by Maria Luisa Ferre Rangel, Publisher of GFR Media ... Read More
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Tune in to these 10 podcasts about journalism and the media

Podcasts are a great frontier for storytelling—but what about podcasts about storytelling? ... Read More
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5 Answers with Shazia Iftkhar, University of Michigan

Teaching journalism in 2017 presents a new stack of challenges: a 24/7 news cycle, ever-changing social media and now, Trump tweets. We caught up with Shazia Iftkhar, assistant professor at the University of Michigan Department of Communications, to talk about ... Read More
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AJC Launches Politically Georgia

This August, the Atlanta Constitution Journal launched Politically Georgia, a premium newsletter focused on state gov ... Read More
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Press Freedom Tracker Counts U.S. Violations

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a new platform counting violations of press freedom ... Read More
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Bay Area News Group moves Nextdoor to readers

Bay Area News Group’s journalists are teaming up with neighborhood social networking site Nextdoor to deliver local news in a new way ... Read More
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Meet your 2017 Rising Stars

We hope you have enjoyed reading about the 2017 Rising Stars this summer. This group of bright, driven individuals represents the bright future of our industry. Check out the full list and their stories ... Read More
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How to get more from your Alliance Membership

Are you taking advantage of your News Media Alliance membership? We offer many great, free services to our members. Set up a profile today to begin taking part in our webinars, job board and exclusive member-forum. Don't miss this deal!  ... Read More
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Rising Star: Eric Falquero, Street Sense

Eric Falquero has his dream job—he discovered it while in college searching on idealist.org for an internship. He went to work one summer at Street Sense, a street newspaper in Washington, D.C. Now, he’s the editor. Street Sense goes out ... Read More
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Rising Star: Leigha Hornstra, CMG

Leigha Hornstra is trying to see the future. She doesn’t have a superpower or crystal ball. Instead, she has data ... Read More
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