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Paul Balcerak
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  • Seattle, WA
  • United States
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Paul Balcerak | Asst. editor / New Media

paulbalcerak.com

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Profile Information

Job Title
Assistant editor of New Media
News Organization
Sound Publishing
Beat
Local
Bio
I optimize our content for the Web and help our newsrooms adapt to the more socially inclined Internet news atmosphere. In a nutshell, I'm a copy editor, troubleshooter, SEO "expert", technical adviser and trainer, and a curator of Web content.
Web site
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com
Blog
http://paulbalcerak.com
Twitter URL
http://www.twitter.com/paulbalcerak
Publish2 URL
http://www.publish2.com/journalists/paul-balcerak/links

Paul Balcerak's Blog

Paul Balcerak

Growing online community—looking for feedback

My employer, Sound Publishing, has me on a kind of fact finding/info hunting mission as we look for ways to improve our community newsbrands and their Web sites. We want to know what other sites (traditional news sites, blogs, etc.) are doing to build communities around their brands.

I'm hoping some of you won't mind sharing answers to a few of these questions (and please feel free to send me a priv… Continue

Posted on June 10, 2009 at 2:27pm —

Paul Balcerak

Advice for '09 journalism grads

Just posted some of my thoughts on '09 grads who maybe aren't quite ready for the real journalism world. My best advice: Don't freak out; there's still time to learn.

Posted on March 25, 2009 at 12:25am —

Paul Balcerak

Investigative journalists: Take credit!

Forgot to post a link to my newest post the other day, where I implore investigative journalists to make their hard work more obvious.

Essentially, I think that with so much "you'll miss us when we're gone" talk from old school print journalists, they need to drop the humility act and start yelling in the form of page banners and logos: "WE WORKED OUR ASSES OFF ON THIS HUGE INVESTIGATIVE PIECE AND WITHOUT US… Continue

Posted on March 13, 2009 at 12:26am —

Paul Balcerak

No News is Bad News mini wrap & link

I've begun the process of moving this blog over to Paul Balcerak on WordPress. I'll still be active here, but my posts won't appear in full anymore. The reason for the move is that I like WordPress's blogging platform a lot better and it makes mobile posting a lot easier.

The No News is Bad News: Seattle as a no newspaper town? panel/forum turned out as I expected (little discussion on busines… Continue

Posted on March 3, 2009 at 4:00pm — 2 Comments

Paul Balcerak

Here's why blogs are taking over

Posted on February 20, 2009 at 4:34pm — 5 Comments

Latest Activity

Holy crap, I had no idea. Facebook really needs to update Pages, but in the meantime, that's a great workaround. Thanks!
January 26
I think a lot of news orgs that are trying to transition from print to the Web get tied up in what they "need" to do. They see other sites (often their competitors) shooting video, Tweeting, whatever and they think they think they're doomed if they…
January 26
A few points: "He was mad because this shift in journalism was directing the attention away from writing skills." How is this, exactly? True, we have a lot more people publishing in 2010 because the cost of doing so is virtually zero, but it's not…
January 25
These are all great suggestions. One more (though maybe someone said it and I missed it or maybe it's in a link): Make use of your @ button. Since adding @ replies (basically copying Twitter), Facebook has made it a lot easier to make your content p…
January 13
Might I suggest that rather than "blasting out" the same post to a bunch of social networks, you pick one (or two) that you like/that work for your readers and post uniquely to those? I don't mean to call you out in public, but it's questionable how…
January 8
I have basically the same set up going (personal/pro account/"personalized" work account). I don't aggressively publicize the fact that I (@paulbalcerak) am the guy behind @pnwlocalnews, but it says so in our description, just because I favor transp…
January 8
I'm the assistant editor of New Media for Sound Publishing. We own 30-odd newsbrands in the Puget Sound region (Washington state), which have anywhere between three and 10 newsroom staffers (tending more toward three). I'm not actually in any of th…
January 8
A group for web editors, interactive directors, multimedia directors, etc from organizations of all sizes to share what works and what doesn't work when training, producing content and doing all of the other things that you do.
December 30, 2009

Comment Wall (12 comments)

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At 1:11am on February 19, 2009, Cassandra Gallagher said…
You mentioned you're going hyper-local in your coverage areas...have you heard of Serra Media? (Or is that what you're talking about already?)

I'm a student up at Western Washington University and we're one of many schools Mark Briggs has been working with to experiment for the hyper-local newsgarden website. (Mostly because we can post things for the Bellingham Herald website).

I think this idea of hyper-local is really interesting. Especially the idea that as the web gets bigger we are finding ways to still keep it close to home and local.
At 2:06pm on January 23, 2009, Marqise Allen said…
Hey Paul. How goes it? I'm doing pretty good. I've got a job, so I can't complain. What have you been up to lately? Well just wanted to say hi and see how you were doing. If you're ever in the Centralia-Chehalis area, be sure to let me know. Take care.
At 5:51pm on July 21, 2008, Will Sommer said…
Guess I misread the part about having a bigger circulation than some metros. Hope all's well with your site!
At 7:23pm on July 17, 2008, Will Sommer said…
Thanks for the link, Paul! Useful stuff. I liked how that writer talked about how randomly the internet decides what posts will be popular and which will go unnoticed.

I see your site has more visitors than the metro papers--nice!
At 4:08pm on July 10, 2008, Jonathan Weiss said…
You're very welcome, and of course feel free to email me any questions you come across!
At 3:46pm on July 9, 2008, Jason Molinet said…
Hey Paul:

I'm a former Newsday reporter who started his own online media company. Buildnclick.com is one of my offerings. We specialize in Internet solutions for small businesses. And that includes SEO. As a publisher myself I understand your needs better than most. If I can help, let me know.

Jason Molinet
At 7:47pm on July 8, 2008, Megan Hansen said…
Life's pretty good. Just when things start to get boring it throws a curve ball. There was a massive house fire last night. I was there to capture all the action.
Where are you living these days? Did you ever end up out on the peninsula?
At 1:01pm on July 3, 2008, Megan Hansen said…
Hey Paul!
I see you're not at the Central Kitsap Reporter anymore. When did that change take place? Are you liking your new job? Next week will be my one year anniversary with the NVN! It doesn't seem like it's been a year since graduation!
At 6:10pm on May 2, 2008, John Taylor said…
Geez, Paul -- everything's sort of purple here.
But you're damn right about the food prices at Safeco. And waaaaay too much garlic. Whatever happened to hot dogs, for crying out loud?
At 9:26pm on April 25, 2008, J.Joyce said…
Paul,
Thanks for hitting me up. This site is clean, and John did hook it up. I did chat with Marqise a few times. Seems like a real good guy. Invite him on here.
Take care, hope all is well with you.

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