Clips of the Week

What a week! We produced more than 40 story packages on Election Day alone, as well as completed our great interactive map. Some of our work was widely linked to, and run by Off The Bus, Our Town, the West Side Spirit and the Queens Courier.

As Dean Shepard noted, we kept the momentum going with Cristina Alesci’s David Halberstam/FBI file scoop. The AP piece was picked up locally and around the country –  NY 1, Channel 4, WNYC, the Village Voice, the Daily Beast (Tina Brown’s new internet venture), and many other media outlets and blogs ran the report and/or linked to us.

The election coverage and Halberstam story helped fuel the News Service’s strongest month ever: more than 30,000 page views for the 30-day period ending yesterday.  Simply tremendous – and another of sign how much impact our work can have.

There are too many contributors to the election coverage to mention – suffice to say, it was a school-wide effort. Meanwhile, some of our reporters still found time to do other stories. Here are some of the latest pieces (forgive me if I’ve missed anybody – our reporters produced so much great work this week, I’m having a hard time keeping up.):

• Matt Townsend shared a byline on this Daily News Marathon story about a firefighter’s inspirational comeback.
• Claudia Cruz, who filed election dispatches from Ohio to Off The Bus, saw two magazine pieces published this week: She asked actor and filmmaker Manny Perez a few questions about his upcoming flick, “The Butcher’s Son,” for Mujer Unica, a national women’s magazine in the Dominican Republic. Writing for Elan Magazine, she profiled a Barcelona DJ who takes risks spinning world music.
• Clark Merrefield wrote about Mayor Bloomberg’s grim budget revisions for City Hall.
• Mathew Warren helped put together this nytimes.com video featuring Muslim NYU students talking about how Islam was used by the McCain and Obama campaigns.
• Collin Orcutt takes on Marbury, Iverson and the rest of the NBA in his latest Men’s Fitness blog post.
• Ben Fractenberg took on Sarah Palin in this pre-Election Day blog post for Off The Bus.

Congrats to all on a week to remember – and keep ‘em coming!

Even with the end of Daylight Savings Time, there still aren’t enough hours in the day for all the reporting our staff is somehow managing to do.

We added 14 election-related stories to the News Service this week – including pieces that were picked up by Off The Bus (via Lives in Focus), am New York and the Queens Courier.

I won’t list them all here, but you can check out our stories on our nearly ready-for-prime-time election site. The interactive map, featuring our massive audio vox pop spanning the city, is almost completed, thanks to the hard work of our first-semester reporters, Interactive I profs, Russell Chun and Drew Geraets.

The map hasn’t quite gone live yet, but due to a technical quirk, many of the individual posts are on the web – and the Village Voice has noticed. The Voice’s post on our project has been picked up by several local blogs.

Much more of our election coverage, of course, is yet to come.

Here are some of the non-election pieces our reporters somehow found the time to work on this week:

• Mathew Warren helped assemble this NYtimes.com video about an Iraq war veteran adjusting to his new life as a student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
• Dan Macht’s article about the thaw of the municipal bond market found a home in Crain’s New York Business.
• Barry Paddock contributed to this Daily News story about two brothers killed in a Brooklyn shootout with cops.
• AnnMarie Costella’s review of a provacative exhibit by the British artist Bansky made The Villager.
• Jessica Firger’s fun talker about how some pet shelters ban black cat adoptions around Halloween became a Page 3 story for am New York.
• Linnea Covington’s feature on the latest frozen yogurt boom (Pinkberry, anyone?) made New York Press.
• Last week, you read Collin Orcutt on the NFL. This week, he takes on the NBA for Men’s Fitness.
• Sergey Kadinsky wrote a couple of local profiles for the Queens Tribune. I have copies in my office – come on by for a look.
• In case you missed the live audio webcast of Culture Shock, produced by Abi Ishola, Erin O’Neill and Craig Thompson, you can check out the show here.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming.

It was a great week for clips – and our News Service. Check these out:

• Vinita Singla and Megan McGibney’s News Service story about an email warning to Obama supporters to leave the T-shirts and buttons home on Election Day — or face problems at the polls — got big pickup. The New York Observer’s Politicker blog, Off The Bus and the Daily News’ Mouth of the Potomac blog linked to our piece. Similar stories have popped up online and in print in Pennsylvania, Alabama and Kentucky. This story, as we say in the business, may have legs. Our part of it started when Prof. Williston got one of the emails and handed a copy to Vinita and Megan with the three words that have spurred so much great journalism: “Check it out.”
• Everything old again is new again. There’s a push to rechristen the Crown Heights-Prospect Heights border Crow Hill, which was the area’s 19^th Century moniker. You’ll find Steve Pacer’s TV report detailing the neighborhood name game and Franklin Avenue’s revival on the News Service.
• Dwindling supplies at city food pantries have prompted one Bronx man to ride his bicycle from pantry to pantry in search of nourishment. You’ll find Cristiana Oliveira and Adeola Oladele’s TV report on the News Service.
• Jessica Simeone wrote about the opening of a new teen center in a Jersey City library for the Jersey Journal.
• Francesca Levy put together some great news-you-can-use articles and slideshows for two major media outlets. Her analysis of 20 business school websites can be found at BusinessWeek.com. She also put together a package about the U.S. cities with the most- and least-expensive rents for Forbes.com.
• Speaking of Forbes, Eliot Caroom wrote about the continuing fallout from the travails of America’s least-favorite couple: Fannie and Freddie.
• Mathew Warren shared a byline on this New York Times story about a couple’s mysterious rooftop plunge.
• Rebecca Harshbarger wrote about the screening of a documentary chronicling the post-9/11 violence against — and the resilience of — South Asian-Americans and Arab-Americans  for Queens Tribune.
• There’s a definite Yankees theme this week, much as it pains me to say (you’ll find me at Shea tomorrow, hopefully not weeping in my beer.): Collin Orcutt wrote about the unhappy October coming up for Bronx business owners who had been hoping for a post-season boost. His story made the Highbridge Horizon.
• Fritzie Andrade produced a video about the last game at Yankee Stadium for nytimes.com.
• Barry Paddock and Matt Townsend contributed to the Daily News’ coverage of the last game at the Babe’s  House.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

There’s no “I” in team — but there is one in “clip.” I’m not even sure exactly what I mean by that, but I happily noticed that teamwork played a role in some of this week’s work. Here’s a sampling:

• Dan Macht found a great local angle to the story of the week (and likely beyond). He wrote a piece for Crain’s  New York Business about the impact Lehman Brothers’ fall could have on charities and foundations. Dan gave himself a head start: he began researching and pitched his article before the bankruptcy was official. Rosaleen Ortiz snapped an eerie nighttime photo of Lehman’s headquarters to go with Dan’s story.
• Barry Paddock and Matt Townsend also worked the Lehman story, talking to shell-shocked employees for the Daily News.
• Matt contributed to a local primary story package for City Hall that also included pieces by Joshua Cinelli and our Class of ‘07 pal Andrew Hawkins.
• Francesca Levy shows — and tells — what kind of digs a million bucks will get you in cities around the world in this story/slideshow package she put together for Forbes.
• Mathew Warren scored a solo byline and some prime real estate in the Times’ Metro Section with his fun takeout on circus and sideshow performers who bring their acts to clubs and private parties.
• Walking along 41st Street just isn’t the same anymore. Valerie Lapinski captured that spirit and more in her radio story about the closing of “Rent.” Her piece was featured on WNYC.
• Rebecca Harshbarger weaves some great information and images into her first-person piece for The New Vision about the Seven Wonders of Kampala.
• Here are some amazing numbers: One man, 20 cannoli, six minutes. Megan McGibney hit Little Italy for this fun nypost.com video piece on the annual cannoli-eating contest
• Sarah Trefethen witnessed lots of pie eating when she headed upstate to cover a boating festival. She focused, of course, on the local angle: The South Street Seaport Museum’s W.O. Decker took Tugboat of the Year honors. Her story and photo made Downtown Express.
• On his first day out for the Daily News, Stephen Bronner covered a dramatic rescue story.
• Speaking of the Daily News, Lee Hernandez scored a clip with his interview of actress Dania Ramirez, who spoke about the upcoming season of “Heroes.”

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming!

Many of the internships are wrapping up, but the clips just keep coming. Here’s a sampling of the latest:

• I can guarantee that not one word of Henry Stewart’s review of “Henry Poole is Here” will be used as a blurb in any future advertisements. Check out his very entertaining piece in the L Magazine. He also said a lot in very few words in this blog item — sounds like a full-blown story waiting to happen.
• Linnea Covington, writing for New York Press, offers a short, but image- and information-packed review for the enticingly titled play, “Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell.”
  
• Jessica Firger found a hipster friendly doctor in Williamsburg who offers E-mail, video and IM consultations — but will occasionally make an old-fashioned house call. You’ll find her story in The Brooklyn Paper.
• Shuka Kalantari hosted the latest edition ofKPFA Radio’s “Voices of the Middle East and North Africa,” and contributed a segment about the late Palestinian poetMahmoud Darwish. She also started a companion blogf or the show.
• Dan Macht put together a piece about McCain’s and Obama’s reactions to the Russia-Georgia conflict for the Telegraph.co.uk
  
• Francesca Levy wrote about the world of for-profit universities owned by publicly held corporations for BusinessWeek. Check out her video interview with the new dean of the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland
• Barry Paddock contributed to today’s Daily News front page story about heroism amid tragedy in Queens.
• Damian Ghigliotty reports for Crain’s New York Business that unemployment in the city is down – even as unemployment claims are up.
• Meanwhile, in a glimmer of sunny economic news, the hotel business on Long Island is doing well, Danny Teigman found for Newsday.
• Mathew Warren contributed to this New York Times talker about MetroCard ethics (which may be an oxymoron these days.)

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming. (But make sure to enjoy what’s of summer, too).

We’ve hit August, but they’re hardly the dog days for us. Here are some of the latest example of the Class of ’08’s fine work:

• Rebecca Harshbarger contributed to this Washington Post A-1 story about abducted Ugandans. She’s also been writing many pieces for The New Vision, including this story about the apparent rising asthma rate in Uganda.
• Claudia Cruz also got the wood this week, notching the front page of Diario Libre with her story about the grand opening of a Mets training camp in Boca Chica, where she met Dominican President Fernandez.
• Francesca Levy made the BusinessWeek.com’s homepage with her timely story on lost luggage. Be sure to check out the accompanying slideshow.
• Kate Lurie is everywhere these days, it seems. You’ll find some of her latest work on abcnews.com, marieclaire.com and in the Daily News.
• Speaking of the Daily News, Allison Esposito helped the student reporters at Children’s Press Line assemble this story about the Sikh community’s battle again hate crimes.
• Roisin O’Connor-Mcuinn has been very busy at Time Out New York. I love this piece about the rollgate at the Jay Street-Borough Hall Station. She answers a question I’ve had for years — but I never bothered to look into, now much to my chagrin.
• Mathew Warren contributed to this New York Times subway story of another sort: the MetroCard machine foul-up that snagged thousands of credit card users.
• Emily Mayer produced this fun nypost.com video with the grabber title, “Seven Days to Sex Appeal.”
• Fritzie Andrade helped put together this lively nytimes.com video about a fledgling band promoter. It’s part of the ongoing “Breaking in” series.
• Clark Merrefield takes a literary turn in this Point Reyes Light article: He interviewed new U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan.
• Also working hard on the West Coast is Shuka Kalantari, who interviewed an Iranian musician for KPFA radio. Check out Shuka’s blog for QUEST, a science- and environment-driven KQED multimedia series.
• Danny Teigman found a sweet — or rather, sweets — story for Newsday: an Oyster Bay bakery that delivers desserts directly to customers’ docked boats.
• Come up with your own headline for this one-of-kind bank robbery story Jessica Firger wrote for The Brooklyn Paper. She also contributed this more uplifting piece about a local Little League team headed to a top tournament in Puerto Rico.
• Steve Pacer’s story about Canadian shoppers flooding Buffalo, spurred by the declining (U.S.) Dollar, has been picked up by central and northern New York radio station WRVO. You listen to his piece at the Public Radio Exchange . You’ll have to set up a free account — it’s quick and well worth the effort.
• Fritzie Andrade helped produce a NYTimes.com video about the return of the Zeppelin (not Led Zeppelin — the German airship).
• Mathew Warren shared the byline on this New York Times story about a fatal upper East Side fire.
• Jessica Firger nicely turns some phrases in this Brooklyn Paper piece about how the owner of Debbie’s Reins, an equestrian shop in Gowanus, is riding off into the sunset.
• Clark Merrefield’s latest article for the Point Reyes Light is the story of an anger management teacher with an alleged anger management problem.
• Stephen Bronner has the scoop on the city’s newest Family Justice Center in this Queens Courier article. This was a story Stephen has been trying to snag for months. His persistence paid off: he became the first reporter to get a tour of the facility and to interview its director.
• Dan Macht’s been contributing to The Telegraph’s political blog, and got to write about the much-talked-about Paris Hilton campaign video.
• If Danny Teigman comes back sporting a tan, this story may have something to do with it: He wrote a major battle-of-the-beaches takeout for Newsday on how Long Island and New Jersey shore towns are vying for visitors.
• Eliot Caroom, writing for abcnews.com/Nightline, profiled about a demographic group that’s getting hit harder than most by high gas prices: country folks with long commutes to city jobs.
• Barry Paddock did a story about a mode of transportation that’s not oil dependent: he wrote a very sweet piece for the Daily News about some Queens kids headed for the national Soap Box Derby championships.
• Allison Esposito helped the young reporters at Children’s Press Line put together a story for the Daily News about how Queens was excluded from a program that gives poor families vouchers to buy healthful foods at Greenmarkets.
• Maureen Ker’s story about the “cosplay” phenomenon — youths massing in public dressed as anime characters — made am New York, along with a gallery of her photos. The piece has been picked up by fan sites and the Florida Sun-Sentinel’s website.
• Carl Winfield wrote a news-you-can-use (but hopefully won’t have to) story for BusinessWeek.com about how to negotiate a severance package. You’ll find a companion video and story here. * Speaking of BusinessWeek.com, check out the video of Francesca Levy’s interview with the new dean of UC Berkeley’s business school.

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming!

Prescription for a steamy July day: Dress in loose clothes, drink plenty of liquids and check out these cool clips:

• Fritzie Andrade pulled together this nytimes.com video interview of All-Star Texas Ranger teammates Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton just before Hamiliton’s Home Run Derby show.

• Barry Paddock made it into The Boss’ private suite (The Boss, in this case, meaning Steinbrenner — Springsteen doesn’t hit town until next week) as part of the Daily News’ All-Star coverage. But I’m partial to this very sweet story Barry wrote this week about a retiring postal worker.

• High oil prices mean trouble for jelly-bean eaters. Carl Winfield explains in BusinessWeek.

• Mathew Warren scored a solo byline in the Times with this story about the campaign to stop the “stop snitching” campaign.

• Lots of proof this week that all news is local. Claudia Cruz covered a news conference by Dominican President Fernandez for Diario Libre — and found a New York angle involving Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat.

• Clark Merrefield packed quite a bit of detail into this story about a vicious beating in Point Reyes, Calif.

• Back on this coast, Stephen Bronner wrote a piece about convicted sex offenders living in Queens for the Queens Courier — and included a map.

• He was joined in the Courier by AnnMarie Costella, who penned a feature on a “green” pet store.

• Jessica Firger’s story in The Brooklyn Paper about a homeless man in Park Slope got some notice from authorities, who promised to help the man get his Social Security checks.

• Danny Teigman wrote this very timely story for Newsday about steps being taken by Hempstead officials to battle the heat.

• In our alumni corner, Kate Pastor interviewed Tiki Barber for an amNY story about how the former football star and other celebrities are doing public service announcements promoting affordable housing.

• In our faculty corner, Prof. Trudy Lieberman took to our TV studio to host the debut edition of Talking Health, a new series of health-related Webcasts for journalists.

• Reporters are always on duty. Matt Townsend got an unsolicited phone call at home – and turned it into a strong political story for the New York Observer.
• Mathew Warren “bagged” this environmental piece for the Daily News.
• “Busy” Barry Paddock worked on a handful of stories for the News this week – including this sidebar to the wood.
• In our alumni corner, Nadia Zonis turned an off-shoot from her capstone into a clip.

• Claudia Cruz was busy in two states, heading to her old stomping grounds of Ohio and filing three pre-primary story packages for Off The Bus. Check out her work, here, here and here. She also found time to file an article – in English and Spanish – for the Manhattan Times about a first-of-its-kind study of spending habits of Dominicans in the U.S.
• “Busy” Barry Paddock also was hard at work. He contributed to several Daily News stories, including covering a murder at his local supermarket ! He also scored his first Daily News solo byline with this light, bright and tight Page 2 story about a Fay Wray scream-a-like contest at the Film Forum. An expanded version of Barry’s live-in piece about an author who turned his job at Chelsea specialty foods store in a book was picked up by Chelsea Now.
• AnnMarie Costella’s story about a new controversy surrounding Harry Houdini’s death made the Daily News.
• Maureen Ker took a run of the mill wire piece about a medical study on acupuncture and fertility, and gave it a local angle – and a (very cute) human face. Her story – complete with a picture of a happy mom and her newborn daughter – was published in am New York.
• Jessica Firger’s story about a bunch of clowns with a serious message made Beyond Race magazine’s website, along with one of her pictures.
• Exhibiting some good street reporting and teamwork, Roisin O’Connor-McGinn, Rosaleen Ortiz, Annie Shreffler and Mathew Warren hit Chinatown the day after a much-ballyhooed raid on peddlers of counterfeit designer good. They found some hawkers who were still doing business. The team’s multi-media package can be found on the News Service.
• Clark Merrefield’s story about the battle to unionize part-time workers at the Lower East Side Tenement museum also can be found on the News Service.

Speaking of the News Service… check out our new News Map. Special thanks to Drew Geraets, Joe Filippazzo and Dana Oliver for making it happen.

• In our alumni corner, Tanzina Vega’s feature about Colombian party buses in NYC not only made the New York Times’ Sunday paper, it also was the day’s most emailed Metro section story.

• Check out Dana Oliver’s story about Chinese New Year’s celebrations in Sunset Park. (PDF)
• Daniel Macht and Rosaleen Ortiz put together a multi-media piece for Off The Bus on what some voters of the future (already gearing up for the 2020 election) are thinking about during the current campaign.
• Joe Filippazzo’s neighborhood profile of St. Albans made amNY.
• Lakshmi Gandhi’s guide to a podcast interview with author Manil Suri appeared on SAJA’s website.
• Mathew Warren was part of the team that produced the New York Times’ front-page story on the arrest of a suspect in the slaying of an Upper East Side therapist.
• Eliot Caroom’s story about a controversy over a composting toilet found a home in the Daily News.
• Stephen Bronner joined Eliot in the News’ Bronx section with his story about a Valentine’s Day push to teach teens how to avoid abusive relationships.
• Cristina Alesci pointed out how credit card companies aren’t following the fed’s led in cutting interest rates in this Daily News business section piece.

Our alumni also are going strong:

• Sweet Georgia Brown! Sebastian Bednarski produced a video about Harlem Globetrotters legend Curly Neal for NY Post.com. He also put together a story on the man behind the White Flag clothing line.
• Heather Appel had the honor of writing the obituary of an extraordinary colleague at the Herald News.