Archives: news

Independent bookstores: surviving, thriving, and growing in number

July 30, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, journalism, news.

Despite Covid, despite Amazon, despite a general downturn in retailing over the last decade, independently-owned local bookstores seem to be making a comeback. When Covid hit in 2020, it looked as though the health crisis would push independent bookstores over the cliff. That did happen in some cases, and the numbers of such businesses declined. • Read More »

Inaugural images, the Braille month, 5 minutes with the flute, and a podcast recommendation: newsletter, January 22, 2021

January 24, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, news, newsletter.

During the last few weeks, I am more and more  reading short stories rather than novels. Up to now, I have never paid much attention to short stories. It began, I think,  when a newsletter reader mentioned Ed Hoch, whose name I had never heard and stories I had never read. And it’s gone on from • Read More »

September 8 is International Literacy Day

September 10, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, news.

    September 8 is International Literacy Day, designated so by the United Nations. There are still too many people in the world who cannot read, and two-thirds of them are women. This year’s theme is Literacy in a Digital World. “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who • Read More »

Photos of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation from FEMA’s photojournalists

September 3, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: news, photojournalism.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sends out photographers along with its emergency responders to record disasters wherever they occur. Here are some of those photos. Please remember the victims of this disaster by donating to the relief agency of your choice. My choice is the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR.org). Members of FEMA’s • Read More »

The Newspaperman: A poem from the 1880s

August 8, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, journalists, news, newspapers, reporters, reporting.

In doing some research in 19th century newspapers recently, I found this clever little poem: THE NEWSPAPER MAN Little they know. or even think, Of the work there is in shedding Ink By the busy wielders of pencil and pen, Generally known as newspaper men. “Jottings,” “In General,” “Spice of Life,” “Variations,” and rumors rife, • Read More »

Digital Reader blogger tries to get at the real facts about ebook sales

May 25, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, journalists, news, reporters, reporting, self publishing.

A lot of buzzing and scoffing these days in the world of independent publishing about the “fact” that ebook sales are down. Blogger Nate Hoffelder tries to set the facts — the real facts — about ebook sales straight. Source: Damn the Facts: The “Ebook Sales Are Down” Narrative Must be Maintained at All Costs • Read More »

50 years ago, Harrison Salisbury did not win the Pulitzer Prize

April 11, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: news, reporters, reporting.

[button link=”http://dl.bookfunnel.com/iygwd1dtrg” style=”tick” color=”silver” bg_color=”#adadad” border=”#080708″ window=”yes”]Free ebook: KILL THE QUARTERBACK[/button]   Fifty years ago when the Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, politics — not merit — kept Harrison Salisbury from winning the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. This week’s announcement (see below) of the latest prizes brings this sad tale to mind. Salisbury was a • Read More »

In which I answer the question, “What’s next?”, part 2: the suffrage ladies and me

April 21, 2016 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: Alice Paul, freedom of speech, history, journalism, news, photojournalism, Voting, writing.

The suffrage ladies may not be done with me. Those were the women who, between 1910 and 1920, affected the most profound change in the make-up of the electorate in the history of the Republic. In 2013, Seeing Suffrage was published by the University of Tennessee Press. The book was about the 1913 Washington suffrage • Read More »

Swag for SPJ’s Front Page Follies

July 2, 2015 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, news, reporters.

For the past several years I have been asked (and honored to be asked) to provide some items for the silent auction for the Front Page Follies, the annual musical production of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists. So, here are this year’s offerings: The first is a watercolor that was posted on Facebook • Read More »

Design: breaking the chains of habituation

June 14, 2015 | By Jim Stovall | Comments Off on Design: breaking the chains of habituation | Filed in: news.

Design is important, but not always for the reasons we believe. In the TED video below, Tony Fadell, the designer of the iPod, talks about the things that really make design something that innovators should pay attention to. Here are some of the points that Fadell makes: — Habituation – “We get used to things as • Read More »

FoxNews and CNN viewers

May 17, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: news.

Earlier this month, Pew found that the voting intentions of the election news audience were deeply divided according to where voters got their news. The current survey shows that gap remains substantial, with a large majority of the Fox News audience supporting President Bush and a comparable share of the CNN audience favoring Sen. Kerry.