Media Evolution – Hear the Roar

 Robert Niles, Northwestern University alumnus,  began his journalism teachings with online tutorials showing other journalists how to use  math and data, then branching out to theme park and violin-related niches. These sites include user-generated aspects, invited users to contribute to the sites’ coverage.

The Online News Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism honored Robert’s ThemeParkInsider.com in 2001 with an Online Journalism Award for Service Journalism. The Webby Awards named the same site a finalist for Best Guides/Ratings/Reviews Site in 2005.

Robert also has worked as a Web editor, editorial writer and reporter for several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, (Denver) Rocky Mountain News, Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald and the (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Times.

Here is his goodbye, posted today on OJR:

After a decade, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication has suspended publication of OJR.

One of OJR’s goals over the years has been to help mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production. I’m pleased to say that USC Annenberg will continue to provide support in that area, through the Knight Digital Media Center. I encourage OJR readers to click over to the KDMC website and its blogs, if you are not already a regular reader there.

The decision to suspend OJR for now means that I have left the University of Southern California. But I am not going offline. I will continue to write, daily, about new media and journalism at my new website, SensibleTalk.com. I hope that many of you will click over and visit me there.

Finally, on behalf of OJR, I want to thank you. Thank you for your readership, tips, corrections, kind words and support. And I want to wish you success as you work to build engaging, informative and sustainable websites, to better serve your audiences.

So… in that spirit, I suppose that I will borrow a classic sign-off from the world of journalism, one that’s been borrowed by another recently:

Good night, and good luck.