Today we’re announcing three major additions to the Publish2 team — journalists whose stellar reputations speak for themselves:

• Ryan Sholin joins us next week as Director of News Innovation.
• Greg Linch is the winner of the Publish2 Future of Journalism Contest and will join us in the fall as our Producer.
• Howard Weaver has joined our Board of Directors.

Here’s a deeper dive on the news:

You may know Ryan Sholin from his widely read and respected blog, Invisible Inkling, where he dishes out insights on the future of news. You may know him as a co-founder of WiredJournalists, a community of over 3,000 journalists helping each other learn and invent the future of news. You may know him as a winner of a Knight News Challenge Grant for ReportingOn, a backchannel for beat journalists to help each other report, and for his posts at Idea Lab. Or you may know him as the Director of Community Site Publishing at GateHouse Media, where he trained hundreds of journalists to succeed on the Web. And, of course, you may be one of his many Twitter followers.

However you know Ryan, you know how much he has done to help journalists innovate, learn, collaborate, and excel. We can’t think of anyone better to do the same for the community of journalists and newsrooms using Publish2 and to play a pivotal role in developing our platform to help journalism survive and thrive in the digital age.

When you look at what Greg Linch has accomplished, it’s hard to believe he’s only now graduating from the University of Miami. As Editor in Chief of the Miami Hurricane, Greg led a complete redesign of the site on WordPress, which included a major shift to breaking news on the web and multimedia reporting. It’s no surprise that Greg is also the Community Director and Core Team Member of CoPress, which is working to create a better technical ecosystem for college news online through community, technical and hosting solutions. Greg has interned at The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and he’ll be interning this summer (before joining us) at the Dallas Morning News. He’s also a highly accomplished multimedia reporter, with projects like Special Olympics Live. Greg has been blogging since 2007 at The Linchpen about online journalism and journalism education, and is co-administrator and contributor to the international blogging ring of young journalists, Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists. Greg is also an active member of the Online News Association, Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Press Association, and the Society for News Design. Honors and awards include 2009 Poynter Fellowship for College Journalists, and University of School of Communication Award and Print Journalism Awards (top undergad and top j-student). Phew… Check out Greg’s resume for everything I’ve left out (and Greg on Twitter!).

We received many fantastic entries in our Future of Journalism Contest, and there was a great deal of talent among the top ten finalists. But we jumped at the chance to hire Greg (here’s his winning entry). In everything he does, Greg helps journalism evolve into the future. When he joins Publish2 in the fall, Greg will be telling stories of innovation and helping journalists learn how to use the tools that can help them succeed.

Howard Weaver is of one of the great champions of public service journalism. He served as Vice President, News at The McClatchy Company from 2001-2009, capping a 30-year tenure with the company. In that position he was the chief news executive overseeing 30 daily and more than 50 weekly newspapers, extensive digital and web properties and reporters working in Washington and around the globe. He is a member of the American Society of News Editors and has six times served as a Pulitzer Prize juror. He also serves on the Board of Visitors of the Knight Fellowships at Stanford. Howard twice led the Anchorage Daily News to Pulitzer Prizes; he wrote the stories for which the paper won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service, and was editor and a lead writer on the project for which the paper again won the prize in 1989. He was one of three reporters whose coverage of the Alaska Teamsters Union during construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline won the award in 1976. Howard blogs on journalism at Etaoin Shrdlu and other topics at Quantum Dice; his Twitterstream is @howardweaver.

Howard has been inspiring and guiding our Digital Sunlight initiative. He shares our vision that the future of journalism will combine the power of digital and collaborative technologies with the enduring qualities of professional journalism. We are very fortunate to have his guidance on our Board of Directors.

Publish2 builds technology to enable the future of journalism, but our core belief is that people — journalists — empowered by technology, are the key to that future. That’s why we’re so excited to have such talented people join our team to work with our community of journalists and newsrooms.

Today, with the signing of the largest government stimulus program in history, Publish2 is announcing a new initiative to help newsrooms faced with declining resources continue to play the watchdog role that is so vital in this time of crisis. Digital Sunlight is our code name for a new feature set that will allow citizens to help journalists cover the stimulus act and the other big stories that affect our lives and our communities by submitting tips, leads, anecdotes, questions, etc. into a global searchable database.

In particular, we aim to overcome what we believe is a limitation of many “citizen journalism” initiatives to date, i.e. viewing citizen journalism as an end in itself, where citizens are supposed to replace professional journalists, filling up community sites with reporting. We believe citizen journalism is part of a larger process where professional journalists still play the vital role they always have. The key is to enable dynamic and ongoing collaboration between citizens and professional journalists, where citizens can become a true practical extension of the newsroom.

It’s all about collaboration.

[Continue reading →]

Want to win a free trip to New York City for Mediabistro Circus? Or a free trip to San Francisco for the Online News Association’s annual conference? Or a brand new 15-inch Macbook Pro (the best laptop you’ll ever own)?

These are the grand prizes in Publish2’s Invite, Earn, and Learn incentive program. And it’s winner’s choice — whatever prize gets you most excited! (In these tough times we could all use some excitement.)

How can you win? All you have to do is invite journalists to Publish2 using our new invitation system. For every journalist you invite who registers, you’ll get an entry in the grand prize drawing.

Your odds of winning? REALLY good because this promotion is only for journalists on Publish2.

We’re proud to be partnering with the Online News Association and Mediabistro.com to offer you a chance to attend one of these top-tier digital media confabs — professional networking, digital skill building for your resume, meeting all the movers and shakers in the industry, and more. And did we mention San Francisco and New York, with airfare and hotel included?

And the Macbook Pro option… well, that speaks speaks for itself. It’s truly a beautiful piece of hardware. (Windows users, after you try Mac, you’ll never go back!)

But wait, there’s more!

If you introduce 10 journalists to Publish2, not only will you get 10 entries into the grand prize drawing, we’ll give you a $25 digital reward card good for courses in journalism and technology through mediabistro.com or lynda.com, or a Best Buy $25 gift card.

Check out the details and official rules. This super-rewarding program ends March 31, 2009.

So what are you waiting for? Invite now.

We’ve partnered with PR Newswire to make Publish2’s link tool available to journalists using the PR Newswire for Journalists service, so that they can easily save and organize news releases. The goal of the partnership is to help journalists work with information on the web and leverage free resources that help them with their reporting. PRNJ serves journalists from 27,000 media organizations — we look forward to introducing them to our community on Publish2. And Publish2 users can take advantage of the PRNJ’s comprehensive news release platform, applying their editorial judgment to finding information that is newsworthy.

We’re also excited about this partnership because it’s one of the avenues we’re exploring in developing our business model — we’re looking at how the combined resources of Publish2 and a partner like PR Newswire could generate new sources of revenue. And we aim for journalists and news orgs to be an integral part of whatever model emerges and to share in any new revenue. Our mission is to help journalism survive and ultimately thrive in a digital media world, and that applies as much to developing new business models to support journalism as it does evolving the practice of journalism on the web.

So stay tuned.

Publish2 already makes it super easy for journalists to save links to any content on the web using our “link tool” (AKA bookmarklet). Just click “Link with Publish2″ in your browser when you’re reading an article on a news site, and in a few seconds it’s saved to Publish2.

But what about when you’re not reading news on a news site? What if you do your daily reading in a feed reader like Google Reader? What a hassle to have to open the feed item in the browser in order to save it to Publish2.

Not anymore.

You can now import Shared Items on Google Reader as links on Publish2!

If you use the Share with Note feature in Google Reader, your note is imported as a comment on Publish2. You can automatically send Shared Items to a Publish2 Newsgroup, which can be used for collaborating with other journalists and/or publishing the links to your site. You can share your imported links with other journalists on the Publish2 Newswire or save them to My Research to use for your reporting.

You can add tags to imported links automatically — great if you set up a Shared Items page based on a tag in Google Reader. You can also send links to your My Research page, or subscribe to your own feed and save your best work to My Clips.

And it gets better.

You can automatically send Google Reader Shared Items to Twitter and Delicious!

It’s easy to set up. You can set up links to be imported automatically, or you can manually import links after you’ve caught up on your feed reading.

All you need to do is enter the URL of your Google Reader shared items. In Google Reader, just click on Shared Items in the left navigation:

Then click on “See your shared items page in a new window.” The URL in the window that pops up is what you put in Publish2 to get it set up.

We’re excited about Google Reader because a feed reader is a very efficient way to consume news from many different sources. Feed readers are increasingly an essential tool for journalists, whether for staying on top of their beats or taking on the role of information filter. (And that’s why every page of links on Publish2 has a feed!)

Now you can practice link journalism directly from your feed reader.

Here are some initial reactions:

Jeremy Zilar of NYTimes.com

David Cohn of Spot.us

Google Reader is just our first foray into feed reader support. We’re planning to connect to Netvibes, Netnewswire, and any others that are in popular demand (let me know if you have any requests).

The discussion about journalism’s future so often focuses on Big Changes — Kill the print edition! Flips for everyone! Reinvent business models NOW! — that it’s easy to forget how simple innovation can be.

Sometimes all you need is a few Tweets, a bunch of links, and some like-minded pioneers.

That’s how a quiet revolution began in Washington state Wednesday. Four journalists spontaneously launched one of the first experiments in collaborative (or networked) link journalism to cover a major local story.

But it gets better. Those four journalists weren’t in the same newsroom. In fact, they all work for different media companies. And here’s the best part: Some of them have never even met in person.

[Continue reading →]

There’s one week left to submit an entry to the “I Am The Future Of Journalism” Contest. The deadline is December 30.

We’ve gotten some great entries by journalists who are thinking creatively, passionately, and positively about the future. You can show your support for them by helping to rate the entries (some examples embedded below):

Publish2 is launching a contest for journalists to promote themselves as the future of journalism. We believe journalism has a bright future, and we’re betting everything on that belief.

The winner of the “I Am The Future Of Journalism” Contest receives a prize that we know is increasingly valuable in journalism due to shrinking supply — a job.

It’s a job with Publish2, a start-up focused on helping journalism thrive in the digital age. We already employ two incredibly talented journalists, Tammi Marcoullier and Josh Korr, and we want to expand our team. Included in the offer is a $1,000 signing bonus.

But since we can only hire one journalist, we’re going to promote all entries to news organizations and media companies that are looking for journalists who are focused on the future and who want to help journalism evolve.

To enter the contest, you can submit a video, a slide show, or a written statement (or all three) about why you believe you are the future of journalism.

“I am the future of journalism because…”

That’s all the direction we’re giving. We want you to define the future and how you want to be a part of it.

Get all the details and enter the contest.

The contest finalists — and those who get the most attention from other prospective employers — will be chosen by you. Please lend your fellow journalists a hand by rating their entries.

The contest is open to submissions until December 30, and entries can be rated up until January 9.

Why are we running this contest? Well, we wanted to do a promotion. We thought about giving away a laptop or something. But we thought this contest would mean a lot more.

Journalism right now needs to focus positively on the future. That’s what Publish2 is all about.

This was a lot more work, but we think it will be worth it.

Enter now. Tell a friend. Spread the word.

You are the future of journalism — get inspired, get noticed, get hired.

Reading Eagle has brought their journalists out from behind the curtain to share with readers what they are reading on the web — often beyond what can be found on Reading’s own site. Their new link journalism feature is called, appropriately enough, What We’re Reading:

Each editor has a profile on the page with photo, email, Twitter, and links to what they are reading (courtesy of Publish2 widgets). [Continue reading →]

Publish2 is designed for journalists and newsrooms to save links to interesting and relevant news from any source on the web, then publish those links on their sites using widgets (like the one in this blog’s sidebar) or feeds. Our browser shortcut (AKA bookmarklet) makes it super easy to save those links — both for web-savvy journalists and those new to the web — and then we provide a lot of flexibility for what you can do with those links.

Today, we’re adding a whole new dimension to Publish2 as a platform for link journalism — you can now use Publish2 to send links to other social networks, where you already have a following.

Our first two connections are to Twitter and delicious.

Send Links to Twitter

Twitter has become, for me, one of the most interesting sources of links — and a great place to share links. The problem is those links disappear into the Twittersphere — there’s no easy way to organize or reuse those links after they’ve been sent to Twitter.

Now, with the new Publish2 Twitter connection, you can send a link to Twitter and at the same time save it to Publish2, tag it, and add it to a Publish2 link feed on your site.

We’ve added a dedicated Twitter comment field, so you can write a longer comment on Publish2 and tailor a shorter comment for Twitter.  Or if you write a shorter Publish2 comment, that will get sent to Twitter automatically.

We’re using bit.ly to automatically convert the URL you save on Publish2.

Here’s what it looks like.  Just click our bookmarklet “Link with Publish2″:

And then at the bottom of the form, check the Twitter box. Add a Twitter comment if you want. Click “link” and you’re done.

Here’s an example of a link that Steve Buttry from The Gazette saved on Publish2:

And sent simultaneously to Twitter:

Steve now has these links saved in a useful form. He can add the link to a Publish2 Newsgroup for a collaborative linking effort.  He can also find the link easily with the tags he added. The link also appears on his Publish2 profile, for anyone following his links there.

Here’s what Steve had to say about it:

Publish2’s Twitter connection is also a great way for newsrooms using Twitter to go beyond automatically feeding links to their content into their Twitter feeds — which is pretty impersonal and not how most individuals use Twitter. It’s also redundant to their RSS feeds.

Instead, newsrooms could use their Twitter feeds to share interesting links. And there’s evidence that breaking out of the auto-feed approach to Twitter is actually the key to growing a Twitter following. This makes sense, since Twitter is about PEOPLE sharing things.

Send Links to Delicious

Publish2’s connection to delicious is just as simple. If you have a network of followers there, you enjoy all of the benefits of Publish2 without having to move your network. (Although we also have a network feature — and rather than following anonymous handles, you can actually follow real people!)

You can automatically send all of your Publish2 links to delicious, or select which ones to send. It’s as easy as checking a box.

Link once, publish everywhere.

With Publish2, publishing and distributing links no longer has to be a hassle.

Twitter and delicious are just the first connections. Coming soon are Publish2 connections to Facebook, Google Reader, Wordpress, Movable Type, and many more.

Register for Publish2 and give it a try!