If you've been reading Uplink for a while, you've probably noticed some changes over the past year. We redesigned the newsletter and added new features to keep you current with the latest goings-on in computer-assisted reporting. For instance, we now highlight some of the best uses of analytic mapping software in "Mapping it Out." But we haven't thrown out those longstanding features, such as "Tech Tips," that our readers have found invaluable.
Likewise, you'll see some more changes in the issues ahead. One is that we'll coordinate Uplink more with The IRE Journal. That means by 2003 we'll have Uplink and the IRE Journal on the same release schedule. And we'll tie Uplink articles more closely to ones that run in The IRE Journal. So if we have an IRE Journal article about an investigative story, the corresponding issue of Uplink may have a related article that dissects the database work that went into the story.
We're also moving "Bits & Bytes" off Uplink's cover and onto page 2 to make room for one more front-page story. Some of these articles you'll see on the cover will take a look at issues that affect journalists doing computer-assisted reporting. This edition's story about restrictions to data a year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is but one example.
Uplink has four new contributing editors who also are working as University of Missouri School of Journalism graduate research assistants in the NICAR Database Library. They'll write regularly for Uplink and help develop story ideas. The contributing editors are:
Megan Christensen, who is a veteran of the database library, in her second year working on her master's degree and has interned at the Detroit Free Press. Jaimi Dowdell, another veteran of the database library who just started working on her master's degree this fall. Holly Hacker, who just left the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to work on her master's degree. She has reported for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, the Antioch (Calif.) Ledger-Dispatch and the Gazette Newspapers in Montgomery County, Md. Stephanie Kang, another newcomer to the database library, has begun working on her master's degree and had interned at the Los Angeles Times.
In addition, Jeff Porter and I are swapping Uplink duties so Jeff can focus more of his attention on the work of the database library, where business has picked up considerably during the past few months. With this issue, Jeff becomes assistant managing editor and I become managing editor.
Thanks for reading Uplink and feel free to e-mail us at uplink@nicar.org if you have any suggestions.