Ureneck speaks at International Press Institute

Professor Lou Ureneck was a panelist in September at the annual meeting of the International Press Institute in Vienna. He discussed the role of the blogger as journalist and described his experience as a blogger for The New York Times, where he produced a multimedia blog about a cabin he built in Maine.

From Ureneck's article in the annual IPI report, "Building a Cabin and a Blog Create Foundation for Community" :

In the fall of 2009, I set about building a cabin in the hills of western Maine. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same urge. I wrote a column about it for the New York Times, and the column triggered a cascade of letters and emails from people around the country who were interested in cabins and country life.

At about the same time, I was feeling the need to learn more about Web publishing. I am a journalism professor at Boston University, and I had spent most of my life awash in newspaper ink, most recently as the page-one editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I was conscious of lagging behind my students in the world of podcasts, blogging, and social networking. So, when the Times said it was interested in publishing a blog about my work on the cabin as I was actually doing the work, I seized the opportunity. I saw it as a way to learn the tools and techniques of blogging and multimedia production.

Read Ureneck's full story, and check out his cabin blogging at the New York Times and at mainecabinblog.com.