By: Charles Bowen A number of online services that promise to serve the thoroughly wired journalist actually provide quick links to features
about journalism today. Of course, there's certainly nothing wrong with that. We can all use connections to journalism-oriented magazines and news columns, tips on writing and editing, even job openings for news professionals looking for a change of scenery.
However, for most of those in the working press, the best help for journalists would be portals to online tools that help in the daily jobs. For my modemming dollar, give me links to news services, financial data sites, reference tools, reservoirs of statistics, search engines, and the like.
That is exactly what JournalistExpress does. Here is a site that specializes in excellent links that are organized logically and neatly into categories. You can even personalize and customize the site by adding and removing links to your own version of the site.
Visit the site at
http://journalistexpress.com, where a busy introductory page offers literally hundreds of direct links in categories such as:
* Wires: AP, UPI, Reuters, Bloomberg, Business Wire, PR Newswire, and related services.
* Magazines, ranging from
Atlantic Monthly and
Consumer Reports to
TV Guide, U.S. News and World Report, and
Wired.
* Daily News, with links major newspapers such as
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the
Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and others.
* Broadcast News, hooking you up to CBS, CNN, ABC, BBC, FOX, MSNBC, and more.
* News Site, with connections to Web originals such as First Headlines, News Index, Total News, Lycos News, the Drudge Report, and CNet News.
* Stocks & Markets, linking to resources ranging from Dow Jones to Motley Fool.
* All About Us, with links to journalism-specific publications, including
Editor & Publisher, American Journalism Review, Online Journalism Review, the Freedom Forum, and more.
Continue scrolling the page to find the site's powerful research and reference section, with direct links to directions, online reference books, geographic resources, assorted databases, statistical sites, search engines, business reports, travel advisories and photo and transcription services. Of particular value is the section on tools, with links to utilities for finding ZIP codes, calculators, currency converts, time databases, and weather resources.
Farther down the lengthy main page is a "People & Characters" section, with links to more tools, including those to find phone numbers around the world and directories for government, law, medicine and business, as well as resources for locating quotable experts on various subjects and online discussions.
At the very bottom of the introductory screen is a fun section called "Slow News Day." This is a portion you'll want to report on if you decide to cover the site in your news columns, since it provides links to major online shopping sites, job search services, entertainment resources, cartoons and comics, sports venues online, and even horoscopes.
Other considerations for using JournalistExpress in your reporting and editing:
1. You may find JournalistExpress so useful that you want to make it your homepage. You also might want to take advantage of the site's free registration so you can use its new customizing feature as well as services such as e-mail and stock-portfolio tracking. Upon registering, you receive a password that lets you access your Personal JournalistExpress area.
2. Looking for fodder for an Internet column? The site also has a "Great Sites Archives," linked from the top of the main page. All users can reach the last two weeks' worth of featured sites. Registered members have access to the entire database back to 1997.
3. JournalistExpress was founded by in 1998 by Patricia Pomerleau and is owned and operated by CEOExpress Co., which was created to organize the Web's best resources for busy business executives.
To see Bowen's last 10 columns,
click here. Previous columns may be purchased in our
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