New Media Unit

"Symbolia is a digital magazine whose content is more storyboard than story - a rich blend of illustrations, comics and audio clips that spin a different kind of narrative." When I say "illustrated journalism," I don't just mean pretty pictures with the news. We're talking about integrating long-form, investigative pieces with comics, infographics and other interactive elements to create a very visual news experience unlike anything that's really been tried before. We are basically turning the news into art.

"It's not exactly a newsflash that the newspaper industry has seen better days. But I still found these charts, which I came across in Business Insider's expansive presentation on the future of digital media, striking:"

"He discusses the app and his take on the future of journalism and the importance of local, unique stories in the survival of journalism. It's a short but insightful clip"

"Pushing to the future of journalism - A project of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard"

"Snow Fall tells the story of skiers and snowboarders trapped beneath an avalanche in Washington state's Cascade Mountains. And it tells that story through text, photos, videos and interactive graphics that blend seamlessly and come alive on the Web page" You can see the difference clearly in this side-by-side comparison. The left side shows how multimedia is segregated in a typical New York Times article (the Sunday Magazine profile of Jerry Seinfeld), and on the right side is the first page of the Snow Fall project.

"Here are five predictions for how digital media will unfold in 2013:"

"After six years of affiliating his popular blog with major media companies Time, The Atlantic and most recently the Daily Beast, Andrew Sullivan announced he's returning to independence. As of Feb. 1, the blog will live at andrewsullivan.com without any ads, sponsors or investment backing. Just Sullivan and a couple of colleagues blogging - and hopefully, readers paying. Sullivan is asking for $19.99 a year to subscribe ("around a nickel a day"). Sullivan calls it "the purest, simplest model for online journalism: you, us, and a meter. Period. No corporate ownership, no advertising demands, no pressure for pageviews … just a concept designed to make your reading experience as good as possible, and to lead us not into temptation." The metered model, to be administered by TinyPass, allows a yet-unspecified number of free reads per month, with exemptions for any visitor following a link from another blog. "No blogger or writer need ever worry that a link to us will push their readers into a paywall," Sullivan writes. He hopes this will pave the way for other writers:"