Here’s what we’re keeping tabs on.
The Long Island Press and Innovate Long Island: Sans Kominicki, both pubs may be wandering off in new directions.
Unfortunately, what Kominicki had been conjuring up for the Press — to wit, “The new Press is going to be Esquire meets up with Forbes and they take Vogue to a cheap bar,” said he — never got off the ground and that’s a shame for many reasons, not the least of which it would’ve been a fun ride.
Associated Press, Long Island Style: Now that Frank Eltman rode off into the sunset, the Island needs new boots on the ground. Ditto, WLNY TV10/55: Richard Rose’s retirement leaves the CBS station without a Long Island Bureau chief. That ain’t good.
Suffolk Times: BOOM! Just like that, a local community weekly turns out solid investigative reporting and solves a 50-year-old cold case, proving (in no particular order): local isn’t dead and size doesn’t matter. May we just add one thing? More, please!
News Beat: It’s a podcast on social justice, but it’s hip. Self described as “sort of like if @60Minutes & @HamiltonMusical had a baby,” it looks like Jed Morey got his groove back.
Greater (insert locale here).com: GreaterLongIsland.com has birthed GreaterPatchogue, GreaterBayShore, GreaterBabylon and now, GreaterPortJeff, providing local news and entertainment in an easy digital, old-Patch kinda way. (Before Patch starting getting generic, that is.) There are some good instincts here, too. Case in point: With a nor’easter on the way, Greater sends out a story about an app that can hook you up with a local snow plow in minutes. That’s news, anticipating demand.
Suffolk Community College: They’ve launched a web radio station (look out, Old Westbury) on an Island where college radio is starting to heat up an otherwise listless space.
Long Island Business News: A new publisher is needed, now that Scott Schoen went back to college to be the CMO at LIU.
Newsday: After engineering a radical new course for the daily’s operations, everyone’s favorite co-publisher Ed Bushey is packing up his stuff and heading to Tronc. Debby Krenek now assumes full publishing responsibilities at Newsday, where change is the fuel for the future.
WNET/WLIW: Is the Plainview studio finished yet? Inquiring minds want to know.
The New York Times: After moving resources to cover its sweet spot — national news– the ol’ Gray Lady is hooking up with local news outlets to supplement its needs. All the better when it’s a multimedia play: Check out how the Times advanced its storytelling by including a PIX11 piece about one homeless woman’s battle with mental illness.