First off, I’d like to wish a happy 2012 to all our members. It’s sure to be another exhilarating year for those of us in journalism, and we’re thrilled you’ve chosen to experience it with us. Additionally, I’m personally honored to be serving as President of ONA this year. As a longtime board member, I’ve seen this organization grow dramatically over the past seven years, and I’m proud we’ve been able to build on the original vision our founders had when they created ONA in 1999.

I’m writing today to provide you with an update on our recent board meeting and some other important ONA news.

This was the first meeting of our 2012 board — with new members Mario Tedeschini-Lalli, Burt Herman, Juana Summers and John Keefe all in attendance at the offices of Dow Lohnes in Washington D.C. on Jan. 20-21.

Over the past year, our small but mighty staff has launched a new website with a wealth of original content, trained our membership, grown ONA Local groups around the world, and provided guidance to journalists on pressing issues. So it’s with great pleasure that I kick off 2012 by announcing promotions to reward tireless work and staff additions to meet the needs of our rapidly growing ONA community.

Jen Mizgata

Let’s start with our newest hire: Jen Mizgata, who has been connecting members and the journalism community at large through all of our social media platforms and the ONA Issues Tumblr, starts today as our full-time Communications and Social Media Manager. Jen’s role will expand to help create innovative engagement initiatives and campaigns to promote programming, and she’ll serve as the homepage editor for journalists.org.

Jim Brady elected ONA president

Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief, Digital First Media, was elected President at the ONA’s January Board of Directors meeting in Washington, D.C. Jim, who is in his fourth term as a Board member, has held the offices of Treasurer and Vice President over the past three years, and has chaired or served on many key committees, including Legal Affairs and Strategy.

Joining Jim as officers of the organization are: Meredith Artley, Vice President & Managing Editor, CNN Digital, elected Vice President; Jody Brannon, in the second year of her two-year term as Treasurer; and Will Sullivan, Director of Mobile News, Lee Enterprises, elected Secretary.

ONA Students and Educators:

Happy New Year!

As the semester begins, we want to remind you that the deadline for the AP-Google Journalism & Technology Scholarship is fast approaching: Jan. 27, 2012.

We know many of you have questions about the application and we’re hosting another Google+ Hangout event. What type of project is the committee looking for? Do I have to major in journalism? Can graduate students apply?

ONA Scholarship Manager Irving Washington will host a Google+ Hangout Q&A to help you prepare for the AP-Google Scholarship on Tuesday, Jan. 17 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. (ET).

Dear members,

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA. With the House Judiciary Committee set to resume debate on the bill later this month, we thought it time to weigh in. As an organization representing thousands of content creators, ONA strongly condemns infringement of intellectual property and the violation of copyright. However, we believe SOPA would do little to stem those problems and would actually cause harm to the Internet and to the American public.

Indeed, the act — and its counterpart in the Senate, the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) — would inappropriately shut down websites, disrupt the free flow of legitimate information and limit Americans from fully exercising their First Amendment rights.

That is why, consistent with ONA’s desire and mission to keep the Internet open and vibrant, we join with others to oppose SOPA and PIPA. Furthermore, we encourage our members to contact their representatives in Congress and ask that they, too, oppose these bills.

Join the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Online News Association Dec. 3, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT, for a student-led online summit, “Telling Stories of Diversity in the Digital Age.”

Presentations will focus on emerging issues in contemporary journalism, including net neutrality, media consolidation, broadband access in rural America, the role of citizen journalism in the Arab Spring and comic journalism.

The summit will open with introductory remarks from Associate Professor of Journalism Simran Sethi, who teaches the Diversity in Media class. “Opportunities for storytelling are unprecedented,” says Sethi. “We no longer need to rely on legacy media to share information or connection with one another. This evolution is particularly salient for diverse constituents who are marginalized or left out of mainstream discourse.”

ONA joins Reporters Committee, news orgs in asking Supreme Court for audio, video coverage of health care reform arguments
The Online News Association has added its name to a letter from The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, asking the Court to allow audio and video recording of upcoming oral arguments in the three cases involving proposed federal health care legislation.

“Because the health care reform law deeply affects millions of Americans, there likely will be a strong interest nationwide in closely following the proceedings as, or shortly after, they occur,” the Reporters Committee letter stated. “As such, the Court’s current policy of releasing audio recordings of arguments at the end of the week will not adequately satisfy this strong public interest in being timely informed of important developments in a matter of such overwhelming impact on such a widespread scale.”

The letter also noted that delaying the release of argument recordings “will impede journalists’ ability to provide same-day coverage of the arguments.” Read the full Reporters Committee letter and list of partner media organizations here.

Hello, ONA Students and Educators!

As the school year comes to a close and you begin to prepare for finals, we want to remind you that the deadline for the AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship is fast approaching: Jan. 27, 2012.

The program will provide $20,000 scholarships for the 2012-13 academic year to six promising undergraduate or graduate students pursuing or planning to pursue degrees at the intersection of journalism, computer science and new media. The program is targeted to individual students creating innovative projects that further the ideals of digital journalism. A key goal of the program is to promote geographic, gender and ethnic diversity, with an emphasis on rural and urban areas.

We know many of you have questions about the application. What type of project is the committee looking for? Do I have to major in journalism? Can graduate students apply?

ONA Scholarship Manager Irving Washington will be on a Google+ Hangout to host a Q&A on how to prepare for the AP-Google Scholarship this Friday, Nov. 18, from 2-3 p.m. (ET).

The ethical issues surfacing from digital journalism can be complex and fast-changing. We’d like to do a little crowdsourcing via a quick, informal survey to determine the most relevant ones you confront in your work.

Your responses will be used as the basis for a discussion hosted by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics — an Executive Roundtable on Digital Media Ethics on Dec. 5 at Santa Clara University — with the goal of identifying and exploring ethical issues for digital journalists, and the best way to help deal with them.

Please take five minutes to answer the 12 questions as candidly as possible based on your personal experience in your current job. In return, we’ll keep you updated on any developments from the round-table.

The survey is here. Deadline is Nov. 14.

As always, thanks for your help in paving the way for digital journalism.

ONA Local

ONA NYC panel: CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien, Entrepreneur Hank Williams, Jason Samuels, Lead Producer of CNN’s “In America” documentary unit, and Mario Armstrong, radio and TV host.

ONA NYC, in partnership with Time Warner’s Office of Corporate Responsibility Group and Time Warner/Turner/Time Inc. Black Employee affiliate groups, hosted over 200 people for a Screening & Discussion with Soledad O’Brien, “Black in America – Silicon Valley,” last night at the Time Warner Center. Be sure to check out the event and documentary’s hashtag #BlackinAmerica and tune in to CNN Nov. 13 at 8 pm ET to watch the film. To learn more about the group and for notices of future events, join the Meetup group.