In Seattle, two inches of snow can cause serious havoc with our tall trees, steep hills and freeways, causing major disruptions and dangers along with priceless opportunities for sledding. Seattle’s media outlets are usually out in the middle of it, developing (often on the fly) innovative ways to bring better information to their audiences.

Join us for the next ONA & SPJ Seattle meetup Tuesday, March 6, 7 p.m. at Jillian’s, where representatives from KING, The Seattle Times, KOMO and KIRO-TV will demo (5 –minute Ignite style) the innovative ways they are covering weather for their audiences, and we’ll host a roundtable discussion on successes and lessons.

Participants include:

KIRO-TV Meteorologist Morgan Palmer serves as meteorologist for KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. Morgan began “chasing” storms as a Skywarn severe storm spotter as a teenager and continues to pursue severe storms when time permits. He also served several years as a moderator of Stormtrack, the world’s largest online forum for storm chasers. A self-described “Twitter addict,” Morgan tweets very frequently at @morganpalmer.

Sona Patel is a Producer for Social Media for The Seattle Times, where she has been helping create a social media strategy for print and online. Prior to that she was a reporter and Web producer for The Tribune, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Her beats included the city of Morro Bay, Cuesta College, and the towns of Los Osos and Cayucos. She was also a homepage producer for The Tribune’s Web site, SanLuisObispo.com and is a recipient of the 2011 Kiplinger Fellowship in Social Media at Ohio State University.

Evonne Benedict of KING 5 started her career as a broadcast journalist, working in television for several years. Now she has incorporated that background with digital journalism, with a particular focus on social media. As social media manager, she oversees KING 5 accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and others. She also trains and supports KING 5 staff in their social media and community efforts. Evonne is passionate about the KING 5 community, and the increasing two-way conversation between KING 5 and its viewers/readers.

Scott Sistek of KOMO is not only the staff meteorologist for KOMONews.com, but is also a content producer for the entire KOMOnews.com site, which is how he got himself listed on the Web site’s “people” section. (Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone!) Scott also writes the Partly to Mostly Bloggin’ weather blog both here at KOMO and their sister station in Portland, KATU.com.

This is our seventh in a series of #Newsnext meetups, where we’re talking to interesting locals working in the digital space. We bring together writers, editors, photographers, producers, developers, designers, engineers and anyone else with an interest in the production of news. We’ll meet at Jillian’s on Westlake, which offers a cash bar and some great space for discussion and networking. Here’s a look at our last meetup, on news startups.

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Join ONA and SPJ for a meetup that highlights tech startups, Tuesday, January 31 at 7pm.

Media startups are defining new paths in journalism by tackling new business models, experimenting with content, and generally just making their own rules. Much of this experimentation has taken place at sites like Techcrunch, GigaOm and others covering the technology industry, and they’re learning lessons that can apply to the rest of the media world.

For this month’s meetup, Tuesday, January 31 at 7 p.m., we welcome representatives from a pair of Seattle-based tech news startups: GeekWire chief business officer Rebecca Lovell and Xconomy senior editor Curt Woodward. They’ll join product and brand strategy consultant Frank Catalano, also a GeekWire guest columnist, to talk about emerging business models, technology and media, and the opportunities, challenges and development of startups.

This is our sixth in a series of #Newsnext meetups, where we’re talking to interesting locals working in the digital space. We bring together writers, editors, photographers, producers, developers, designers, engineers and anyone else with an interest in the production of news. We’ll meet at Jillian’s on Westlake, which offers a cash bar and some great space for discussion and networking.

Cheers,

Tiffany, Monica, Mark and Paul

For more details and to RSVP, head to Meetup.com.

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In lieu of a December meetup, ONA-SPJ Seattle would like to invite everyone to Seattle’s media party, The Holiday Scoop 2011, organized as a benefit to the Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship, a 25-year program for talented college students who aspire to become professional journalists. ONA SPJ Seattle is a partner to this event.

Join your friends and colleagues for Seattle’s biggest journalist party of the year: The Holiday Scoop 2011. Celebrate the holidays, great journalism and the successes of our local news organizations. The 2nd annual all-media holiday party will bring together television, radio, online and print journalists. All Puget Sound-based newsroom staffers and former staffers invited. Nosh on hors d’oeuvres and drink at our no-host bar. Lori Matsukawa of KING TV will emcee again!

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ONA-SPJ Seattle will feature two-time Pulitzer winner David Horsey Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at Jillian’s, where he’ll talk about transforming cartooning art and journalism from print to digital. He’ll discuss how the craft has changed, how he’s added blogging and even slideshows to his storytelling, his experiences as a nationally syndicated cartoonist with Hearst, and where he sees it all going. For more information and to RSVP check out meetup.com.

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