Craig Silverman, Regret the Error join Poynter Institute
Craig Silverman has announced that as of Dec. 19, his award-winning blog, RegretTheError.com, will be moving to Poynter.org, and he will be joining the institute as a member of its adjunct faculty.
Craig Silverman and his award-winning website, RegretTheError.com will be joining Poynter Institute.
After stating in his final column for the Columbia Journalism Review last week that there were changes to come for Regret the Error, Silverman has announced that as of Dec. 19, the blog will be moving to Poynter.org, and that he will be joining the institute as a member of its adjunct faculty.
Silverman says he will continue to edit Regret the Error as he’s done in the past, but followers can expect a lot more from the site now that he is able to devote more attention to it.
“People are going to see an increase in the number of posts on the site, they’re going to see more coverage of things as they’re happening, and on top of that, there’s going to be a lot more reporting as well,” Silverman said.
Some of these new reporting ventures will include two subjects that the Montreal-based journalist and media critic is passionate about: Discussing new verification skills that journalists need, and examining how misinformation spreads on social media and our networked world.
He will also be working with NewsU, Poynter’s online training component, to develop training modules surrounding accuracy verification and other issues.
While Silverman certainly brings his expertise to Poynter, the relationship will be mutually beneficial. He has led workshops and talks on accuracy, errors, verification and related topics before, but never developed full courses on the subjects. “Having the benefit of expertise from the people at NewsU to make sure what gets created is going to be a good teaching device is something I’m happy to benefit from,” Silverman said.
[node:ad]It also means that Silverman and Regret the Error will be edited, which is something he looks forward to. “Of course I make stupid typos and of course people think that’s funny given the topic of the site,” he said. “I’m really excited to have an editor reading my stuff for Regret the Error, helping improve it and helping make it a better blog.”
After thinking about this, and recognizing that as it stood, he didn’t have the time to focus on those issues as he may have liked, Silverman made a decision: “I needed to find a new home for Regret the Error that could support the site, bring it to a larger audience and also provide me, frankly, with the compensation necessary for me to put a lot of time into it.”
And so, Poynter became the new home.
The partnership also means that Silverman’s role with OpenFile – the community-driven news site that he helped launch in 2010 – will be changing. He will be shifting to an editorial advisory role from his current position of editorial director.
Silverman will still be editing the blog from his home in Montreal, travelling to Florida to develop course content and lead seminars as needed.
Ultimately, the partnership aims to take a comprehensive look at the issues that Silverman is an expert on — accuracy, verification, corrections and the digital media world. As he states in his announcement of his move to Poynter, Silverman promises that the changes will make for the best content ever put out by Regret the Error.
