News to Me is available on Amazon

Just in time for the official publication date, Barry Newman’s NEWS TO ME: FINDING AND WRITING COLORFUL FEATURE STORIES is available for sale on Amazon. Barry has been doing a lot of speaking and media interviews recently, including at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference, and would be happy to speak to your group. Check out Barry’s own website, which includes a good — and, typically, wry — video trailer for the book.

UK Press Gazette Loves ‘News to Me’

The Press Gazette, a leading British publication covering the news business worldwide, has given a rave to NEWS TO ME: FINDING AND WRITING COLORFUL FEATURE STORIES, our new book by Barry Newman, the longtime Wall Street Journal “King of the A-Hed.” Read the article here, where Barry, whom the Press Gazette describes as a “writing superhero,” ascribes the secret to good short writing for newspapers, magazines and websites to “long reporting.” You can also check out Barry’s typically informative yet amusing video book trailer here.

Barry Newman’s new book is available

CUNY Journalism Press is proud to publish News to Me: Finding and Writing Colorful Feature Stories, the new collection of stories and essays by Barry Newman, widely known  as the “King of the A-Hed” for his many front-page feature stories in the Wall Street Journal over the past four decades. Barry Newman’s new book takes readers behind the scenes — how did he get that story? — and offers a charming and sometimes curmudgeonly mix of instruction and inspiration for anyone who writes, studies writing or teaches writing — and especially anyone who wants to find, report and publish the kind of stories that get people talking. The book’s official publication date is May 7, 2015, but advance copies have begun shipping, and you can order yours now.

BBC: Jeff Jarvis’ GEEKS is a must-read

BBC Culture is offering high praise for GEEKS BEARING GIFTS, the book that CUNY Journalism’s own Jeff Jarvis did for us on the future of news production and delivery. The BBC calls the book a must-read for February, along with some prominent authors such as Langston Hughes and Hilary Mantel. See the other books here:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150129-ten-books-to-read-in-february

And here’s an excerpt of the praise from BBC Culture:

Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? and Gutenberg the Geek, says his new book is the answer to the question he often hears: “So now that your damned, beloved internet has ruined news, what now?” He explores alternative futures, looking at how the emerging forms of journalism interact with the skills and core beliefs of the past. He affirms the rules of journalism – accuracy, fairness, completeness. At the core, he concludes, “We serve citizens and communities.” His section on the need for new and sustainable business models includes such pertinent examples as his own experience helping nonprofits develop a collaborative news ecosystem in his home state of New Jersey. Jarvis, who keeps his eye on the ever shifting digital world through his blog at Buzzmachine, is a smart observer and prognosticator, and his analysis is noteworthy. (CUNY Journalism Press/OR Books)

Jarvis book named JEA’s ‘One Book’ to read in early 2015

Geeks Bearing Gifts, the exploration of the possible future(s) of the news business by CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Professor Jeff Jarvis, has been named the “One Book” to read over the next six months by the Journalism Education Association, the leading professional association of journalism educators. Here’s what the JEA said:

“Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News” by Jeff Jarvis was selected as the next JEA One Book with 41 percent of the votes in the online poll.

They say journalism is dying. But is it? In “Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News,” Jarvis argues that even though our tools as journalists have changed, our mission and values remain the same.

To purchase this book about the future of journalism, visit the the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s website ($20), or you can download a copy for $9.99 to your Kindle.

Twitter discussions will be held in February and March, leading up to a face-to-face discussion at the JEA/NSPA convention in Denver.

50 percent off on The Illustrated Courtroom

If you’re one of the people who couldn’t quite put your hand in your pocket to pay $60 for the oversized paperback edition of The Illustrated Courtroom, we have welcome news for you. Thanks to a new printing, the price has dropped 50 percent — from $60 to $30. The ebook is still $10, but you can buy the paperback/ebook combination — a surprising number of people do — for $35. Buy it here for yourself or as a unique holiday gift for journalists, lawyers, artists and anyone interested in the news of the day. The drawings cover iconic court cases over the past 50 years, from James Earl Ray to Charles Manson to Son of Sam to OJ to Michael Jackson to Bernie Madoff, and the text takes you behind the scenes for never-before-told tales of judges, lawyers and defendants — Black Panthers, Mafia dons, Middle East terrorists and more.

Times Literary Supplement Picks ‘The Illustrated Courtroom’ as a Book of the Year

The Times Literary Supplement, the venerable publication looking at all things bookish for the Times of London, has called our book The Illustrated Courtroom one of the best books published worldwide in 2014. Contributing author Jonathan Benthall praises the book, by artist Elizabeth Williams and writer Sue Russell, as “an anthology of this underrated genre,” and notes that the camera has not replaced the courtroom illustration in evoking the tension in legal proceedings.

Federal Courthouse Offers Court Art Show

The Thurgood Marshall Court House, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is marking the court’s 225th anniversary with a number of events, including an art show featuring illustrations by the artists who produced our book The Illustrated Courtroom. The show, which runs through May 4 at the courthouse, 40 Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, includes illustrations from many famous trials — and infamous defendants — over the years: Imelda Marcos, Leona Helmsley, Bernie Madoff and more, along with more art from various proceedings that brought other boldfaced names to federal court, including Jackie Onassis, when she sued to keep the paparazzi away. The art show is open during normal courthouse hours.

Carvin to Speak at Stanford Seminar

Andy Carvin will speak at Stanford’s Liberation Technology Seminar. Carvin’s book, DISTANT WITNESS: SOCIAL MEDIA, THE ARAB SPRING AND A JOURNALISM REVOLUTION, has become a required text for people both inside and outside the journalism arena on how  social media has enabled civilians to defend their rights and expose corruption in authoritarian regimes.
Carvin will speak on Oct. 9, 2014 at 4:30-6:00pm. The seminar will also be available online.

Carvin wrote ”Distant Witness: Social Media, The Arab Spring and a Journalism Revolution’, during his time at NPR as a social media strategist. He is now a senior editor at First Look Media.

Special Sale: 20 Percent off The Illustrated Courtroom

For a limited time, we’re offering 20 percent off the $60 cover price — save $12 — of The Illustrated Courtroom. The price will still say $60, but the discount will be applied upon checkout. You pay only $48. If you’d like to own this collector’s item — the first comprehensive look at American courtroom artists and this unique meeting of law, art and journalism — but been put off by the steep cover price (it is a beautifully produced full-color oversized art book, after all), this is your opportunity. If you want to save even more, contact us about bulk purchases of 5 or more.

Psychology Today Loves The Illustrated Courtroom

Psychology Today magazine is giving a rave to our new book THE ILLUSTRATED COURTROOM: 50 YEARS OF COURT ART. Author Katherine Ramsland marvels at how many iconic court cases are featured in the book, the first looking at this unique meeting of law, art and journalism. She writes:

“Originally done for media outlets in proceedings where cameras were banned, these renderings give us eyes into some intense human dramas. Courtroom artists attend to a trial’s most memorable moments.”

NY Times story on Nat Hentoff book, movie

The Times’ Larry Rohter has done a nice piece on David Lewis’ new documentary and the companion book he did for CUNY Journalism Press, both titled “The Pleasures of Being Out of Step,” on the remarkable life of Nat Hentoff — freelance writer, the inventor of jazz criticism, First Amendment activist and all-round media gadfly/curmudgeon. The movie opens at the IFC in Manhattan this week, where our book will be on sale. Or you can buy it here. It’s a great read — an oral history that allowed Dave Lewis to preserve some fascinating comments from Hentoff and many others that didn’t make it into the documentary.

New Kindle Review of The Illustrated Courtroom

Amazon has put up part of the American Lawyer review of our book The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art, which features 140 iconic deadline-delivered drawings by five of the top courtroom artists of all time from dozens of the biggest trials of the last half century: Published in May by CUNY Journalism Press, “The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art,” by artist Elizabeth Williams and crime writer Sue Russell, is a raucous celebration of five practitioners of this endangered workaday art. The moments captured here include everything, as one artist put it, “from celebrities, spies, terrorists, corporate corruption, political scandals, killers, mass murderers, celebrity custody hearings, to sex scandals, child molestation cases and military court martials.”  Here is a perfect match of artists and subjects: Elizabeth Williams on Martha Stewart and dapper John Gotti, Howard Brodie on Jack Ruby and the Watergate plumbers, Aggie Kenny on Jackie O. and Oliver North, Bill Robles on O.J. Simpson and Richard Tomlinson capturing a young David Boies. Lawyers who treasure beauty should root for the Luddites in the courtroom camera debate. Court TV has been called many things, but it’s never been called art.

American Lawyer Magazine Loves The Illustrated Courtroom, Calls It ‘Raucous’

American Lawyer, one of the legal profession’s leading magazines, is featuring our new book The Illustrated Courtroom in its June issue. Read it here (if you’re prompted to register, fear not, it’s quick, free and painless. No lawyers will call you.) The writer, Michael D. Goldhaber, calls the book “a raucous celebration of five practitioners of this endangered workaday art. The moments captured here include everything, as one artist put it, from celebrities, spies, terrorists, corporate corruption, political scandals, killers, mass murderers, celebrity custody hearings, to sex scandals, child molestation cases and military court martials.”

NJ art show for The Illustrated Courtroom

The Hudson (N.J.) County Bar Association is sponsoring a show, “Historic Courtroom Art from the Last Half-Century,” through June 18 at the Mason Civic League, 1200 Washington Street in Hoboken. The show features many of the illustrations from our book The Illustrated Courtroom, and was curated by Elizabeth Williams and Aggie Kenny, two of the five renowned artists who contributed to our book. If you’re interested in art, journalism or law, you’ll be fascinated by these riveting courtrooms scenes and portraits of the famous and the infamous.

Courtroom Illustrations present to Library of Congress

Renowned courtroom illustrators Elizabeth Williams and Aggie Kenny, two of the artists featured in our book The Illustrated Courtroom, are scheduled to both present some of their work to the Library of Congress, and to be interviewed on NPR. Also upcoming is a showing at famed lawyer David Boies’ firm in Manhattan. Watch this space for more information and links.