Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists - with it all things are possible.

—Ida Tarbell

New Media Women in the News

Our New Media Women Entrepreneurs often garner coverage from the news, blogs, and social media for their work on NMWE projects, as well as other accomplishments and activities. Check out some of the well-deserved attention they have gained.

Editor & Publisher Discuss Symboilia

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Digital Publishing: Visual Storytelling Does More Than Entertain

This article in Editor & Publisher looks at examples of visual storytelling, and includes a detailed overview of Erin Polgreen's Symbolia.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 02/14 at 12:11 PM

Recent press for ClearHealthCosts

Monday, January 07, 2013

The debate about skyrocketing healthcare costs shows no sign of slowing down. When it comes to cost transparency, Jeanne Pinder's ClearHealthCosts.com continues to become part of the discussion.

Check out these two recent articles:

Jan 4, 2013 - In health care, price transparency alone isn’t enough (GigaOm)
Jan. 3, 2013 - Consumers May Draw Wrong Conclusions From Medical Prices (Kaiser Health News)

• Posted by Chris Holt on 01/07 at 02:13 PM

Symbolia Debut is Featured in Poynter

Monday, December 03, 2012

Publicity for Symbolia's launch continued today with an article by Poynter's Jeff Sonderman, who writes, "One thing you can say for certain about Symbolia – the illustrated iPad magazine launching today — is that it’s different." You can read the article on Poyter's website.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 12/03 at 12:03 PM

Symbolia Launch Gets Writeup in Washington Post

Monday, December 03, 2012

Erin Polgreen's Symbolia launched today and was featured in the Washington Post column, "Comic Riffs."

Check out the article.

Symbolia Launch Announced by Fast Company

Monday, December 03, 2012

Fast Company announced the launch of 2012 awardee Erin Polgreen's Symbolia today in their Fast Feed section. Check out the writeup: "Comics-And-Journalism Magazine For iPad Launches."

• Posted by Chris Holt on 12/03 at 09:32 AM

More Press for Symbolia

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Erin Polgreen continues to garner attention for Symbolia in the lead up to

Check out these write ups in The National and Columbia Journalism Review.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 11/29 at 11:42 AM

Carolina Public Press accepted to the NC Press Association

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Congratulations to 2012 awardee Angie Newsome for this important recognition!

From a Nov. 27 press release on the Carolina Public Press website:

The North Carolina Press Association recently admitted the nonprofit, online news service Carolina Public Press into its membership, making it the first online nonprofit news service in Western North Carolina to gain the distinction.

“We’re delighted to welcome the Carolina Public Press into the N.C. Press Association,” said Beth Grace, executive director of the 195-member newspaper advocacy organization founded in 1873. “An incisive, beautifully written web-based publication like this is exactly why NCPA created our new online membership just a year ago. Good journalism takes many forms, and this sort of partnership helps NCPA support the highest standards of good reporting and paves the way for the reading public to access great journalism – wherever it appears!”

Read the full press release.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 11/27 at 11:23 AM

Symbolia, Explained

Monday, November 26, 2012

Erin Polgreen explains Symbolia in a video produced by the International Women's Media Foundation, a Symbolia co-funder.

HealthCare News Review calls ClearHealthCosts an “important project”

Thursday, November 15, 2012

HealthNewsReview.org wrote a brief review of the ClearHealthCosts blog post on the cost of MRIs. The author, Gary Schwitzer, concluded, "What an important project ClearHealthCosts is,” Gary Schwitzer, “How much does an MRI cost?” Health News Review, Nov. 15, 2012.

According to their site, HealthNewsReview.org "evaluates health care journalism, advertising, marketing, public relations and other messages that may influence consumers and provides criteria that consumers can use to evaluate these messages themselves."

• Posted by Chris Holt on 11/15 at 10:55 AM

ClearHealthCosts Cited Among useful healthcare apps by PCMag

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

In this article/slideshow, the author says that ClearHealthcosts allows users to "now comparison shop, something that used to be near-impossible to do with healthcare.”

Chandler Steele, ”How to alleviate health-care costs,” PCMag, Oct. 2, 2012.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 10/02 at 10:44 AM

ClearHealthCosts.com - A travel site for healthcare costs

Monday, October 01, 2012

Medcity News recently interviewed Jeanne Pinder about ClearHealthCosts.com. In the article, Pinder says her goal is to turn the site into "a Kayak.com for healthcare costs: the best, go-to source for consumer pricing on medical procedures anywhere."

Read the full article: "Medicine’s Kayak.com? ClearHealthCosts checks healthcare costs for medical procedures."

• Posted by Chris Holt on 10/01 at 10:29 AM

“Bracing for Impact” - An Article by Erin Polgreen

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

AIRblast September 2012 issue Symbolia's Erin Polgreen wrote the September feature article for AIRblast, a publication from the Association of Independent Radio. In the piece she discusses her work in learning how online media producers can better measure audience engagement.

You can read the article on their website.

ClearHealthCosts Makes an Impression at NY Tech Meetup

Friday, September 14, 2012

Jeanne Pinder at the New York Tech Meetup Jeanne Pinder of ClearHealthCosts.com received some great press this month for her presentation to over 800 people at the September 2012 New York Tech Meetup in NYU's Skirball Auditorium.

Forbes gave a write-up of the evening, calling ClearHealthCosts "a noble and important undertaking succinctly presented with a quiet confidence by Ms. Pinder."

American Public Media's Marketplace gave mention to Pinder while noting the high-profile status of the Meetup: "Here's the definition of a hot ticket: Every month New York Tech Meetup sells out in just four minutes... and the theater's a big one at NYU. Venture capitalists are here along with engineers, designers, and start ups both theoretical and already online."

In lieu of the Meetup, BetaBeat (part of the New York Observer), wrote an article featuring Pinder's work. Apparently they had seen her presentation the previous month at the Meetup's Women’s Demo Night, calling it the "most impressive presentation of the night."

Illustrated journalism featured in Chicago Tribune

Friday, August 17, 2012

Symbolia iPad A Chicago Tribune article, "Cartoonist-journalists sketch out a future for their emerging medium," explored the emerging trend of illustrated journalism, and prominentely featured Erin Polgreen for Symbolia. You can read the article in the Tribune's website.

NolaVie to collaborate with local news radio

Monday, July 23, 2012

The University of New Orleans radio station WWNO 89.9 announced plans to collaborate with NolaVie to obtain input for its local new broadcasts. Learn more at WWNO.org.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 07/23 at 11:55 AM

2008 Awardee Michelle Ferrier Highilghted by Elon University

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Locally Grown News Michelle Ferrier recently gave a presentation on media entrepreneurship at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on New Orleans to discuss her experiences starting the food news site LocallyGrownNews.com.

Read the article, "Ferrier shares 10,000-foot view of media entrepreneurship at National Association of Black Journalists convention" on the Elon University website.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 06/27 at 09:23 AM

Lisa Williams asks, “Do I Really Need to Learn How to Program?”

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Lisa Williams, the winner of J-Lab's New Media Woman Entrepreneur of 2009, gave the following talk at the TEDx PoynterInstitute Event on Jun. 1, 2012 at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fl.

Symbolia’s Erin Polgreen Interviewed by ONA

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Erin Polgreen continues to garner press for Symbolia, this time by the Online News Association.

You can read the Q&A on the ONA website.

• Posted by Chris Holt on 05/23 at 11:42 AM

Symbolia wins 2012 IWMF Women Entrepreneurs in Digital News Frontier Grant

Monday, April 16, 2012

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) announded today three winners of the 2012 Women Entrepreneurs in Digital News Frontier grants program. Among those included were Erin Polgreen for Symbolia.

She and the two other winners will each receive $20,000 as well as professional development opportunities to help launch their new media enterprises. According to the IWMF press release, winners were selected from nearly 140 proposals in 33 states.

How Comics Journalism is Saving Media

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Erin Polgreen - Symbolia

Erin Polgreen and four other panelists gave a presention at the 2012 SXSW Interactive entitled "How Comics Journalism is Saving Your Media."

The panel explored how traditional journalism struggles to find its footing, while comics journalism is inherently stylish, uniquely suited to sharing via social media, and hugely popular. The panel included editors, journalists and artists who have stretched the limits of comics to tell complicated stories in a variety of formats, from traditional paneled storytelling to interactive web pieces.

View Sarah Jaffe's write-up of the event on Storify.

2012 Awardees Announced in Mediashift

Monday, March 19, 2012

PBS MediaShift shares J-Lab's announcement of this year's NMWE awardees.

Catherine Mulbrandon Essay featured on SXSW

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Catherine Mulbrandon was one of the winners for this year's SXSW Interactive Scholarship Program. An excerpt of her award-winning essay was featured today on the SXSW blog.

Here is an excerpt:

"I believe misperceptions about economic numbers can lead to confusion about economic policy. I decided to tackle this issue in 2006 by creating and posting charts, maps and infographics online for free at my web site VisualizingEconomics.com. I quit my full-time job as an interaction designer in 2009 so I could I develop my part-time side project into something more. And in March of this year, I launched a project at Kickstarter.com to cover the costs to create the first of my "infographic explainers", an illustrated guide to help people understand income growth and inequality."

Visualizing Economics: Catherine Mulbrandon presents The Big Picture Conference

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Catherine Mulbrandon gave a presentation entitled, "The One Percent: Breaking Down US Wealth Distribution" at The Big Picture Conference on October 11, 2011.

View a preview of the presentation:

The One Percent: Breaking Down US Wealth Distribution from The Big Picture Conference on FORA.tv

Mobile Black History: Retha Hill Featured in Africa Diaspora Tourism

Thursday, September 02, 2010

African Diaspora Tourism (ADT) interviewed Retha Hill about her Mobile Black History Project. ADT is an online magazine dedicated to exploring the culture, heritage, places and influences of people of African descent, past and present around the globe. Read the article and interview here.

Resources for New Media Women

View our collection of research and resources for women media entrepreneurs.

Our Focus

NMWE is a unique initiative addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell us what more to do. And an awards program and summit will showcase women’s creative ideas. NMWE is supported by the McCormick Foundation.

Check It Out

In the News

Feb. 12, 2013: Editor & Publisher provides a detailed look at Symbolia.

Dec. 13, 2012: Jan Schaffer reports on years of successful NMWE grantees in her blog.

Dec. 3, 2012: Symbolia launches today! Read writeups in Poynter and Washington Post.

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