About

Short version:

Daniel Victor is the social media editor at ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom focused on investigative journalism. Before that he launched a hyperlocal site for Philly.com, the online home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. He was a community host for TBD, a website/TV station that covered local news and sports in Washington, D.C. He also spent four years as a reporter for The (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News, he wrote for the Centre Daily Times while attending Penn State, and enjoyed a summer internship at The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle.

He does not take himself too seriously, so writing in the third person feels very strange to him.

Longer version:

It all started with a cute girl in his ninth-grade journalism class.

He had zero interest in the class. He did have interest in her, though. So when she begged him to join her on the newspaper staff the following year, he had no choice but to follow.

They eventually had a one-week romance, ending with her dumping him for his best friend, but he forgave her. Because of her he had discovered, quite by accident, his apparent calling to the world of journalism.

A summer internship at The Patriot-News after his sophomore year at Penn State allowed him to eventually fool his editors into hiring him after graduation. For much of his four years there he covered the Hershey area, an experience highlighted by the creation of a Ning network for his beat as part of Jay Rosen‘s beatblogging.org project. He also covered Pennsylvania’s role in the Obama campaign, during which Howard Dean told him that he “look(ed) like a blogger.”

His favorite story is one he refused to write. He’s eager to experiment, as he did with Central PA NewsVote. He experimented a lot at TBD, where being a community host meant a wide variety of responsibilities. He’s continued those efforts at Philly.com and ProPublica (see links below).

With this blog, he seeks to offer real-life, actually-doing-it, not-just-talking-about-it examples of how journalists can be using the web to improve their stories and create better relationships with various communities.

Elsewhere:

Sometimes people ask me what I think about things, or say that they like what I think about things, or let me think things on a different website.

03/22/12: Broadcasters don’t want to put campaign ad data online, so ProPublica pitches work-around
Nieman Lab

10/24/11: Aggregation and tips from neighbors drive Philly.com’s new community news site
Nieman Lab

10/20/11: 4 questions with ProPublica’s new social media editor
10000 Words

05/27/11: Whiskey Chats: Daniel Victor, Community Engagement of Philly.com (audio)
Technically Media

03/21/11: Thanks to Dan Victor and Lisa Rowan for their excellent contributions to TBD
The Buttry Diary

03/21/11: Lessons from risking it all for a journalism start-up that fails
10,000 Words

02/21/11: How journalists are using metrics to track the success of tweets
Poynter.org

Winter 2010: Community host: An emerging newsroom ‘beat’ without a guide
Nieman Reports

05/19/10: To get TBD spot, community host Daniel Victor worked through failures and a misplaced e-mail
TBD.com

03/06/09: Who wants to be Daniel Victor’s assignment editor?
Beatblogging.org

01/08/09: The community-directed reporter: Daniel Victor gears up to go mojo
Invisible Inkling

07/03/08: Audio interview with Daniel Victor about his Ning experiences
Beatblogging.org