Dave Maass

That’s the end of Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, one of the best films about journalism, ever, and the only one of its kind set in New Mexico. Kirk Douglas plays a hot shot reporter from the north east forced to into temporary exile in the southwest. Along comes a mine disaster: Where does storytelling stop and exploitation begin…or is it all just part of the job? That’s my teaser. You can watch the whole film on YouTube here.

I’ve used a still from the film as the temporary logo for the New Mexico Web Journalism Awards competition a few of us are starting. Our first open planning meeting, completely virtual, will be July 16 at 6pm.

Here’s the facebook group link. I’ll post more details as the date approaches.

So, at the annual Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Santa Fe Reporter took home the most awards in the AltWeeklies Contest than any other paper in our division. Of those, two projects I worked on took First Place: SwingStateofMind.com won in the blog category and “Things to Do in Santa Fe When You’re Undead” won in the Innovation category.

I’m pretty stoked. I didn’t win in news or features, which was a little bit of a disappointment, but in the end I think it says a lot about where I am, and our paper is, as media evolves.