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Posts Tagged ‘newspaper’

Journalism in an Old-Spice era: branding is everything

The old cliché that one is one’s “own worst enemy” might well be true when it comes to newspapers.

Organizations are systematic. They create policies, crunch numbers, build hierarchies and they make cuts according to an assumed lack of value. But managements wrongly continue to depend on financial reports as an indicator of value.

Haven’t we learned anything from web startups? What do Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and so many other revolutionizing internet startups have in common? They started from nothing more than a little entrepreneurial thinking.

While journalists loll around arguing the merits of newspaper-funding ideas, they are stuck thinking in the past. So, please, I’m tired of hearing about how to “save” journalism, because the only ones who are talking about that are talking about a journalism that is already dead. You see, none of these huge internet startups began from the mindset, “Let’s see how we can do something like …

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July 17, 2010   Tags: , , , , , ,
Category: Journalism   No Comments comments

Writing: still a journalist’s key asset

Take a look at a newspaper. Any newspaper. Even a newspaper’s web site. What do you see?

Writing is every newspaper’s foundation. Stories require writing, photos require cutlines, multimedia requires titles and usually uses written introductions. Are journalism schools beginning to minimize this foundational skill to make room for multimedia? I believe they are.

Journalism schools know it’s their duty to train students in all aspects of journalism: writing, audio, video, photography, layout and basic web design. But they don’t know how to properly allocate time so that a journalist’s most important asset remains at the top of the training planner while still instilling knowledge about and the value of new media technology. So every school fumbles with their scheduling decisions and builds students in the way they believe is best. Have they stopped to decide why? As far as I can tell, they believe multimedia skills will be instrumental in our …

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October 31, 2009   Tags: , , , , , ,
Category: Journalism   No Comments comments

A beginner’s guide to freelancing

I had no idea that Kwantlen had left me in the dark with freelance writing until I decided to try. A church nearby was hosting a Mixed Martial Arts fight, which raised several moral questions for me. I realized those questions could be a story if I could pitch it to the right market. I stumbled through a pitch – I’m still not sure I did it right – and sent it to the Vancouver Sun.

Step one: write a clear, brief description of the story with your angle outlined. Convince them that you know what you’re doing and estimate the time finished and a word count.
Step two: find out who reads the pitches at the market you’re interested in and email it there.
Step three: wait.

I had no idea how long to wait, but the event was in several days so I pitched it to The Province early the next …

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July 3, 2009   Tags: , , ,
Category: Journalism, Life   4 Comments comments

Scarred by the economy

A popular source of conversation among journalists is the tragic state of newspapers. Print is disappearing, a little at a time and permanently. Workers and whole newspapers are being uprooted. But you don’t need me to tell you that: just follow any journalist’s blog or Twitter comments.

I visited an employment agency this week for a short interview on the effects of the recession, and I was shocked. Several minutes into the interview, a question really started to bother me. Why are we, the journalists, so self-absorbed that we are oblivious to the state of emergency all other sectors are in? Why are we allowing reporting about ourselves, the media, to blind us from the public’s news? Isn’t it our duty to report the news that affects them? I thought, “Why aren’t the media reporting the devastation in Western Canada?” It is that bad. And it requires attention. Maybe if we …

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March 6, 2009   Tags: , , , , , ,
Category: Journalism   No Comments comments

What’s next in the quest to fund online news?

If you read my last post, Think bigger than micropayments, you may be wondering what steps are being taken right now to ensure a future for newspapers. Let me clarify a few things first.

1. Journalism will always have a future. Newspapers are only one form of journalism production.
2. Ideas are constantly being brought to light and critiqued. The two ideas receiving the most attention right now are micropayments, which I believe cannot attract an audience seeking quick, easy and unintruding online news sources, and endowing the press, which would create ethical problems, misplace responsibility and reduce hard work.

We’re living in a time where journalism is not just in print newspapers anymore. Unfortunately, the media have not adapted well to the changing times. The only way to usher them into the year 2009 is to form a new system that encourages competition, especially in multimedia journalism, while adapting to each …

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February 5, 2009   Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Category: Journalism, News   1 Comment comments

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