Online Journalism Review: Eight things that journalism students should demand from their journalism schools

I am a big believer in speaking with journalism students and mentoring them whenever I can. I am on the board of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's aviation communication program. I go back regularly to my alma mater -- American University -- to speak with students on new media and job issues. One of my favorite things to do at the annual conference at the National Association of Black Journalists is to speak with students.

As you have read here, I am passionate about journalists making the move to new/digital media. I've shared my experiences and am very active with NABJ's Digital Journalism Task Force. Students are in a position now to learn from the ground level what I had to -- and still am -- learn on my own.

I have to say that I was shocked when I was speaking with students at this year's NABJ that their schools were not teaching new media skills. And I'm not talking about mid to lower level colleges -- I'm talking about big-name journalism schools.

One conversation went like this: Thanks for your card. I see you go to BIG NAME JOURNALISM SCHOOL. How are your classes coming along? Great. What kind of courses are you taking? (She lists the courses). I notice you don't have any digital media classes on that list. Are you taking those courses? Um, no. Why not? We only have a few of those classes, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Do you have a web site to highlight your portfolio? A web site? A portfolio? I do have a resume, and I've done some work on the NABJ student project the past few years. You should put that in your portfolio. OK. When do you graduate? May 2010. What do you want to do? Be a journalist.

I could go on, but you get the point. Which is why I was happy to see this post from Robert Niles on today's Online Journalism Review blog on eight things students should demand from their journalism schools. While all of them are important, three really stood out for me:

• A mentor. Niles recommends that students get mentors outside the university/college setting, and I agree. And please, students -- keep up with your mentees. We are working professionals and while we want to help, we don't have time to chase after you, so do the right thing and keep up with a person that could help you when it's time to get that job.
• A place to hack. I developed my digital media skills by experimenting with all kinds of tools and technology, and your school should offer you the same. As Niles wrote, "And online publishing will not look the way it does today 10 years from now, just as it looks little now like it did 10 years ago. Students need forums in which to explore and test their interactive publishing skills."
• Getting your name out there. With all the tools out there, there's no reason a student can't create their own web site or blog on a topic of interest and make a name for him/her self that will impress employers once they graduate. I have used social media to brand myself in aviation. I love where I work now and have NO plans to leave, but if that changes, I already have a brand that is known in my industry, which will make my job search much easier.

If your school isn't giving you any of Niles' suggestions, you have a choice -- go to another school that does or work with faculty, administrators and other students to get your school to offer them. And a bonus? It's something you can put in your work portfolio! Good luck!!

Journalists vs. Bloggers: The Battle Continues

I am currently working on a column about the joys and pains of blogging for the National Association of Black Journalists Journal. I’m talking with reporters who blog as part of their jobs. I’ve been doing this blog (and a previous incarnation of it) since July 2004. I started a work-related blog on the airport/security industry in August 2006 and currently contribute to Aviation Week's Things With Wings and Business Aviation Now blogs and write guest posts for other industry-related blogs.

Two questions seem to always come up when journalists talk about blogging: are bloggers as responsible as us and why should I do it? I’ll answer the second question in my Journal article. Today’s column will tackle the first question, which was spurred by a blog post from one of my Twitter followers – Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site – who asked “Is Travel Blogging Real Journalism?”

The simple answer is yes – and no. Just like journalists, there are good and bad bloggers out there (Matt happens to be one of the good ones). “Journalists think bloggers aren’t as good and bloggers don’t want to be associated with the `old media,’” writes Matt. “Clearly blogging is a new form of writing. But to me blogging is a more casual style that discusses your thoughts, hobbies, feelings. Journalism denotes a bit more research, formality, and neutrality in your writing.”

Since I am steeped in aviation, I’ll use what I see out there to illustrate this point. One of my good friends is Brett Snyder, who writes The Cranky Flier blog. Snyder is a self-described airline geek who uses his blog to demystify the industry via details and humor.

Back in April, Snyder, along with around a dozen other aviation reporters, attended the Phoenix Aviation Symposium, a must-attend event for the industry. While he was there, he snagged an interview with JetBlue CEO David Barger. JetBlue is among a handful of airlines that treats respected bloggers like Snyder with the same respect as journalist.

Snyder lives in Long Beach, Calif., and has followed JetBlue’s efforts to get a new airport terminal in that focus city. In what he called a throwaway question, he asked Barger about the progress being made.

What happened next ended up getting Snyder – and his blog – national coverage. Barger used the interview to blast Long Beach Airport’s management for dragging its feet on the promised expansion. You can read my post about it here. Long story short, the story got picket up by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the LA Times, BusinessWeek and USA Today, stirring up a debate on bloggers as journalists.

What is lost in the noise of this conversation is that like it or not, bloggers — especially one with the good reputation of Snyder — are doing the same hard work that I do as a journalist. It is dangerous for people and organizations to just blow off Snyder and other bloggers. After all, it was Snyder that actually broke this story; only then was it picked up by the “regular” media.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram even wrote a story entitled "Don't Shoot The Blogger, In This Case." “Not all blogs are reliable, but Snyder's certainly seems to have a good reputation,” said the story. “So while the [Long Beach city] council may not always like the news, it shouldn't shoot the messenger.”

Yes, there are thousands of industry-related blogs out there, and 90+ percent of them aren't worth reading. But Cranky is not one of them, and there are many other airline/aviation bloggers out there doing great reporting. The ones on my Google Reader include:

• Evan Sparks's Aviation Policy blog
• Airline branding blog Simpliflying
• Holly Hegeman's PlaneBuzz
• Jared Blank's Online Travel Review
• Mark Ashley's Upgrade Travel Better
• Bill Swelbar's Swelblog
• PlaneTalking.com
• RickSeaney.com

In the end, it’s all about who you trust, whether you are a journalist, a blogger or both. I am a huge fan of social media rock star Chris Brogan, who coined the phrase “trust agent.” He defines it as: “people who use the web in a very human way to build influence, reputation, awareness, and who can translate that into some kind of business value.”

Friday New Media News Roundup

The Economist is testing a cellphone-based delivery service in New York City, reports PaidContent.org. Subscribers will get a text message with stories in the next issue, including a link to order. You have until 9 in the evening to have delivery by 6 in the morning, even beating the newsstand. Response to a similar test in the UK was “moderate,” said the web site.

Online magazine pioneer Salon is mulling a revamp of its current form from longer magazine pieces to shorter, more real-time posts, reports PaidContent.org.

The Almighty Link blog offers up the top 10 journalism links on Delicious. I’m happy to say I’ve read 6 of the top 10 links. My favorite? “Top 10 Lies Newspaper Execs are Telling Themselves,” from the SimsBlog.

Patrick LaForge, an editor at the New York Times, offers up his list of third-party apps he uses on his iPhone at his Palafo blog. The ones on his list that I use on my iPod Touch are: Google, Might Docs, Facebook, TextPlus, Yelp, Urbanspoon, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR News, Pandora, ITv and Midomi.

If you’re not subscribed to Mindy McAdams’ Teaching Online Journalism blog, you really need to be. Her latest post offers up the Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, a step-by-step guide giving you the tools to teach you all the tools and tricks.

Kudos to St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans on his The Feed blog post calling out the Tampa Tribune for using others blog posts without paying for them. He outlines the case of LA-based writer Tina Dupuy, who made her case on YouTube and got the newspaper to cough up $75 for her submission.

I file this under “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Jeff Jarvis’s Buzz Machine blog blasts two reporters for dumping on the use of Twitter as a reporting tool. Put me down as in favor of Twitter.

Writing headlines and subheads has always been the bane of my existence. That’s why I was thrilled to see this post on Copyblogger covering 5 Sure-Fire Sources for Headline Inspiration.

Journalism Online now plans on charging a 20% commission on subscription fees from members who join the pay-for-news venture founded by Steven Brill and 2 other partners, reports the Nieman Journalism Lab blog.

And speaking of pay for news, the Mashable blog reports that the Google has submitted a plan to the Newspaper Association of America on a micropayment system to charge for news based on its Google Checkout model.

The Internet Manifesto has published 17 declarations on how journalism works today. Numbers 5, 6 and 25 are my personal favorites.

Newspaper Mantra: Must...Raise...Cash

I remember when journalists were all abuzz after it was revealed in a Politico story that Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth had canceled a series of health care salons. The Post was selling spots to these exclusive salons -- which they said would feature the paper's health care reporters, Obama administration officials working on the issue and key members of Congress -- for upwards of $250,000. We were all gasping about what we saw was a blatant blurring of the sacred line between church and state -- editorial and sales. At first, the Post stonewalled and refused to cancel the salons. But after the controversy started to grow, Weymouth was forced to cancel them. "Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth said in an interview in the Post. "This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom." But the bigger question was why did the Post feel it needed to do this in the first place? Simple - to bring in cash. We've all read ad nauseum about how newspapers large and small are being decimated by a precipitous drop on ad revenue, causing a collapse in the advertising-based model that has been in place almost since the beginning of newspapers. The Post itself has admitted that its Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers now provide almost half its revenues. Which is why I found this post on the Nieman Journalism Lab so interesting. The New York Times is using its three-year-old Knowledge Network to offer online classes to readers for between $125 and $185 a pop. But the real news is that 3 of its well-known columnists -- Nicholas Kristof, Gail Collins, and Eric Asimov -- would teach classes in the network. A spokeswoman said that only "a handful" of reporters participate in the nearly 100 courses offered. But it makes me wonder -- if these 3 courses take off, how will the New York Times resist the temptation to tap other star reporters and columnists to participate in the Knowledge Network? And one has to wonder what the sales people at the Washington Post and other newspapers are brewing up to bring in revenue to replace that lost by the drop in advertising. Food for thought...

Entrepreneurial Models Can New Life for Old School Journalists

I have to apologize-I am way behind on my posts after dealing with my entire family-- including me--getting sick last week. But I'm medicated and rested, so here we go.

As we continue to read/hear about journalism job layoffs and buyouts, we all have to ask the question -- is there still a way to do our craft and still get paid? Buzz Machine blogger Jeff Jarvis has come up with an intriguing idea: instead of laying off your talented journalists, offer them a blog, sell ads and split the profits 50-50. In Jarvis's plan, the journalist would actually own the blog, and the newspaper could actually be an investor if the writer wanted to start a business.

I like this concept on paper, but I'm thinking it would only work with certain beats that have a strong, built-in ad base already. I could see it working in my beat of aviation because there are myriad companies/suppliers out there that would potentially be interested in supporting a knowledgeable blog.

CNN/Fortune's Brainstorm blog has a post about a group of ex-AOLers who are actually putting this concept into practice. Lewis Dvorkin, a former news content manager has launched the True/Slant blog. True/Slant calls itself the digital home for the “Entrepreneurial Journalist,” allowing "knowledgeable and credible contributors" to build their digital brands "using tools that enable them to easily create content and craft stories filtered through human perspective."

“That could be a journalist, or it could be an academic, anyone with incredible subject-specific knowledge, who blogs under their own name,” Dvorkin told Brainstorm. Two names I know well are Miles O'Brien, CNN's former aviation and space reporter and Rolling Stone reporter and "Real Time With Bill Maher" contributor Matt Taibbi.

Former AOL programming chief Jim Bankoff created SBNation, a home for more than 200 individual sports communities covering baseball, basketball, college sports, football, hockey, soccer and general sports. I clicked on the Silver and Black Pride created (hard to find these days) blog to check on coverage on my beloved but beleaguered Oakland Raiders. It seems I'm far from alone in my pain! LOL Last, but certainly not least, former AOL vice chairman Ted LeonsisSnagFilms, a site dedicated to getting bigger distribution -- and revenue -- for independent filmmakers.

It will be interesting to watch how these experiments develop, and how journalists will tap their inner entrepreneur -- either willingly or forced by circumstances -- and take advantage of these opportunities. I was pleased to see that this year's National Association of Black Journalists had several workshops for those interested in creating their own entrepreneurial models, and new president Kathy Times has made that a cornerstone of her two-year term.

Friday New Media News Roundup

It's Friday, and I'm glad to see the end of the week. And I'll end this week with the usual news roundup. There's a lot to cover this week, so here we go.

From the Social Media Biz blog, Cali Lewis, the host of GeekBrief.tv offers 7 great tips for those of you wanting to jump into the wonderful world of podcasting.

Don't we all get tired of bad news about the gloom and doom in the media industry? That's why I was glad to see this article in Media News on five media outlets that actually work in this economy: Family Circle, MSLO, Clear Channel, Gawker and HBO.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam writes about all the things that were supposed to be the future of journalism -- but ended up not quite making it. Does Knight-Ridder's VuText ring a bell?

Having worked on the journalism and public relations/corporate communications sides of the business, this article in the Agency Spy blog caught my eye. It reported that ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky has hired USA Today advertising reporter Theresa Howard. She answered an ad for the job. Interesting...

Ladies and Gentlemen: it is now time for your Journalism Online LLC update. You can see past posts from me on the concept here and here. The Techdirt blog is reporting that one of the venture's founders, Steven Brill, is now predicting "10% to 15%" of online readers will pay for a subscription to Journalism Online. That is up from the 5% to 10% when the venture was first announced.

Mashable writer Leah Betancourt offers tips on how journalists can use YouTube to upload and share news. "News videos fall into three categories: rebroadcasts of current material; original videos and distribution of news; and archive of older video footage. Media companies, indie news organizations, and even citizen journalists are putting YouTube’s voluminous video database to work in all three ways, and the lines between these three uses tend to blur and overlap," she wrote.

The Nieman Journalism Lab blog has an interesting post about how four local neighborhood papers that use editors to train volunteer reporters.

And finally, Popular Science magazine has dumped the paid model for its digital ezine, reports Media Week. Using Zinio, the publisher "hoped to get 900,000 downloads for the first four issues combined. But the first issue, priced at 99 cents, sold just over 5,000," said Media Week.

Artisanal Cheese, Artisanal News? Why Not!

Among my many interests, I am a foodie. I've always enjoyed eating different types of cheeses, but a trip to Paris in 1995 began my love affair with artisanal cheeses. Local grocery stores are now offering cheeses from all over the world.

And my office in Washington, D.C., is mere blocks from Cowgirl Creamery, considered one of the finest artisanal cheese stores in the country. Which is why this article from the Nieman Journalism Lab caught my eye: "If it’s good enough for cheese: What would artisanal news look like?"

Writer Gina Chen writes about what the future might hold for news organizations that decided to take the artisanal approach. Components would include:

• Story focus would be niche, not mass;
• Journalists would use different skills and would handle a story from start to finish;
• Publications would put responsibility in the hands of "a few overseer-type facilitators," along with writer/editors "who lead rather than manage;"
• The focus would be online first, with regular story updates;
• News web sites would offer readers "just about everything someone needs to navigate their community, aggregated and easily searchable;" and
• The print publication turns into a magazine offering "local community, full of in-depth, change-the-world pieces."

Chen doesn't know if the concept would work, but says that maybe it's something more publications might consider. The University of Missouri's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute web site has an interesting article on Web-based niche news sites and links to one that are making a go of it. Ones I read regularly are TravelingMom.com, Baltimore's own BMoreNews.com and the award-winning investigative journalism site VoicesofSanDiego.com. This is just more food for thought as the transformation of journalism continues.