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I read about this interview with the New York Times’ editor of the Web room, Fiona Spruill, (no one asked if that’s physically different from the newsroom) but then saw an excerpt on Mindy McAdam’s very good blog, Teaching Online Journalism. Here’s the part from which she excerpted which I found very interesting:
Q. I’m a young journalist currently working in the print medium at a mid-sized daily. What advice would you have for young reporters who want to work for a large national paper on the Web desk? What skills should I acquire or work toward acquiring to make myself more marketable for a Web position? How did you start out in the industry?
— Kelly Reynolds, Watertown, N.Y.
A. Great question. A big part of my job involves hiring, so this topic is important to me.
I ended up in this industry by accident. I studied public policy in college and particularly loved my classes relating to the media and journalism. During the summers, I worked as a writer and producer at the Web site for the Wimbledon tennis championships, where I picked up a basic understanding of how a Web site comes together. So when I heard about an opening for an internship at NYTimes.com, I jumped at the opportunity.
Web journalism has changed a lot since I joined The Times in 1999. I often joke that I would never hire me today.
Our Web newsroom is closely integrated with the print newsroom, so I am looking for people who can flourish in both worlds and who I could see fitting into many different jobs at The Times. Among other things, producers are responsible for packaging the news online and for creating original multimedia. As a result, they need to have solid journalism credentials and strong technical skills.
On the technical side, we want people to walk in the door with a proficiency in Photoshop, HTML and blogging software, and an understanding of Web publishing systems. Experience in the production of multimedia — including the use of audio and video editing tools — is strongly desirable. For our more specialized multimedia positions, we expect to see an extensive knowledge of Flash and an understanding of how to integrate databases into multimedia presentations.
All emphasis is mine.
Now - what I want to know is, in the pool of people who only call themselves journalists - the whole pool - versus the people who call themselves bloggers - the whole pool - which group do you think is more likely to have all or more of those skills than the other group?
I haven’t looked at a j-school curriculum lately - but how many years has it been that they have included instruction on all those things she mentions? What kind of job are the papers doing to teach their current staff to do all those things?
That’s not a rhetorical question - I don’t know the answer. But if we knew the answer, or an estimation, we’d get a better sense of how true or false the sense is that traditional journalists are in denial about change.
I’d say we start with the entire membership of SPJ and find out - what percentage of them have one or more of those skills?
Sphere: Related ContentBy Jill Miller Zimon at 9:14 pm December 1st, 2007 in Writing, Media, Blogging
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10 Responses to “NYTimes.com editor says journalists who expect jobs must walk in knowing how to blog”
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Wow, NYT, welcome to 2001. They finally realize that web articles should be written differently than those in print.
This is silly. From the beginning, the NYT has been a constant innovator on the web, way ahead of most anyone or any organization. They’ve invested hundreds of millions into it, long before they began to reap much in the way of payback.
Which “this” is silly John?
Sorry, I was referring to his suggestion that the NYT is almost a decade behind on adapting to the web. They’re actually way, way ahead of most traditional pubs.
Ah - thanks.
Do you have an idea and/or opinion on just how many newspapers do look for a similar array of skills? Just how big is the pool - is it getting bigger but less traditional?
As you know better than most, Jill, these “skills” you need to write for the web are mostly not skills at all really, since you generally don’t need to know HTML or other technical code-writing languages to write for the web anymore. If you can figure out Microsoft Word you can generally manage most blog software. It’s just a different mind-set, really, beginning with the idea that it involves a conversation (with comments) and that speed sometimes enters into the equation more (though not always). So I think the whole idea that we need new skills is overblown, and more a product of the way that people who are afraid of the web (and of course that cohort group gets smaller every day) would articulate it. We don’t have to be tied to that way of thinking about it, of course.
This need for new skills is, however, quite true on the production side, as this article from the industry bible Folio notes. It talks about how magazine art directors now typically have to know web design. Unlike newspapers, most magazines don’t have separate staffs to handle the website.
http://www.foliomag.com/2007/new-role-art-director
John - I would agree about the perspective on the skills, definitely. I was just writing up some stuff from my background and realized, sheesh, I’ve been writing a ton all my life - I mean, ALL my life, lots and lots of writing. And serious writing, and all different kinds.
So yes - articulation can vary depending on the speaker’s perspective.
Thanks for the follow up because that’s part of what I was asking - how much of this is in fact about asking people who haven’t had to have certain skills to get them?
It’s just my take, of course. Some people seem to think blogging takes some special skill apart from general writing, but I never have. I always chuckled over how a blogging friend told me shortly after I began a blog that “we’ll make a blogger out of you yet.” I had been writing professionally every day for about 20 years at that point, so didn’t quite get how blogging was any different. I still don’t. It’s not rocket science, that’s for sure. What most people do seem to have a problem with is regularity, keeping at it most days for a long period. But then, that surely hasn’t been a problem for either of us. And again, it goes to having developed a substantial writing habit beforehand, I think. Or you could call it muscle memory for writing.
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