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Journalists: Drink Alcohol

Trace Sharp — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:54:24 +0000

Jessica gives advice at Journalism Rants and Raves on things to consider if you are in the news business.

#1: Drink Alcohol.

Big newspapers are not always better than small newspapers, but they are usually more tolerable places to work. The most important thing to look at in any prospective employer is its track record. Unlike mutual funds, a newspaper’s recent performance is a reliable indicator of its future potential. But wherever you go, do not expect happiness. It stinks everywhere.

Everyone in the newspaper industry will offer you advice. Most of it is useless, however, since success in newspapers has less to do with effort or talent than it does with fate and circumstance. Advice is a form of catharsis. Dispensing it enables journalists to connect with a captive audience in a way they never could with readers.

But trust me on the alcohol.

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Business Cards Joining Dead Dinosaurs?

Trace Sharp — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:38:59 +0000

Jack Lail has the scoop.

Here’s hoping newspapers don’t go away before business cards. And no, I don’t believe newspapers are killing polar bears to any greater degree than text messages, either. But business cards, that’s another question.

He has a poll up asking the question if business cards are old school. I haven’t really thought about it, but I ran out of business cards about eight months ago and didn’t get anymore printed.

I am thinking MOO cards because they amuse me.

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Widening A Newspaper’s Reach

Trace Sharp — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:41:05 +0000

The Tennessean has an editorial on social media from Mark Silverman.

Most important, you’re now becoming your own editor. You can weigh the information our reporters develop, along with information provided by all of these other sources. You can mine the databases we post to dig deeply into issues. And, you can trade information and opinions with your neighbors.

Increasingly, people will see beyond narrow niches. Perhaps the new definition of mass media is a collection of niches woven together by social networking.

The good thing about this article, which you should read because it’s a good one, is that you are seeing more newspapers talking about social and online media.Similar Posts:

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The Last Newspaper

Trace Sharp — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:00:56 +0000

This, my friends, is brilliant.

He reminded his rapt audience that what they now refer to as “content” used to be called “stories,” delivered by trained individuals known as “storytellers” and “journalists.” These people didn’t work for companies like Google or Amazon as they do now, culling “content” from armies of information aggregators and feeding it into computers which analyze and pull out the relevant information by keyword. Before news was fully automated, Daniel said, individuals wrote entire stories themselves. They researched and crafted linear narratives – unheard of today, he admitted, but at the time people found value in following a certain flow.

The rest of this cautionary tale about the last newspaper was written by Gary Goldhammer at Authenticities.

H/T Jesse Newhart on Twitter

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POLL: Where Do You Get Your News

Trace Sharp — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:57:23 +0000

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