Job evolution for online journalists
It used to be that most of the “online” jobs in newspaper newsrooms were brain-numbing robot labor, cutting and pasting in the middle of the night, and not much more. “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness” indeed.
Here are highlights from an ad from a small group of newspapers in Pennsylvania:
Lancaster Newspapers Inc. seeks a journalist with experience in online publishing who is well-versed in developing story lines and comfortable working in a fast-paced, breaking news environment.
Responsibilities include: working closely with our editors to keep fresh content, from staff or wire services, flowing into our Web site.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field preferred
- Sound news judgment and web publishing skills
- Ability to write sharp headlines and summaries, and perform basic copy editing in the process of publishing articles, photos, polls, audio/visual, and interactive content
- Experience in Flash multi-media production a plus
- Willingness to work nights and weekends
From JournalismJobs.com. Posted there Nov. 27.
I found this ad interesting because it almost sounds like robot work (”Come in at night and fix all the errors that a bad system introduces as it ‘automatically’ feeds our print stories onto the Web site.”) For heaven’s sake, it doesn’t even mention that the person ought to know Photoshop.
But then there’s that line about Flash. (Yes, I see that it’s called a “plus” and not a firm requirement.)
Probably what it means is that someone who says he or she knows Flash will get the job. And then there will be this strange Jekyll/Hyde existence in which the person has hours of robot work to slog through — and oh, by the way, could you build us some interactive multimedia stuff too?
This job ad is a far sight better than many; at least it doesn’t ask that the journalist also “know” six programming languages and how to edit video.
But I would like to suggest that there is a disconnect in the minds of newspaper managers who think that a journalist can be a headline writer, a copy editor, a fixer and tinkerer in words, and in his or her spare time (yeah, right) can whip up a few Flash packages for the Web site.
I suggest that if you want multimedia production, you hire a person to do that. The person might be a news graphics artist or a designer or a photographer. The person might even be — like me — a former copy editor. But the production of online content has to be the main part of that person’s job, not an afterthought when all the headlines have been written.
Technorati tags: journalism | online media | interactivity | training | multimedia
I agree with your points about hiring people with specific talent for specific work, yet as a news manager I can speak to the need for having people multi-task. Producing multimedia content is great (we’re doing more of it at roanoke.com) but there’s also a need to have someone keep an eye on the site on a daily basis. For now, I think that needs to be the same person. I don’t have any data, but talking to folks in the industry, it seems a lot of sites are like that.
I don’t view it as grunt work either. Yeah, the hours suck (I get up at 4:30 to update the site when it’s my turn), but it’s 45 to 90 minutes a day. And unless there’s major breaking news, that’s it. I take the time to be creative and try to piece something new or different together, otherwise the monotony will drive you nuts.
Once the site’s updated for the day (usually in 45 to 90 minutes), then whoever does it can work on other projects that are more challenging and creative.
In an ideal setting, an entry-level producer slot would be like being a cub reporter: You cover anything and everything to learn the craft before moving into a more specified area once you build some experience and have success. Frankly, I think some prospects tend to feel that if they can’t apply what they’ve learned immediately, they’re stuck in a dead-end job. The challenge for a manager is to ensure there is something more challenging waiting in the wings.
Sorry to ramble, but wanted to give some perspective. Keep up the good work.
November 28, 2006 at 3:43 pmOr, for those working with an automated system that posts the day’s stories in the middle of the night, there’s this set of routines:
Jekyll = Make corrections to week-old stories, update the link to the privacy policy in 40 different versions of the site footer, explain to reporters why readers can’t find their stories online without actually using the search engine, fix broken html escaping in perl scripts, and encode the daily video update into Flash and post it.
Hyde = Develop the site design so you only have to change that footer in one place, push for a transition to a CMS, blow up the perl scripts, and then go out and shoot the video yourself so that there’s more content then a talking reporter head.
I think smaller papers that are still getting started online — or that got started in 1998 and haven’t changed the way they do things — are the ones looking for one body to fill all the chairs.
November 28, 2006 at 4:08 pmI second John’s comment, at least in terms of what we’re doing at The Roanoke Times.
On a related note:
Web standards guru Molly Holzschlag posted a few days back an entry similar to this one about outlandish job descriptions for Web developers. The job post she mentions demanded the following: “Perl, PHP, ASP, .NET, HTML, CSS, RSS, ATOM, JavaScript, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, graphic user interface design as well as interaction design.”
That plus five years of experience and a computer science degree (a plus).
But here’s the kicker: The salary for this job was listed at $50K a year.
I know this comment was a bit of an aside, but I think it’s safe to note that the Web industry (media included) is rife with inflated job descriptions (minus the matching pay checks).
Honestly, I think students graduating with journalism degrees and experience producing (and understanding) for the Web should be demanding more from their potential employers. This applies to both job duties and paychecks.
November 28, 2006 at 4:25 pmI do see that many newspapers may not have a full-time slot for a multimedia journalist (yet) and that person might need to do other things as well. And Patrick’s right about those crazy Web developer job ads outside the journlism biz too!
I’ll tell you what I see killing us, though:
Great journalism students with great online skills go out to an internship and get stuck doing vacation fill-ins for the cut-and-paste human robot — who at many papers is doing it for five or six hours, or more, and not for 90 minutes. These students come back and tell us that they will never, ever apply for an online journalism job again.
Yes, they should show more incentive. But they’re young and inexperienced. And they get plugged into a hole that seems to have no exits, no opportunities, no room for multimedia or video or community building. And they think that doing a job is doing what your boss tells you is the priority. And they haven’t learned yet how to stand up and say, “I want to change the way you’re doing things here!”
Please help them see the path up and out. They can do the new work, but they need to be shown a toehold, a rope to pull themsleves up by, something.
November 28, 2006 at 5:00 pmI guess I feel pretty lucky at my job, because I’m not expected to put stories/photos on the web. My entire job consists of producing multimedia–going out to shoot video, collect audio, and coming back to edit it into a story.
I also create the Flash presentations. I enjoy coding the Flash documents because it’s like a puzzle and a good challenge.
But I’ve found that my talent does not really lie in page design. I mean, my designs always look descent. But I’m always perusing the Web checking out extremely well designed Flash packages, and I know they’re a lot better my designs. I’d really like the help of our art department here!
November 28, 2006 at 5:28 pmat roanoke.com our interns get into the thick of it — yes they do the 4:30 am wake up — but they also get to be integral to major projects — like this one by last summer’s intern Amanda Hicks a student at Missouri —
http://blogs.roanoke.com/immigration/
personally I did my time as a grunt at a weekly newspaper as a photographer — I did the really small town thing — I worked my way up the ladder I LEARNED A HECK OF A LOT about how newsrooms work.
We find it difficult to get folks to apply for our job openings and internship - YES WE PAY!!!- I don’t understand it - we’re making a commitment toward online journalism and we’re putting the appropriate resources toward the product and we are winning some awards to prove that we are making this commitment
being a specialist right of school with the desire of doing exactly what you want to do is a pipe dream.
The industry needs people that are multi-talented innovative thinkers,
Just look at Patrick Beeson — someone who has commented already on this thread– he kicked butt as a online producer and as an intern — we recognized his talent and he was able to design a job specific to his skills — as Web Standards Developer — here at roanoke.com — we cater jobs to the talent. he worked hard and we saw the results of his labor.
we are committed toward our product and toward making sure that great multimedia storytelling is done at roanoke.com and we seek multi-skilled innovative thinking talent. If you think that this is you please send us an email!
November 28, 2006 at 6:16 pmWhy is any newspaper site at this stage doing night updates? That’s old school. Stories should be posted by reporters as they’re written and published on the Web as soon as an editor approves.
At least, that’s the ideal and what we should all aim for.
The night update slot is grunt work. We used to call it the “web monkey” slot.
But, in some ways, I’m old school, and I believe that if you have a passion for journalism, you’ll take the job you can get and love it. Either that or go flip hamburgers or become a flak and forget about a career in journalism.
A college grad isn’t going to talk his or her way into a job that is fundamentally against a newspaper’s business model, so either take the job or look for another.
Once you get your foot in the door you can become a subversive agent for change. Here’s how you do it: Get your Web monkey work done well, efficiently and quickly, and then start working on projects that interest you … shoot some video and edit it, build something in Flash, write some code for a little database application (whatever it is you want to specialize in — and if you can’t do it for work, do it on your own for your own site … you do have a blog at least, don’t you?). You can’t approach this as a 9-5 job. The college grads who really get ahead will live and breathe this stuff.
When I was hired by the Ventura County Star in 1999, I was hired as a lowly content producer. It was an entry level job, even though I had about five years experience and had been an online editor. I did my job, and then I did other jobs, too — I proved I was a good Cold Fusion programmer (I wrote code at work and I wrote code at home), so I got shifted to a more operational/programming mode, and as the organization grew (and I created a couple of applications that actually made money), I got more responsibility and trust. I made sure I understood every aspect of the operation and could work with all departments. When my boss left, it was an easy transition to the director’s position.
What I’m saying is, your job is what you make it, and if you don’t like it, make it different. This takes work and dedication, but it can be done. And if you find yourself in a place where you can’t make it different, no matter how hard you try (and be harshly self critical: are you really trying?), then find another newspaper to work for, even if the job is a horizontal move. Don’t get stuck in a bad job at a bad paper. You should know within a year if you’re in the right place.
Finally, we’ll be hiring in 2007. There will be no Web monkey work. We’ll be looking for people who want to have an impact and make a difference (our current opening is for a deputy multimedia editor — this is for somebody with experience and proven talent … we’ve got a couple of good candidates now, more are always welcome).
November 28, 2006 at 6:45 pmHoward, I agree it’s old school and shouldn’t be as prevalent today as it is. Yet, the decisions to protect the mother ship (print) are made first with online playing second. I think Steve Outing wrote about this a few months back.
The light at the end of the tunnel rests with developing tools for reporters and editors to use to get content online. We’re on the verge of doing that. If we get it right, that’ll free up the online folks from the webmonkey work to innovate and create. Stay tuned.
November 28, 2006 at 8:46 pmMake sure your students know what they’re getting into as far as their internships are concerned.
We use a lot of interns from the University of Colorado and their school requires that they are producing unique content - whether that is stories for print, photos or multimedia for the Web site.
So technically, I can’t let my interns do monkey work because they’ll have nothing to turn in for class.
I use this opportunity to teach them everything they’ll need to do this job - scanning wires, writing, editing, capturing and editing video and audio, etc. Hopefully they’ll look for online jobs when they graduate…
November 28, 2006 at 11:08 pmI think every internship should include some kind of teaching or mentoring. In newsrooms where I have worked, that was the rule. So it does surprise me when I hear how some of the newspapers treat interns — no teaching and no mentoring.
Maybe it is up to the j-school to make sure that the supervisor intends to provide a quality experience for the intern.
November 28, 2006 at 11:26 pmWell said. At a major media .com in Washington D.C, great journalism editors have been leaving at a fast and steady pace because they spend their entire day doing “data entry” into a slow CMS. It has been sad to watch them leave, but it was much worse to see creative and great thinkers forced to just tinker in a cage.
November 29, 2006 at 12:40 amThis is an interesting thread because of a post to the cma listserv yesterday by an adviser who took her students to the local daily for a look at how they produce web material. Needless to say, the results were very depressing. Shovelware, silos, and ancient equipment. I shudder to think what an intern would be doing at this news site.
In short, there’s still a lot of work to be done before every slot is a prized slot.
November 29, 2006 at 3:25 pmI’m worried that some of these postings may create a misconception on what interns and college grads may find at their first job.
My first Internet job was with a national Web site in Chicago. There was no companion paper or other medium, everything was online. Yet the office was a bunch of folks staring at computer screens all day. It didn’t seem exciting at first glance, but it was. But if I made the decision on whether or not to work there based on what I saw on that initial visit, I wouldn’t be here.
If there’s a feeling that data entry and monkey work is beneath folks, then it begs the question: Why do it? It’s because that content does have value. It can and should be done better, and newspapers had better figure out ways before the Newmarks, Cubans, Arringtons of the world do.
November 29, 2006 at 8:17 pm