Journalists need business sense
Here’s Paul Conley’s latest advice for those who are training the next generation of journalists:
- Give up on trying to convert your peers.
- Instead, push to give your students the tools that will allow them to see the world and the publishing industry clearly.
- Fight to have a business finance and/or accounting course as a requirement for graduation.
- Force every journalism student in your school to cover business. Invite business journalists to guest lecture on subjects like “reading an income statement” and “understanding SEC filings.” Don’t let anyone graduate who hasn’t produced at least five multimedia pieces that focus on the world of business, investments and/or personal finance.
- Distribute salary surveys whenever you can. Make sure your students know that new media pays more than old media.
It’s good advice, Paul, but — whew! Many journalism students balk at learning basic Excel!
I work as photographer and photojournalist in Italy. Business sense is foundamental otherwise you will pushed out of the market soon.
April 2, 2008 at 5:38 amMany are still resistant to things such as Excel, even… but that’ll change… i recently had a Denver Post reporter talk to the Friday afternoon newspaper class i help teach at a Denver elementary school. She noted that they’d done some cool excel graphics on their newspaper site… then she said that many people in her newsroom don’t know or want to know how to use Excel… this drew gasps from the fourth- and fifth-grade students - “they don’t know Excel?!?!”
April 2, 2008 at 12:08 pmso things are gonna change!