June Casagrande

By John C. Ensslin

As you may have noticed by reading this blog, many of the programs we’ll offer at the SPJ national convention in Las Vegas on Oct. 3-5 are focused on what’s new in journalism.

From video training to multimedia reporting to hyper-local coverage and new business models, I think we’ve got the future – both near and long-term – covered.

But that said, the organizers of this year’s conference also wanted to make sure we covered a more basic and timeless bit of training: the art of the well-crafted sentence.

Because no matter how much or how rapidly the tools and technology of our trade advance, there remains a need for journalists to communicate in a clear and concise manner.

To meet that need, we turned June Casagrande, a California journalist who just happened to have a new book out on the importance of writing well.

The book, published in late July by Ten Speed Press, is titled It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences – a Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences.

While covering community news in Newport Beach, June launched a weekly grammar column called “A Word Please.” She has written a previous book titled, Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies.

She also has a great sense of humor, which  perhaps is why she once studied improvisational comedy.

I enjoyed our recent e-mail exchange. Here’s the transcript:

Q: When I was growing up, the nuns at Catholic school were relentless about teaching us to diagram sentences. But looking back now, I realize they may have wired grammar into my DNA. Who were your early influences when it came to grammar?

A: You’re so lucky you learned sentence diagramming! It doesn’t just teach you to appreciate grammar, it also teaches you how to look at sentences a certain way — like they’re made of building blocks, Lego sculptures. There’s power in that: the power to choose how you want to structure your sentences. Not many people are so lucky.

I didn’t have any early grammar influences. I went to bad schools for my primary education then became a chronic truant my first semester in high school. I dropped out as soon as I turned 16. So I had an eighth-grade education and a GED when I enrolled in college three years later. My sophomore year I was taking my first French class and the teacher asked for a volunteer who had studied the verb “etre” to come to chalkboard. My hand shot up, I took my place at the board, chalk in hand, and she said to go ahead and conjugate the verb. I knew what “etre” meant, I just didn’t know what “conjugate” meant. I laughed it off. But I sure did start paying attention to grammar terminology after that. Grammar seemed like really cool stuff — but so did everything in college. It took a long while to realize how much I liked language mechanics. Still, I trace my interest in English grammar to college French class.

Q: What’s a common mistake journalists tend to make when crafting sentences?

A: In straight news writing, the challenge is to cram in a lot of crucial information as early as possible. That’s often done with prepositional phrases — “on Tuesday,” “with his entourage in tow,” “to the voters,” “for the measure,” “without having signed the bill” — and with participial phrases — “stepping down,” “referring to the measure that” “making headway in his efforts,” “dogged by allegations of.” That can get really messy really fast. You have to make sure it’s clear what each of these modifying phrases refers to. Otherwise, you end up with nonsense like “I photographed an elephant in my pajamas.”

Feature writing is tougher. It’s less regimented, so there are more ways to go astray. Here’s something I see a lot: “One of the more delightful aspects of the park is the fact that it has six different roller coasters.” In this sentence, the new information is trapped in a relative clause: “that it has six roller coasters.” The main clause is dedicated to the hollow and droning “One of the more delightful aspects is the fact that.” When novice writers structure sentences this way, it’s because they think they’re making the sentence more interesting. But the facts are usually more interesting when they stand alone: “The park has six roller coasters.” Once you’ve cut the fat, then you can dedicate the saved ink to interesting, tangible facts instead of abstract value judgments.

Q: I understand you’ve also done stand-up and improvisational comedy. Which is harder: being funny or writing well?

A: My comedy experience is very limited. I took classes for years but only performed in front of an audience a handful of times. To me, funny is something that happens to you. It’s a beast you didn’t realize was lurking in your abdomen that suddenly leaps out of your mouth — without your permission — and makes people laugh. It’s a great feeling, but a completely passive experience. I’m like a penny on a train track and funny is the train.

Writing is an active experience. That means effort. Sure, for many people it comes naturally. But even the most innately talented writer has to sit down and think about what she or he wants to say. For me, making an effort is harder than lying on train tracks.

Q: My wife came across this sign recently in Buffalo : “Parking for busses.” She figured it was a make-out lot. Do you find yourself instinctively correcting grammar and spelling wherever you go?

 A: See, here’s the thing about that: If you look up “bus” in Webster’s New World College Dictionary — the AP Stylebook’s designated Webster’s — you see that the preferred plural form is “buses” but another acceptable form is “busses.” And that, in a nutshell, is why I try not to focus on errors. Something that’s wrong according to AP style may be right according to Chicago style. Something that’s wrong according to one dictionary may be right according to another. The Los Angeles Times writes 1980s but the New York Times writes 1980’s.

Once you start paying attention to language, you start seeing errors everywhere. Go around correcting people long enough and eventually it bites you on the backside. Yes, I have “copy editor’s disease” — noticing poor word choice, punctuation errors, spelling errors, etc. But I try to fight it.

Q: What is one thing you hope people learn from your talk?

A: Often, when a writer gives birth to a sentence, it seems like that exact sentence was the only way to convey the information. That’s never true. And if you can see alternative ways to write each sentence, you can make better choices. I hope that people start to see some of the different ways they can structure their sentences.

“n

“

Jacqueline Charles

By John C. Ensslin

Most of us – at some point in our career – have been or will be called upon to cover a natural disaster.

Let us hope that when it happens, we’ll respond with the kind of brilliant, humane, detailed and dogged reporting that Jacqueline Charles has displayed, not just in one disaster, but twice in Haiti.

As a Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald – Jacqueline was one of the first reporters on the scene in 2008 when back-to-back storms destroyed Cabaret, Haiti. Her coverage won her “International Journalist of the Year” from the National Association of Black Journalists.

When a deadly earthquake struck Haiti, she returned to the island and has filed one compelling story after another. Jacqueline will be part of a panel discussion called “Covering the Tragedy with No End in Sight.”

I caught up with Jacqueline recently when she took a break from working on a package of stories marking the sixth anniversary of the deadly quake. Here is a transcript of our e-mail exchange:

Q:   Tell me a bit about where you grew up.

A: I was born in the Turks and Caicos of Haitian descent, grew up between there and Miami.

Q:   Where we’re you when the quake hit Haiti?

A:  I was in Miami working on two Haiti stories, emailing back and forth with sources in Haiti — at least one of whom died in the quake — and holding a ticket to travel to the country that weekend.

Q:   What was the biggest challenge you faced in covering the quakes’ aftermath?

A: The biggest challenges was a logistical one – a lack of gas and transportation. At one point I was riding around on the back of a motorcycle because I couldn’t find my regular driver and I had a bummed knee. There is also just the unknown of whether or not another big one is coming and when. I went the first 72 hours without sleep and when I finally did, it was outside in the chill night air.

Q: How did that experience compare to covering the aftermath of the tropical storms in 2008?

A: The storms definitely prepared me for this. But the storms were different. The first city to be hit was Gonaives, it was underwater. And I flew in via UN helicopter. There was no UN chopper with this quake, and instead of one city there were five including the capital. And instead of a handful of dead babies, there were hundreds of thousands. But yes having already covered one disaster in Haiti, enabled me to push through and put the story into perspective and personally cope.

Q:  What is one thing you would hope people come away with after hearing your talk?

A: For people who don’t know about Haiti, hopefully they learn something beyond this is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There is so much more to this country than that moniker.

For reporters in general, this was and still remains an exciting and challenging story to tell — and there are so many stories. In the last few weeks, I’ve written about a religious pilgrimage at a beautiful and sacred waterfall; how women are helping the country rise from the ruins, to enterprise pieces on the state of the electricity, and seaports in the country as it struggles to rebuild.

“n

“

Dick Goehler

By John C. Ensslin

Sometimes filing breaking news directly to the web feels like a high wire act.

Gone are the old safety nets of multiple sets of eyes, editing my story before the first reader sees it.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy writing for the web first and I appreciate the freedom of having my own news blog.

But I miss the luxury of time and the supporting cast that accompanies most print stories.

That’s one reason why I’m looking forward to hearing Richard Goehler’s talk at the SPJ National Convention in Las Vegas on Oct. 3-5.

Goehler, a Cincinnati lawyer with the firm of Frost Brown Todd LLC, will take part in a panel discussion titled, “Social Media: the Safe Way.”

His specialty is media law including digital, interactive and social media. He is a former co-chair of the American Bar Association’s First Amendment and Media Litigation Committee.

I had a recent e-mail exchange with Goehler. Here’s the transcript:

Q: As newspapers shift their focus to online reporting, a lot of reporters have to file breaking news stories directly to the web without the usual amount of editing and reflection. Are we running a risk by doing so?

A: There is no question that today’s focus to online reporting and the virtual avalanche of social media opportunities have provided reporters with significant new newsgathering and reporting tools.  However, this focus on online reporting has also created new legal risks for media companies, newsrooms and reporters.

Reporters filing breaking news stories directly to the web and using social media sites must try to meet the same standards of truthfulness, fairness, accuracy and attribution that are followed and adhered to in traditional print platforms. 

While it may not always be practical for a “second pair of eyes” to review a reporter’s story before posting, it may be prudent for the newsroom to have that “second pair of eyes” of a manager or senior editor retrospectively review all direct internet and social media postings.

Q: One journalist I know has a motto, “write to the web, edit to the paper” What do you think of that idea?

A: It is certainly an interesting idea and one that certainly has some practical application in today’s digital/online world.

On the other hand, the reputation, credibility and brand of a newsroom and its reporters are of critical importance.  The use of online postings and social media does not change this critical importance. 

Newsrooms today are eagerly encouraging reporters to use social media tools in the newsgathering and reporting – but it is very important for these reporters to be fully aware of the risks and pitfalls which can impact hard-earned reputations and credibility.

Q: I write a blog for my paper on the courts that I cover. It’s called The Sidebar. While it’s often written in the first person and include anecdotes not found in the paper, I try to adhere to the same standards as if I were writing for the paper. What is your opinion of blogging as a supplement to beat coverage?

A: Following up on the issues from question number two above, I think your question again puts a finger directly on the point.  Blogging today is an excellent supplement to beat coverage and trying to adhere to the same standards as if you were writing for the paper is very important.  Reporters should also use caution when posting or blogging about a subject that the newsroom is covering.  “Editorializing” on a blog or social media site about the topic or subject being covered by the newsroom can reveal biased or personal feelings and beliefs.

Q: From a legal standpoint, what is the biggest mistake people make when blogging?

A: Currently, the biggest “legal mistake” that we see from blogging and social media posting arises from the relative ease for journalists to participate and become engaged with their readers.

This easy means of participation, however, makes it even more important for reporters to think through all of the consequences before posting, responding or repeating content on blogs or social media sites. 

Think before you post.  Reporters should be constantly reminded that they must not suspend their critical analysis and reasoning when using social media tools.  Remember, a “tweet” is a publication.  A media company and its reporters are responsible for the content of their tweets.  Similarly, a “retweet” may constitute a republication of a defamatory statement.

Q: What’s one thing you’d like journalists who attend your talk to come away with?

A: I am looking forward to the program is Las Vegas at the SPJ Convention.  I hope to be able to provide some very practical tips and guidelines to help minimize potential legal risks and prevent legal claims from arising from blogs and social media.

“n

“

Kelly Kennedy

By John C. Ensslin

Kelly Kennedy was a journalism student at the University of Colorado when I first met her.

She had won the Denver Press Club’s Damon Runyon scholarship, which goes each year to a college journalist who shows a knack for narrative. What a smart investment that proved to be.

Even then, I remember Kelly telling me about how she wanted to work as a war correspondent. She delivered on that promise too.

You can imagine how proud Kelly’s friends, family and colleagues felt earlier this year when her first book was published.

“They Fought for Each Other” (St. Martin’s Press) tells the story of a battalion that fought in some of the toughest battles in Iraq and suffered more casualties than any battalion since the Vietnam War.

The book began as a four-part series for Army Times, where Kelly covers the military health beat. The series made her a finalist in the prestigious Michael Kelly award, named after the former Atlantic editor who was the first American reporter killed while covering the Iraq War.

Kelly will talk about her experiences, both as an embedded reporter and a journalist covering the military during the SPJ national convention.

Here’s an e-mail exchange I had with her recently:

Q: How did you get interesting in covering the military?

A: I served as a soldier during Desert Storm in 1991 and in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. After that, I went the traditional civilian journalism route, but I always wanted to write about what I had seen in the military: the culture, the camaraderie, the silly rules and the growing up we all did entering the military straight from high school.

Q: How long were you embedded in Iraq and where?

A: I was in Iraq for 10 weeks. I spent time in Adhamiya, Baghdad, Mosul, Al Asad and Taqaddum.

Q: When did you realize your experience would result in a book?

When I was with the guys in Adhamiya and they were hit so hard on June 21, I knew I had a story about a battle and about loss and hardship, but it took months before I realized it would be a book.

While I was still in Iraq, a first sergeant from the unit shot himself in front of his men, a second Bradley ran over a deep-buried bomb and killed four soldiers, and then the platoon I originally embedded with mutinied.

Because I was so distraught and distracted from my own experiences in Iraq, it actually took my editors to point out that there was a series there — that we needed to write about their whole tour.

After the series came out, agents and publishers started contacting me about making it into a book. I guess I got lucky in not having to try to convince anyone that there was a book there.

Q: Among the soldiers you wrote about, what’s been their reaction to the book?

A: At first, the guys were disappointed that I didn’t write about every person in the unit and every experience they had. But since it has come out, they’ve been fantastic.

Their moms have read it and yelled at them for not telling them everything. The guys have said that their wives finally understand what they went through. They’ve reached out to each other and told more of their stories, which helps them heal.

One of the most surprising things has been the mothers of soldiers who died there have said the book brought them comfort because they understood how much love the guys had for each other, and they now know exactly what their last moments were like.

Q: What’s one thing you would hope that people who attend your talk come away with?

A: Ultimately, the book is about how combat affects a person. None of these guys came back the same as they were before they went to Adhamiya, and some of the changes are especially harsh: anger issues, brain injuries, nightmares and flashbacks and anxiety. As a country, we sent them to war. As a country, we need to take care of them.

What we do now will determine their futures: Will they be strong members of our communities? Or will employers continue not to hire vets and will communities continue to tolerate military and veteran health-care systems that do not properly address their needs? We should understand what they’re living through and be willing to listen to their stories.

“n

“

Mark Luckie

By John C. Ensslin

If you’re serious about multimedia journalism, you need to be following Mark Luckie’s web site “10,000 words.”

Better yet, get yourself to Las Vegas for the SPJ Convention and hear Mark talk about the latest trends in that interesting zone where journalism and technology meet.

“10,000 words” – as in “a picture is worth 10,000 words” – is a great, informative clearing house for everything from web design to citizen journalism to audio, maps and site management.

Mark is the author of “The Digital Journalist’s Handbook – a guide to the tools necessary to thrive in the digital newsroom.”

He has produced multimedia and interactive stories for the Center for Investigative Reporting, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The Contra Costa Times, and is a former crime and justice reporter for The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Recently, I had a chance to do an e-mail interview with Mark. Here’s the result:

Q: How did your blog get started?

A: 10,000 Words got started with me sitting on my porch thinking how great it would be to have an outlet to share all the multimedia tips and techniques I’d learned with other journalists. The blog started off as sort of a casual resource I did in my spare time and has since grown and evolved into the full-fledged resource it is today.

Q: I loved your video on what it’s like to make the front page of Digg. How did you make the front page? How many hits did that generate? Is that a worthy goal?

A: The first time 10,000 Words made it to the front page of Digg was because of the post “7 Fonts That Should Die.” I was initially psyched, especially because of the 100,000 page views it drew on the first day. However, the site crashed and I got some pretty harsh critiques on the site’s design which prompted me to redesign the whole thing in less than 48 hours.

Being on the front page of Digg was a great, eye-opening experience that demonstrated the power of social media. However, actively working toward getting on the front page of Digg is a fool’s errand because there is no telling what’s going to be popular or not. Often the posts that I think are going to be popular are the one’s that fall flat and the posts I put together on a whim are insanely popular. Just produce good content and the traffic will come.

Q: What’s the most important thing a multimedia journalist needs to know when putting together a story?

A: Too often, multimedia journalists approach a story by saying “we should have video” or “we should do an audio slideshow” without considering whether stories actually need these multimedia elements. Journalists should instead approach a story by asking “What’s the best way to tell this story” and what medium is best to tell a story. There are also factors like time and resources that are sometimes overlooked during the ideas phase.

Q: Who’s doing multimedia journalism that you really like?

A: There are a lot of news organizations producing exceptional multimedia and online stories, but I am most impressed by news organizations, startups, non-profits, and sometimes individuals, who are using new and interesting tools to further what online journalism can be. I’m a big fan of the online documentary Prison Valley (http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en), The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s project on kingpin Michael Lock (http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/45157997.html), and California Watch’s Politics Verbatim (http://www.politicsverbatim.org/)

Q: What’s one thing you hope people who hear your talk will come away with?

A: I’ll be talking about different ways of broadcasting live on the web and I hope that all journalists — print journalists, radio journalists, TV journalists, online and what have you — can walk away knowing that they are not limited to a physical medium to distribute their content. The web has leveled the playing field in that print reporters can be broadcasters and broadcast reporters can produce text. The web is and should be a journalist’s playground.

“n

“

Kerry Northrup

By John C. Ensslin

First, a confession. While I’m notoriously low-tech, I’ve always been a gearhead when it came to the latest gadgets and gizmos that make up the tools of our trade.

The last 30 years have seen an amazing acceleration in the technology that a reporter had to understand to do the job.

I still remember as a cub reporter having to type my stories on chemically treated paper so they could be scanned into a word processor. Then there was the clunky machine that we had to plug the phone receiver into. Then the ubiquitous Trash 80s. One wag described writing on them as trying to view the Mona Lisa through a gun turret.

Over the last 11 years, Kerry Northrup has been not only tracking the latest technologies but also field testing it to see which gadgets best serve the purpose of journalism.

Kerry is the Cal Turner Professor in Multimedia Journalism at Western Kentucky University.

He was the founder and developer of the Newsplex, a $2.5 million prototype multi-platform newsroom for demonstration, training and research in convergent print, online, video and mobile news handling. He also produced the acclaimed newsroom-of-the-future concept video “Tomorrow’s News.”

Over the course of 14 years, Kerry evaluated and guided the reorganization of more than 34 newsrooms in 22 countries and directed WAN-IFRA Magazine, the international journal of news publishing strategy and technology.

He has a media career spanning more than 30 years that includes stints at Gannett and The St. Petersburg Times. Kerry also is a former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer and a one-time radio broadcaster.

My e-mail interview with Kerry runs a bit longer than some of the others I’ve done. But stick with it. If the new tools of journalism are something that matter, you’ll want to read this post through to the end. 

 Q:   I’m always interested in how things get started. How did you first become interested in surveying various news gathering technology?

A: While working as technologies editor and as director of the Center for Advanced News Operations at IFRA, an international non-profit association providing technology research and support for newspapers (today it is part of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers WAN-IFRA), I conceived and created the first NewsGear kit in 1998. The effort was a response to pleas from media organizations worldwide for guidance on what kinds of equipment and training they should be investing in for their line journalists starting to work in multiple media.

That first NewsGear kit packed a complete multimedia newsroom into an airline-regulation rolling suitcase at a total cost of $10,000. It included, among other things, one of the first ultra-light but full-featured laptops, the first hand-size portable MPEG video recorder, and one of the original Palm Pilot personal digital assistants with accessories such as an Ethernet networking attachment.

It also included a webcam and software for unheard-of remote video news feeds and laptop-based video conference, the very first tablet device that captured handwritten notes on paper as editable digital text, a USB powered GPS unit, an extremely small print-quality photo scanner, an equally small color inkjet printer for field use, the first mobile phone in a PCMCIA-card form factor allowing integration into a PC, plus all the cables and adapters to connect everything.

This gear and its capabilities seem quaint today. But more than a decade ago it was groundbreaking to conceive of all that reporters could do working in multiple media from outside the newsroom and away from their hard-wired desk equipment. You see, the core product of the NewsGear project that year and every year since has been not so much the collection of equipment itself, but rather the newshandling concepts and workflow scenarios enabled by and, in turn, enabling innovative use of the selected gear.

Along the way, NewsGear has also helped identify ideal specifications for equipment that can simultaneously serve the journalist’s needs while standing up to the journalist’s rigor and not demanding more technical skill than a well-trained journalist can bring to bear. Because in the end, it is supposed to be about the journalism, not about the technology.

Most years since 1998, I have either updated or created completely new NewsGear demonstration suites. Usually they have gotten smaller and less expensive while expanding in capabilities.

For NewsGear 2008, however, I created the multimedia newsroom’s counterpart of the big, expensive television satellite truck – an entire, functioning, five-person news center packed into the back of a Volvo, operating as both a mobile wifi hotspot for its ranging journalists and as a cellular-connected media hub tied into the home-base newsroom. That NewsGear kit was later reinstalled in Chevrolet SUV and is operating as The Star Car at The Star newspaper in Shelby, NC.

Q:   How do you go about doing your annual survey?

A: The bulk of my time is spent identifying and evaluating prospective NewsGear equipment and the scenarios under which it can contribute to an advanced, mobile, multimedia journalistic workflow. This involves a range of activities from widespread literature and online research into new releases for computers, cameras, recorders, phones and other equipment, to wide-ranging email solicitations of experiences and recommendations from notable media practitioners worldwide.

Generally, up to 50 professionals who work on the cutting edge of news media in more than 60 countries are canvassed. In some cases, equipment is obtained by them or procured for them to evaluate on behalf of the project as well as for their own edification. Similarly, scenarios for how the equipment can expand journalistic capabilities are developed through collaboration within this network of professionals created over the past decade of my NewsGear activities.

The general guidelines for NewsGear selections over the years have been:

• Set a total cost cap on each year’s suite that keeps the entire kit within reach of average media operations, or at least in line with what senior managers of such operations would reasonably be expected to be willing to spend to outfit a specially designated mobile, multi-capable journalist. The proposed cap for NewsGear 2010 is $4,000.

• Select only equipment that can be purchased or obtained by any interested media operation or individual. The NewsGear suite should be replicable by any interested media practitioners for their mission-critical newsgathering and delivery activities. Therefore the kit should avoid technologies that are experimental, prototype, beta, restricted or otherwise not generally available or not ready for professional use.

• A production unit of each piece of selected equipment must be purchased or otherwise openly acquired for the NewsGear kit, not obtained through donation by the equipment manufacturer or sales representatives. This will ensure media practitioners that NewsGear recommendations are not influenced by which vendors where willing to contribute equipment to the suite.

While the evaluations and scenario-building have only just started, NewsGear 2010 will be significantly influenced by the recent emergence of portable media consumption devices such as the Apple iPad and of increasingly capable, professional-quality multimedia smartphones such as the Nokia N-Series and C-Series. Projections are that by 2014, mobile Internet use will eclipse PC Internet use worldwide and mobile phones will outstrip all other digital platforms for news and information access.

Traditional media companies are already developing mobile or even mobile-first strategies. A significant portion of new non-traditional media operations will build their workflows initially around mobile. Not only do today’s journalists need to be significantly skilled in mobile media handling, they need to be appropriately equipped.

Q:   My favorite new device is a Sony Webbie. It’s really changed the way I cover my beat. Any advice on flip camcorders in general?

I have not included any of the FLIP-style camcorders in NewsGear so far, instead favoring equipment that is just as compact, just as easy to use, but more flexible and producing higher quality content.

NewsGear 2008, for instance, was built around a Nokia N97 multimedia mobile phone that among other things delivers sharp 5-megapixel newspaper-print-quality pictures with fl ash and Carl Zeiss optics, DVD-quality video suitable for TV or web, and broadcast-quality audio or podcast recordings. It’s even able to use an external microphone, bypassing the biggest weakness of most FLIP-style camcorders. And it can upload or email the content immediately through either WIFI or 3G mobile broadband connections.

My journalists never go anywhere without their phones so they are always at least minimally equipped to respond to any story they walk in on, and to do it in whatever formats are needed and most appropriate to the situation.

Not that FLIP-style camcorders aren’t useful and good for certain people and in certain circumstances. I’d never dis what works for you. The biggest compromise for most of these camcorders, though, is the microphone. Either you have to get close enough to get good audio through the built-in mic or you have to stand far enough back to get head and shoulders in frame with the fixed focal length optics. Hallways, outdoors and quiet talkers are problems. You never see video professionals shooting someone without miking them but few FLIP-style camcorders have that option.

One that does is the Kodak Zi8, which is why it’s the one I’ve specified on projects where such equipment was appropriate. A Zi8 plus a relatively inexpensive Audio-Technica  ATR 35S condenser lavalier on a 20-foot cable ending in a 3.5mm plug is a very useful package.

Q:  What are your thoughts on the Apple iPad?

A: Without a camera, without standard ports or adapters, without multitasking, the first-generation iPad is decidedly more of a consumption device than a content generation device. On its face, that limits its utility for mobile, multimedia, multi-platform journalists compared to laptops, netbooks and other tablets. Not that journalists who want to can’t find ways to use it.

But NewsGear doesn’t operate like that. I don’t decide on the equipment just because I think it is really, really slick and then devise justifications for journalists to use it. Instead, we develop scenarios for how a cutting-edge journalist might innovatively work in given news situations and match those up with enabling technology.

Or in the case of the iPad, because it is so really, really slick, I’m spending a lot of time searching really, really hard for newshandling scenarios in which the iPad is the ideal enabling technology over any other device. I am still searching really, really hard. I’d love to use some of my NewsGear funds to buy an iPad.

Q;  What’s one thing you hope people who attend your talk will come away with?

A: My Rule #1: Never let technology get in the way of the story. It’s not about the technology. It’s about the journalism.

“n

“

Mark Briggs

By John C. Ensslin

For those of us laboring in traditional mainstream print journalism, these last few years have felt like an implosion as papers folded and jobs were lost.

But Mark Briggs sees it as an “explosion” in terms of the growth of new business models.

Like the Chinese symbol for “crisis”, Mark also sees the symbol for opportunity in the transformation that journalism is currently undergoing.

Mark has served as an advance scout for some of those opportunities.

He coined the term Journalism 2.0 in 2006 when he was invited to write a book about digital literacy for journalists based on a training program he had created at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. His first book, Journalism 2.0: How to survive and thrive in the digital age, was published by J-Lab and the Knight Citizen News Network in 2007 and downloaded as a PDF more than 200,000 times in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

As part of his mission to help journalists transform in the digital age, Mark has served as a speaker, trainer and consultant for various projects around the U.S. and Europe.

Mark recently finished an updated version of the book, titled Journalism Next and published by CQPress in December 2009. You can find it on Amazon.com.

He is also co-founder and CEO of Serra Media, a Seattle-based technology company that connects local publishers with interactive applications and digital platforms that power online innovations. Serra Media’s first product is called Newsgarden.

Previously, Briggs was assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. from 2004-2008 and new media director at The Herald in Everett, Wash. from 2000-2004. He was named to Presstime magazine’s “20 under 40″ list for 2007 and he earned journalism degrees from Gonzaga University and the University of North Carolina.

Recently, I had a chance to interview Mark via e-mail. Here’s a transcript of what he had to say:

Q: In 2006, you called your book Journalism 2.0. If you had to put a number on where we are at now, what would it be? Or are we so far beyond counting versions of what might be the next version of journalism?

A: Unfortunately, journalism is not a unified construct that can be classified as cleanly as a software release (which is the metaphor I was going for with the book title). I see some exciting developments that could be labeled as Journalism 3.0, but unfortunately there is still a vast amount of Journalism 1.0 produced every day.
 

Q: Setting a value on journalism seems to be a major obsession these days. How do you think we should assess value?

A: Journalism is more of a service than a product these days. The value of that service depends greatly on market forces like relevancy and uniqueness and, of course, size of the audience it can attract. If you look at the niche journalism sites (business, technology, politics, entertainment, etc.) you see that journalism can power a sustainable business if it’s the right market fit. There’s no question that the digital disruption of many local news organizations’ distribution monopolies has fueled the debate over the value of journalism. The content farms like Demand Media and Associated Content have contributed to the disarray, but the bottom line is that there are several ways to capitalize on the value of different types of journalism in 2010 versus just one or two models that worked 15 years ago.
 

Q: In Austin, you talked about the explosion of journalism going on today. Would it be fair to say you are optimistic about the future of journalism?

A: That’s more than fair. I’ve long held the belief that technology enables us to do better journalism and haven’t been shy in promoting that idea to anyone who would listen. I would argue the state of journalism is strong today. The mainstream news industry is weakened, for sure. But that’s a business problem, not a journalism problem. At the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, there were several panels focused on journalism and the new models emerging in the digital age. That’s a great sign since that conference is known more for breakout technologies like Twitter and Foursquare so it shows recognition for journalism as innovation.

Q: I see you travelled to Azerbaijan recently. What do journalists there make of what’s happening to journalism here?

A: The state of journalism isn’t so strong in Azerbaijan. I met with a group of bloggers who had two friends in jail, apparently for making a satirical video of a government program (which was quite good, by the way). The government there controls the media licenses so they don’t have the same freedom that we enjoy in the U.S. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter will hopefully open up the media landscape there so a more healthy exchange of information and ideas can prosper. That’s what many of the journalists I met with are hoping for, too.
 

Q: What is one thing a person who attends your talk can expect to come away with?

A: An opened mind to the idea that it’s a great time to be a journalist. There are so many examples of new forms of journalism and journalism businesses popping up all around us that we can already see what the future of journalism might look like. Once you get a taste of what’s possible, I think it’s easier to get excited about being a journalist today.

Howard Stutz

By John C. Ensslin

Howard Stutz has one of the coolest jobs in journalism.

As gaming reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Howard writes about one of the central beats of his paper.

With the growth of gaming in the United States, it’s also a beat that just about every news organization winds up covering, whether it’s about state lottery programs or casinos.

That’s why it seemed like a good idea to have Howard share his experience with reporters looking to cover gaming in their home state.

 Howard covers the casino gaming industry in Nevada, nationally and internationally for the business section of the Review-Journal. It’s a beat that covers business, local issues, entertainment and politics.

He also writes a weekly column called “Inside Gaming” as well as a gaming blog.

I did an e-mail chat with Howard recently. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: You work a fairly amazing beat. How long have you been covering gaming?

A: I’ve been covering gaming for the Review-Journal for almost six years since Nov. 2004. I covered gaming for the R-J from 1987 to 1991 before spending several years in other aspects of communications.

Obviously, gaming has changed considerably in the past two decades. It’s now a worldwide beat, not just Nevada and Atlantic City. One statistic I’ve read is that in most major cities, a consumer is just 90 minutes drive from a casino. Only two states, Utah and Hawaii, don’t have any form of legalized gaming.

Q: It’s interesting to me how you really cover gaming nationwide. Has that always been the case?

A: Not always. Gaming expanded to South Dakota in 1990 and that changed the landscape. Regional markets are growing in importance because during tough economic times, people tend to stay closer to home. We’ve seen gaming grow to where the major gaming companies are not all based in Las Vegas.

Smaller, regional operators, such as Penn National and Isle of Capri, have become major industry players. The biggest companies, Harrah’s, MGM, Wynn, Las Vegas Sands, are based in Las Vegas, so their efforts in other markets are important to follow and interest readers of the Review-Journal.

Q: In addition to your reporting for the paper, you keep up a very active blog. How does the blog fit into your overall beat coverage?

 A: I try to post items on the blog that might not make the regular printed newspaper because of space considerations. The blog also serves as an outlet for some opinion on gaming issues – I also write a Sunday column on gaming. I also write an every-other-week column in out Las Vegas Business Press. The blog also allows me to break stories on our website before they can get into print.

Q: Do you spend much time in casinos?

A: I’m not what you would call a big gambler. I visit casinos along the Strip to see what’s new and visit with employees. I also like to visit casinos in other markets to see what they are like, such as Indian casinos in California.

Q: What could someone attending your talk expect to come away with?

A: My plan is to help journalists understand how to cover gaming. It’s not just a gambling story. We are seeing numerous states looking at expanding or adding gambling as a way to grab new tax dollars. It’s a story that touches politics and locals issues and journalists can find numerous angles to those stories. That’s what I hope attendees walk away with.

By John C. Ensslin

“Hyper-local” is one of those buzz words that have floated up as news media organizations try to find new ways to make themselves more relevant to their audience.

In concept, it holds great promise. The idea of one journalist – whether it be a citizen, an entrepreneur or retired journalist – taking command of one neighborhood and becoming the go-to source for news there is one that I think holds great promise.

 That’s one reason why it’ll be worth your while to attend a panel discussion at the SPJ Convention titled “Networked Journalism.”

The session is devoted to such topics as:

-Can daily newspapers and televisions collaborate with other media makers in their communities?

-How should a daily newspaper deal with a “blogvertorial?”

-Which partners best adhere to core journalism values?

This session will examine lessons learned from five Networked Journalism pilot projects funded by J-Lab. These projects partnered mainstream news organizations with five hyper-local sites in their communities to share content and eventually revenue streams

The speakers will include Alicia Roberts, project coordinator, Charlotte’s Hyperlocal Group; Anthony Gimino, project coordinator, TucsonCitizen.com; Bob Payne, director of communities, SeattleTimes.com.

Recently, I had an e-mail chat about hyper-locals with Alicia W. Roberts.

Alicia is the director of partner relations at the Charlotte Observer, where she had worked since 2007. She helps local new entrepreneurs help provide hyper-local news to the communities served by the Observer.

She previously worked as metro editor, features editor, community editor and copy editor at The State, the daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.

Here’s the transcript of our e-mail talk:

Q: I’m always interested in how things get started. How did the Charlotte Hyper-local project get started?

A: The Charlotte Observer’s executive editor, Rick Thames, has been interested in the concept of hyper-local journalism and community participation for some time. The Networked Journalism project that J-Lab had planned seemed the perfect opportunity for our newspaper to get involved. We received the grant last fall and recruited five hyper-local publishers to join the experiment.

Two of the publishers, Glenn Burkins of qcitymetro.com and David Boraks of DavidsonNews.net, have worked at the Observer in past lives. Two others, Steve Sherron of MonroeScoop.com and Ben Ullman of TegaCayTalk.com, had started their own hyper-local sites before the Networked Journalism grant came along. And we helped the fifth publisher, the Villa Heights Community Organization, which represents an established but underserved neighborhood in Charlotte, get started on our platform.

Once we all agreed to partner, we drew up a vision for our relationship for the yearlong grant — from story-sharing goals and journalism standards, to a commitment to explore joint opportunities for advertising.

Q: In hyper-local efforts I’ve seen in Colorado, one of the challenges has been finding community members willing to participate in a meaningful way. How have you addressed that challenge?

A: Our group is very committed, just in different ways. Several of our sites are about frequent, quality posts — covering a community or group that isn’t covered by other media. Others are about community involvement or connection. And one is focused on how to provide lots of content from disparate sources to create a viable advertising platform.

They all have great ideas, and they all post daily, if not several times a day. We share content regularly, help each other work through problems, and discuss sticky issues of ethics and quality of journalism. When we started the project, all of the parties expressed their expectations.

The Observer wanted quality content to supplement our print and online news. Our partners sought training, support and the Observer’s seal of approval. And we all wanted to see if such partnerships could prove lucrative. We’ve made more progress on some fronts than others.

It has been a creative process, and we’re learning lessons along the way. And all of the partners are interested in continuing the relationship in some way beyond the one-year grant period. That’s one measure of success.

Q: Sometimes public relations folks have a way of infiltrating hyper local coverage to pitch their product or client. How do you deal with situations like that?

A: Our partners have had situations where businesses or for-profit concerns post what are essentially ads on their sites. The publishers delete the posts and send a message explaining their ground rules — and describing their ad rates. I don’t think anyone has snagged a new ad contract from it, though.

Q: What effect has the hyper local coverage had of the Charlotte Observer’s community coverage?

A: The Observer definitely has benefitted from these partnerships in terms of coverage. For example, Qcitymetro.com provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of a trial involving fraud, embezzlement and a local church. CharotteObserver.com picked up much of the coverage and got a lot of traffic because of it. As the trial was winding down, the Observer staff did some takeouts and analysis of the trial, and qcitymetro.com shared those stories. It worked out well. 

We’ve also had more folks from the newsroom asking, “Hey, what would Partner A think about this? Can we work on this together?” That’s a huge leap in trust and strategic planning. I’m excited to see what this new way of thinking leads to.

Q: What is one thing you hope people attending your talk will come away with?

The times call for experimentation, and hyper-local partnerships are one area where experimentation can only help in terms of expanding coverage and perfecting digital news delivery to niche communities. Start with one partnership — it doesn’t take up much time, and the results will be worth it. Have your advertising staff in the loop and thinking about revenue goals and methods from the outset. 

Just try it.

“n

“

Rob Reuteman

By John C. Ensslin

Rob Reuteman was my first editor at the Rocky Mountain News and perhaps the best.

When I came out to Denver for an interview in August 1984, instead of a long drawn out talk in the office, Rob and I got in his car and drove to Severance Colorado, a small ranching community whose main claim to fame was a bar called Bruce’s.

Bruce’s claim to fame was a delicacy known as Rocky Mountain Oysters, a deep-fried concoction made with um — the nether parts of a bull.

It was my introduction to the Rocky Mountain West – and I loved it on first sight (if not taste.)

It was also very typical of Rob to show rather than tell a new hire from back east about the strange and wondrous world he was coming into. It was something Rob required of all his reporters as well of himself…show don’t tell.

It’s a philosophy that served Rob well, first as regional editor, then city editor and finally business editor at the Rocky. I’m imagine it’s also one reason why his peers chose him this year to serve as president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW.)

I caught up with Rob recently via e-mail where we talking about a program he’ll be giving at the convention. It’s geared to helping reporters with a general news background tackle the occasional business story, as many of us are being asked to do. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: Many newspapers have folded their business coverage into the main content of their news pages. What effect, if any, do you think this has had on the quality of business coverage?

A: Well, that’s obviously a very newspaper-centric question.

Theoretically, it should have no effect on the quality of business coverage – if the people involved are true professionals. Some egos are bruised, I suppose, but if that affects the quality of coverage, that would be shameful. That’s why I made reference to “true professionals.”

Let me twist your question a bit to get a different answer. Do I think the general shrinkage of news hole has affected the quality of coverage?

Yes, editors and reporters have much less spaced to work with, fewer stories are chosen for coverage, fewer national/international stories are used. That’s true across the board, of course, not just business. Newspaper readers have been getting seriously short-changed for at least five years and it only will get worse. I read today where a Financial Times exec said print journalism has about five more years.

That said, I think the bulk of business/financial journalism is already digital. It was hard to argue with editors who slashed or abolished stock listings, which began years ago. When I started as business editor at the Rocky Mountain News in 1997, we ran seven pages of stock listings. When we closed, there was one left. Why would you want to read yesterday’s share price when it’s already changed by the time you read it? Again, that can be said about all sections of a print newspaper. But in business journalism, with much of it dependent on real-time stock data, most of the journalism and analysis started going online years ago. There are many thriving digital products – hundreds, I’m sure – that cover financial news.

Personally, since I have been working as a freelance business journalist for the past six months, I’ve probably had 30 articles published, but none have been printed. And it doesn’t matter.

But getting back to newspapers. Much of it depends on the editor of the paper. Just because there is no longer a standalone biz section, that shouldn’t mean biz news gets underplayed. But many editors don’t “get” business news, they don’t really understand its importance. It’s pushed to the back of the paper, its staff is comprised of rookies and people being put out to pasture. And it rarely gets on the front page.

That’s the editor’s fault and that will affect the quality of coverage, because there’s less motivation to do good work if no one ever sees it. But that was true before this recession and the print slide.

Q: Other than our sometimes near-pathological fear of numbers, why do you think some reporters are so leery about doing a business story when called upon?

A: Financial journalism is a specialty field, not unlike sports reporting. It requires some degree of specialized training or study or experience or immersion to achieve any measure of quality. It’s not just numbers and math, but earnings statements and initial public offerings and annual reports, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy filings, all manner of SEC filings, economic data local and national – I could go on and on and on. It requires a certain level of sophistication just not to be snowed by sources.

When I was first drafted into the business staff in 1995, I was absolutely terrified for months and months, and then the terror waned and everything became demystified.

When I was “offered” a job as assistant business editor, I confronted the editor of the paper and said, “What are you thinking? I know nothing about business.”

The editor – a former business editor – said, “It’s all news. You’re a good newsman. You’ll do fine.” And that’s true.

Q: What do you like about business reporting?

A: I began to think that every day I spent learning about money was not time wasted. And I no longer felt that way about crime, politics, sports, government. Money makes the world go ’round.

And as I met more and more business owners, I concluded that people who meet a payroll are the most impressive people I’ve met as a journalist. They are far more impressive individuals than politicians or cops or lawyers or athletes. As a business journalist, I got face time with brilliant people who otherwise wouldn’t give me the time of day; people like John Malone, Phil Anschutz, Bill Gates, David Stern – you come away from an interview thinking, ‘wow, this makes it all worthwhile.’

Q:  What are some of your top goals as SABEW president?

One goal is to provide top-notch training for our members. I spend time with our training Committee, which offers monthly Webinars for members on hot topics like “How to Cover the Heath Care Reform Bill” and skills sessions like “Beyond Google: Maximizing Social Media Searches.”

We already have them planned through the fall.

We also plan and hold conferences through the year. There is one in October in New York City focused on the financial world there. And one in Dallas next spring, our annual conference at which we hand out the Best in Business Awards. The BIB is a huge undertaking, with nearly 900 entries last year. We have hundreds of great volunteer judges throughout the country. The entire contest is now digital, has been for a couple years. Some of our board members are  meeting in NYC this summer to brainstorm how to change the BIB contest categories; they still are too newspaper-centric. All these meetings take a great deal of planning.

We have 3,300 dues-paying members. Membership services is a big part of what we do.

We just spent $100,000 to revamp our Website (www.sabew.org) to offer better member services. We are fine-tuning the site weekly, tinkering with new design features and new content elements.

We moved our headquarters last August to the new Cronkite School of Journalism at the new downtown Phoenix ASU campus; I’ve made a couple visits and another in a few weeks to see how we can collaborate more.

Fundraising is a huge issue for us. We had a fairly successful revenue model for years based on staging conferences that news organizations sent their staffs to – much of that revenue has dried up with our industry problems.

And especially, we want to help business staffs around the country that have been shredded. How can we help them put out a great product?

We also want to help those general reporters we spoke of earlier who are thrown into biz coverage and scared to death.

Q: What is one thing that a person attending your talk can expect to come away with?

A: It’ll be addressed to those individuals. I want to demystify financial journalism for general assignment reporters and tell them how they can have fun and get rich doing it.

“n

”