Hello everyone! A little about me: My name’s Elysse James. I’m a 22-year-old copy editor working in Southern California for a mid-sized daily newspaper. Before I was hired as a copy editor I was an intern reporter. Before (and during) the internship, I worked for my college paper.

Since I’ve transitioned from student/employee to just employee, I’ve noticed a lot of downsizing in the industry. At my paper, I feel that when someone leaves their job may not be filled until months, even years, later. But because of this, it seems the younger generation (juggling work and school, anyone?) is stepping up, taking on tasks that the seasoned journalists are unwilling to add to their list of responsibilities.

This is a great opportunity, allowing younger journalists to show what we can do. But because we are proving we can handle it all, we may be enabling managment to hold off hiring more people, which is definitely not good.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Do you take on as much responsibility as you can handle? Do seasoned journalists at your papers help out or do they hold off in the hopes a new hire will soon fill the position? Are small staffs the future of the industry?

I hope to hear from all of you!

Any young journalist understands (or needs to understand) the strong need to network.
But, it always bugs me how some young journalists network. They’ll swarm through the crowds at SPJ conventions with only the goal in mind of meeting some big, important journalist and getting his or her business card.
Networking is much more than this.
Really, we should all network even if we are happy with our jobs. Who knows, maybe we’ll get laid off or move to a different state. In those cases, neworking helps to plug you in to others in the same profession.
The main reason I network is so that I can stay inspired by journalists from all over the country. Plus, it’s great to go to the annual SPJ convention and meet up with all your journalism buddies. I always come back to work after conventions feeling refreshed and inspired.
So how should you network? Well, a new way a buddy of mine showed me is on linkedin.com . The site is specifically for networking and building an online resume. I highly reccomend you all check it out!
Another great way of networking you already know about….SPJ. The Society makes you feel connected to other journalists around the country who are as committed to improving and protecting journalism as you are.
Now that I’ve spilled my networking tips…..what do you do to network? How has it helped you?

Tommorow night I get to step back into the council chambers of Irvine City Hall where I’ll furiously take notes, e-mail in stories, shiver because of air conditioning and listen to politicians for at least five hours.
Why you may ask?
Well, every now and then my life as a reporter is not all that glorious. In fact, most of my work may seem boring and pointless. But we all must remember the reason for our jobs.
Most journalists I know are not in this profession for the money (those who are leave for pr jobs, usually). We got in this profession not for the glamorous photo on our press pass but because we believe we can, in some way, impact the world around us in a positive way.
So, I remind myself of the ways I’m benefitting the community through my reporting as I sit freezing in my council meetings. My main reason for sitting in meetings despite long hours (the longest I’ve covered so far was 17 hours and 17 minutes) is that many people cannot.
Most residents do not have the time or want to look through city documents, sit and watch council and commission meetings, or ask council members about their votes on various issues. I attend these meetings as a representative of the community – to provide readers important information.
That’s my part, now you should each write about why your job is purposeful.

Wow our jobs are stressful. So how do you deal?

Me? Well I’ll be honest: I used to drink and chain smoke cigarettes. Now I didn’t drink on the job of course, but I did take several smoke breaks. And given that my lunch hours were often times nonexistant, I figured the smoke breaks make up for it. And after work, I’d hit the bar to have a few rounds. The bar was walking distance from my condo, so it was no real problem, at least until I realized how unhealthy it was.

There were even times when I would sit at my desk while editing or writing, and I’d have a cigarette on my lips. It’s not because I’m anxious to smoke, but that my saliva helps seep some of the nicotine on my mouth and tongue, so it was a little relieving.

After realizing how much damage I was doing to myself, I have been smoke free since September, and drinking is now moderate and only on weekends, usually during a meal.

For the short-term dealing with stress, I always chew gum. For unwinding after work, it could be anything: I live in Hawaii! I could always tan or swim at my pool deck, or go hiking in a nearby forest. Sometimes I go shopping, but the traffic always stresses me out anyway. But usually I always end up falling back to my age-old habit: Videogames. I’ve got tons to keep my mind off my job when I’m at home.

I always found it rather stress relieving to blog about relieving my stress. Trust me. It works. You should try it! Now would be a good time to start.

My editor at work loves baseball.

He doesn’t just love watching the games, wearing hats to support his team and talking about the game. He can relate almost anything to the game.

So if he were writing this blog posting, his advice would be to step up to the plate.

I know many young reporters who whine about his or her editors not giving more advice. Perhaps this is something editors could focus on, but I think the real problem lies with us – the young journalists.

In college we had plenty of people telling us what to do, professors wrote in sloppy, red pen all over our stories and term papers. At internships between pouring coffee for editors, we were thrown an AP Stylebook and told harshly to “learn it.”

But once we are labeled “professional journalists” (something I take offense to because I believe everyone should be a student journalist – always learning – and that anyone can behave like a professional journalist) we are somewhat out on our own.

Rather than complaining that you want advice, ask your editor for advice. Rather than talk endlessly of wanting to know how to use databases in stories, find training. Rather than tire others of you looking for a mentor – become and find a mentor.

We are the newsroom leaders of the future. We should not sit idly on our hands waiting for someone to make us a better journalist. We need to make ourselves better journalists!

If anyone wants to start – he or she can join this blog. As a bloggero or bloggerette you can post tips, ask for advice, inspire others, be inspired, tell your friends to check out your new blog, etc.

If you are interested, please e-mail me.

Have you ever lost? Ever not gotten the position you wanted?

I have. And I will use it as inspiration.

See, if you read my post last week you’ll see that I had applied for a promotion at work. I was a community reporter for the Irvine World News (that is owned by the Orange County Register). I applied for a daily position and was denied (but I was promoted to hybrid reporter – meaning half daily, half community).

Was I upset? Sure. I wanted the job.

But getting or not getting the job should not be my focus. It may have taken me about a week to figure that out – but now I know it is not what you get, but what you do with what you get.

Now let me take you into my past to show what I mean.

When I started college I joined a program called Learning Alliance – a program that puts the scrubs in the same classes to help them meet others and learn about the campus. The program pretty much saved my college experience: I missed the second and third weeks of my first year of college because my dad died. The connections I had in the program meant friends in most of my classes took notes for me, called to check in on me and helped me get through the tough time.

So in my second year of college I applied to become one of the mentors for Learning Alliance – because the program helped me so much. I was not picked.

I walked back to my car on campus feeling like such a loser. On my way a tree caught my attention – someone had clearly cut off one of its branches.

But as I walked by the tree I noticed something really interesting – the branch where cut off grew in the opposite direction and was the only branch with flowers. Note, branch is on the left in the photo.

It was inspiring. I realized at that moment that not getting picked to be a mentor was only a failure if I treated it as such.

The building behind that tree was SSPA – the journalism department was on the underground floor. I walked down the steps, took a breath and walked into the Daily 49er office without taking one journalism class yet. I started writing for the paper and four and a half years later I graduated as editor-in-chief of the paper. That newspaper was the highlight of my college experience.

The point of my sappy story is this: when you don’t get something you want don’t let it stop you, use it as inspiration.

Here’s a fantastic column on the myth of a neat newsroom, and it got me wondering how other newsrooms are.

I’ve had the pleasure of working at five different newsrooms, and all have been feng shui disasters. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t contribute to the pseudo-landfills.

In my newsroom, there are least five people with various different states of soda can geography. Case in point:

Half of that picture is my desk. The boundary lies between the pile of newspapers and the doo-hickey black thing with a keyboard. I think they used those before the fall of Rome. I’m on the newspaper side. Note the lovely printout I have for information on a sex offender, mugshot and all.

Other notable features of my lovely work space? Well, I have one of those Blueberry iMacs. They were hot back in middle school. I’ve got piles of police “annual reports.” My makeshift rolodex consists of business cards tossed into my second desk drawer. Not pictured on my desk, I also have one of those taller shot glasses, from the previous occupant of the desk, filled with pencils I’ve never even touched. And of course, the stack of newspapers. About two weeks ago I killed a cockroach by placing a big stack on top of it. I disposed of the body two days later. The newspaper stack is now in stable condition, after I divided the stack into two.

Having seen dozens of editors’ desks, and having been an editor myself, it doesn’t look like I’ll be escaping the maelstroms of trash anytime soon. At least unless I become an executive editor.

For the last few weeks I’ve been sitting on pins and needles. I’m being considered for a promotion at work and I really want the job.

So how have I stumbled past my nerves? Lots of coffee, and cheerleaders.

So what are cheerleaders you ask?

People who are on your side. Your support group. My cheerleading team I also cheer for, and if either of us got a promotion – we’d cheer for each other. But my team doesn’t just step up once something great has happened, these people have been there for me all along. My team includes my mom, my boyfriend, Genelle Belmas (my past professor), Mark Scarp (Valley of the Sun chapter and former Region 11 Director) and Rita Freeman (in my OC chapter and at the same newspaper).

And if you don’t have a cheerleading team? Go out and get some! An easy way to find people is to be there for others – and when you need them they will be there for you!

In college I was a print journalism major with an English literature minor.
So why am I learning about video today at work?

Because that could be the future.
No one knows exactly what journalism will be in 30 years. We’re not sure what sorts of jobs, companies and publications will be around in 30 years.
But, we do know people will be providing content to others.
My newspaper, the Irvine World News that is owned by the Orange County Register, is doing what many newspapers are doing – experimenting.
So when the company urges me on in posting breaking news, audio, video and Flash projects online – I say yes!
Some people I know – and yes they are Generation J age (21-30) – are very resistant to doing anything other than writing the old and traditional-style newspaper stories.
I’m way too young to resist learning how to do anything. In college, some professors thought it was good that I learned how to copy edit, design and take and edit photos for newspapers. Others thought I should only have written newspaper stories.
And now at SPJ conventions I find huddles of, ahem, older journalists competing over who’s newspaper has the most interactive web site. Then, I find people my age competing over who has the longest, most interesting newspaper stories.
Say what?!?
Come on people! I’m going to ride into the next age of journalism. Who’s coming with me?

Note: For a wonderful beginning training site on multimedia – check out this.

I’m just wonder what everyone else’s beats are, or what beats you might be interested in in the future, or what beats you’ve already covered. I was put on the cop beat at the Star-Bulletin in the middle of January, which is a difficult beat since the police here are notoriously tight lipped. Before then, I was the education beat reporter at the Pacific Daily News. It was a little easier, since the DOE headquarters was down the street from work, and every day I ended up walking over to the DOE offices to hang out and talk story with people, sometimes getting story ideas and developing relationships with sources. Before that, I was the business reporter for the PDN. My father is a hotelier, and was vice president of the largest hotel on Guam. Through my father’s past work (he moved off the island years ago) I was able to connect with business sources through the name familiarity. They trusted my father, so I can’t be that bad either. What always scares me is moving to a new area. I’m struggling now because I’m haole (foreigner in Hawaiian) and the trust just isn’t there, because I’m not from the islands and I can’t even spell street names. It’s going to take some time before I build a rapport, it seems. Have you guys ever experienced that feeling in your beats? How have you dealt with it?