In my last post I asked people to share their opinions on the state of the industry and the direction journalism is headed.

Here’s what I learned:
From what everyone said it seems the future will be in video/Web news. The journalists of tomorrow will be photographers, Web enthusiasts, videographers, and writers, who can do it all. Industry consolidation will lead to everyone doing a bit of everything work-wise, but experts on certain beats will flourish by combining all the different mediums to create a bigger picture for the consumer of what happens on a particular beat. The beat reporters will remain experts on their topic.
So, for those of us just starting out or still in early stages of our careers, it seems the best thing to do is learn to do everything, and to become an expert in at least one community-relevant topic.

The following are my favorite responses:

This one is from a non-journalist, a person who reads a lot of online news and watches TV news shows. He does not read newspapers or blogs.

• His belief  (and one I personally disagree with) is that too many ‘bad’ journalists, slanted perspectives and agendas contaminate journalism. To combat this bias, he reads three or more news sources on the same story to get an idea of what the truth is. He views blogs and newspapers as strongly biased.
• He suggests the future lies in Web-based video, where the viewer can see exactly what is happening at a particular event and decide for themselves what the truth of the matter is.

An optimistic reporter had this to share about print journalism (I liked the whole response so I’m just going to print it for you here):

• “I think the future of the industry is healthy and secure (that sounds like something Bush would say in a State of the Union). Newspapers are steadily being forced to pick their audience – not just the general in public, but subgroups of the public. Maybe we write for the more community-oriented, maybe political junkies, maybe business-minded people. It’s not that it costs too much to brush with a broad stroke, but conglomeration has put even more emphasis on the bottom line. And unfortunately, you won’t find a journalistically-minded person at the top of any corporation. The (mostly) money-hungry, ethically-flexible corporate world would eat them alive. So journalism as a whole is making a choice – either get lucky and be one of the huge, respectable metropolitan big papers – Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle, New York Times, Boston Globe – or stay small and stay community. Papers will never die, though converting print stories to a Web site only makes sense. Can you imagine 30, 50, 100 years from now dad, grandpa or great-grandpa dusting off his computer chair to surf the Internet and show you old Web sites of when 9/11 happened? Or will he go to his scrapbook, and show you a headline?  Nothing can compete with the permanence of newspaper. And that, above all, is why it will always survive. That argument itself speaks volumes about what the future of journalism is to me. It’s not flourishment, it’s survival. Print journalism is the dinosaur of another time that refuses to become extinct.”

Another reporter had a gloomier outlook:

• He said the printed word is already dead, and that “the downfall of ethics and quality we are now experiencing is not because the technology of the Internet is zapping the profits from newspapers. It started decades ago as profitseekers saw their opportunity to manipulate information in a way to maximize monetary return. In radio they call this concept “Pay for play.” In newspapers it’s killing negative stories about advertisers, putting positive news out front as often as possible, and treating the news gathering side of the industry as just another expense. They were movements that were already broadly enacted throughout the media long before a lot of us got here. Now, however, these opportunists are becoming bold enough, thanks to the economic hardship gripping the industry, to go about reshaping journalism to “maximize profits” without the shame that would have been associated in the past with doing away with one’s ethics to make a buck.”
• His belief is that journalism still exists, and will continue to exist, but the accuracy and integrity of media during this time is strongly questionable.

Another favorite response concerning television news was that the news clips would descend deeper into celebrity and entertainment news, and that people would have to go to talk news shows and the Web to get real news by qualified people because the real television journalists are a dying breed and the new faces are chosen for looks and ability to read a teleprompter. (I’m hoping this isn’t true!)

Thanks to everyone who replied! The responses were varied, creative and interesting. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed my research on the topic!

As young journalists, much of our interaction with the top brass in our organizations are usually limited to head nods, hellos and water cooler talk.

As a fairly new employee of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (one year in September), I’ve barely had interaction with my publisher. However, my former publisher in the Pacific Daily News has recently been announced as taking over our competitor, the Honolulu Advertiser. Both papers are Gannett owned.

Immediately people began asking me how he is as a person and as a businessman, and I was surprised at the amount of knowledge I had about him. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I did have a lot of interaction with the Big Cheese on Guam, mostly because it’s a very small paper.

Here, in a middle-size metro, I’ve only had two official interactions with my publisher. The first time was during my first week. I think it’s important to know who signs my checks, so I went upstairs and asked to be shown around the administrative offices, including having a short chat with the publisher. He seemed like a very laid-back person, a stark contrast then what I was used to. I also know he’s more of a manager than a journalist, which I suppose most publishers are.

The second time was at our Christmas party at a bar, and boy was he living it up. It was good to see a publisher in an untucked Aloha shirt with the top two buttons loose, having fun and cavorting with his troops. Besides that, I never really see the guy, unless we share elevator rides.

So how well do you know your publishers? Do they fraternize with the common folk? Do they mostly just speak to their lieutenants? Would you even want to hang out with the guy/gal?

I sometimes wish I had more mentorship with publishers, not just editors. I have a keen interest in all aspects of the news business, even to the extent that I almost applied for  advertising and circulation jobs, and I’m eager to learn more about how newspapers run as a business, not just as an information gateway for the public.

I’ll be off the blog for the next few days as a I take a trip with my boyfriend and his family to Washington. Gee, every vacation I remember how difficult it is to take off time as a reporter. Trying to do the same amount of work in half the normal time allotted sure is difficult. At least I can usually find a story to cover and write about when I’m off on vacation – that seems to help a bit. I’ll be doing that this time – when I get back I’ll post a link to the story.
Anyone else have tips for vacationing reporters?

My latest inspiration has been gearing myself up to try to achieve all of the things I’ve set out for myself.
Many people believe I take on too much – spreading myself too thin and risking that I’ll burn out.
But, I enjoy being busy, stressed out and stretched. If I don’t feel challenged by my situation at work, in dance and in my personal life I become bored.
And, in the spirit of adding goals I’m now running for Region 11 Director. So, this week I’ve set up my schedule and I’m gearing up for what will be a busy next few months and years.
Anybody else out there a type A+ personality who enjoys setting high goals to feed an ambitious spirit?

If you were publisher?
That’s what my newspaper’s new publisher said he likes to ask of his employees. He said that is what helps him to understand a newspaper, while coming up with innovative solutions.
So…my response. Will you all please share your thoughts too?
If I was publisher….
I would make the Orange County Register and its related products (weeklies, OC Post, Squeeze OC and Web sites) the No. 1 provider of high-quality news and information in Orange County.

I just got back from a three-week vacation (too long, I know) and just came into the office to wade through hundreds of emails, and it got me thinking.

Obviously we get tons of emails from readers regarding our stories. What is your personal policy in responding to emails? How quickly do you do it?

I make it a point to respond to every email at least within 24 hours. If I can’t sufficiently provide the reader with what she/he wants, all I write is “Thanks for writing. I’m writing to let you know that I’ve received your email, and will be providing a response shortly.” At least it gives some acknowledgement of the reader.

I imposed this policy on myself, because like it or not, reporters are salesman for the product. And I hope to serve the name on the masthead better by being a courteous and prompt representative of the paper.

This is a tough time to be entering journalism. The changing industry means more opportunities to spearhead new projects and ideas, but it’s also tough because we’re faced with an often stagnant idea of what journalism really means. The definition of what constitutes journalism is just one of the many facets that’s being re-examined.

So where are we going? What do we need to do to keep journalism a viable career in an interactive world? And how are we going to do it?

For the next few days, I’ll be asking everyone I can think of where they think journalism is headed (this includes all media). The answers I get will make up my next post.

If you’d like to add your input to the mix, please comment!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sonya’s last post was inspiring – I checked my high school paper and proudly discovered that a .pdf version of each issue from the past year is easily accessible online from the high school’s Web site. Now the question is whether the staffers or the campus’s tech team is putting it there.
And I know my college paper is online. But I’ll admit I have no idea how it gets there.

Perhaps professional career-based journalism is exactly the same as college — we learn as we go, and often in on-the-spot training.

In college, one can be a journalism major and never set foot in a newsroom or studio aside from class fieldtrips (and depending on luck and professors one may be able to avoid that completely).
But students have a choice, and so do we! The good students, the ones who find a job in their field after graduation, are the students who don’t just go to class and do their homework. The good students are the ones who seek out the campus newspaper or TV or radio station and ask for a job. They’re the ones who make it a priority to get experience doing what they want to do, outside of the classroom. There are
always excuses (and often good ones) for why not to do something, but the serious students know the best way to learn is just to do it yourself.

And I’ve learned that the do-it-yourself attitude also applies to professional publications. Even when you’re the new kid on the bottom rung, you don’t learn by doing only what you’re asked. You have to ask to do new things, to watch other people and learn.
Just like in college, the people who actively look for new ways to learn are the ones that will succeed.

So that’s my little rant, and lesson of the day: Seek opportunity because it won’t happen on its own.

I just can’t take it anymore.
It seems like most of the young journalists I meet (some still in school, others just graduated) are rebelling against rather than leading the revolution to make news media successfull in the future.
Why?!?!?!
This article on HigherEd.com discusses how schools are lagging behind the real world of media: less college newspapers than professional newspapers have Web sites, students are not taught what they are expected to know when graduating and so on…
And, in talking with older journalists, they don’t get it. Almost always they talk about how the older newspaper folks are faced with relearning how to work online and how young journalists are lucky because they know how to work online. NOT TRUE!
Look around your newsroom: how many of the young journalists know how to post their stories, photos, graphics, interactive Flash projects, related stories, etc. to the web? How many young journalists even know how to use the web better than their old editors?
I recently was job shadowed by six different high school students. One student said her newspaper at school had a Web site and another was working on starting one – but both said they were relying on one non-journalism web braniac to actually build and run the Web site.
Come on guys! We need professors to get off their butts and teach new media and new job skills, we need students to not focus on how to be a reporter in 1970 and instead 2010 (when they’ll likely graduate) and we need those of us who recently graduated to find a way ourselves (management won’t always do it for us) of learning how to lead in this internet-journalism revolution!

When the bridge collapsed in Minnesota, my paper played it up, front page up top with lots o’ photos, and online video from AP. The next day we dedicated an entire section front to the bridge collapse, search for survivors, implications for bridges across the country, and a local piece on bridges near our humble port town.

A new editor who works here was visiting another state and said the major paper there buried the bridge collapse at the bottom of its front page, with no art, and not even a jump for more information inside the newspaper. I don’t know what their follow-up was, but I’d like to think they realized the mistake and played it up the next day.

Then again, many people get big national news from TV/radio/Internet before they head to a newspaper.

When something big happens, who decides where the event goes in your publication/broadcast?
Where did you put the bridge collapse?