By: Ryan Broussard

Being thrust into the fray of becoming a full-time reporter, fresh out of college can be very stressful. The stress of a new job coupled with an already stressful working environment can be overwhelming and it can be easy to forget why you got into this profession in the first place.

Here are 5 tips to make it through:

1. Striving for perfection. In an effort to try to impress your new bosses, you may try to make every article or segment perfect. It’s OK to make it as good as possible, but at a certain point, you just have to understand that not every thing you do will be perfect. While striving for perfection, it is possible to hurt yourself because you focus on the little things too much and lose sight of the larger issue. There is a saying that sums this up: Perfection is the enemy of good.

2. Explore. On your day(s) off, take in the sights and sounds in the community. This will help you learn more about the area you are covering and interacting with people will help you learn about the community. It is also a good way to build sources.

3. Building relationships takes time. Don’t take it personally if some people are reluctant to open up to you since you are the “new person.” It may take some time to build that relationship, so do not get discouraged. Take care of business and do what you know you know how to d0.

4. Get to know your editors and producers. Knowing them gives you an idea of what they like and will make your life easier. Trust me.

5. Just breathe. When it gets overwhelming, just take a few moments and gather your thoughts. Clarity is a beautiful thing.

Ryan Broussard works as an intern at the Advocate in Baton Rouge where he covers crime and works general assignments on the weekend. He graduated from UL Lafayette with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He has been an SPJ member 2006. Connect with him on Twitter, @ryanmbroussard.

By: Mike Brannen

I’ve always maintained that the hardest part of a journalist’s job is enterprising original stories. It’s even more difficult if you have to do it five days a week. I do not envy the reporters at my TV station.

Presenting new stories daily is part of their job description. I am a newscast producer, so I’m not expected to offer my own original story each day. I feel I do get another pass because I work overnights. Come on, who am I supposed to call at 3:00 a.m. to develop good stories? However, I like to contribute something here and there.

When I talk about original stories, I think of a few things:

1. It’s not from a press release
2.  It’s a follow to a story that people might have forgotten about
3. It’s something no one else has even mentioned yet

Despite my work schedule, I do maintain a social life outside of work, especially when I wake up in the early evenings (you read that part right).

Recently, the Minnesota chapter of SPJ had a trivia night, and teamed up with the members of the Minnesota Public Relations Society of America. The first five minutes were tough; I didn’t know anybody and didn’t recognize anyone. I put my coat down near a group, and just said hello.

They were all PR folk. Minutes after the standard “where do you work, where are you from” questions, it was already time to announce the trivia teams. A trivia night was an excellent idea, because every team had a least one journo and one PR rep.

In between questions, our team learned more about each other, exchanged business cards, and had a good time (it helped that we took 2nd place). Afterwards, I caught up with the first group from that night, chatted more, and traded more cards.

I have at least three new story ideas from that night. Granted, look at who was there: PR reps. Their job is to GIVE you stories. It’s a match made in heaven. You need stories, they have ones they want you to cover.

I’m sure someone reading this will say, “those PR reps will send your newsroom a press release anyway, so why butter them up?” I argue that the personal connection with these people will give you an edge later. You’ve got a foot in the door and they’ll scratch your back a bit more. Your interaction with them gives them validation for what they are doing, and makes their efforts worthwhile. When you do something for someone, they’ll return the favor (at least, that’s the way it should be).

What I learned from that night is that an easy way to find good stories is to meet with the people who are ready to have a story to tell. Networking events (especially ones with PR) are packed with people who are trying to sell themselves. They WANT to talk to you.

Give them an ear, and see what you find.

Mike Brannen is a morning newscast producer for KSTP, the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St.Paul. Before that, he was a producer at KIRO7 in Seattle, where he led the 4:30 a.m. show to a #1 share in the U.S. He received an MA in Broadcast Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2010 and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree the year before. He shares more about his life at mikebrannen.com and on Twitter: @MikeBrannen.

By GenJ Guest Blogger Robert McLean

Lay offs, furloughs and buyouts have hit the journalism industry hard in the past few years. Even The Grey Lady – The New York Times – hasn’t been immune from the profession’s transition into the 21st Century.

Yet young journalists continue to find jobs. Non-profit journalism organizations are hiring reporters and editors fresh out of J-School. Recently, I spoke with three of these non-profit journalists about their careers.

From left to right: Michael Todd, Managing Editor of Hear Nebraska (photo by Rob McLean), Rebecca Thiele, Radio Producer for WMUK (photo courtesy of Rebecca Thiele), Lauren Mills, Digital Analyst and Reporter for IowaWatch (photo courtesy of Lauren Mills)

Lauren Mills, Digital Analyst and Reporter at Iowa Watch

Lauren Mills turned a student job into a full time journalism gig.

Mills and I met at the 2012 SPJ Region 7 spring conference in Ames, Iowa. She was in her senior year at the University of Iowa, and had just completed a project on nitrogen pollution in the Gulf of Mexico for the non-profit news site IowaWatch.org.

She landed a reporting gig at IowaWatch after applying for a fellowship program with the organization– a website that dedicates itself to “producing and encouraging explanatory and investigative journalism in Iowa, engaging in collaborative reporting efforts with Iowa news organizations and educating journalism students.”

Mills started out as a student reporter, but moved up to web manager and assistant editor during her senior year. After a brief stint at the Sioux City Journal, Mills joined Iowa Watch as a digital analyst and reporter.

Aside from reporting, Mills has sit in on board meetings, where she said she gets an inside view on what the organization is doing in various areas. It also gives her insight into how the organization is coming along in funding.

The main difference between working at IowaWatch and a traditional newspaper, she said, is the length of journalism. She said IowaWatch is able to do long-form pieces, averaging one article per week.

Participation is also different, she said. Iowa Watch has a smaller staff than her old newspaper, she said, which lets everyone participate in every aspect of the process.

Michael Todd, Managing Editor of Hear Nebraska

Full disclosure: I’ve made a monetary donation to and have written a few articles for Hear Nebraska, a non-profit music journalism website focusing on the Nebraska’s music scene. That’s how I came to meet its managing editor, Michael Todd.

Todd has been with HN since the organization’s early days. He said he really likes the creativity he’s allotted by the website’s co-founders, Andrew and Angie Norman.

“It’s just very open, productive and creative,” Todd said.

He met the Normans, after inviting them on a radio show he hosted on KRNU – the University of Nebraska’s student radio station. After the show, Todd said he applied for an internship with the organization and worked his way to managing editor.

Todd said he focuses most of his energy on producing editorial content, leaving development and conferring with the organization’s board of directors to the Normans. However, he has worked on fundraising initiatives for the site.

For instance he took a lead roll in posting social media about the Give to Lincoln Day fundraising initiative, where the organization raised more than $10,000.

Pitching ideas for the website is relatively easy, Todd said. He said he isn’t sure that would be possible at a newspaper that is already established.

Rebecca Thiele, Radio Producer at WMUK

I met Rebecca Thiele while she was freelancing for Patch.com in the St. Louis area. I was a Local Editor, and she had written some news coverage for the site I managed.

The call of the north, however, was too strong to keep her in Missouri. She took a radio producer position covering the arts at WMUK, the public broadcasting station at Western Michigan University.

Thiele graduated from the University of Missouri in May 2011. She said she was trying to find a job in radio, and the WMUK job looked attractive.

She said the organization is very good about keeping the news department separate from fundraising and other nonprofit aspects of the organization.

“When we need someone to do on-air fund drives, the news people are pretty much the last pick,” she said.

However, she’s not totally isolated from all aspects of the non-profit model. For instance, the show she produces has underwriting from the Richmond Center for Visual Arts – an organization on which she might report.

Thiele said when an opportunity to cover the organization arises, she asks herself if she would cover that story if the organization wasn’t underwriting the show. If the answer is yes, she pursues the story.

Rob McLean is a Digital Managing Editor with Hearst Television. He has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists since 2010 and a member of the Online News Association since 2012. Interact on Twitter: @robertmclean.

By: Jacqueline Ingles

Not a day goes by where I don’t here an intern say, “I want to make it to market one, New York!”

New York City, the number 1 market in the country

Broadcast news is comprised of 210 markets.  Many newcomers to the industry look at anything 150+ as the bottom of the barrel.  There seems to be a constant rush to make it a to a top 50, then make it to a top 20, then make it to a top 10 and if the broadcast Gods are happy, make it to network.Calm down budding broadcasters!

Glendive, MT, the number 210 market in the country

Many people overlook that it is not the market you work in but the news you cover.  In my personal experience, no one wanted to work in my Valdosta, Georgia, bureau.  Sure, we were connected to Tallahassee, market 105.  In reality, we were market 140. But, guess what? In the year I spent there, we had six homicides in less than eight weeks, historic flooding and a horrific crash on I-75.  Not one reporter in Tallahassee had those reporting opportunities and experiences.  After one year, market 47 called and I was on my way to Austin, Texas.

Jacqueline Ingles reporting from scene of washed away road.

One of the markets I always like to point to is El Paso, Texas.  A border city, for a long time it was ranked market 99.  With the international news coverage opportunities, national stories including boarder wars, drug related issues, etc, those reporters and anchors are launching out of that market right into top 5 jobs.   So, the next time you snub a low ranking market job, rethink it.  Instead of looking at number, ask the following questions:

1) What types of news does the station cover?
2) Is there a variety where I can cover a lot of different topics on a daily basis?
3) Is there room for creative and storytelling or is more of a nuts and bolts market?
4) Is there room to push yourself and do stories you are passionate about?

I found what I was passionate about in Austin.  Here is my crowning glory package that did appear on my demo real for Tampa.

As a one-woman-band, I knew I had to work harder than a two man crew. But, pounding pavement, thinking outside the box and creativity led me to an exclusive that left other stations in the dust.  In other words, I was in a market that gave me opportunity.  Opportunity and experience are what you should look for because as you rise in markets (which you will), the opportunities lessen and you are more tied to a specific role and a specific beat.

I love my job because the four walls of my office aren’t these off-white pegboard walls, a former darkroom and a door frame with no door (I should install a saloon door, huh?) The real walls are the Nottoway River, State Route 288, Fort Pickett and the Surry County line.

Between those walls, almost everything is fair game for capture with my trusty Nikons for our newspaper, The Progress-Index.

It goes without saying that every day is different in journalism. Will I wind up triple-booked at 5 p.m.?

Am I under-dressed for a meeting with the governor? (Nah. That’s what the jacket in my car is for!) Will I go to bed pondering about the fate of a shooting victim?

Last week, I followed a farmer through fields of drought-stricken crops; donned a life vest and rode in a john boat to a national wildlife refuge to meet a group of high schoolers and science teachers on a week-long canoe trip; played paparazzi (a polite one, albeit) when a movie crew came to town; visited training units at the local army base, including soldiers loading a massive C-17 plane; spent an hour in 95-degree temps at a fatal accident scene; and let’s not forget the opening game of the big youth baseball tournament.

I enjoy the challenge of busy days and challenging myself on the slow ones. There are just so many stories these four walls hold.

Nikons in hand, Pat Kane covers the stories of the Tri-Cities of Virginia as multimedia editor of The (Petersburg) Progress-Index. Pat joined the Virginia Pro Chapter Board in 2008, stepping up to serve as chapter secretary the following year. After growing up all over the globe as a Navy brat, Pat graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 after working four years at The Commonwealth Times. 140-character insights are available @kane804.

When it comes down to it, I love journalism because no two days are ever the same. As a journalist, you wake up every day not knowing what the day will bring, but you know it will be interesting. I am not the type of person who can sit in a cubicle all day, every day and partake in a monotonous life.

I get bored easily. Very easily.

After I decided that marine biology was not for me (it is not as glamorous at TV and movies make it out to be, trust me), I thought about what would interest me. After some careful thought (and a few beers), I decided on journalism and haven’t regretted the choice.

Journalism allows us to interact with everyday people in a different way than others can. We get to learn things and get access to things other people working normal jobs can never dream of. As a journalist, you get to talk to the movers and shakers that normal people only get to see on television or read about in your articles. Journalism is the dream job of the curious.

As I learned in my journalism classes in college, there are stories everywhere you look, you just have to know how to spot them. You have to be curious and inquisitive and as someone who looks for the meaning behind things, journalism is the perfect outlet for me.

Being in SPJ is great because professionals are always more than willing to share their experiences with students. Talking to various professionals, I often hear that one good thing about being a journalist is that when they go to social functions, they are often the most interesting person there.

And when people label you as an “interesting” person, then you know you have something going for you.

As a student who is about to graduate and is currently looking for a job, I know how difficult it can be to keep your enthusiasm while trying to find a good job, but you just have to keep trying. Do things like write a blog or try to find a freelancing gig to keep your skills sharp. Because once you find that right job for you, then you can turn that passion and curiosity into a paycheck.

And a paycheck always helps, because where else can you get paid for being curious?

Ryan Broussard is currently on his M.S. in Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism at UL Lafayette. He graduated from UL Lafayette in Spring of 2009 with his B.A. in Mass Communication. He currently works as a freelancer covering high school sports for The Opelousas Daily World.

We have all heard celebrities during their Oscar acceptance speech say how lucky they are do to what they love. Those speeches always made me want to lose my lunch until I realized on a smaller scale, I feel the same way. It is not the glitz and glamor (both are non-existent in local tv news as a one-woman-band) that keeps me coming back for more.

This past week, I have been sitting in the media room at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center watching a murder trial via video feed a pool camera person is piping down four floors. The media room is a bunch of sad chairs, tables that have seen better days and a wall full of electrical outlets. But, it is the in between banter at the table among journalists and reporters from differing generations that reminded me why I love my job.

In this group, there is energy and passion. You can see it in the glare of an eye or the way one smiles over getting to be at events and seeing things unfold others won’t ever be privy to. We have encountered numerous instances in this case where the defense attorney has referenced his client’s underwear and the judge subsequently putting it on record that he could not believe underwear was being discussed in open court. Sounds cooky, no? It is something everyone of us here will remember and retell at a later gathering–oh and lets not forget most of us wrote about it in an online sidebar!

Reporters are like a secret fraternity and we all speak the same secret language. When one of our comrades reminisces about a judge that insisted he wore a cowboy hat during all trials in his courtroom or discovering a celibate man of the cloth was secretly married (both things I have heard this week), we feed off it, understand and impulse kicks in. Sometimes I think reporters are born and there is something in our DNA that is different than the rest of the world. Why else would we essentially be starving artists, shop the sale racks for our next on-air look, work odd hours, have tattered shoes, live states away from family and submit to a Ramon noodle budget?
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Something incredible happened this week at the newspaper where I got my start. And what might seem like a small company dispute on the surface was actually a symbol of a larger industry problem.

As a freshman pre-journalism major trying to find his place among the Bulldog fans at the University of Georgia in 1999, The Red & Black quickly became my new home. In fact, I applied to work there before I even moved into my dormitory.

And they didn’t just hire anyone. You had to prove you wanted the job. I was asked to report on three news stories – my own interviews, my own writing. The only experience I had going into these assignments was working on my high school newspaper, which wasn’t exactly an environment that allowed for students to be entrusted with objective news reporting. But I soon became a stringer for The Red & Black – my first real, paying job as a journalist ($6.50 per story … the “big bucks”).

But it was more than that. In the realm of college journalism, working for The Red & Black meant you were one of the cool kids. A byline that read “By David Brandt, The Red & Black” said to any reader, “I chose to report this news and convince you to read this story, because it’s important for you to know.” It was baptism by fire, and it wasn’t for just some school paper. This was a real newspaper through and through. It was real, and its independence was not to be trifled.

Despite the glory of being a part of that publication, it was also a training ground. It was where I first learned about the impact of a lede, how to ensure accurate quotes, and the value of (at least) two independent sources to the objectivity of my work. I didn’t stay at UGA and made a few mistakes while I worked at The Red & Black, but while I was there I took that opportunity to decide whether being a newspaperman was what I wanted for myself. Every decision I made and every experience I had there, good or bad … I owned.

I got more lessons from a semester with the paper than I did from most of my classroom education. And though most of the latter was obtained at a private college after I left UGA, never did I receive a set of parameters like the now infamous memo given to the staff at The Red & Black last week.

And what a greedy list of demands it was, written by a company board member who couldn’t even spell “libel,” according to reports from the RedandDead.com – the result of top editors and others from The Red & Black staff standing up for the integrity of what The Red & Black means to them. They may have walked out, but they didn’t quit – within 24 hours they set up the social media equivalent to a phoenix, and continued reporting on news about the University of Georgia and its community. The service was more important to them than the brand, just as it should be always.

But as I write this blog, it appears that some form of healing has begun. The board member who authored the memo I referenced above has resigned. The demands for content review by personnel other than students have been dropped. And the former editor in chief and former managing editor are, along with others, applying for their jobs again. I hope their status is reinstated … they’ve earned it. It’s a scenario that they may find themselves having to play out again in their professional careers, given the increasingly controlling role of executives and corporate boards over what content is published or broadcasted – or in some cases, what is even allowed to be deemed “news.”

Many young journalists go into their careers eager to find a great “Watergate” experience. Frankly, I hope tomorrow’s students are eager for an experience that these student journalists at UGA had this week … complete with camaraderie, a test of one’s ethics, and loyalty to the great institution they’ve chosen to serve: objective, independent journalism.

And in a media industry where journalism is more and more stained by corporate interests and political favoritism, tomorrow’s journalism students are going to need an example to admire, one that will guide them to an ultimate truth: Businessmen don’t decide what journalism is … that’s a job for journalists.

Long live the Red & Dead.

David Brandt is the Web managing editor for the Institute of Industrial Engineers, where he writes and edits Web content, produces new media projects, and writes for a monthly magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @iamdavidbrandt.

I love my job as a newscast producer because…

Each day is different.
It is unpredictable.
An average day can turn into chaos in seconds.
I feel an adrenaline rush when there is breaking news.
I get to witness history.

I work with smart, clever people.
I know a little bit about everything.
I know things before most people.
I help people feel confident about what’s going on in their world.
It’s funny when people say “did you see it on the news?”, because I always say “yes.”

Every morning is a competition with other stations.
There’s a lot of satisfaction beating them on a story.
The next day I get to find out if people like my show better than the others.
I get to learn what people do and don’t like about news.
What I write gets people to stay through commercials.

I’ve met Drew Carey.
I’ve met Scott Pelley and Russ Mitchell.
I’ve talked to Charlie Rose., Erica Hill, and Gayle King.
I’ve been on top of the Space Needle.
I know there are many more stories to come, because I’ve done this for only 3 years.

Mike Brannen is a morning newscast producer for KSTP, the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St.Paul. Before that, he was a producer at KIRO7 in Seattle, where he led the 4:30 a.m. show to a #1 share in the U.S. He received an MA in Broadcast Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2010 and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree the year before. He shares more about his life at mikebrannen.com and on Twitter: @MikeBrannen.

Most of my friends don’t get it. “Why are you following (insert elected officials name here) around?”

My family still sometimes doesn’t understand why when they watch a story I produced they don’t see my face on camera. “That was great Lynn, but we didn’t see you. Was that the correct link?”

And on first dates, let’s just say, they seem to think it means I work with James Bond. “So, you go undercover all the time? Hide out in vans? Cool!”

And the reality is my job is cool (or at least I think so.)

I get to write, research, shoot video, play with new interactive web tools, ask questions that make people uncomfortable but provide answers for the community and most importantly make a difference in people’s lives.

Everyday isn’t perfect and some days are more frustrating than you know: all I want is the answer to what you think would be a simple question, but after being re-directed to eight different offices, leaving voicemails and waiting for return phone calls, a day can pass by and you still may not have the answer.
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