If you work in a newsroom, you know time flies.  It’s been a busy few weeks in my newsroom, so I apologize for this introduction being delayed.  But better late then never, right?  Anyway, I’m very excited to be taking over as Region 6 Director!  Here’s a little bit about me if you don’t already know me.

Right now, I work as a news producer at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  I’ve been on producer row for the past three years and have produced nearly every newscast we have…and if you know KSTP, you know that’s a lot of newscasts!  I’m a 2004 graduate of the University of St. Thomas and used to work as a reporter/photojournalist at WSAW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin.  My involvement in SPJ dates back to 2000 when I first joined as a freshman at St. Thomas.  I served on the national board in 2003-2004 as a student representative.  Currently, I serve as treasurer of the Minnesota Pro Chapter.  And I’m glad to be back on the national board!

Now, onto a couple of housekeeping items:

-If you are a college chapter adviser or pro chapter leader, please send me the names and emails of your current leadership (president, vp, etc.) so I can get my email list up to date.

-If you are involved in a college chapter, this is prime time to be recruiting new members.  Make sure you’re visiting all your school’s introductory journalism classes, plus the campus newspaper/TV station/radio station to pass out information about your chapter.  If your school has an activities fair, set up a booth there to recruit new members.  You should also be planning your first few programs now, whether it’s a social night to get to know new members or inviting local journalists to speak in front of your chapter.

-If you’re involved in a pro chapter, you should be kicking off your fall programming right about now.  And remember, it’s never too late to recruit new members!  Send a letter/email to the heads of your local media outlets (executive editors of papers, news directors of TV stations) encouraging them to join your chapter and to spread the word in their newsrooms about the benefits of SPJ.  Starting from the top and working your way down can be a good way to recruit new members.

This year, National SPJ is making it a high priority to get our membership numbers back up to where they were a few years ago.  We’re down about 1,400 members compared to this time last year.  So it’s really up to local chapters to make sure you’re getting the word out about SPJ and getting new members to join.  But once you do that, you have to deliver on SPJ’s promise to provide services that will make journalists better.

And don’t forget, as your Region 6 director, I’m here to help.  My ultimate goal is to visit each student and pro chapter over the next few months so we can talk about the direction of your chapter and ideas to make it stronger.  I’m already planning to meet with the St. Thomas student chapter next week.  In the meantime, you can reach me via email or phone.  I’m also on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Here’s all my contact info in one convenient spot: http://card.ly/actheisen

I look forward to working with all of you!

Amanda Theisen

Two weeks ago I retired from my position as Region 6 director. Amanda Theisen was elected to replace me on SPJ’s national board. Amanda works in a newsroom, has been on the national board before (as a student representative), and has lots of energy; all qualities that are needed to be a good SPJ leader.

It was a privilege to serve the journalists of Region 6 for the past four years, particularly during this centennial year of SPJ. This year’s convention had many outstanding seminars, I was able to help SPJ record a number of them, to be posted on the SPJ website.

The session on The Bright Spot in Traditional Journalism: Community Journalism, was outstanding and one of the highlights for me, well worth listening to. Two other of the best sessions dealt with taking ownership of your career and dealing with burnout. Here are some of my notes:

How to make yourself standout from other journalism job seekers:

• Be current on as many media platforms as possible: print, internet, mobile, blogs, Twitter, whatever comes next.
• Move away from a one-page resume’. More than one page is OK if it’s all relevant to your experience
• Resumes with one skill don’t make the cut
• Build yourself a website, make it interactive and keep it current. Publish your own stories on your website, your own original reporting if possible.
• Build relationships with people who are in the position to hire, become familiar with the company you’re applying to.
• Bring ideas to the job interview on what you would do if you are hired.
• Understand what your employer needs in the position you applying for.
• Keep improving your skills, interviewers are interested in flexibility, attitude and performance
• Career management is something that takes a lot of work. You have to keep preparing for what comes next. Keep looking ahead.

How to beat Burnout:

• Develop strong outside interests.
• Set and maintain reasonable boundaries
• Admit that you are replaceable.
• Have a precise job description
• Do the job your boss expects you to do, not necessarily the job you think you have to do.

A lot of great content in this year’s convention, content you can build a career on. Start planning now to attend next April’s regional conference (April 16 & 17 in Minneapolis), and next fall’s national convention in Las Vegas. And now Amanda, over to you.

Gordon Govier, Madison WI

I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of former radio news (and print) colleagues today but it was a sad occasion, the funeral of one of our number who died after a 3-month struggle with cancer. We were competitors, working at different radio news shops, back in the days when all respectable radio stations had a news department for covering local news. I found out later we had both applied for the same job, the one I won, but he never mentioned it or held it against me. In fact he was one of the most congenial competitors I worked with at various news assignments.

Writing about the funeral of a colleague makes a good introduction for some thoughts on what’s happening in journalism these days. The struggles of journalism and its alleged imminent demise are common topics. I don’t have much to add at this point. I do believe journalism will be around for a long time to come just as soon as some adjustments to the delivery mechanism shake out.

Most journalists, and those who care about journalism, will be fascinated to read the PBS Expose posted online titled The Withering Watchdog. It explains that the problems with journalism aren’t all related to the internet and changing technology. In a perfect storm of sorts, journalism (primarily but not totally newspapers) set up its own self destruction by obsessing on profit rather than its news responsibilities.

Conservatives like me who tend to trust main street over ivory tower institutions will find the white hats and the black hats reversed in this case. And, even more surprising to some, it’s PBS telling the story that the commercial media won’t own up to.

Is it too late to save journalism? I don’t think so. But the guys in the front office haven’t done us any favors.

The annual Mark of Excellence (MOE) Awards Luncheon is one of the true highlights of the year for a regional director. We get to hand out recognition to outstanding student journalists, awards that may play an important role in the careers of these young reporters. I know that because the speaker at our 2009 Region 6 Awards Luncheon remembered his MOE Award ceremony 29 years later.

Several years ago we had a luncheon speaker who was being realistic and offered a gloom and doom scenario to our audience of young journalists. There’s certainly grounds for such a perspective but that’s not the only realistic way of looking at the state of journalism today.

That’s certainly not how David Stoeffler looks at it. David currently operates his own business, Touchstone News Consulting, following three decades as a reporter, editor and news executive. He’s been the top editor at a number of newspapers and was the first vice president for news of Lee Enterprises. David also played a key role in the affiliation of the Madison (WI) pro chapter of SPJ, and preceded me in the position of president of that chapter.

It was my pleasure to invite David to give a talk at our 2009 Awards Luncheon and he responded with an insightful assessment of the role of journalism and why there will always be a need for journalists. He was blunt when necessary, calling journalism “an aloof institution that often fails to own up to its mistakes.” But he also noted that our society is dependent upon journalism. “We must give people the information they need to engage as citizens of a democracy and as people curious about the world around them,” he said.

He very clearly perceives that people today are awash in a world of information. “People feel overwhelmed by the information flowing at them,” he said. “People will want someone to make sense of it all. That person is a journalist.”

David was frank, challenging, insightful, and inspiring. It was exactly the kind of talk student journalists need to hear. I went back and listened to the talk again today and decided to post it online, for listening or downloading. (Time 19:15) David also has a condensed version of his talk posted on his website.

Driving to last month’s SPJ centennial celebration in Greencastle, and thinking about the future of journalism, I decided to challenge myself to try something new, journalistically. The challenge: produce a video report of the centennial.

The report I produced wasn’t heavily scripted. I used the video function on my point and shoot camera and Windows Movie Maker. So it has a certain amateurish quality, but also a journalistic flavor.

The video is posted on YouTube, here’s the link.

From SPJ@100

Last Friday, April 17, 2009, the Society of Professional Journalists celebrated its centennial anniversary with events on the campus of DePauw University in Greencastle IN, where it began.

In Meherry Hall, where founders originally announced the beginning of Sigma Delta Chi, a journalism fraternity, SPJ’s venerable initiation ceremony was solemnly re-enacted by the officers of the organization. There are reports that some student chapters still use this initiation ceremony.

In addition there was a panel discussion by experienced veterans on the future of journalism, a presentation by the author of a book about a journalism pioneer, and a keynote address by Jane Pauley. It was a memorable afternoon and evening, attended by a number of distinguished Indiana and national journalists, including a number of past presidents and a number of winners of the Wells Memorial Key, SPJ’s highest honor.

The centennial was conducted with full recognition that journalism is in the middle of a historic change in the basic model of the news business. No one knows what the next model will be but everyone believes that journalism still has an important role to play because people depend on accurate, timely information. Someone called it a visionary period, a time when visionaries are inventing new models of collection and distribution.

“If newspapers go down, corruption will go up,” said one of the panelists, Ken Paulson, president of the Freedom Forum and former editor of USA Today, in recognition of the critical watchdog role of the news media.

“What does a journalist mean for society?” asked Karen Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute. “It’s disseminating information for the public good.”

When the question and answer period came, the first question was, “How do we get people to pay for news on the internet?” Which is one of the biggest unsolved riddles of journalism’s current time of dilemma. There’s no clear answer yet, but a confidence that an answer will be found.

“We have not completed our journey, we are not done,” said SPJ’s current president, Dave Aeikens, in brief remarks at dinner. “Our responsibility is to continue to do that those who came before us did,” he said.

The final word about news came from former NBC Today anchor Jane Pauley, who noted that viewing The News Hour on PBS was a priority for her, while viewing the commercial network news reports was optional. “I hope Jim McNeil never retires,” she said. “One way the news media can get its niche back is to get straight again and not compete with entertainment.”

SPJ’s centennial events were webcast live online, are being archived at spj.org. For my photo album of the afternoon, click on the photo of East College above.

It was reported today that longtime Wisconsin State Journal investigative reporter Andy Hall is leaving the newspaper and striking out on his own. An article in today’s paper states that Hall is the executive director and sole initial employee of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, an organization so new it doesn’t appear to have its own website yet.

Andy is one of the nicest guys and sharpest journalists that I know. He’s a solid reporter, and knows how to get to the bottom of a story, even a complicated story. Watching old video footage of John McCain during last year’s presidential campaign I was surprised to catch a glimpse of Andy. He was one of the Arizona Republic reporters who investigated McCain’s involvement in the 1989 Keating 5 scandal. He’s a longtime member of IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors and has won numerous reporting awards.

According to the story Andy is not so much leaving the State Journal as he is joining with Wisconsin Public Radio and Television and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication in a partnership to provide information about public issues, government ethics and public safety to news media across the state.

I’m curious to see how this partnership works out. Other partners are involved and funding will come from foundations and individuals. The State Journal has provided $2000 in seed money.

In the brave new world of journalism, as old media struggles to stay viable and new media struggles to become viable, collaborations like this may have staying power. I hope so. In concept at least, this appears to be First Amendment journalism at its best.

Post Script: I read this story in the “dead tree” edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, not the online edition. I went looking for it in the online edition and it didn’t seem to be posted, at least as I scanned the headlines. The only way that I found it online was through Google. Which makes me wonder, why is it that there are more stories in the printed version, with limited content, than there are online, which theoretically has unlimited content?  That’s one of the reasons I still prefer to read the foldable version, more relevant content.

SPJ’s centennial year has begun with a Kick-off Reception in Region 6, at the nation’s oldest press club. More detailed and expansive celebratory activities are coming up on April 17th, at DePauw University, where it all started. There will be another Region 6 event on Friday, June 26, as Hubbard Broadcasting/KSTP-TV in Minneapolis receives a Historic Site in Journalism recognition plaque. Then August 27-29, at SPJ’s annual convention, there’ll be even more celebrating.

But there was also something appropriate about beginning this landmark year at the oldest press club in the western hemisphere, the Milwaukee Press Club. Several years ago I was present when then SPJ president David Carlson presented a Historic Site in Journalism plaque to the press club.

Members of the SPJ Executive Board were in town for a meeting and were joined by several members of the local chapter. Chapter president Brandon Lorenz gave a short report on the history of SPJ in Milwaukee. The chapter has an illustrious history, almost died out, but then was resurrected in the last couple of years. SPJ president Dave Aeikens also had some short remarks. Former SPJ Presidents Jean Otto and Dick Leonard, Milwaukee area residents, were not able to make the event because of weather conditions, it would have been great to hear from them also.

So the celebration has begun. Keep your party hats handy.

The 2008 Wisconsin Public Records Audit has been released by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the information is available at the WIS FOIC website.

“The audit, conducted by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, involved 318 public records requests filed in 65 (of Wisconsin’s 72) counties.”

At the recent University of Wisconsin-Madison mini-conference on Journalism and Democracy there was a running joke from panelists and speakers on when they first got into journalism. John Nichols, Associate Editor of The Capital Times and Washington correspondent for The Nation, got it started. He reminisced about applying for job at age 11 from the editor of the weekly newspaper in Union Corners, Wisconsin. And since the editor was also the entire editorial staff and production staff, young John got the chance to start reporting at an early age.

He elaborated on that situation by recalling the day that vice presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey came to town and let it be known that he was willing to meet with the local media. The young 11-year old journalist was ushered onto Humphrey’s campaign bus. “The high point of my reporting career, and the low-point of Humphrey’s political career coincided,” he joked.

After Nichols spoke UW-Madison journalism professor Lew Friedland and several other panelists acknowledged their own reportorial roots went back to about the same age. It’s been said before, the high school age is not too young to attract people to a life-long career in journalism. Even junior high school age is not too young.

One perfect example is here in Madison, where many more young journalism careers are being launched at a monthly publication called The Simpson Street Free Press, circulation 22,000. Since 1992 SSFP has been engaging teenagers and training them in the rudiments of journalism as a way to improve their writing skills and promote their academic success.

This is worthy of mention at this time because the SSFP was honored last Friday with the Coming Up Taller Award, which comes from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The award was presented to SSFP journalists Sisi Chen and Deidre Green by First Lady Laura Bush and Andrew Hazlett of the National Endowment for the Humanities, at a ceremony in Washington D.C. The recognition is well-deserved.

My own journalistic career also began at age 12, when I signed up to be a carrier for the Milwaukee Journal in my home town of Prairie du Chien. I pedaled (literally) the Journal for about three years. In the western part of Wisconsin the Journal was a morning paper, and reading each morning’s edition at breakfast after finishing my route opened up a whole new world of events and issues to me.

Then in high school I got my first reporting job, covering sports for The Prairie News. My first editor was Margaret Quimby, who was famous in her own right.    There I discovered that I not only had an outlet for my instinct for helping people with information but also that my press pass gave me free entree into the important events of my world. I have been reporting ever since.