How George Sanchez Spent New Year's Day at the LA Daily News

I was asking him about advice for our journalism students.


buenos dias doc

at work on the new years day shift -- first born babies, first murders of the year, rose parade, penn state fans, etc.

first of all:
The kids have to have multi-media skills. There is no way around that now.

Though editors don't understand the web or new media, they look for it on resumes now. Not basic stuff either -- blog experience is expected. Flash editing is good. Audio and video training is very attractive. Data base building is gaining popularity, though it's still largely underestimated by many editors. That being said, any student interested in investigative work needs to have a data base background now.

I was the representative at the California Chicano News Media Association job fair in October. Resumes without multi-media skills were placed aside by my editor.

know that poor papers (i.e. anything run by gannet or media news group) want multi-media skills but will not pay to train their staff. So we have to take advantage of training sessions by professional organizations like NICAR, CIR, the Knight Digital Media training place across the bay and anything else. Also, multi-media training could be the key to newspaper unions re-establishing their importantance. we'll see.

Yes, good story telling is still important. Basic news assembly, to put it crassly. But solid clips aren't enough anymore. Editors want to see multi-media presentations. Some fantastic examples are the L.A. Times Mexico Under Seige website, or, if you excuse me tooting my own horn, the Star's Social Achievement website.

all for now.
head to a bar to watch the rose bowl with lonely penn state fans in the san fernando valley
george