Be Afraid, Les Shu say. Be Very Afraid

This is his warning:

Why we should be careful about posting stuff. Let the crackdown begin!

http://www.gawker.com/news/conde-nast/media-bubble-bursted-krucoff-fired-132848.php

http://www.gawker.com/news/fishbowlny/were-not-the-only-one-who-gets-sources-fired-133150.php

She's Not in It for the Awards

But when they come Sarah Berkley will accept them in a winning and modest spirit.

Top StoriesIndex-Tribune earns four national awards

10.11.05 - The Sonoma Index-Tribune was recognized in the 2005 National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper and Better Newspaper Advertising Contests with a total of four awards, including first place for best business story, a feature by I-T reporter Sarah Berkley, titled "Rentals, rentals everywhere."

The national contest judges said Berkley's story was a "well written, well researched piece on an important local issue."

Berkley's story titled "Finding money for school supplies," also earned an honorable mention in the best educational/literacy category.

The judges said of that story that it, "brings to light in a readable way how loss of funding can affect the classroom and how teachers and schools face those challenges. Good writing and reporting."

She adds, "I thought you might like to know
that yours truly, former student Sarah (Franklin)
Berkley was paying attention in class on some
occasions, even when it looked like she was giggling
and playing paper football in the back row with David
Gudelunas."

In other words, she was multi-tasking.

Consider This a Personals Ad Except We Don't Care if You Like Poetry and Long Walks on the Beach

JOURNALISM/MEDIA STUDIES POSITION


The Media Studies Department at the University of San Francisco invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level, anticipated to begin August 1, 2006.

Teaching Responsibilities include teaching two undergraduate courses per semester, plus one additional course over two years (2-2-2-3 over two years), and an active program of research and service. The successful candidate will teach courses in field reporting, reporting and editing in convergent media, and other courses related to the candidate’s specialty and departmental needs; and take responsibility for the production of a student-produced web magazine.

The Department is seeking an individual who is able to work with diverse students and colleagues. Ph. D., J.D. or equivalent advanced degree in a related field, plus a record of teaching, professional experience and research or other relevant creative activity are required. An emphasis on race/ethnicity issues and international/global issues will be a plus.

Applicants should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate transcripts, brief description of research plans, evidence of teaching ability (including sample syllabi, student evaluations, and a statement of teaching philosophy) and three letters of recommendation to:

Dr. Dorothy Kidd
Media Studies Search Committee
Media Studies Department
University Center 517
University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94117-1080

Applications must be received by December 1, 2005, in order to ensure full consideration.

The University of San Francisco is a Jesuit Catholic university founded in 1855 to educate leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world. Candidates should demonstrate a commitment to work in a culturally diverse environment and to contribute to the mission of the University.

USF is an Equal Opportunity Employer dedicated to affirmative action and to excellence through diversity. The University provides reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants with disabilities upon request.

My Old College Roomie Shares His Wisdom

So I go to post a reply on your blog, surrender my email address that you are no doubt selling to spammers and a friend’s [yours J] and find that I am confined to 300 characters. What do you think I am? A bleeding poet?

LOL

So how are you doing?

Yes, I lurk into your blog. Here is what was BANNED by your blog response form. 94 words, 453 characters, 558 with spaces.

Sad But Pretty Damn True reminds me of a conclusion reached by a labor union friend of mine. Here in Detroit the auto 'big 3' have Company-UAW [GM-UAW, etc.] collaborations each occupying large building most famously a recently built large modern structure on the riverfront.

"What actually goes in those places?" I asked.

"Determine the center point of the triangle of their three locations and, if you stand on that spot, I am convinced that all activity, motion, time and meaning will cease." he said.

Welcome to your job young journalists, now pay your dues.

Don't Do What I Say, Do What I Do (Hahahahahahahahahaha)

If it's from Reporters without Borders, it's got to be good.

Sad But Pretty Damn True

I recently had lunch in the Mission with two outstanding USF grads whose intent from the moment they walked on campus some years ago was to join the great fraternity -- well, in one case, sorority -- of print journalists. And so they did. I think these people are going to be lifers. We talked of many things, but the point they both made was that about 90 percent of their problems at work involved dealing with incompetent supervisors.

I mean top editors. I mean bosses.

The problems weren't subtle ethical issues. The problems weren't fierce debates about content or editorial direction. The problems were matters of basic competence and honesty.

In other words, the Peter Principle is alive and well. You may not need to become a master of workplace politics to survive and thrive, but you must understand it if you are going to keep yourself off the horns of the bull.

Am I right or am I right?

Addendum: My word. I reread this several hours after writing it, and I must say it's rather a rant, you know, being provocative for the sake of eliciting comment. So let me soften it a bit. I have had bad bosses and good bosses. I have been a bad boss, and I have been a good boss. All that said, there's no doubt all of us will work for bad bosses at one time or another just as there is no doubt all of us will make mistakes for which we should take responsibility. Sharing tales of both "life stories" can be useful, if only to reinforce the fact one's experience is seldom unique.

Now I feel better.

Nelson Toriano: I Worked for the San Francisco Chronicle (A True Story)

Nelson tells it like it is, and how it should be.

Well, it’s about damn time we have a journalism major!! I would’ve declared that a long time ago. Since graduation and completing my service as the Advertising Manager at the Foghorn, I went directly to work at the San Francisco Chronicle. A year and half later, I left my position as a Retail Advertising Account Executive. But how to get into that company was a triumph in itself.

Imagine me, fresh out of college, sitting at the head of a long mahogany table in this opulent conference room. On either side were two advertising directors and two advertising vice-presidents. And my job for the next hour is to walk them through my resume, bullet point by bullet point, and tell them why they should hire me … as their INTERN! (It wasn’t even for a permanent position?!) Mind you, this panel interview follows five other interviews (two of which were for other positions) and four tests, which included a personality test. Of course, I was sweating bullets (even during the personality test). But during the interview, I remembered one thing I learned in journalism: get these people talking. So I turned the interview back on them, asked them a bunch of questions on what they do, what they like, and flattered them a little bit. Soon enough, all five of us were laughing, and I fulfilled my intention: they felt so comfortable with me that we kept talking and talking. They liked me, so I got the job.

Although, I might be one of the few students who are more interested in the business side of journalism than the writing side, the training I got in journalism courses works in everyday situations—like a job interview. But after working in advertising and seeing how it constitutes 60% of the paper, generates the financial backbone of the newspaper industry, and how ruthless people are, I feel that it’s important for the journalism major to offer a seminar on advertising.

One thing I’ve learned along the way is that production of newsprint is declining. However, the newspaper as a company, may still survive only if it keeps up with the latest trends in advertising.

San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York are among the largest markets in the nation for newspapers. All three had the biggest decreases in subscribers. On a grand scale, that results in downsizing (which I personally was a victim of), thinner newspapers (because of less content), and a slow tarnishing of the newspaper brand in the market. People will first associate the newspaper brand with the actual newsprint before they associate it to the newspaper’s website or any other medium. So if the public sees fewer newspapers, people automatically think the newspaper is not doing so well, which may or may not be the case. But to even cause mere curiosity is not a good thing for a newspaper company that loves to uphold a steadfast image.

One contributing factor is advertisers do not receive the return on their investments in all newspaper advertising. For example, to put one ad in the Main News section means that one advertiser will be advertising to the whole Bay Area. But I worked with a laser hair removal clinic in Marin County, and they didn’t care about advertising to the South Bay. Instead, they preferred niche marketed publications, specifically those that catered just to Marin County. In addition, while Main News is the section that every reader reads, it is also the most expensive. So the laser hair removal clinic liked the niche sections, like Friday, a regional section of the newspaper whose editorial content is specifically about Marin County. Moreover, this section is cheaper than Main News because their distribution is zoned just for Marin County, not the whole Bay Area. On the other hand, the newspaper company is generating less revenue from niche marketed sections. And while niche marketed publications work for the advertisers’ benefit, advertisers turn to other magazines and local newspapers whose readers who will most likely be interested in their product. Therefore, they are spending their advertising dollars on variety of publications instead of just one medium, like the Chronicle. On a side note, the advertising department of newspapers sometimes markets a specific writer whose beat matches the lifestyle of a business’ consumer. There are many times I was pitching to home-related advertisers, and said that their advertisement will be placed alongside this well-known and sought-after home-improvement columnist. The advertising department will use beat writers as marketing tools.

Secondly, advertising online is far cheaper than print altogether. Advertisers invest their money in skyscrapers and banners, and place them on web pages the contents of which caters to a specific audience (again, niche marketing). For example, restaurants rarely advertise in print because they usually have a small budget for advertising. And small advertisements get totally lost amongst the newspaper’s heavy copy. But the restaurant will want to pay for a skyscraper on a webpage about food reviews, and that skyscraper is linked to the restaurant’s webpage, where the viewer can reserve a table online. In addition, the newspaper’s marketing team tracks the web page visitor as to when they clicked, how often they clicked, sometimes down to that visitor’s email (if the visitor is required to be a registered user to use that newspaper’s website). All this information shows the advertiser how effective their advertisement is. And if the advertiser is confident that the skyscraper is working, that advertiser spends more money on advertising. Plus, advertisers are getting exposure to people who never buy the newspaper but who only read their news online, like students and those with the 9-5 jobs. Therefore advertisers expose themselves to a market much larger than what a newspaper ad can offer. And since most newspaper websites are visited during the 9-5 work hours, businesses can keep themselves exposed to a visitor, even while they’re working. So if a business does both online and newspaper -- the latter tends to be read in the morning, evening, or on the weekends -- an advertiser has the potential of exposing themselves to a visitor 24/7, the most exposure possible for any advertiser. So it’s in the newspapers’ best interest to cut back on producing the newsprint, and invest their money on making their websites more sophisticated because advertisers like online more than they! like newsprint.

Thirdly, and the most lucrative, is direct marketing. Every major newspaper obtains demographic information about their subscribers, AND they have access to obtaining information about people who don’t subscribe. Essentially, San Francisco Chronicle has demographic information about every single person in the Bay Area. What residences don’t know is how detailed that information is. For example, I worked with a very upscale professional bike shop in Palo Alto, whose consumers tend to come from a ten mile radius. The shop wanted to bring in more people, but they only want the rich, sports-minded thirty-somethings. Obviously, a print or online ad would give them too broad of exposure. So in my cubicle, I worked with the marketing department to get information of every single million dollar home, whose owners reported somewhere that they are active in sports and/or purchased a bike within the past year, and where they lived. So the business gave me money to create a custom postcard, which I created with my artist, and mailed those postcards to those households who fit the criteria. The incentive for the advertiser was that his highly-targeted advertisement is going to be mailed to a household, who is most likely going to be interested in his products. So his return on his investment is much higher than a newspaper ad. The incentive for me was the money he gave me. Direct marketing is expensive because of all the work. So it’s in the newspaper’s best interest to invest more money on demographic research and direct marketing than developing newspaper ads. So the next time you see what you think is junk mail, it can be a direct marketed piece sent to you and only you. That’s because many companies have tricky ways of obtaining your demographic information all for the sake of generating revenue. (I can’t tell you how often I have to explain this to businesses, and they responded, “I didn’t know newspapers can do that!”)

With all that said, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York’s newspapers have fewer subscribers and thinner newspapers. But they are spending their money on their websites and obtaining as much information about their residences as possible. (They are literally watching us.) The catch is audiences have always associated the newspaper’s brand to the actual newsprint. Again, if audiences see a thinner newspaper, it could look like the newspaper is not doing so well. In reality, that may not be the case. But another catch is that it takes less man-power to operate a newspaper website or conduct demographic research, and therefore, newspapers don’t need to employ so many people in advertising. So many publications in these three markets are downsizing because they can generate more revenue by staffing fewer people.

What does all this mean for the newspaper industry as a whole? Production of newsprint will continue to decline as newspapers’ websites become more sophisticated … and people will get more junk mail. I do not know how much these trends impact the editorial side. But I do know that once a company starts downsizing, almost no one in the company is immune.

So … perhaps the journalism major can offer a seminar to highlight the business side of the journalism industry. Really, newspapers are companies, and there’s a profit to be had and people to pay to keep the organization alive and running. I think some understanding of how the money flows throughout the company deepens students’ knowledge of the industry as a whole, and deepens their appreciation of the journalism discipline … and my nerdy butt thinks this stuff is interesting. Now that I’ve given my two cents, I shall step down from my soapbox now and finish my glass of Merlot.

They Like Him

Niall Adler down at Long Beach State honored as a top sports information director.

They Also Serve Who Only Sit and Write

James Foster, whose profile of legendary USF alumnus Warren Hinckle is linked to below, is working in New York City while he decides his next step. He writes:

I went to this event last night for the charity I'm writing for and supermodel Helena Christensen planted a big kiss on me and told me never to quit grant writing because "a man with a cause is very sexy."

The Pleasure of the Newspaper's Company

Here's a link to the New York Observer via Romanesko talking about the accomplishments of NOLA's Times Picayune during the Great Flood.