“In almost every newspaper I’ve worked in, the most close-minded person I’ve come across is the 23-year-old recent grad…”

I could introduce you to some of these kids! It’s scary. I’ve heard peers say they didn’t get into journalism to blog, to take pictures, to come up with multimedia, to do whatever. They want to write. The other stuff “isn’t that someone else’s job?” or today, another reporter (23-yo recent grad) commented, “why don’t they just hire TV reporter to do the video?” *sigh* Me? I want to hand them a white towel and tell them to surrender now and get out before they get left behind.

As for the skillset vs. mindset, both are necessary. And I’d say you can teach the skills but not to someone without the right mindset, so if I had to pick an employee with one or the other (and I won’t be in a position to pick employees for a good long time, if ever) I’d rather have someone who “gets it” than someone who can make things pretty in photoshop but is above doing man on the street interviews. That said, you usually acquire the skills because you have the mindset to realize it’s important. So, I guess he’s pushing that it’s not enough to “get it,” to stand out you have to act on it.

Thanks for posting!