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Daily Emerald editorial staff goes on strike

March 4, 2009 in College Media News, industry news

daily emerald strikeEffective 6 a.m. March 4, the news staff of University of Oregon’s student newspaper is on strike in attempt to preserve the integrity, independence and future of the Daily Emerald.

The Emerald’s protest comes after Steven A. Smith,  an alum and former editor in chief of The Spokesman Review, was hired to draft a strategic plan for the publication — including creation of a supervisory “publisher” position, which the staff believes will  pressure editors into waiving control of the paper:

The editors felt that the Emerald cannot afford the salary Smith proposed, and were extremely concerned that allowing Smith to work as an adjunct instructor at the journalism school while serving as publisher was an obvious conflict of interest, for multiple reasons.

An article written by the editor in chief and managing editor stated, “We need someone who has a tangible plan to start making money.”

The staff wants the following four demands met in order to “preserve student control and editorial independence” of the publication:

1. Immediately rescind the offer to Steven A. Smith to serve as interim publisher April 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. (Update: Smith resigned, read his blog post here).

2. Conduct a nationwide search for a publisher, as originally voted at the Feb. 10 board meeting.

3. Stipulate in the chosen publisher’s contract that he or she shall not be employed in any capacity by the University, including at the School of Journalism and Communication.

4. Stipulate in the chosen publisher’s contract that he or she shall not have immediate supervisory control over the editor; rather, the publisher and student editor shall remain equals in the organization, as the general manager and student editor currently are.

The full article and text of the speech the editors presented to the Board of Directors is here.

Twitter updates related to the strike (#ODEstrike) are here.

The Daily Emerald started a staff strike blog and a Facebook page for the cause.

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Student views on modernizing j-education

March 3, 2009 in video

Students at the 2009 Associated Collegiate Press Conference in San Diego, Calif. discuss ideas on revamping journalism education in the 21st century.

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Developing a breaking news plan

March 3, 2009 in breaking news

When news breaks, does your newsroom have an efficient coverage strategy in place? I’m in the process of developing one for the Mustang Daily as part of our structural changes that come with switching to WordPress (more on that later).

In our newsroom, it works like this: One person gets wind of breaking news, whoever is available frantically tries to run out on to the scene, scrounging for batteries for an audio recorder. There is no structure, just chaos. The idea is that an efficient plan will result in better content. Of course, the following guidelines will change based on your resources:

Breaking news emergency kit
Keep a supply drawer in your newsroom that contains an extra audio recorder, notepad, pen and a camera/video camera (even if it’s just a point and shoot with video capabilities). If you don’t have enough equipment to keep an extra set lying around, at least keep an emergency stash of batteries. The breaking news kit should contain a list of contact information login info for your Twitter/blog/CMS and other places you will break the news.

Establish pre-designated teams
At the start of every term, look at the editors/reporters’ schedules and layout sets of teams that will be available during certain days/times of the week to cover breaking news. Save it as a Google Spreadsheet so everyone has access and can make changes. Post the list on the wall and with your emergency kit so everyone knows how to find it. Try to ensure each team has a good videographer and a good writer on board.

Chain of command
Designate a breaking news leader to will assemble the teams as things unfold. It could be the news editor or a responsible reporter. This person can also decide who will copy edit, post and update throughout the day, although it would be best to decide those roles beforehand too.

Twitter updates
Make sure to have a pre-established social media person. Or, better yet, make sure your entire staff knows how to properly use Twitter when the time comes to send out mobile/Twitter blasts using hashtags (example: #UCprotest). If needed, change the reporter’s cell phone number to sync with the newspapers Twitter (just for the day) so updates can be posted from the field.

Keep the workflow steady
Make sure reporters and videographers update frequently and edit video as they go. Have a plan in place so editing video doesn’t take all night. For example, have a videographer and video editor in the field so that one can edit while the other shoots.

Do you have a better strategy? I’d love to hear it. Post it in the comments or e-mail cicmintern -at- gmail -dot- com or twitter.com/cicmintern.

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How college media uses Twitter

February 23, 2009 in Twitter

We recently complied a list of student media in the Twittersphere. This is an analysis of how those outlets are using Twitter and what we can learn from those who are doing it right.

For simplicity, I tried to group all variations of Twitter use into five basic categories.

The above chart is the breakdown of 50 student media outlets on Twitter (via the CICM list). It excludes Twitter accounts that have made very few updates or haven’t updated in months. Below are the categorizations for reference:

Read the rest of this entry →

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Professors: Catch up, or we’re all left behind

February 16, 2009 in innovation

This week’s #collegejourn chat is yet another example of how great minds can come together with great ideas (if you’re unfamiliar with #collegejourn chat, read more info here). After an extra hour of chatting, a small group of dedicated #collegejourn chatters have devised a plan to get college educators on board with the 21st century:

What: “Bring a professor” Chat

Who: Educators, professionals, journalists, students

When: Sunday, Feb. 22 (8-11 p.m. EST, 5-8 p.m. PST)

Where: www.collegejourn.com

Why: To discuss ways to modernize college journalism education

A common theme that arises from each #collegejourn chat is a general dissatisfaction with college professors’ unwillingness to think forward. Put simply: j-professors are stuck in their ways. And we want to change that.

Next Sunday, Feb. 22 from 8-11 p.m. EST (5 -8 p.m. PST) we’re inviting journalism professors to join a discussion with students worldwide. The topic: how to prepare your students for the real world. We’re not just suggesting, but demanding an education that prepares us for the real world of 21st-century journalism.

We’re also working to bring this topic to a panel at the Associated Collegiate Press convention on Feb. 27 that will be updated live on the web. Check back soon for details.

How you can help us

We can’t do this alone. We need your help to promote the chat and come up with topic ideas. By tomorrow — yes, tomorrow, Feb. 16 — at midnight PST, please write a blog post about:

  • How good journalism can be made better with new media tools
  • How your j-school program could be improved
  • What is going right at your school, or at other schools
  • The one thing you could change about j-school
  • What prevents professors from embracing the web
  • Why learning the business side of the journalism industry will help us all

Contact Suzanne Yada (the chat moderator) with a link to your blog post: suzanneyada at gmail dot com or twitter.com/suzanneyada or post a link to your blog in the comments. We will aggregate the posts to send to participants.

Spread the word

We want everyone to be get something out of our discussion. The more, the merrier. Here are a few ways you can promote the cause:

  • E-mail your professors
  • Retweet the information
  • Post our flyers (or make your own) in your journalism department (if your professors are unresponsive to e-mails)
  • Approach your professors/faculty face-to-face
  • Tell your journalism friends

Related posts:Calling All J-students: What is your discontent? by Sarah Wood

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Nationwide classroom No. 1: Writing for the Web

February 12, 2009 in ideas

News writing for the web is a challenge. Not necessarily because it’s hard, but because it means changing the way you think. This lesson will be a foundation for future lessons on audio, video, Flash and all the fun skills you want to learn. But be patient. We’re taking this one step at a time.

Writing for the web is a different experience– you have to think about search engines and reader attention span and site traffic. This is about more than copying and pasting your stories from InDesign to your CMS. It’s about mastering an art that few in the college media industry get. Read the rest of this entry →

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Can’t afford the Adobe creative suite?

February 9, 2009 in online software


The Adobe Creative Suite is an industry standard these days.  Many newsrooms already have their hands on the software, but with the 24 hour news cycle and reporters in the field, how do you access the suite outside the newsroom? Chances are, your staff isn’t going to pay thousands to get Adobe CS on their personal laptops.

There are plenty of low-priced and free browser-based tools that can serve the basic functions of Adobe CS (meaning it doesn’t matter what operating your reporters are running — as long as they have internet access).

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Chat wrap-up: College newspaper collaboration

February 9, 2009 in industry news

Participants in this week’s CollegeJourn chat covered a lot of ground. The following are just a few highlights. Read the full chat log here.

How can journalism students promote collaboration with other campuses, if at all?

This question focuses on the sharing of content and data among colleges locally and nationwide. For example, if textbook prices are outrageous at your school, should you be able to go to a database maintained by other college newspapers and see what kinds of stats they have on textbook prices?

The New York Times and ProPublica are looking into doing something similar through DocumentCloud, which would be a place for reporters to store documents they gather during reporting for other newsrooms to use.

A few opinions offered on taking the concept to a college level:

The coordination should be on back-end stuff, like what CoPress is working on .
-@polarscribe

College titles that exist in the same or nearby regions won’t collaborate. It’s against the culture of college publications.
-@BenLaMothe

Our college paper has very limited budgets for any kind of travel to – the idea of :”sharing” resources especially for sports reporting sounds promising
-@tulsatrends

Read the rest of this entry →

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5 things College Publisher never told you

February 4, 2009 in College Publisher

These days, I’ve heard a lot of bad talk about College Publisher (College Media Network). Although the platform is less than ideal, it’s a great place for student newspapers to be– and it is, in fact, where most newspapers are. It doesn’t require the need to know extensive HTML, CSS, PHP or other web languages that are the cause of many headaches in the world.

College Publisher offers a great service and as a starting point, it’s the platform I would recommend to any college newspaper getting its start on the Web. Because you’re working with a system that is proprietary, you’re going to have to work a little harder to get innovative. These are a few tips and notes about getting College Publisher to work the way you want it to.

(Only about 50 of approximately 588 College Publisher news sites are using CP5, so this guide is mostly going to be directed toward users of CP4.) Read the rest of this entry →

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Wrap-up of last night’s #collegejourn chat

February 2, 2009 in College Media, industry news

collegejourn

This week’s #collegejourn chat — originated on Twitter, now moved to a Meebo chat room — picked up on the topics of:

  1. Freedom on Information Act
  2. Developing an online business model course
  3. Transition plan for a digital newsroom

For those of you who are unfamiliar with #collegejourn, it’s a chat that goes on every Sunday from 5-8 PST (8-11 EST) among college journalists throughout the nation. It’s moderated by Suzanne Yada (@suzanneyada on Twitter).

A quick summary (read the full chat log here):

Freedom of Information Act

The first topic of the night spurred from a post by the Ohio University SPJ. The Ohio University board chairman, who put up a fight to release any Freedom of Information Act documents, said:

I am even unsure that we should provide the next document without a fight. It sickens me to think of the waste and unproductive time being spent in the name of open records and freedom of the press.

A few thoughts that arose during #collegejourn chat:

Now here’s the thing: I have heard from other sources, namely San Jose city council, that FOIA eats up something like 40% of staff’s time -@suzanneyada

if they released more to begin with, wouldn’t there be less FOIA stuff? -JohnLowe

On the same note, @karenkho, a journalism/English student at the University of Toronto mentioned her local student union threatened legal action against her. The article in question covered the closure of a campus restaurant and points out recent $63k in pay raises. She’s been publicly accused of making false claims and being biased. If anyone knows of Canadian resources similar to the SPLC, shoot her a direct message on Twitter.

Developing an online business model course

This topic came about based on Andrew Dunn‘s idea for a class about jour business models. His post suggested a series of case studies about print and online business models of the past and present. The final project:

Develop a business model for a news organization of your choosing. Use your knowledge of what has worked and what is failing to make it the most likely for success. Must argue for why it will work.

A few thoughts about the course:

  • It could be proposed and taken as an independent study course
  • Students could join to create the course with podcasts and webinars, etc. and sell it
  • Students/professionals could self-learn and connect once a week over Skype with discussion

Transition plan for a digital newsroom

This topic was inspired by Daniel Bachhuber‘s recent blog post about how to turn the Daily Emerald into “a successful digital news enterprise.”

Daniel suggests a three step process to achieve the transformation:

  • Step one: Develop a strategic plan during a week-long, open and participatory retreat
  • Step two: Involve alums in the process and campaign to raise the funds
  • Step three: Implement the plan by going open source, printing only once a week, and empowering your community

The one problem chatters had with the blog post was the notion of moving to print once a week. Why:

There’s no constraints, but I think the Emerald’s (and any college paper’s) comparative advantage is that they have a passive audience. Students read the paper in class. -@cjciaramella

The fact is online revenues as they stand won’t support newsrooms -@suzanneyada

also, we need to consider reader behavior. Especially on a college campus, I think more people will grab a print edition and read it front-to-back (while bored in class) than go online for the same news. -@jackiehai

The general consensus was that baby steps are best; get in the habit of going web-first before going web-only.

(The full text of the chat is here). Next week’s chat is the same time (8-11 EST) and same place (except next week there won’t be a superbowl going on to distract people from participating).

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