Newsrooms freeze out freelancers moonlighting for brands

Newsrooms freeze out freelancers moonlighting for brands.

For the freelance journalist, the siren call of "brand journalism" is tough to resist. It's a growth industry, and one that pays pretty well at a time when the $2-a-word magazine piece is hard to find.

But such brand work carries a cost: Many newsrooms won't permit writers on the editorial payroll to write sponsored content for their sales counterparts, and vice versa. Gawker and The Wall Street Journal, for instance, won't permit writers on the editorial payroll to write sponsored content. Condé Nast's Wired draws a clearer line in the sand in using freelancers for its Amplifi native ad division. Freelancers can't have contributed to the magazine in the past year and a half, vp, publisher Howard Mittman said.

http://digiday.com/publishers/freelancers-branded-content-purgatory/

Journalist Criticizes Rise of Sponsored Content in Media

Journalist Criticizes Rise of Sponsored Content in Media.

Speaking before a crowded room in Harvard Law School's Austin Hall, online journalist Andrew Sullivan discussed how the rise of sponsored content in journalism has begun to erode the foundation of the Fourth Estate.

While the talk was titled "How Advertising Defeated Journalism," Sullivan focused his criticism on sponsored content, which he defined as a piece in a magazine or newspaper that "looks almost identical to every other article in the magazine, but in fact is written by a copy-writer, hired by a corporation." Sponsored content, he argued, endangers "the entire enterprise of writing."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/3/28/Andrew-Sullivan-Harvard-Sponsored-Content/?page=single

Former editor to sub-editors - you are no longer required on board

Former editor to sub-editors - you are no longer required on board.

Over the years, I have taken a lot of flak for suggesting that the days of newspaper sub-editors are numbered (here in 2008, and here and here in 2009).

Now Neil Fowler, who edited four regional titles, has discovered just how unpopular it is to write off subs. In an article for the magazine InPublishing, he argues that "the luxury" of having staff in order "to rewrite and fact-check every reporter's story has gone."

Instead, he believe that reporters and writers need to be imbued with both a culture and practice of getting their articles "right first time, every time."

To that end, he calls for a system in which student journalists are required to be tested on basic journalistic (and literature) skills - such as spelling, grammar, writing to length, headline-writing and "getting the best out of dull stories - before they are given newsroom jobs.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/mar/28/local-newspapers-newspapers

Huw Edwards' top 10 tips for being a news presenter

Huw Edwards' top 10 tips for being a news presenter. 

Huw Edwards is a Bafta award-winning BBC News presenter. After joining the BBC as a News Trainee in 1984 he went on to become a political correspondent, before being asked to present the Six O'clock News on BBC One in 1994.

For the last ten years he has presented the BBC's News at Ten on BBC One and he also presents the five hour on the BBC News Channel.

Here are his top 10 tips for becoming a news presenter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26766230

In new media environment, the public decides who's a journalist

In new media environment, the public decides who's a journalist.

"Journalism is, of course, a disinterested voice. It isn't a voice that urges the purchase of something or a vote for someone or a particular behavior. It's an independent voice that can't be tied to an association, a brand or an organization. It's a responsible voice that expresses itself about things that are relevant to a society. In the world of digital journalism, a journalist is a person who speaks from an ethical point of view."

http://ijnet.org/blog/new-media-environment-public-decides-whos-journalist

In the unverified digital world, are journalists and bloggers equal?

In the unverified digital world, are journalists and bloggers equal?

Teaching journalism in the 21st century is a little like packing a wardrobe for a month-long trip into a carry-on suitcase: You keep trying to squeeze one more thing into the bulging bag while praying that the zipper won't burst.

When I studied journalism in the 1980s at San Francisco State University, where I now teach, the curriculum was limited to print journalism. We learned how to report and write; we studied media law, history and ethics; and by the end of senior year, we felt reasonably well-equipped to work as reporters. Ah, those days!

http://theconversation.com/in-the-unverified-digital-world-are-journalists-and-bloggers-equal-24702

Course Remix: Meshing Reporting Skills and Multimedia Storytelling

Course Remix: Meshing Reporting Skills and Multimedia Storytelling.

Teaching journalism in the 21st century is a little like packing a wardrobe for a month-long trip into a carry-on suitcase: You keep trying to squeeze one more thing into the bulging bag while praying that the zipper won't burst.

When I studied journalism in the 1980s at San Francisco State University, where I now teach, the curriculum was limited to print journalism. We learned how to report and write; we studied media law, history and ethics; and by the end of senior year, we felt reasonably well-equipped to work as reporters. Ah, those days!

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/03/course-remix-meshing-reporting-skills-and-multimedia-storytelling/

Lodestars in a Murky Media World - NYTimes.com

ARE today's college-age journalists doomed, entering a business in free fall that is incapable of allowing most of them to earn a living? Or are they lucky, coming into a media world bursting with new possibilities?

And given the strange new territory, still largely unnavigated, are there any stars to steer by?

mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/public-editor/lodestars-in-a-murky-media-world.html?referrer=

Finding a journalistic niche to survive in - One Man and His Blog

There's something in me that loves working with really good journalists who have drilled down into a reporting specialisation and can ride the wave of their readers' enthusiasm for a subject. It doesn't matter how dull some of these subjects might seem at first glance; if you really roll up your neuro-sleeves and get stuck in, you can find what's fascinating and exciting in any subject at all - and that's an incredibly valuable skill to have right now.

http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2014/03/finding_a_journalistic_niche_to_survive.html


Sent from my iPhone

NGOs, Journalists and the media: because even NGOs have PR teams

NGOs, Journalists and the media: because even NGOs have PR teams.

When I read a review of a hotel in the travel section of my favourite newspaper, the fact of who has paid for the accommodation is usually stated somewhere at the bottom: accommodation was provided by a travel company / the hotel, etc. In the Observer restaurant review, Jay Raynor pays for his food himself, and actively resists the freebies that might accrue from a chef desperate to curry favour. In refereed journals, published research should as a matter of course identify the funding which supported the work.

http://mikejennings101.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/ngos-and-the-media-why-transparency-matters/?awesm=awe.sm_iJHsQ

On the Meaning of Journalistic Independence

On the Meaning of Journalistic Independence.

This morning, I see that some people are quite abuzz about a new Pando article "revealing" that the foundation of Pierre Omidyar, the publisher of First Look Media which publishes The Intercept, gave several hundred thousand dollars to a Ukraininan "pro-democracy" organization opposed to the ruling regime. This, apparently, is some sort of scandal that must be immediately addressed not only by Omidyar, but also by every journalist who works at First Look. That several whole hours elapsed since the article was published on late Friday afternoon without my commenting is,for some, indicative of disturbing stonewalling.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/01/journalistic-independence