Making the best of things takes preparation, says Matthew Nordin of WMBF in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His holiday survival guide includes advice to plan plenty of stories in advance. That may sound obvious, but it’s always amused me the way holidays seem to sneak up on newsrooms. Good grief! It’s Christmas tomorrow. Does anyone have any story ideas?

Another simple suggestion from Nordin: Bring food.

Early in my career, when I had to report on Christmas Day, I made the mistake of thinking I could just roll-up to McDonald’s or Wendy’s like any old day of the year. Nope. Have a good meal prepared for yourself that’s microwavable. Make sure it’s better than your average lunch/dinner at work. Treat yourself since it’s a holiday. It’ll make you feel better.

Some newsrooms I’ve worked in went to the trouble of providing a holiday meal, but invariably I’d be in the field when the food arrived.  A granola bar from the snack machine just doesn’t cut it on a holiday, so Nordin’s advice is right on point.

Just because you’re working doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate, of course. Christmas in January? Been there, done that. And as Nordin points out, it’s really not all that terrible to be at work on a holiday. The managers are gone,” he says. “The people who are in the newsroom are usually in a good mood. And you’ve got a comp day coming!”

So plan ahead and do your best to enjoy it if you have to work over the holidays. I could point out that if you’re working the holidays at least you have a job, but I won’t. Oh wait. I just did.

If you’re talented, aggressive, responsible, innovative, socially adept, digitally awesome and perpetually energized, you’ll fit in just fine at the Statesman Journal….Submit a 200-word cover letter, 3-4 clips showing range of work, and a resume…Or impress us with your digital coolness by Tweeting your online resume link to @BillChurchMedia.

A quick look at Church’s Twitter feed shows he’s had plenty of responses. Most of the time, he simply @replied with thanks. But not always.

Guenther’s online resume is worth a look. What sets it apart from several others who tweeted links to Church? First off, he’s gone to the trouble of getting his own URL, which indicates a certain level of familiarity with the Web. Second, it’s clearly a resume and not a blog. Everything you need to know about the job candidate is on one page, with embedded multimedia clips and links. There’s also a handy quick link at the top to download a PDF of the resume for off-line reading.

To create the page, Guenther used a free, do-it-yourself resume template . The HTML template is downloadable; you just edit the file in a text editor or Dreamweaver and then upload it to your website. Once the page was online, Guenther tells me he simply opened it and converted it to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat. He then uploaded the PDF to his own site and changed the code for the “Download PDF” button on the page so that it points to his PDF file. “You have to just know a little HTML,” he says, “but it’s a really nice template for sure.”

Guenther’s main site has a lot more bells and whistles, including Flash projects and a link to his blog. But when asked for a link to his resume, that’s exactly what he tweeted. More props to Guenther for clearly following directions–something employers also say they’re looking for.

[Thanks toIJNet for pointing us to the newspaper's ad.]

Sourced from: Advancing the Story

A recent blog post, 7 tips to be productive when working from home, has some useful suggestions. Set goals, make schedules, avoid distractions–all good advice. But everyone’s different, and what works for Francis Tan may not work for you. “Treat your days like ‘regular’ work days,” he writes. “Many people have found that a 9-5 or 10-6 schedule really helps keep them on track and productive.” He also frowns on working in your PJs. And here I thought one advantage of working from home was the ability to set your own schedule and to wear whatever you want.

My advice? Decide what time of day is your most productive and put those hours on your work schedule. Early risers may find they get a lot of work done in the early morning hours, before anyone else is away. Night owls can be more productive after the rest of the household goes to sleep. By all means, keep some daytime “office hours” for conference calls and the like but don’t feel bound to them. Just keep your cell phone on so you can be reachable during everyone else’s office hours, even if you’re at the hardware store.

As for what you wear, I really think that’s up to you. Some folks do just fine in pajamas and slippers all day. (As the woman in the old telecommuting commercial chirped, “And I still don’t shower.”) Others need to dress up to feel business-like, at least when they’re taking work-related calls.

One point on which I completely agree with Tan: Know when to stop. Some people find that working from home means working 24/7. They answer every call, no matter how late it comes in. They respond to email on Saturday nights. It’s understandable to be anxious about having enough work when you first start freelancing, but there’s no need to overdo it. Those people who are trying to reach you are used to voice mail. Let them leave you a message. It’s OK.

What are your tips for making the most of working from home?

As stations continue to add newscasts, they’re finally adding people too.

Stations added 750 jobs last year, recovering all the losses of 2009 (400 jobs lost) and making a dent in the 1,200 jobs lost in 2008.  In fact, the survey found that anticipated hiring in 2011 could bring the industry back to its pre-crash peak by the start of 2012.

That’s great news all around, not just for new or unemployed journalists looking for work. Anchors in smaller markets who might have moved on sooner had the economy been better are now being hired in bigger markets.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. of course. Highly-paid veterans are still being dumped. Case in point: Marianne Banister, who was let go last week by WBAL in Baltimore after 15 years as co-anchor of the late news. “I want to make this clear,” she told the Baltimore Sun. “This is not my choice. I’m not retiring. I’m not leaving to ‘spend more time with my family.’” The station says she won’t be replaced; it’s going with a solo anchor at 11. And that’s a trend we may see more of, says Papper.

One of the models may be WPVI, the ABC station in Philadelphia. It is very much the dominant station and has been solo anchor at 6 and 11 for at least a year or two. It was solo anchor at 11 p.m. for years, but I was astonished to see it go solo at 6 and 11 — and they are still on top. So the message is very clear.

Another clear message is that local TV sports time is shrinking. Highly-paid sports anchors may be an endangered species. Two have stepped down in DC in the past few weeks and Baltimore’s WBFF is dumping a stand-alone sports segment. Another Baltimore station, WMAR, let its veteran sports anchor go a few years ago and has watched other stations follow suit. As general manager Bill Hooper told the Sun, “They’re not firing people, but when the contract comes up, they say, ‘OK, this is a high-priced guy and we’re only giving him a minute and half at the end of the newscast, so what are we doing here anyway?”’

News sharing

What’s growing, according to the latest survey, is cooperation in news gathering, which is more widespread than ever. The survey asks if stations share information, a helicopter or pool video, and in every case the numbers more than doubled from 2009 to 2010.

Fully three-quarters of the stations surveyed said they now share information with another news outlet–either a TV or radio station or a newspaper. That compares to just a third the year before. A third now say they share pool video, compared to 15% the year before. And 10% share a helicopter, compared to 4% the year before. That’s a dramatic increase in every category.

But Papper isn’t willing to predict that sharing is here to stay. “Cooperative ventures rose substantially during the severe economic downtown in the last few years,” he says. “It will be interesting to see if a reviving economy and revenue growth leads to fewer cooperative arrangements.”

The good news is most obvious on the revenue side but there are positive numbers for viewership, as well–if you look in the right places. One of those places is not the ”traditional” newscasts on network affiliates–morning, evening or late. All three time slots lost more of their audience last year, just not as fast as they did the year before.

Audience growth

To find the bright spots, you have to look at different time slots and, in some cases, different stations. The audience for news at 4:30 a.m. grew exponentially, as the number of markets where news was on the air that early more than doubled. Viewership also was up for news at 7 p.m.

Perhaps most striking, news on stations not affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC drew substantially more viewers, no doubt because so many “independent” stations added newscasts in the past year. And where is that news coming from? In many cases, it’s being produced by a competitor.

Consider, for example, WJBF in Augusta, Ga.  The Media General station airs 5 hours of news a day, but also produces daily newscasts for the local Raycom (WFXG) and Schurz (WJBF) stations for a total of 9 hours a day.  This spring, WJBF and WAGT will move in together, sharing a new facility. Think of them as “frenemies,” says Schurz Broadcasting senior vice president Marci Burdick, who expects to see more business relationships like this in the future. “Those stations that are number three or four in their markets will be looking at models like this.”

Newsroom staffing

So 2010 brought good news for station owners and viewers. What about TV journalists? The picture there is fuzzy. Bob Papper, who produces the annual RTDNA/Hofstra survey, says he expects this year’s data (due out next moth) will show that enough people were hired in local TV news to make up for all the staff cuts made in 2009. They may even have put a dent in the losses from 2008. But numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Veteran journalists left local TV news in droves last year. Many were long-time anchors who retired; others moved on to something else; some were let go when their contracts expired. It’s hard to quantify how those departures changed their newsrooms. They lost experience, for sure, but may have gained new energy and skills–if they made good hires.

What’s clear is the trend toward “frenemy” deals and increasing hours of news does not mean a lot more jobs. As we’ve reported, some stations added 4:30 a.m. newscasts without adding any staff.  And in Idaho Falls, where the Fisher and News-Press and Gazette stations now share one newsroom, 27 news staffers lost their jobs.

There’s much more on local TV news in the PEJ report, including the state of online and mobile. Questions? Comments? Let us know.

What’s different this time around? The new edition includes substantial revisions but retains the essentials: how to report, write and produce for multiple platforms. We have chapters on delivery, ethics and job seeking as well. There’s a ton of real-world examples and advice from professional journalists. New screen shots, images and examples are included throughout.

There’s also a new focus on the use of social media and mobile devices in gathering and disseminating news. Difficult to believe, but Twitter didn’t exist when we wrote the first edition. My how times have changed:

A majority of journalists today use social media to do their jobs—mainly to find stories, sources and information quickly and to monitor trends. Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools, once used primarily in breaking news situations, have become a central part of the daily newsgathering process. TV anchor Amy Wood says she gets “lots of tips on breaking news” via her social media sites. One of her Twitter followers told her a hostage crisis at a local bank had been resolved before the police announced it.

We’re hard at work on a new companion website that will be available for use with the book this fall. You’ll be able to buy access to the entire site or to individual modules. Each online module–linked to a chapter in the text–includes interactive exercises, tutorials, resources and examples of multimedia storytelling. The “Ongoing Story” module allows users to report a story from beginning to end, and write a TV package as well as a Web version.

No matter what edition of the text you have, updated chapter-by-chapter content will continue to be available on the Advancing the Story blog.

Sourced from: Advancing the Story

What do employers look for when you apply for a job? Or put another way, what can you do to ensure you don’t get the job? Plenty, according to news directors at a recent conference sponsored by the Texas Association of Broadcasters. Here’s some useful advice along with a few cautionary tales.

Cover letter

Make sure you address the news director personally, not “To whom it may Concern” or “Prospective Employer”–seriously! If necessary, call the station and ask, “Who is the news director and how do you spell his/her name?” One news director was getting letters addressed to his predecessor six  months after the guy was fired. Another got a pitch reel with his correct address, but the news director named was the guy across town. Make sure you get the gender right, too. Kelly could be a man.

Personalize the letter, be creative. Tell who you are and what you want to do. This is the first example of your writing this news director will see. Make it GOOD: interesting, original, with correct spelling and punctuation. But don’t try too hard. One memorable letter read: “From murders to rapes to fires, I’ve done it all.” He didn’t get the job.

Also, no gimmicks, no gifts. The panel described job seekers who enclosed candy, toys and Starbucks gift cards–no, no, no.

Resume

One page is best. Do not pad, do not exaggerate, do not lie. Some employers like Time Warner demand an extensive background check on any prospective employee.  Don’t claim degrees or awards you don’t have. Don’t claim to have worked on a project you had no part in. Even if you’re well qualified otherwise, a lie on your resume makes you unemployable.

Contact information should be professional. Is your personal email address frivolous or offensive (bootylicious@aol.com)? Create a new, free address at Gmail or Yahoo or spend $10 and get your own domain name. Make it professional.

References

Give people you intend to list as references the courtesy of asking if you may list them. Also ask if their employer allows them to comment on past employees. Some can’t, as part of company policy.

Provide a name, title, phone number and email address for each reference. If the people you list work odd shifts or days of the week, indicate the best time to reach them.

The package

Whether sending tape or a DVD, label it neatly and professionally. A messy package goes to the bottom of the pile.  No cute hearts or sticky stars on the labels either. News directors do not have time to fool around. One said he is currently reviewing 200 to 400 applications for one reporter position. So make the first thing on your pitch reel your absolute best work. Chances are, they will not look past that first piece. Show your real experience and do not include an anchor audition you’ve done on the set at a station or network where you interned. As one news director said, “Send it to your friends and your mother but not to me.”

Also, if you have a job and are seeking another one, do not include anything from college. If your college work is still what you are most proud of, what have you been doing?

Follow directions on the job application. If it says send it to the human resources department, do that. Don’t send it to the news director, and for Pete’s sake, don’t send it to the general manager or the news director’s wife, asking him/her to put in a good word for you.  Yes, this really happens. Bad idea.

A hint: Even if you want to work in TV, don’t be afraid of doing radio.”Come to us for a year, then these guys [the TV ND's] will hire you,” one radio news manager said. The TV news directors agreed. But don’t send a radio news director a video.

Social media

These days, it’s mandatory for anyone in the news business to have an online presence. But if an employer Googled your name, what would she or he find? Employers are checking you out on Facebook, Twitter and the Web. “If you tweet about being drunk, I’m not going to hire you,” said one news director.

When another news director visited one applicant’s Facebook page, he found a picture of her face down in a thong, passed out, surrounded by empty beer bottles. Deal breaker, right there.

Clean up your online act and do it now.

The interview

Dress professionally, as if you were on TV, or being asked to represent the station. No t-shirts, no cleavage, no flip-flops. A presentable haircut. No outlandish facial hair. Dress professionally for the job you are seeking. You might even call the station and ask if there is a dress code.

Do not bad-mouth your current or previous employer. Be a team player before you tell a prospective boss that you are one. If you are high maintenance or have an attitude in your current job, they will find out.  ”Do I want to bring a cancer into my newsroom?” one news director asked. “Negative Nelly–I don’t want anything to do with them,” said another.

Be prepared. Some news directors may give you a pop quiz, asking who the local member of Congress is, or the difference between a county or state district attorney or where the Dow Jones is right now. Know these things!

Lastly, it is your interview too.  Have an agenda. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Will I work weekends? Is there overtime? What would be expected of me?  As one news director put it, “Being really desperate for a job is one thing. Being really miserable in a job is to be avoided.”

Writing in News Photographer magazine, photojournalist Scott Jensen describes Delozier’s determination to prove that “the definition of quality wouldn’t change even as changes were happening all around him.” When KUSA, a preeminent photojournalism shop, announced it was expanding the use of VJs two years ago, Delozier stepped up. At the age of 53, he went back to what he’d done at the beginning of his career–reporting, writing, shooting and editing–as a one-man band.

“I don’t think you should ever rule anything out in your career,” Delozier told Jensen, “because if you do, you’re giving up possibilities. This has opened up doors and challenges I hadn’t dreamed of.” Delozier says one reason he gave up working alone in the first place was that he didn’t think his broadcast voice was good enough. Now he’s sorry he didn’t stick with it. In fact, Delozier says, “I’m having more fun doing what I’m doing now than at any other time in my career.”

His work shows it. Take a look:

Research by RTDNA and Hofstra University finds the use of VJs has indeed gone up for the past several years but it hasn’t skyrocketed. About a third of local stations now say they mostly use VJs. Three years ago, it was a little over one in five. And the number of stations that don’t use any VJs has gone down sharply, from 29% in 2006 to 18% today.

But researcher Bob Papper says the real surprise came in answer to this question: Did you use VJs more or less in the past year? Only 12% of news directors said they used them more, while 29% said less.  Those numbers aren’t at all what you’d expect in current economic conditions, and even less so given that the survey was in the field during the depths of the recession. Yes, almost half of the news directors who responded said they expected to use VJs more in 2010, but that’s what they always say. “Every year, expected use of more goes up way faster than the actual use,” said Papper.

The VJ experience

So if the numbers don’t suggest a “VJ revolution” just yet, has the increased use of solo journalists made a difference in television news? Mary Angela Bock, a former local television journalist who now teaches at Kutztown University, has been trying to figure that out. She interviewed more than 70 journalists and news managers about their experience with VJs, and her findings don’t support the claims often made about solo journalists.

Specifically, Bock finds little evidence that VJs produce stories their stations wouldn’t get any other way, either by expanding coverage or approaching stories more creatively. On the contrary, she writes, solo journalists tend to “pre-conceptualize” stories ahead of time.

Because they work alone, VJs will be more apt to look for quick and easy access to story elements and they will be less likely to stray from their pre-conceptualization. Instead of the smaller cameras and simpler software making it easier to take chances, television VJs see themselves as having less freedom to take chances with their stories. That‘s not to say that video journalism is not opening possibilities for new sorts of narratives; newspaper VJs are trying to break new ground. VJs who do not produce a story a day can be flexible. But organizations that demand daily filings on tight deadlines are less likely to foster innovation.

The VJs Bock talked to complained that they’re often assigned to easy, one-location features instead of hard news. And that can leave them at a disadvantage when they start looking for the next job, because their resume reels are stuffed with fluff.

It’s probably much too soon to reach a definitive conclusion about how the increased use of VJs has affected local television news, but as Bock writes, “the data…indicate that video journalism can simply be a way for organizations to cut costs without enriching the product.”

The average amount of on air TV news rose to its highest level ever: five hours a day, up from 4.7 hours in 2008. And the amount of material distributed in other ways also hit an all-time high.

More platforms

The leading secondary outlet for television stations, somewhat surprisingly, was local radio: 52% of TV stations are providing news to radio stations in their markets. Then again, perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise, since the average local radio station has a news staff of one.

Almost half of all stations, 45%, are producing news for mobile devices, more than double the number in 2008.  About a third of the stations also are producing news for another local TV station–sometimes more than one.

Putting news on the air, morning, noon and evening, is still the number one business for local TV stations, but it’s not the only business, Papper said. “If you think of yourself as being in one business, you have a short future. You’re in multiple businesses and you will continue to be.”

Smaller staffs

Stations are doing all this with fewer people than they used to. About 400 local TV news people lost their jobs last year, a 1.5% reduction in the workforce.  “That’s not good,” said survey researcher Bob Papper, “but it’s better than 2008″ when the workforce shrank by 4.3%. And it’s way better than newspapers, which cut jobs by 11% for two years in a row. “At the present rate there will be more TV news people than newspaper people in a few years,” Papper said.

This year should see TV newsrooms hiring again, Papper says. “In my view, we’ve bottomed out. I would be very surprised if we don’t see staffing numbers go up.” The survey data certainly supports that prediction. The number of news managers who expect to increase their staffs jumped by 145%. The number expecting staff cuts dropped to near zero.

“Doing more with less can help you get through a recession, but it’s not a long-term strategy for success,” Papper said, warning news managers that continuing to expect more from fewer people will put them at risk of losing their best staffers as soon as other newsrooms start hiring again.