Can This Work?

i've already made my argument; no need to repeat all of it. but those of with substantial time remaining before retirement ought not to shut the door too soon. i'm not saying this is feasible for every reporter at every paper. i'm with ace -- sometimes the page views don't justify the effort. we don't know what the web will look like five years, 10, 15 years. it's good to keep an open mind, at the very least.

sosueme, you say your goal is to work for a major metro one day. well, this is what one major daily, the washington post, has to say.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/index.php/2007/07/05/the-posts-10-web-principles/

when you make it to that major metro some day, it might help to have a working idea about how your stories should play in a multimedia, interactive world. but you won't have to do the video. they'll have someone for that. but since it's your story, your project, you'll want to have some say in it and you probably want to have a say that is worthwhile.

 

Apparently not. Do their sports writers shoot videos?

 

I was thinking the same thing Ace. And, I was wondering that about the Washington Post, too. Because the link Funky posted says nothing about that. The closest it comes is No. 9 Newsroom employees will receive training appropriate to their roles in producing online journalism.

 

yeah football, miles away, blah blah blah. good for you. what about that championship softball game that started at 4 p.m.? get any shots of the local team celebrating it's fifth straight section title when the game ended before 6? no? why not?

you pulled the hand-your-business-card-to-someone-in-the-crowd trick there too. in the third innng.

i never said anything about football in my post. as a sports reporter. i cover football, tennis, cross country, water polo, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball, track, swimming etc. you get the picture. they don't all end at 10 p.m. most of those sports are easier to predict than football.

and yeah, though i can't predict when the team will throw the 80-yard bomb for a touchdown most times, i can usually tell when important parts of the games for many of the sports are. they're called "the end."

tie basketball game with 15 seconds left in the fourth. <whip> out comes the camera. tv man is nowhere in sight. and we have exclusive video.

maybe i don't get any action shots of the football game because it's too hard to predict when the big play will come. so instead, i go on the field after the game and shoot the quarterback crying with joy after beating his rival. or i shoot the winning field goal and the ensuing dogpile. the coach kissing his wife. whatever.

sure, you can shoot the video better, but not if you're not there. and not if your only goal is to get action for the highlight show instead of simply offering an extra level of depth to someone interested in knowing about the game.

it's easier said than done.

but, to sosueme and others, why not try? because precious writing skills will go down the drain? that seems to be the only argument. and it's weak.

 

The Post has been one of the few papers to really be ahead of the curve since this whole "Internet" thing got big. So, if they try to have their reporters focus on doing videography, it's probably with good reason. Like everyone has been saying, metro papers are going to be looking for this kind of thing from now on. It's only good to at least know how to do it.

 

Washington Post: Have a seat, SoSueMe. So it's your dream to work at a major metro like the Post?

SoSueMe: Absolutely . . . . everyone would want to be at a place like this. I've dedicated myself to working hard at my writing, because I went to school to be a "print journalist!!!!!"

Washington Post: Looking at your resume . . . You do have a rather long period of unemployment here.

SSM: Um, yes . . . . you see, the business can be very tough, what with cutbacks and such.

WP: Yes, absolutely, these are tough times for all of us. . . . . . but why did you leave your previous job?

SSM: Well, they asked me to do some extra work with video and I refused to even attempt to train for it and learn it. I'm a "PRINT JOURNALIST!!!!!!!!" and I refuse to do what should be someone else's job, you know? I didn't come here to do multimedia; I went to school to be a "print journalist!!!!!!!!"

WP: I see. So, what happened?

SSM: well, I made some union and overtime-related noise to avoid learning something outside my comfort zone, and I was let go.

WP: Uh-HUH. I think we're done here. We'll, uh, be in contact.

 

video reports???!!!! how DARE they!!!

 

DyePack, err, Norrin

I'm just curious, can you not read or do you choose not to read?

The thing is, I even bolded the sentence for you and you still misread it. But here it is again, because you obviously missed it.

. . . training appropriate to their roles . . .

My "role" would be to write; you know, stories, features, gamers, blogs? Kind of like what beat writers do.

If you think the Washington Post is sending sports reporter Steve Yanda down to cover the Nats game at RFK with a video camera you're even more of an idiot than your last post indicates.

 

Actually, you're the one who has displayed the least understanding here. While you whine and cry about being "A PRINT JOURNALIST!!!!!" everyone is gently reminding you that beggars can't be choosers. While you pout about wanting to go to your Union, some have informed you that maybe you can at least try something new. And while you breathlessly paste what the Washington Post does, you forget one major fact.

You're not at the Post. And the way the Post and its peers (NY Times, LA Times, etc.) do things is not the way they are done elsewhere.

With the attitude of "Hey man, I don't do anything other than what I was trained for!" you're not going to get to the Post. Because you're gonna find yourself phased out of the best assignments, the best opportunities, and perhaps, phased out altogether. Management's buzzword is "team player." Mine is "keeping one's frackin' job." God forbid you try to help out rather than putting yourself above the dudes who might find themselves doing what management asks.

Good luck, tough guy. The unemployment line is littered with dunces who stuck to their guns when management asked them to learn something new.

I stand by the scenario in my previous post. You adapt, or get left behind. You help out like everyone else, or make way for someone who will.