Writing for New Media

Think that since your goal is to work for a newspaper, you won't need multimedia skills? Think again.

Asked what skills he would look for it hiring a newspaper reporter, Ryan Sholin lists these:

• I would want someone who knows enough HTML to write their own Web update into a content management system without needing training.
• I would want someone who has no fear of a digital camera, a video camera, or an audio recorder.
• I would want someone interested in using databases, maps, and public records as source material.
• I would want someone who knows how to tell a story.

Yes, that's for a NEWSPAPER reporter. He has a lot more to say about the skills you should have to get a job in online news. (via Mindy McAdams' Teaching Online Journalism blog)

In his column in Editor and Publisher, Steve Outing shares the same perspective:

Every hire counts at many small papers. It's long been common practice to look for people able to do multiple tasks, because the money often isn't there to hire people who are highly specialized, the way a wealthier metro paper might. But the Internet era requires more than finding people who can snap a news photograph and write a story and lay out the front page.

Small newspapers often look for recent college graduates to staff their newsrooms, in part because those employees won't demand high salaries. Hiring journalists and ad sales people right out of college makes even more sense today. Not only will recent graduates probably fit within your budget, but they'll have an understanding of the modern media picture -- at least, they will if they went through a credible journalism or communications program.

My advice is to ONLY hire people whose skills cross media platforms. Look for people who not only understand and are enthusiastic about online media, but who also can serve the print edition well. If a job candidate says she has always aspired to be a newspaper reporter, and doesn't come in the door with some multimedia skills and experience such as video and audio production, frankly I'd keep looking. You might even go so far as to look skeptically at candidates who look great when it comes to new-media skills but lack the experience or motivation to work on the print side, if you simply can't afford that much specialization.