Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Apply Now for International Reporting Fellowships

Sonja Matanovic from the International Reporting Project e-mailed to let us know about the upcoming April 1 deadline to apply for fellowships. If you have at least three years professional journalism experience and would like to work abroad, check out these opportunities:
The International Reporting Project (IRP) is pleased to announce that applications are being accepted for the Fall 2008 IRP Fellowships program. The IRP Fellowships program will run September 1 – October 25, 2008.
This year we are offering two types of IRP Fellowships for the fall program.
1. IRP FELLOWSHIPS IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM
The International Reporting Project will offer up to four IRP Fellowships to U.S. journalists to carry out a project reporting from any country in the world outside of the United States. One of these Fellowships will be the “IRP/FRONTLINE World Fellowship” for video journalists, which will offer additional support through the PBS program FRONTLINE/World and a chance for the Fellow’s story to appear on that program’s web site and broadcast.
2. IRP/STANLEY FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIPS
The International Reporting Project will award up to four additional “IRP/Stanley Foundation Fellowships” that will run concurrently with the other fellowships from September 1 through October 25. These fellowships will be awarded to U.S. journalists of every level – including senior and highly experienced journalists – whose proposals focus on reporting projects in one of the following areas: South Africa, Russia, Japan, the European Union or any member country of the EU.
For more information or to apply, please visit www.internationalreportingproject.org.

Hilton Head Paper Seeks Copy Editor

Copy Editor/Page Designer
The Island Packet, Hilton Head Hisland

The Island Packet, which serves Hilton Head Island and surrounding mainland communities, is seeking a copy editor/page designer. We're interested in candidates who can creatively design pages, aggressively handle copy, spot holes and inconsistencies in stories, write headlines that are clear and crisp, and maintain accuracy on deadline. Knowledge of InDesign and Photoshop is required.

The Packet is a 22,000-circulation well-respected daily owned by The McClatchy Co. The newspaper is a consistent award winner in state and regional newspaper competitions. McClatchy is the nation's third-largest newspaper group. It emphasizes high journalistic standards. Other papers in the group include The Sacramento Bee, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Miami Herald. For more information about the Packet, visit islandpacket.com. For more information about The McClatchy Co., visit mcclatchy.com.

Please e-mail a one-page cover letter and a one-page resume to Elizabeth Farrell, copy desk chief, at: efarrell@islandpacket.com. Initially, send only the cover letter and resume. The resume should include professional and academic highlights, dates of graduation and job changes/promotions, scholarships and awards and names and telephone numbers of references. The letter and resume will be key in determining whether to proceed with an application. It is not necessary to send work samples as attachments with your e-mail. After reviewing your resume, we may then ask for samples, and that time, we will need hard copies.

Received March 19, 2008

Lynchburg, Va., Sales Opening

Core Account Executive, Sales Department
WSET-TV, Lynchburg, VA

Position Summary:
The sale of television time to assigned accounts, the supervision and follow-through of all sales, and the solicitation of new clients.

Essential Job Qualifications: Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. Sales aptitude with one year previous television or media sales experience. Disciplined, self-motivated individual. Automobile and valid Virginia driver's license.

Application Procedure: Please apply in writing to Director of Human Resources, WSET-TV, P. O. Box 11588, Lynchburg, VA 24506-1588, or apply in person at WSET-TV, 2320 Langhorne Road, Lynchburg, VA 24501 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. No phone calls please! EEO/M/F.

Received March 10, 2008

Albuquerque Broadcast Jobs

ABC affiliate KOAT is hiring for the following positions:

Meteorologist
#1 rated ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico (44) looking for a dynamic Meteorologist to join its winning weather team. Ideal candidate must be able to tell a weather story and provide accurate forecasts and information. We need someone with good energy and a great personality. We have all the tools - Live Doppler, Storm Tracking, etc. Great weather environment. No beginners! Minimum 2 years weather forecasting for broadcast news. Excellent weather graphics capability and live experience are necessary. College degree and at least 1 Meteorological Seal of Approval (NWA or AMS) preferred. Send tape and resume to Sue Stephens, News Director, KOAT, 3801 Carlisle Blvd, NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107. Apply by April 11, 2008. At this time, we anticipate that a hiring decision will be made on or about April 18, 2008.

News Assignment Manager
KOAT is looking for an experienced assignment editor to manage our assignment desk. The ideal candidate will be able to enterprise, research and develop news stories. As assignment manager, you will work with the news management team in setting the daily agenda for news. You must be able to handle breaking news efficiently utilizing all the resources which include a helicopter, satellite truck and multiple live vans. You will develop systems to ensure reporters manage their beats and follow-ups and guide them through the course of their story process. You will supervise long-term planning and work with the News Director on scheduling. Minimum three (3) years News experience. Must be familiar with computer assisted reporting. Good people skills and organizational skills are needed. Resume including references and salary requirements, along with a cover letter stating where you found out about this job to: Sue Stephens, News Director, KOAT-TV, 3801 Carlisle Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87107. Apply by April 11, 2008. At this time, we anticipate that a hiring decision will be made on or about April 18, 2008.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Style Power

My employer, Bloomberg News, made a style change over the weekend that was buried in the middle of an e-mail of updates on this or that. From now on, the company refers to the war in Iraq as Iraq War, uppercase. It's a proper noun now. The general public may have been calling it that for a long time - but to me, it is a major event. When newspapers and wire services give it a new name, Iraq War, history will reflect it that way. It won't be known as the ``war in Iraq.'' Now there will be a chapter in the history books on the Iraq War. A simple change in style can have a big impact.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Chummy with sources

Here is an interesting case of a reporter being outed on how he works his sources. A weekly competitor FOIA's the emails between city officials and the reporter and found some funny exchanges and others that seemed to show how the reporter and city officials were bargaining on when a breaking story would come out. This columnist points out that, while embarrassing, he didn't do anything wrong. God knows I've had some pretty important exchanges with sources over e-mail and, yes, other people could get access to some of them over time. Personally, I don't think what this reporter did is wrong either. But it demonstrates that when you are covering a beat, especially one that has a single, key entity, like city hall, or a big company, it is easy to become part of their machine. They didn't buy you off - they were nice to you. You talk to them every day. They are smart people with kids who maybe went to the same college as you. When things go bad, it's not that the reporter won't write something bad, it's that the report feels bad for the good people on the other side. I don't recommend erecting an icy wall. I think reporters can be/ should be friendly or even friends with people inside the entities they cover. However, it's a good idea to just remind the people you deal with every so often that if they screw up, you are going to write about it. What do you think?

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2008/03/how_the_sausage_is_made_a_repo.html

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Ned's Job of the Week - A World In Communication.

A wonderful web-site listing job opportunities in corporate communications, media relations, broadcasting, web design, investor relations, employee communications, public relations, among other things. Heavy on DC-area jobs, but still a fantastic resource for any job-hunter. This is where I found the listing for my first job out of Scripps:

http://www.nedsjotw.com/

And, Ned updates it each week with new opportunities! Good luck!