News-Record.com

Last week, Howard Owens posted a wonderful list of objectives for today's non-wired journalists. Inspired, our editors pulled together our own challenge to our more-or-less wired journalists. I sent this out yesterday to our staff:

Last week, I sent you all information about Howard Owens' challenge to journalists. We liked Howard's idea so much that we want to offer you a similar challenge that will help you in your career and help us achieve our 2008 top 10 list, which includes:

* Everyone will stretch themselves, improving their work, learning new skills, becoming better.
* We will innovate constantly, experimenting with new forms of journalism and new publishing methods. We will be quick to drop what doesn't work.
* We will publish news digitally -- big and small -- when we verify it and update it as often as necessary to serve the audience. Everyone will get training; everyone will play.

We didn't replicate Howard's challenge entirely. Like Howard, we will give you a $100 gift certificate (to Friendly Shopping Center). Unlike Howard, we only ask that you do eight of the 10, and it is your choice which eight. Also unlike him, we will give it to the first 10 of you who complete and maintain these for three months.

A few of these are geared more to reporters, although we've tried to be inclusive. If you aren't a reporter, go to Howard's list and select from there to fill out your 10. If you're interested in customizing an approach with a few that aren't on either list, let's hear it.

Sound like a lot of work for a small payout? Perhaps, but consider it an investment in your own development. And I'd bet it will be fun. My guess is that your PIP will have some of these as actions, too, so you'll have a head start. Let your editor, Ann and me know you're giving it a shot.

Here they are:

1. If you have a news beat, file at least five updates a week. This isn't hard. If you're working a story, file updates throughout the day. File the briefs you get from news releases. If a story is breaking file every time you have a snippet more of news. Remember, we must publish every chance we get; we are no longer a once-a-day-delivery newspaper. For editors and designers: Learn about types of headlines that grab online readers. Rewrite headlines on our Web site to make them more interesting for online. Do this for at least three stories per week.

2. From Owens: Become a blogger. Start with a favorite topic. For example, if you're a baseball fan, start with baseball. Find all of the baseball-related blogs you can and become a regular reader of five or six of the best of these blogs. Participate -- leave comments; follow links. After three months of blog reading, start your own blog on that topic. Try to post daily for at least six months. For blog topics, avoid anything related to your beat or politics. First, you need to blog about something you are passionate about; second, there are too many political bloggers already (except maybe for local politics, if you see that need in your community and it won't conflict with your day job).

From me: We have plenty of blogs you can contribute to. If you don't want to blog for us, start one on your own.

3. Learn to post and edit online. And do it often enough to keep the skill up-to-date. In addition to stories, learn how to post any type of file -- maps, charts, photos, PDFs. For editors: Post online at least once a week, and edit at least 10 stories per week online (that's only two per shift). For designers: Learn how to create photo galleries. Create at least one per month. Learn how to add extra features. The Mikes can help with training.

4. Use the digital camera. Shoot the neighborhood sign or street when you are doing a story on a rezoning fight. Shoot people you interview. Shoot a crime scene or a new store. Take photos of spot news if you see it or of anything interesting going on around you. Look for ways we can use your work -- an online gallery, blog, etc. The photos will help us online, and they will help you become comfortable shooting for publication. Do it at least once a week; more often is better. The Mikes can upload the photos.

And Owens is worth adding: Buy a small digital camera that can take both stills and video. Open an account with a photo sharing site such as Flickr or Buzznet. Take photos and post them. If necessary, use some online tutorials for digital photography.

5. Use the audio recorder. We want the three-minute interviews that you do more than the 60-minute conversation. A few snippets so that people can hear the interviewee in person will help bring your story to life. Do it twice a month. The Mikes can help with the upload. For non-reporters, learn about audio. Work with a reporter or videographer to see how it's done. Help edit and post at least one audio project.

6. Subscribe:
* To an RSS feed. Use RSS to keep up with the news of the day and the blogs you are now reading every day. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed. Here's Marc Glaser's guide to RSS. (From Owens)
* To our free products: daily news updates via e-mail and breaking news alerts. Text alerts on your phone. Find them on the home page.
* To our competitor's alerts. A decent number of stories that go online each week originated from an e-mail alert from someone else.

7. From Owens: Join a social networking site. Every professional should have a profile on LinkedIn, so make sure you do, also. Facebook has been hot in 2007, but I think you'l get more out of MySpace, which still remains popular with your future readers. You will get more DIY (the backbone of modern media) experience with MySpace, if you take full advantage of the site features (which, admittedly, I have not). Do Facebook, too, but don' neglect MySpace.

8. Understand and learn video. You don' need to shoot it, although it would be a nice complement to your skills. Learn from Andy Dickinson and Mindy McAdams. Learn from other news sites -- not just newspapers -- that feature video. Then hook up with videographer Michael McQueen at least once to create video for a story. For designers: Team up with a reporter and/or videographer to produce an online project. Even better: Think of a project yourself and then do it. For editors: Team up with a reporter, photographer or videographer to edit the script for an online project. Even better: Write the script yourself.

9. From Owens: Learn to twitter. I'm not a big Twitter user myself, but Ryan Sholin and Jack Lail swear by it. I think there is something to be said for learning how this technology may change information dissemination. Another view is Matthew Ingram's.

10. Innovate. Become a beatblogger. Take an issue on your beat and create a give-and-take online with experts. Create a new form of journalism. You're smart enough. Do it.