Electric Fishwrap

A quick update: My beat has changed from education to an all-encompassing government and politics beat. You can follow me on Twitter at Gov_SVH. I had recently hit 400 followers on my former Twitter account, Schools_SVH, and that Twitter address was printed on my business cards a few weeks ago. Curses! I am going to miss the education beat a lot, but I really enjoyed covering politics when I was in Colorado.

I have a few loose education stories to wrap up before I start government full time, but when I do, I will cover Skagit County and the cities of Burlington, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley (with smaller cities as needed). Social services is also part of my beat. I’ve probably forgotten something in there — it is a really large beat.

The Education Writers Association was invaluable in my growth as an education reporter. In February I attended a statistics bootcamp, which taught me how to effectively use Access and Excel (I had used Excel for years but the training was a whole new level). Those skills are transferable to any beat.

Two weeks ago, Skagit Valley Herald editor in chief Don Nelson sat down with the reporting staff and told us about some upcoming changes in the newsroom. (For the curious, I asked Don permission if I could blog about this and he gave me the green light.)

Reporters were handed a four-page outline of how we can incorporate the Web into our daily reporting.

Here’s a brief outline of the new Web strategy. If you want to read the entire four-page handout (culled to three pages with my excellent paper-folding-and-taping skills), read the PDF here (includes bonus doodles).

• Editors will select which stories have the best potential for multimedia during their weekly editors meeting. At least two stories per week will be assigned for “multi-platform” presentation.
• Editors are responsible for coordinating the production and editing of the multimedia.
• Photographers must “think video” for breaking news.
• Photographers are a “first priority” to train in video production and editing. Editors and interested reporters come after the photogs are trained. Training will come from in-house or online sources.
• Reporters are responsible for audio recording and editing, including narration and interviews with subjects.

Reporters seemed skeptical and skittish because of the layoffs around the country. Even our own newsroom is not immune from this recent trend. Our business reporter position is frozen. Someone mumbled “do more with less,” which earned a funny statement from Don Nelson:

“I hate the phrase ‘More with less.’ It’s a despicable lie,” Don said. “I prefer ‘Different and better.’”

(For the record, I hate “more with less” with a passion, and Don’s comment has to be the most awesome comeback to it that I’ve ever heard. Cynical journalists are free to disagree, but I still love my job.)
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If you had 11 days to reorganize your newsroom, could you do it?

Nick Eaton and crew did at the Spokesman-Review. Here is what he had to work with:

• make the Spokesman newsroom efficient while completing all if its objectives
• we can’t eliminate the print product
• we can’t eliminate the new radio initiative
• we can’t eliminate the community-oriented Voice sections
• we can’t suggest layoffs

The results are in from the team of eight.

Nick’s editor, Steve Smith, said in his blog that this is not a plan. Smith said he thinks young journalists have fewer ties with the past and not as much loyalty to the way things have always been done. Why were older journalists not asked to participate?

The fact is there always have been opportunities for veterans to participate in such discussions. Too often it is the smart young journalists whose ideas are discounted.

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I’m not sure if I’m creating a blasphemous analogy on the anniversary of our nation’s founding by saying this but here goes.

It may come as a shock to some that newspapers need to make money. Yes, we are the guardians of the First Amendment, a voice for the voiceless and the afflicters of the comfortable.

Newsrooms everywhere are in a downward spiral. Tampa Tribune editor in chief Janet Coats, according to blogger and news intern Jessica DaSilva, decided to reorganize the newsroom and reprioritize the newspaper’s coverage.

Essentially, it’s a shakeup of the traditional beat system. From Mindy McAdams’ blog:

• Managing editors
• 5-6 audience editors — keep in touch with what the print, TV, online audiences want/need
• 5 sections of reporting (all the reporters for print, TV and Web are mashed up together in these groups):

1. Deadline — for breaking/daily news
2. Data — specifically for database stuff
3. Watchdog — for investigative reporting
4. Personal journalism — stuff for people’s every day lives like weather, health, entertainment
5. Grassroots — citizen journalism

Outside of these groups are three “finishing” groups for print, TV and online to determine what stories should be covered and with what medium.

Read more of McAdams’ blog. I really like how she lays out the system for news coverage.

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