blogging

Allowing a reporter to write for another publication or media outlet generally ranks pretty high on an editor’s list of Things Reporters Aren’t Allowed To Do.

While their reasoning is well-intended, I think it’s time to take another look at what those reasons are, and whether opportunities exist to capitalize on the new media landscape to benefit the news organization.

Here are three reasons why allowing reporters to write for other blogs may end up being beneficial:

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Author and journalist Susan Orlean (left) has written two nonfiction pieces that have been turned into films. She’ll discuss her new book, Rin Tin Tin, in Mediabistro’s first online Literary Festival & Workshops starting July 16. Other speakers include Rebecca Skloot, Jason Boog, and Jason Allen Ashlock. Register now.

If you’ve been staring at a blank screen unable to think up fresh ideas and innovative angles to pitch, a cure may be as simple as taking a hike. Exercise is scientifically proven to help you focus. And, you know, there’s that whole helps-you-live-longer thing, too.

“There’s something about getting out of my well-worn paths that helps me see things differently, so I like to hike a different spot each time so I don’t get stuck in a rut there, either,” said Denene Millner, author of 19 books, including three New York Times bestsellers. “I find exercise of some kind, even if just walking around the block, does wonders when I get too wrapped up in my head.”

Check out more tactics in How to Conquer Writer’s Burnout and Get More Creative and share your own suggestions in the comments.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

If you’re wondering why your article is generating zero buzz online, you might want to rethink its format.

Even the most compelling piece of copy will be lost on readers if it’s presented as a giant block of text. So whether you use a list, bullets or just subheads, avoid the chunky five-paragraph essay you learned in high school.

“You’d be surprised how many websites and bloggers will write blocks of copy that might include the best information you’ve ever read,” said Jorden Beatty, social media manager and chief blogger at Miami advertising agency LGD Communications, “but you won’t read it, because it’s simply too challenging for the human eye to follow.”

For eight more tactics on promoting your work online, read 9 Ways to Get More Comments, Tweets and Likes for Your Story.

When I started blogging about journalism, I did so at the urging of a hiring editor (who didn’t, ultimately, hire me but did inspire me). I had all these great digital skills, she told me, but she asked why had I presented her with carbon-based clips (i.e. paper) instead of a URL. I left the job fair and put the years of web design experience I’d been amassing to good work, and by the end of the weekend had built myself a website with clips, a resume, a bio and a blog about, what else, journalism and my place in the evolving industry.

That was a few months before my college graduation. And after putting so much work into the blog, I proudly stamped the URL on my resume and included it in my cover letters to prospective employers. To be honest, the blog’s inclusion wasn’t so much a way to show off my work as to cover my ass. When I interviewed for jobs, I discussed it. When I was hired, I searched the employee handbook and intranet for information about personal blogs. Soon after I arrived, I sat down with the executive editor and we discussed it. See, what kept me up late at night wasn’t the prospect of graduating without a job, but rather I did not want one of those editors to plug my name in Google and come across my blog, assuming I had hid or was hiding it.

I had flashbacks to that period and those decisions when I heard the story of Khristopher Brooks, who was fired this week from the job he hadn’t yet started because of the way he announced his new job on his tumblr blog. Brooks did a silly thing, but in my opinion, the folks he thought would soon be his new bosses did an even sillier one. (In my honest opinion, I think they come off looking out-of-touch and overly cautious for a news organization currently force-feeding its employees the “digital first!” company line, and he comes off probably having dodged a bullet.)

Here’s what got Brooks fired, and then, here’s my been-there-done-that advice on how to not get fired for your personal journalism blog.
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How often have you, as a journalist, been asked to provide proof that you are, in fact, a journalist? At least one NPR.org contributor has been asked several times lately.

Alan Greenblatt explains in his story today that increasingly, government officials are asking him to prove his official journalist status before granting him interviews. Tides have turned and now it’s not just the reporter doing background research, but the sources are backgrounding the reporters.

The other day, I arranged to speak with Bob Wirch, a Democratic state senator in Wisconsin. The morning of our appointment, I received a call from one of his aides, instructing me to bring along a press badge or some other credential that included a picture and identified me as a reporter.

This rarely happens. In some 20 years of interviews, less than a handful of people have ever asked me to prove that I was the reporter I was claiming to be.

But, increasingly, elected officials and their staffs are checking journalistic bona fides, going online to read old stories and check out photos.

He points to other instances where this was the case, and notes the irony that the people politicians most need to be on guard against are not those allegedly pretending to be journalists — when someone says they’re a journalist you should be on your guard about what you say because the whole point is other people will hear about it — but from people who gain access and broadcast gaffes never intended to be shared.

His point, however, had me wondering… should you need to prove you’re a journalist? What type of proof is enough? What if you’re not working for an agency that hands out press badges? What’s stopping you from printing up your own press badge and business cards? It’s not like you apply for a license to be a journalist and can hand out your license number to verify with the state, as electricians or plumbers do. (I hope nobody gets any bright ideas.) And it’s not like medical professions where you need a certain degree and set of training to perform the job; you simply do not need a degree in journalism to prove you know how to ask who, what, when, where, why and how, and then write it up accurately. Plenty of good reporters didn’t learn those skills in the classroom. And plenty of bad reporters have a degree but still didn’t learn to apply those skills well.
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