In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do?, Hall explains how the mag is winning again and explains why editors-in-chief need to be more than just good writers.

“A lot of things that come with being editor-in-chief aren’t necessarily drilled down into the day-to-day tasks. It’s a lot of schmoozing; it’s a lot of fixing relationships; it’s a lot of bartering; it’s a lot of people skills,” he said. “It’s really going out there to be the ambassador of the brand on all levels. And that doesn’t necessarily come from being the strongest writer, it just really comes from people skills and the contacts and the relationships there that you’ve been able to build over your career. So, I think it’s knowing that it’s more than just writing and more than just editing at this level.”

For more, read So What Do You Do, Jermaine Hall, Editor-in-Chief of Vibe?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do? series, Schreiber says that aspiring entrepreneurs should “be willing to put in the work for a long period of time for just the love of it.”

“Today, more so than any other time, it seems really difficult to make a living in the media, especially in the music media,” he explained. “It’s just so crowded, and at this point the publications that are really able to establish themselves are the ones that are the most passionate and the most relatable. I find that the publications I tend to connect with most are ones that are, in many cases, written by a single voice, somebody who has a really interesting viewpoint or perspective.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Ryan Schreiber, Founder and CEO of Pitchfork?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“We must provide the most comprehensive coverage of the top 40-plus stories each day that are being aggregated by our rivals. I want our stories to go beyond the headline. That sounds jingoistic, but there’s method behind it,” he said in his Mediabistro So What Do You Do? interview. “When you look around the Web, the top showbiz stories are all covered the same way, packaged like Associated Press copy.”

And how does Celebuzz distinguish itself from the rest? “Putting these stories into context, often through the use of expert analysis,” Howard said.

Read more in So What Do You Do? Dylan Howard, Editor-in-Chief of Celebuzz.

– Andrea Hackett

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When Mediabistro asked Atchity for the key to making sites more engaging, his answer was simple: great visuals.

“Users never get tired of photo galleries,” he said. “As long as the user experience is good (i.e. not reloading the entire page for each new picture), photo slide shows are something that audiences really respond to. Slide shows with good captions are an easy traffic win for online writers and producers.”

For the full interview, read So What Do You Do, Matt Atchity, Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes?

– Andrea Hackett

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Maurice Cherry: Tell our 10,000 Words audience a little about what you do.

Dominick Brady: I’m an independent multi-platform journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Traffic reporting for Clear Channel radio is my day job but I also freelance quite a bit. My freelance work has focused primarily on arts and entertainment. I’ve worked in Internet radio as a features contributor for East Village Radio, an audio documentary series producer for Brooklyn Radio, as a blogger and audio features producer for CentricTV; a video features producer, blogger and contributing writer for Atlanta’s Creative Loafing and a features contributor for The Smoking Section. My passion is radio journalism. I’m a member of the Association of Independents in Radio, but I’ve found myself returning to writing for print and the web for the bulk of my freelance work.

MC: How do you think the current digital landscape affects how journalism and reporting works?

DB: I think it’s an exciting time. There are now more formats and mash-up possibilities available in the journalist’s tool box. I’m really interested in data visualization, data reporting and how they can continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Maurice Cherry: Tell our 10,000 Words audience a little about what you do.

Donovan X. Ramsey: I’m an independent journalist but like many young professionals, I’m also freelancing wherever my skills take me. With the journalism industry still scraping to find a viable business model, many of us looking to break into the industry are applying our skills to some unconventional work. Aside from contributing to outlets like The Atlanta Post, TheFreshXpress, Creative Loafing Atlanta and The Next Great Generation, I have coordinated press and marketing for a number of non-profit organizations. This coming fall, I will be pursuing master’s work at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with a specialization in magazine journalism. My passion is for long-form writing. I think sound, ethical journalism can change the world so I’m headed to the center of it all in hopes of doing so.

MC: How do you think the current digital landscape affects how journalism and reporting works?

DXR: I wrote a piece for my blog about the future of journalism recently titled “Beyond The Facts, Ma’am”. No one has a crystal ball on this issue, but I certainly do not think that traditional journalism is a dying industry. It has just changed with the times, and given time, it will continue to change. Reports have shown that more people are getting their news from the Internet in lieu of newspapers and radio.  That makes sense to me. The Internet is a very agile medium, so I’d venture to say that reporters cannot possibly get in front of outlets like Twitter in the race to get the story first. We can see that with the case of Osama bin Laden’s death. What journalists can do is get it right and tell the story the best.  Quality is what we are best at and the need for quality is now more pressing than ever.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

George Kelly, Online Coordinator for the Contra Costa Times

As newspapers and other traditional print media outlets make their way through the online atmosphere, it’s important to take time out to navigate the landscape and learn how to bridge the gap between your online and offline audiences. No one knows this better than George Kelly, online coordinator at the Contra Costa Times (a Bay Area News Group daily newspaper) in Walnut Creek, CA. Recently, I had the chance to talk with George about these topics and learn more about his storied history in journalism as a digital jack-of-all-trades.

Maurice Cherry: Tell our 10,000 Words audience a little about what you do.

George Kelly: I’m the online coordinator at the Contra Costa Times, a Bay Area News Group daily newspaper, in Walnut Creek, California. Originally, I was supposed to moderate forums and photo albums, train and coach co-workers on blogging, create polls, initiate and host live chats, offer print teasers to online content, update some site elements, work with editors on reverse publishing, and consult on special projects. I still do a lot of that, along with some other tasks, such as advice on daily-buzz stories and trends at daily budget meetings, and compiling weekday evening news summaries.
I was born in Washington, D.C., so I started out in journalism as a fan of the comic pages in the Washington Star. When I got older, I had a Washington Post paper route in Silver Spring, MD. Editing the Spectrum,  the student newspaper at Bowie State University, helped me land a Chips Quinn Scholar internship at the Oakland Tribune in the summer of 1994. I’ve lived and worked in the Bay Area since then as a reporter, copy editor and page designer.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Photo courtesy Daniel Victor

Many a journalist wonders what it would be like to leave the beat for the blog, but few act on the curiosity. They prize traits in their employers like stability, history and health insurance.

During his four years as a reporter at The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., Daniel Victor tasted online community collaboration in the news process through his beat blogs and tweets. He couldn’t shake the urge to be part of a deeper community conversation than allowed at a traditional beat reporting gig — even one where editors give room for innovation, as Victor’s did. So when he heard about a new D.C.-based online journalism start-up last year, he made the leap and landed the job of Community Host for local news site TBD.

Fast forward six months, and now Victor, who’s been quoted and noted in blogs from Poynter to Jezebel, learned in February that his job — along with most of his co-workers — is being eliminated as the website moves away from the vast blog network he helped assemble and toward a much smaller arts and entertainment niche. Bummer? Of course. But this 26-year-old doesn’t talk regrets. He’s too busy already thinking future and calculating how the failure will set him apart and set him up for great things. In fact, he’s already headed for them: Philly.com scooped Victor up to fill a similar community-building role there.

Here, he took some time to talk about the experience and what he learned.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.