The joke’s on us, guys. I couldn’t help laughing out loud and passing around a recent article from The Onion this week. The headline “Internet Users Demand Less Interactivity” caught my eye. The satirical piece contained gems like this quote:

Every time I type a web address into my browser, I don’t need to be taken to a fully immersive, cross-platform, interactive viewing experience,” said San Diego office manager Keith Boscone. “I don’t want to take a moment to provide my feedback, open a free account, become part of a growing online community, or see what related links are available at various content partners.

Har-har. Go ahead. Read the whole thing, I’ll wait.

Now back to business. As much as our jobs depend on curating those cross-platforms and creating sharable content, things are only funny when they’re true right? I think there are lessons to be learned from being the butt of the joke. Here’s how to keep those snarky Onion writers happy:

1. Use Video Only When It’s Compelling

Many of my colleagues working at hometown papers have been handed small digital cameras in the past years and an order from higher ups to have accompanying video for their stories and columns. We all have to be reporters, video producers, audio editors, among other things, these days. But video only works when it’s compelling. For it to be compelling, you need more training than the two afternoons in the conference room with the tech guy. Many of us are good writers and good video editors. Just as many people are not. (Full disclosure: I am not.) There is a huge difference between knowing how to put together a nice video from filming to finishing touches, and really feeling, embracing, the medium. I want to propose that while adapting is good, and learning to use Final Cut or even iMovie is a must, if you know it’s just not your thing: rebel.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

That makes this announcement that NBC put out a casting call for local newspapers to be at the center of a potential reality show — shared in a posting on the National Newspaper Association website — both unsurprising and exciting. I can totally see how a newsroom could make for a good show — there’s deadline pressure, there’s quirky characters (inside and outside the newspaper), there’s always something new. It will be interesting to see how a “documentary-style reality show” would play out when much of the day in a community newspaper isn’t really dramatic. Sure, there are election nights and breaking news, but not every day, especially in a small-town paper, which seems to be their target. Jim Romenesko posted about the casting and has more details and responses to the idea.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What is interesting about this report, though, is that the PPA also notes that there appears to be a “positive correlation between print and tablet readership.” In fact, according to the report, 96 percent of tablet owners have read a PRINTED magazine in the last year, compared to the 80 percent national average.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“I not only sometimes hear viewers’ angst about wanting journalistic reporting, I feel it myself as somebody consuming the news. I report and analyze what’s going on in the news, but I also want to know what’s happening in the world. For me, that angst is primarily about newspapers. I live in New Orleans, where we’ve lost our daily newspaper and don’t have reporters on the beat in our neighborhoods… When I think about [the decline in unbiased news], I tend to not think about it in terms of television news, which I never particularly watched, but print journalism.”

Read more in So What Do You Do, Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC Host and Tulane University Professor?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

But here’s a different twist on the relationship between the search giant and newspapers: Using a newspaper to drive advertisers to the search giant.

That’s what Google apparently hopes to achieve in its new ad, which Globe and Mail media reporter Steve Ladurantaye discovered in his paper and then tweeted. Or maybe the message to take away is the opposite, as Ladurantaye tweeted about the half-page ad: “An ad for Google ads in today’s Globe demonstrates the value of print ads, yes?”

Mashable follows up noting the ad apparently also ran in the National Post, another Canadian paper and Globe and Mail competitor.

(H/T Romenesko for catching this tweet.)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here’s what EByline’s Susan Johnson found:

A few trends pop out of the data (which has a few holes but is otherwise pretty comprehensive): meters galore, discounts for print subscribes are overwhelmingly popular and, most significantly, an accelerating pace of adoption that peaked late last year but is picking up steam again. This suggests that while experimentation with paywall specifics continues, the journalism industry believes they ultimately have a solution to their digital problem.

According to EByline’s reporting, 84 percent of the papers listed in the NAA database as having payrolls use a metered paywall approach, where they let visitors sample a limited number of articles without paying for access or subscribing.

Johnson’s analysis found the average number of free articles a news site allows readers is 11.2. You’ll remember, the New York Times recently lowered its free article count from 20 to 10. So maybe that really is the sweet spot?

Poynter also looked at the data and has some more details about which organizations have instituted payrolls, and who’s at the low end (3) and the high end (25). It notes 156 papers have adopted paywalls, with more already announced but not yet implemented.

The full Ebyline post is worth reading for more information on their analysis and predictions.

YOUR TURN: What do you think of the paywall approach? Inevitable, or annoying? Saving journalism, or hastening its demise? Tell us in the comments, or @10000words

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In Mediabistro’s latest So What Do You Do? interview, the award-winning writer and editor talked about the key to landing reporters who truly get the Web.

“Frankly, I think part of it is giving them a chance to take a break from online,” she said.  “The L.A. Weekly has a few perks that online-only sites don’t have: We can give you the chance to write about music or art if that’s your thing. And, hopefully, we can help you find the time to mix it up and write a 4,000-word cover story, too.”

She continued, “But it is tough. I have no idea how most bloggers can sustain that pace. I used to fill in for our news blogger in St. Louis when he was on vacation (the perils of leading a small staff!), and it just about killed me. I have the utmost respect for anyone writing multiple posts per day.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Sarah Fenske?

– Andrea Hackett

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When I was in high school (which wasn’t that long ago, eh hem, a decade), I remember some kids entering a contest for designing and wearing duct tape prom attire. This takes it to a whole other, way more awesome level.

The Detroit Free Press encouraged local students to design prom dresses made from newspapers for the chance to win $500. And what the local girls came up with is nothing short of awesome.

Users can select their favorite dress and rank them to help determine the $500 winner.

The Freep says it received more than 20 entries. You can check out the photo gallery of the top eight newspaper dressmaker finalists here. And you can vote on your favorite until midnight Thursday.

This is a great example of a way for a newspaper to engage its readership — especially its young readers — and promote the print product in a creative way. They tie it together nicely with the smooth voting/ranking mechanism and online contest. Innovative and fun for participants and other readers.

Thanks to Poynter for pointing this contest out. They also have some fun links to other newspaper fashions, including this gallery of newspaper dresses.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

But for all of that talk, there comes a point where you need to decide what action to take, if any.

Newsrooms today are bombarded with lists of best practice, how-to’s and draconian Do This Or You Will Perish blogs and articles.

Do you go with the herd, or do you hold your own and keep moving forward the best way you know how?

I’d really like to hear from some of our readers who are “on the ground” as a part of, or observing, their newsroom’s transformation and/or adoption of social media and online communities.

Not everyone is going to have an easy time of it, but there is certainly opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences.

If you have something to share,  please chime in with a comment below about the horror stories, or the tales of greatness at the news organization you work at.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“I actually think what’s happening to print media is kind of what happened to the theater 100 to 120 years ago,” said Savage in mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? interview. “There were lots of jobs in the theater. That all came apart. Radio and television, a new technology, came along and just decimated — destroyed really — the profession.”

Suddenly, says Savage, hopeful actors had to be willing to work for free for years — much like the position writers today find themselves in. “When I look around and listen to people in the journalism field complain about what newspaper and print jobs are like now, for me, it echoes the history of theater classes I took in the ’80s when they were talking about the coming of radio and television and what that did to live performance.”

Wanna know how you can get syndicated like Savage? Read the full interview.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As the most open section of the Voice, the music section is vibing for offbeat culture stories with a humorous yet hard-hitting tone. Music editor Maura Johnston wants to know what is happening around New York: an artist with an interesting backstory and NYC ties who’s releasing an album, a micro-scene coalescing, and so on.

For more on word count and editor contact info, check out How To Pitch: Village Voice.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.”

The actual phrasing, history and correct attribution of this quote, commonly called “Greener’s Law,” are hard to determine. (That page actually has a lot of good info on the history and variations, if you’re into that.)

The idea is generally, it’s a bad idea to argue with someone that wields so much power and influence as a daily newspaper (or at least, as much as the newspaper once did in many communities). Today, however, there are so many different forms of media outlets that the newspaper itself doesn’t hold so much power.

So, while figuring out who first said it and how might not be something we can do in hindsight, I thought — inspired by a blog post on the topic by Peter Lewis — it would be fun to look forward instead and figure out what the new media equivalent would be. I’m sure the 10,000 Words readership has a few fun ideas for the next incarnation of this phrase.

How would you adapt this idea to the modern media?

Here are a few fun suggestions from Lewis, myself and others:

• Never pick a fight with someone who buys their bandwidth by the gigabyte. (From Darrell Patrick)
• Never pick a fight with someone who gets more than a million uniques a month (From Lewis)
• Never pick a fight with someone who has a black belt in SEO techniques (Lewis)
• Never pick a fight with someone who has more than 500,000 Twitter followers (Lewis)
• Never pick a fight with someone who has a camera and a Twitter following
• Never pick a fight with someone who collectively goes by Anonymous
• Never pick a fight with someone who knows how to use the Internet better than you
• Never pick a fight with someone who isn’t above hacking into your voicemail for a scoop
• Never pick a fight with someone who has compromising photos, video or audio you
• Never pick a fight with someone who has access to Google to prove you wrong immediately

Send in your suggestions and I can append them to this list.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Forbes is reporting Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain, which controls more than 80 newspapers around the country from small community papers to USA Today, apparently has plans to switch over its community papers to a tiered pay model this year. (One notable exception: USA Today.) The switch to a tiered paywall — where the first few stories per month are free — comes amid a renewed emphasis on digital-first news gathering, which has included handing out thousands of iPhones and iPads to news staffers at various properties.

From Forbes:

Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, is planning to switch over all of its 80 community newspapers to a paid model by the end of the year, it announced during an investor day held in Manhattan Wednesday.

“We will begin to restrict some access to non-subscribers,” said Bob Dickey, president of community publishing. The model is similar to the metered system adopted by The New York Times a year ago, in which online readers are able to view a limited number of pages for free each month. That quota will be between five and 15 articles, depending on the paper, said Dickey. Six Gannett papers already have a digital pay regimen in place.

This news is hardly unexpected. Not only are other major newspapers and outlets heading in this direction, but Gannett itself has been toying with this model at some of its properties for some time and started actively testing this tiered model this month.

Jim Romenesko posted the paywall FAQ customers of those test sites received in January. According to that, subscribers continue to have unfettered access to all content on all platforms.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.