Christy Karras, a veteran freelancer who has written for Time, Forbes Asia, and The New York Times told Mediabistro that she tends to choose stories she believes show off her writing and editing skills.

“That could be a deeply analytic magazine feature on the finances of a major city-state that shows my ability to digest complex information and write about it in an engaging way, it could be a news story on a crackdown in the Gulf that shows an editor how well sourced I am in an environment that might not be very friendly to journalists, or it could be a feature profile that I think displays some narrative chops,” she said. “It just depends on the message I’d like to get to the individual editor.”

For more, read 6 Tips for Submitting Freelance Writing Clips [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You should see the film — even if you think you’ve already heard all you need to know about Wikileaks, even if you’ve already made up your mind. It not only covers the creation of Wikileaks, the fall of Julian Assange as a hacker-god, but includes new interviews with Michael Hayden, former CIA director, and the woman who accused Assange of rape, among many other inside players. However, the most compelling part of the documentary is that it finally puts Bradley Manning in center stage and presents new questions about digital security, sources, and how we protect them.

I used to champion WikiLeaks, and I cringe to admit it, its founder. In a far off graduate school classroom, I even considered the idea that it was a sort of ‘journalistic’ enterprise. But now that Manning has been serving time as an enemy of the state and his trial approaches, I’m finding it hard to focus on anything but him, and the responsibilities publishers assume online, with information and with their sources. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

That’s why it’s no surprise that they made a Photoshop composite on their cover this week. You should just assume that they all are. It’s the News Corp way.

But doesn’t it sort of make you feel good about what you do?

Show and Tell

Unless you’re job is to be funny, like the Post or Gawker, making composites for your homepage photo is not a practice you should partake in. The only thing you should be doing with photo editing software is adjusting levels or image sizes. Even the most innocent offenses, like getting rid of a fly away hair or removing something distracting from the background, can lead you down a dark and uneasy road. If the picture needs work, you need to go out and retake it. Or find another one to use.

The same rule applies when it comes to video. The FOX CT debacle of too much cleavage  in a Women’s History Month segment could easily happen online, too. We’re all busy, but take the time to edit and review content. What’s ‘funny’ to bored overnight editors amongst themselves will hardly be as well received in the real world. Just because we live in an onslaught of media doesn’t mean things can slip through the cracks.

Clicks and Engagement

Some have said that the new layout for the New York Times isn’t any good. Too much focus on making it readable, when other newspapers like The Daily Mail have been surviving with their completely unreadable homepage.

That’s because the Mail is a tabloid. Their strategy is to get clicks, and the more you have to click to get to the photos of someone doing something bad, the more “money” they make. Clicks and SEO are important. It’s all ingrained in our consciousness when we publish, but it should be left out of the planning and writing phase. The new layout for the Times is simply good strategy. As mobile and news pubs evolve, a focus on being readable should be at the heart of any good strategy, because that’s the business of news. Don’t get caught up in the hype. If the content is good, and accessible, they will come. You don’t need bad puns to get them. A good pun? That’s an entirely different story.

Have you spotted any other good fails on the web this week?

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A group of 100 journalists, academics, software developers, business leaders, designers, non-profits and government representatives are gathered at a hotel in Tennessee this morning to talk about weaving stories and data in the first-ever Tapestry Conference.

NASHVILLE — ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ is a children’s book by Brian Selznick that combines black and white charcoal photos and text to tell a story. And he doesn’t use your normal set of accompanying images like you’d see in most children’s books. Selznick’s images tell much of the story without words. The experience of reading it is integrated and undisrupted.

Hannah Fairfield, who does graphics at The Times, said this was part of the inspiration in creating Snow Fall, a narrative multimedia project that recently won two gold medals in the Society of News Design’s digital competition.

Many of the graphics in Snow Fall animate as a user scrolls down the page, meaning they only change the pace the reader chooses. The graphics don’t get in the way, they don’t distract, they’re not only supplemental to the story — they’re part of the story. They tell the story in a way that text alone couldn’t tell the story.  They’re “immersers” rather than interrupters.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Of those adults surveyed, 85 percent were categorized as “news consumers” who access news multiple times per week.

According to a Poynter article on the survey, 53 percent of “digital news consumers” noted that they turn to Web-native sources, such as The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, or Drudge Report. Compare this to 43 percent of news consumers who said that they access “established news” organizations, such as The New York Times or CNN, to get their news.

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WaPo’s digital revenue declined in Q1

According to PaidContent, The Washington Post newspaper division — which includes WaPo and Slate — lost $22.6 million for the first quarter. In the same quarter last year, they lost $12.8 million. Of that loss for 2012, here’s the breakdown for digital loss:

• Digital revenue slipped 7 percent
• online display ad revenue dropped 11 percent year over year
• Online classified ad revenue was down 1 percent continued…

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As an official judge for the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, Joel Schwartzberg has seen his share of cringe-worthy essays. And, in his latest piece for mediabistro.com AvantGuild members, he says there were a few glaring errors that kept them from being potentially powerful stories.

“The biggest mistake essay writers make is finishing a piece at three in the morning, deciding it’s brilliant and, without getting any feedback, sending it to The New Yorker,” said Susan Shapiro, a writing professor published in The New York Times‘ “Lives” and “Modern Love” columns. ” After you write your piece, get a serious critique in a class, a writing workshop or by a tough ghost editor. Listen carefully to the criticism; then rewrite.”

Get more tips from Shapiro and other writing pros in The 7 Biggest Mistakes Personal Essay Writers Make.

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MATTER is the brain child of Jim Giles and Bobbie Johnson, two experienced reporters with a passion for making journalism better. Giles and Johnson have lined up a team of writers and editors to help push this vision forward, and according to the Kickstarter project page, MATTER will be for readers, not advertisers.

The “return to long-form journalism” is a phrase that has been bandied about for a few years now, and several websites currently exist around this premise (Longreads, The Atavist, Byliner, Longform, etc.) MATTER won’t be a curation service; rather, it will include original investigative reporting from their team of writers, some of which have contributed to publications such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic, Nature and Wired.

“The thing about long-form, in-depth journalism is that it’s expensive. There used to be many more newspapers and magazines that produced that sort of content, but journalism is in financial trouble and those outlets have cut back,” said Giles.

The Kickstarter campaign will help raise funds for MATTER to produce their first three pieces. By pledging at the $25 level, you can join their editorial board (powered by All Our Ideas) and lend your voice to the kind of reporting MATTER covers.

As of this article, the project is over 60% funded, but you can pledge until the campaign ends on March 24, 2012. For more information about MATTER, you can visit their website at readmatter.com. You can also follow the progress of MATTER on Facebook and Twitter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Throughout the year, there are several conferences in the fields of journalism and media for everyone from up-and-coming journalists to seasoned professionals. Just a few weeks ago, we covered a few panels on journalism at this year’s SXSW conference. Here are just a few conferences taking place through the year that will help you network, expand your skill set, and learn new topics from some of the thought leaders in the journalism industry. Feel free to let us know about other journalism and media conferences in the comments.

SABEW 2012 Spring Conference

Date: March 15-17, 2012

Location: Indianapolis, IN

» Register Online

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) will hold their 49th annual conference in Indianapolis, IN at the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex at Indiana University. This year’s conference keynote speakers are Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana. The conference will include speakers from several media outlets like ESPN, Reuters, and The New York Times. The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will also co-present a seminar with Investigative Reporters and Editors titled “Be a Better Business Watchdog — CAR for Business Journalists”. Early-bird registration ends on February 20, 2011, and registration prices will rise after that date.

ACES 2012

Date: April 12-14, 2012

Location: New Orleans, LA

» Register Online

The 16th National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) will take place down in the Big Easy at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. This year’s keynote speaker is Roy Peter Clarke, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute. There are 40 information-packed sessions at this year’s conference, including “Writing for SEO, Writing for Social Media” and “Editing Maps and Graphics”. You can register up until the day of the event, but prices will rise on April 1, 2011. You can register for any of the days of the conference or for the entire three-day event.

2012 NABJ Convention and Career Fair

Date: June 20-24, 2012

Location: New Orleans, LA

» Register Online

The 36th annual National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention and Career Fair will be in New Orleans at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, and includes a film festival, an author’s showcase and bookstore, and a host of other special events. The theme for this year’s convention is #NABJ12 — New Platforms. New Directions. New Orleans, and session topics will fall under three tracks: Perfecting Your Craft (mastery of reporting, writing, editing, and other journalism cornerstones), Tech & Tools (highlighting new and emerging technology), and Innovation Station (emphasizing innovation and entrepreneurship in the dissemination of enws and information). Pre-registration prices are available until May 15, 2012.

UNITY 2012 Convention (UNITY ’12)

Date: August 1-4, 2012

Location: Las Vegas, NV

» Register Online

The 5th Annual UNITY 2012 Convention is a coalition of four alliances: the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the Native American Journalists Assocation (NAJA), and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assocation (NLGJA). The conference will include a media showcase, a career expo, as well as several 90-minute workshops. The early-bird registration deadline is March 16, 2012, and registration prices will rise after that date.

Excellence in Journalism 2012

Date: September 20-22, 2012

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

» Register Online

The Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association are partnering again for this year’s Excellence in Journalism Conference at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. Registration is not open yet, but pricing and package registration details are available. Make sure to check out the Excellence in Journalism Conference Facebook page for the latest information about the conference.

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When looking for inspiration for your own reader-submissions projects, The New York Times’ collection of storytelling tools is a good place to start because they do it so well. The following examples are ways that The Times have creatively gathered and displayed information submitted by people on the Internet to tell a story. The common thread amongst all of the examples below are that they limit readers to a very specific and thought-provoking theme. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

One thing that I’ve been diligent in talking about here at 10,000 Words is creating a mobile presence. By 2014, mobile Internet is poised to take over desktop Internet usage, so the time to start strategizing is now. But with the dizzying array develop other Internet-connected devices, what’s the best way to begin this process? As I’ve stated before, the work of creating a mobile presence is less about aggregating current content and more about developing an information workflow. Luckily, the Poynter Institute has you covered with their latest workshop: Developing a Smarter Mobile Strategy.

The workshop will take place from March 28, 2012 – March 30, 2012. Here is some information about the workshop from Poynter:

Even if you’ve got some mobile products under your belt, we’ll help you learn to develop mobile news content and revenue strategies. You’ll gain insight into improving the working relationship with vendors and better ways to use your mobile metrics. We’ll help you sort through the issues in creating smart phone and tablet apps vs. using the mobile Web.

Knowledge about revenue strategies around mobile content is extremely important. According to Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory firm, worldwide mobile advertising revenue was forecasted to reach $3.3 billion in 2011 and $20.6 billion by 2015. “Mobile advertising is now recognized as an opportunity for brands, advertisers and publishers to engage consumers in a targeted and contextual manner, improving returns,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. With HTML5 video on the rise, this will present a new avenue for organizations to approach advertising on mobile devices.

You’ll also learn these topics from Poynter during the workshop:

• A process for developing and improving your mobile strategy
• The latest information on mobile audiences
• How to manage mobile product development
• How to make the most of your mobile efforts in spite of fast-changing technology
• The basics of mobile usability
• Best practices in vendor relationships

Sessions will be led by Poynter faculty members Regina McCombs, Sara Quinn, and Kelly McBride, and will include research sessions with Robert McCann, Jr., of the Nielsen Company, David Butler of The New York Times Regional Group, and Janel Jacobs of the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun Sentinel.

For more information about this exciting and informative workshop, visit the workshop page. All applications for the workshop are due by February 24, 2012.

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In the demo, you can select different users from a dropdown to see their various contributions and deletions in the document. You can toggle between showing/hiding changes.

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Here are just a few of the confirmed panels which should be of interest to journalists. This is a random sample of the entire schedule; you can search the full list of panels on the 2012 SXSW Schedule page.

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Do you like the NYT? Do you like social media? We may have just the newsroom internship for you. Details: bit.ly/A5zYc5

— Lexi Mainland (@lexinyt) January 9, 2012

The Grey Lady is offering an internship on its social media desk for the spring semester. If you’re interested, you better move fast. The deadline has been extended to Jan. 20, said Liz Heron, the news org’s social media editor.
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The Times added another dimension to Harmon’s already captivating account with multimedia “quick links.” These links not only showed Canha’s quirks through video and his talent for drawing, but provided an important facet to understanding his character and experience. It is the perfect example of how multimedia can be used to complement a more traditional piece, the powers of print, photo and video woven into one experience. I spoke to Harmon about the piece, which drew attention from journalists and Silicon Valley types alike. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.