Archives: June 2007

The wait is almost over. After 6 months, the much talked about iPhone will be arriving in Apple stores on June 29th. Aside from the fact that it’s a device used to make phone calls, it has features such as photos, music collection, address book, radio, podcasts, and videos all rolled into one beautifully crafted 1/2 inch thick multi-touch phone. With so much anticipation from many tech enthusiasts and consumers alike, it’s not a surprise that AT&T has hired 2,000 temporary workers on opening day. Apple always seems to create a big buzz on the next innovative product regardless of it being praise or negative feedback. It’s also a reason why competitors are constantly being pushed to come up with a better device, as well as ways to market it. As we find even greater ways to merge technology with everyday functions, the rise in recruitment in the telecom industry has and will rise drastically. That’s why big time tech leaders such as Verizon and AT&T post marketing/advertising jobs through mediabistro.com because where else would you find the most qualified media candidates? So until we hear about the next life altering technology at a store near you, advertising positions for it won’t be too far behind.
photo: www.connexion.be/blog/user/files/iphone_home.gif

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.

If you’ve ever been to a mediabistro.com party, you know the drill — throw a bunch of writers, editors, and assorted media types in one room, add drinks and conversation, and watch what happens. Since we host more than 200 cocktail parties a year, we know how to successfully work a mediabistro.com party. Whether you’ve never attended an event before or are a regular, here are a few tips to make the night more enjoyable.
DO:

Stray from the group. We all like to go to parties with our friends, but you’re never going to meet anyone new if you stay in a clique all night. Break out from the group and say hello to a few new people.

Introduce yourself to someone standing alone. It’s normal to feel nervous approaching people you don’t know, but it’s guaranteed that there will be others in the same boat. Strike up a conversation with someone looking for a conversation partner, or make eye contact with a group of people, and jump in!

Volunteer! If you’re a little shy and need a reason to go up to people and chat, volunteer! We’re always looking for people to help us check guests in and take photos. Email us for more info.
DON’T:

Hand out your resumé Aggressive networking is not looked upon kindly, and handing out resumes or openly asking about job opportunities reeks of desperation.

Attend random parties. Sometimes we host parties geared towards people working in specific parts of the media industry. If you’re an assistant editor at a magazine, stick to our parties for edit staffers. We host “All-Media” parties in every city, where all are always welcome.

Hang out at the bar all night. Sure, we all want a drink. But perching yourself at a bar stool all night is not going to facilitate conversation or mingling. Instead, grab your drink and start making your way around the room! Your hangover will thank you in the morning.
Rachel Edelman, Events Manager
RELATED:

View all upcoming mediabistro.com events

Sure we work hard. We produce good results for our bosses. But sometimes that’s not enough, which is why it’s increasingly important to rely on your rolodex and your events calendar to make it ahead.
According to a recent New York Times article, almost half of job connections are made through personal networking, and the earlier the process begins, the more effective this can be.
So how can you put yourself out there? Think of it like dating — you won’t get any digits if you stay at home. Similarly, you can’t further your career just by sitting at your desk for 8 hours a day. Avail yourself to career building events, seminars, panels, alumni gatherings, even volunteer organizations. When you are out schmoozing, drop names, look nice and be very friendly. Expand your network through sites such as linkedin and eharmony (hey, as long as you’re looking for a job…).
mediabistro.com is a goldmine for news, gossip, and resources for jobs, classes, events, and yes, even dating.

And we knew him when he was just assistant managing editor for continuous news. Rajiv Chandrasekaran has been named national editor of the Washington Post. He started as a summer intern 11 years ago and rose to heights like winning the Samuel Johnson Prize for his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City and appearing on a mediabistro.com panel on war reporting in Iraq.
RELATED:

War Reporting in Iraq: American journalists open up about the challenges of covering war in the Middle East — Mediabistro On Demand video

Because we editors are experts at co-opting identifying others’ killer ideas, I’m adding to Noah’s great micro-series, and bringing you another How to Pitch-esque treatment of online outlet PR.com. To learn why this site’s a great spot to place longer features and score repeat assignments, read on…

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If you think of mediabistro.com as a bad-ass, 80′s dojo (and who doesn’t?), you know full-well that fear does not exist (in this dojo). That means we’re not afraid to admit when some technical stuff on our site induces acts of head-scratching, or dare we say, hair-pulling. While our programmers (seen above) work hard to sweep the legs from under our bugs and other little site quirks, I thought I’d share one in particular that seems to annoy our senseis members.
A big annoyance members let us know about is the cryptic error messages they get when entering data in their personal home pages or freelance marketplace profiles. Logic and website law should dictate that the error should specify exactly what you entered wrong. But the legends that built mediabistro.com millions of years ago felt that it would benefit our member’s mental skills if they just got a message that read “errors occurred,” and leave it up to their Kojak-ian instincts to figure it out. That type of error would annoy even the most mild-mannered folk. And let’s face it— you’re on mediabistro.com for the killer editorial content— not to decipher messages that should be reserved for episodes of Lost. Still, there’s an insider tip I’ll share when you get that vague boo-boo error. Nine times out of ten, the problem usually lies with how you enter your dates on your Personal Home Page or Freelance Marketplace profile. When you assign dates to your work samples, make sure that you use the proper date formatting, as shown by the example next to the date field (mm/dd/yyyy). Another tip: you don’t even need to use dates for your clips. Or you can use dates for some and not others. Just make sure that when you do use them, they are formatted properly.
And of course, Cobra Kai never die!

Even the savviest media industry vet has a question every now and then. Here at mb HQ, we have most of the answers, but not all of them. Luckily, for those queries that fall through the cracks, there’s always the mb Bulletin Boards. Today we head over and catch up on the hot topics.
MCM asks: I want to begin offering web copy services to companies throughout the United States. Just basic copy what companies need on their site, like an introduction, about us, services, clients, portfolio, etc.
MDiskin offers some help: Usually I offer a per-job rate, but list how many hours I expect the job to take, how many revisions are allowed, etc. Crucial: I add a statement saying that if the job exceeds these hours, then additional hours will be billed at X rate. This ensures that I won’t be caught up in endless revisions without being paid for them.

National Rate For Web Copy?

It’s no secret that our newsletters are quite popular with the bistro braintrust— there’s nothing like that IGF (instant gratification fix) when you open up your inbox every morning and see of the Daily Media News Newsfeed, or Revolving Door, or one of our fabulous blogs. They’re such a big part of your day, not getting them is like being deprived of air, water, or another one of life’s necessities.
At least a couple times a day I will get a freak out email from someone who hasn’t gotten the newsletter they subscribe to. This can happen for a couple reasons. For one, maybe you’re not wearing your glasses, and the newsletter is right in front of you. Another reason may be that it found its way into your junk mail folder. Even if it hadn’t gone in there previously, always check the junk folder. Especially if you’re receiving your newsletter at work where all of your mail is likely checked at a higher level (server, not Jesus) before it makes it way to your inbox. The easiest way to make sure our emails don’t go to your spam folder is to add mailer AT mediabistro.com to your safe senders list. Where is that you’re asking? Every mail client has a different method for adding addresses to your whitelist. Luckily, we have instructions for some popular mail clients on our FAQ page.
When you’ve exhausted all these possibilities, and maybe a few others, there’s another trick you can perform that almost always does the job. If you log into your account, go to Login and Email Lists. From there, go to the email lists that you subscribe to. For each one that’s checked off, uncheck it, and then click the submit button. This will temporarily remove you from getting those newsletters. But settle down, chief— just simply re-subscribe by checking the ones you want and click submit again.
And just like that, you’re popular back on the list again.

Out of the 30 days in a month, you’re spending more than half of your time at work. That’s some serious interaction with your co-workers. The majority of us also report to a boss or supervisor who oversees all your responsibilities and job functions. You were recruited because of confidence that the best candidate was chosen to get the work done in a timely and efficient manner. So what happens when you aren’t up to par with company standards? Anita Bruzzese says that the moment your boss hires you, he/she has a huge investment in you. It’s estimated to cost an employer about 50-200% of the person’s annual salary in terms of lost experiences and abilities if an employee is replaced.

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The box has a long and distinguished history. Whether it’s the infamous mystery box that always bludgeons our better judgment, or the memorable childhood trips to the old box factory, or the more recent uses, we just can’t seem to stop coming up with functions for this miraculous receptacle.
The most notorious of boxes is of course the suggestion variety. And that brings us to the introduction of the new mediabistro.com suggestion box on our bulletin board. Now you may be asking yourself…
A suggestion box? Seriously?
Yes, really! We realize that when it comes to suggestion boxes, there’s a fine line between useful tool and empty gesture. But this is how we see it— the forums are brimming with all sorts of great discussions regarding all the content on our site— what we’re doing right, doing wrong, or not doing at all. We want to centralize those discussions so that both MB members and employees can converse with each other about mediabistro.com and help guide its future. Our hope is that it will become one of the preferred methods in which ideas are exchanged and decisions are made. As the suggestion box grows, it will take on another role— as a knowledge base and a record of our progress.
So folks, it’s up to you— start inputting those ideas, and we’ll be watching.
Click here to enter the box.