Wish you never left college? Now you don’t have to. William & Mary is looking for a director of alumni communications to manage and execute all publications and publicity for the alumni association.

To land this gig, you’ll need to be able to produce comprehensive communications strategies that incorporate print, Web, video and collateral media. You should be well-versed in all aspects of public communications, including planning, editing and publishing a print magazine. Those with media relations, event promotion and social media know-how will truly excel here. Read more

Today for whatever reason these listings are skewed toward broadcast journalists and PR professionals. A sign of things to come? Probably not, but if this is your field, enjoy it while you can!

noise is hiring an online media manager. (New York, NY)
Airfoil public relations is hiring an account executive. (Southfield, MI)
Medill News Service is looking for a media research fellow. (Washington, DC)
JPL is hiring a brand strategist. (Harrisburg, PA)
WSJ.com wants a reporter. (New York, NY)
Digitas is hiring a digital associate producer. (New York, NY)
CPA2Biz Inc wants an interactive web producer. (New York, NY)
KGO/ABC 7 has an open position: a producer. (San Francisco, CA)
C-SPAN has an open position: an assignment desk director. (Washington, DC)
Anthem Press is hiring an assistant production editor. (London, UK)
Kumon is seeking a PR associate. (Teaneck, NJ)

Every day we scour major job boards, including, but not limited to Mediabistro.com’s listings, to find the best media jobs out there. We screen out duplicates and scams so you know you’re only receiving the top choices.

As of the time of this posting, there were 1468 jobs on our board.

Hearst is buying 102 magazines from Lagardère for €651 million, the French publisher announced in a release. Lagardere will keep the ELLE trademark but Hearst can use ELLE in fifteen countries: The United States, Russia & Ukraine, Italy, Spain, UK, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada and Germany.

Among the 102 titles Hearst gets are Car and Driver, Road & Track, Cycle World and Woman’s Day, and of course Elle.

The deal will close by the third quarter of 2011, the company said.

Larry Platt was named editor of the Philadelphia Daily News on Jan. 12. Today, he sent a memo to staff that’s a lot bigger than the usual “Hi, looking forward to meeting you all” stuff that’s often sent around when there’s a regime change.

It begins:

First, let me take this opportunity to thank Michael Days for his graciousness during this transition, and for his many years of leadership at the Daily News. I also want to thank all of those who sent me ideas, comments and concerns these past couple of weeks, as a precursor to our one-on-one meetings, which we’ll start this week. (If you haven’t introduced yourself in an email and told me what you think should change around here and what by no means should change, please do.) I have to say, I was blown away by your passion for this place, and impressed by how many great ideas came flying at me.

And then Platt launches into a list of things that are about to change at the paper. To wit: “I hereby free you from the tyranny of the Inverted Pyramid.” And “you should also not be afraid to have a point of view about what you report.” And “I want any Inquirer reader who picks up the Daily News to viscerally feel that he or she has had a totally different experience.” And “I’m not a big rules guy, but there’s one phrase we need to ban: ‘But we’ve never done that before.’”

The memo also announces that Buzz Bissinger will serve as consultant and “occasional columnist” in the paper, while former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell will contribute a sports column. (Reading Platt’s memo on why, exactly, the ex-governor of Pennsylvania is qualified to write a sports column is, in fact, hilarious and includes the phrase “hoagie innards.”)

The memo then ends:

It’s now time for a new generation of storytellers to leave its mark on this town. So I want this missive to spur internal conversation; our hallways should teem with talk of who we are and who we want to be, and my door will always be open for anything, including kicking this kind of stuff around. So stop by. Tell me what you think. Hit me with ideas. Think big. And let’s go out and change this fascinating, quirky, and maddening city.

So what’s your take? Reforming a paper is never easy and we suspect that Platt will be trashed by some for his somewhat starry-eyed prose, but is this a paper you’d want to work for?

What happens when newspapers duplicate (or “borrow”) freelancers’ stories? The Chicago Reader asked that last week when the paper found a freelancer who had written a story on a big city issue: that convicted city employees were still getting paid salaries. Yet despite this pretty big scoop, freelancer Michael Volpe couldn’t get any story to bite.

Last fall Volpe e-mailed his story to the Reader mailbox, which is a little like slipping it under the door. He didn’t get a reply. An editor at the Southtown Star said Volpe’s story happened outside his paper’s coverage area—but what about the Sun-Times? The Sun-Times said it didn’t buy stories from freelancers. Steve Rhodes at the Beachwood Reporter website told Volpe his story had holes that needed to be filled. Volpe argued the point, and Rhodes told him, “Your story does not meet our standards. Goodbye.”

Then the Sun-Times wrote its own story on the same issue.

On January 10, two top investigative reporters at the Sun-Times, Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, published what in Volpe’s eyes was his story. Theirs began, “Chicago, the city that works, is also the city that keeps on paying city employees long after they’re convicted of corruption.”

Volpe fired off an e-mail to Fusco and Novak. “I liked the story,” he said, “but I liked it even more when I wrote it myself.”

“We never saw your story,” Novak wrote back.

“Nobody alerted us to your story in the course of our reporting,” Fusco replied.

“Maybe,” Volpe responded, “but it does appear to be the exact same and I beat you to it by a few months.”

“Kudos to you,” answered Novak.

The Reader acknowledged that the Sun-Times story was a little “clearer, calmer, more focused and more comprehensive” but did point out that, well, the meat of the piece was the same.

Volpe said that the experience taught him that “The media is really no different than any other business. It’s not what you know but who you know. Simply having an important story isn’t enough. You have to know the right people and more importantly, the right people need to know you.”

And that might have been that…if Beachwood Reporter editor Steve Rhodes had not stepped in to clarify his remarks in the piece’s comment section. And that’s where it gets interesting…
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In the book ‘The 9-to-5 Cure,’ author and career coach Dr. Kristin Cardinale argues that “traditional, full-time jobs aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be.”

So what’s the solution? Freelancing, except apparently Cardinale calls it “patchworking.” In her words, the Patchwork Principle is “a freelance career strategy based on the simple idea that working for a number of employers simultaneously presents unique business opportunities and insulates an individual from sudden and total job loss. In short, enjoyable work in abundance is the signature of this business model.”

Which is to say…we think…that anyone who just got laid off can say they’re “freelancing” when in actuality they’re spending equal time hanging out at the local coffee shop playing Farmville, “working on a novel,” and calling their employed friends begging for work. So to get away from the negative stigma of the word “freelance” there’s a whole new term for “enjoyable work in abundance.” That’s our pet theory anyway.

Trouble is that to us, patchworking connotes pieceworking, which is not necessarily the image successful freelancers want to cultivate either. Anyone have a suggestion for a completely different word or a way to take back “freelance” from the people who aren’t worthy of the title?

At the original link (from Cardinale’s publisher JIST) you can self-assess to see whether you’d be a good freelancer—er, patchworker.

The New York Times is plugging the holes in its paywall…WSJ reporter Paul Glader is leaving to go to Europe for a fellowship…the Minnesota News Council shuts down, and more…

• Report: The New York Times Patching Holes in Paywall (via WebNewser)

• WSJ reporter Glader leaves paper (via Talking Biz News)

• Minnesota News Council closes after 41 years (via Romenesko)

• short answer Saturday: another job search edition (via Ask a Manager)

• Katherine Nintzel Promoted to Senior Editor at HarperCollins (via GalleyCat)

• The goal of business (via A Photo Editor)

• Rabbi who caused Helen Thomas’ downfall tapped as editor (via Romenesko)

Are you an editor who just had to have the iPad on the day it came out? Has the device been attached to your hip ever since? Here’s a chance to pair that enthusiasm with your editorial talent to land you a new gig at the New York Post.

The newspaper is looking to hire an iPad news editor to help design and edit content for its iPad app. You’ll work on the layout and creation of pages, informational graphics and photo galleries, while collaborating with graphic artists and editors in news, sports and photo.

To be considered, you’ll need at least three years of experience at a daily newspaper, and at least one year as an editor. You must be proficient in InDesign and Photoshop, and know your way around CMS. A passion for news, technology and New York City is highly preferred. Interested? Apply here.

For more openings and employment news, follow The Job Post on Twitter @MBJobPost.

ABC7 seeks a AM news producer. (Glendale, CA)
Marquis Whos Who is looking for a product manager of marketing services. (New Providence, NJ)
TCS & Starquest Expeditions is seeking a writer. (Seattle, WA)
Stonyfield seeks a consumer communications specialist. (Londonderry, NH)
MSNBC.com wants a marketing manager. (New York, NY)
K Strategies wants a PR/marketing manager. (Dallas, TX)
The Sportsman Channel wants a TV production assistant. (New York, NY)
TheBlaze.com is looking for a social media strategist. (New York, NY)
First for Women is hiring a junior designer. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ)
The Marguerite Casey Foundation seeks a reporter. (Seattle, WA)
Hearst Digital Media is seeking a project manager. (New York, NY)

Every day we scour major job boards, including, but not limited to Mediabistro.com’s listings, to find the best media jobs out there. We screen out duplicates and scams so you know you’re only receiving the top choices.

As of the time of this posting, there were 1472 jobs on our board.

Nadine Cheung of mediabistro.com’s The Job Post explains in the following five-minute video everything you need to do to prepare for a job interview.

There will be more of this type of video coming in the future so keep an eye on this space!