Interesting read: How skillsets of local, national journalists are diverging

This was an interesting read from Nieman Reports in the past week:

The Great Disconnect: How Journalists at Local and National Outlets Are Evolving Different Skill Sets

Definitely some things to think about here for journalism education.

Community Journalism Job in Iowa

The Mt. Pleasant News has a full-time job for full-service community journalism person.

http://www.journalismjobs.com/job_listing.cfm?jobid=1182638

Auburn Job Opening

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Journalism

Position Number: 116210

Position: The Department of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University invites applications for a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Journalism beginning Fall Semester, August 16, 2010.

Responsibilities:

The candidate’s primary teaching assignments will include print and broadcast news reporting and writing. The successful candidate also should be able to contribute to one or more of the following teaching areas: advanced reporting, editing, newspaper design, media law, audio-visual production, photojournalism and advanced feature writing. The ideal candidate will have the ability to teach the application of digital technology in reporting in print, broadcast and online media.

Tenure-track faculty members are expected to engage in scholarly research or appropriate creative work. In addition to teaching five courses per year, responsibilities include service to the department, college and the professional journalism community; advising students; teaching graduate-level courses and directing theses in the graduate program.

Qualifications: The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D., and at least three years of full-time professional newsroom experience as a journalist or a master’s degree and at least eight years of full-time professional newsroom experience as a journalist. Applicants should have successful college teaching experience and a solid record of scholarly productivity or substantive evidence of research potential. Salary is competitive, dependent on qualifications, and contingent on funding.

Application: Send letter of application, vita, official transcripts of graduate work (copies are not acceptable), statement of research and teaching interests, proof of teaching effectiveness and three letters of recommendation as well as the recommenders’ daytime telephone numbers to:

Dr. Jennifer Wood Adams, Chair

Journalism Search Committee

Department of Communication and Journalism

232 Tichenor Hall

Auburn University, AL 36849

334-844-2727

No e-mailed applications will be accepted.

Review of applications will begin March 19, 2010, and continue until a candidate is selected.

The candidate selected for this position must be able to meet eligibility requirements to work in the United States at the time the appointment is scheduled to begin and continue working legally for the proposed term of employment; excellent communication skills required.

Auburn University is a comprehensive research institution with an enrollment of nearly 25,000 students. The Department of Communication and Journalism has four undergraduate majors and a Master’s program.

Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

Auburn University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Filipino press organization focuses on CJ to recruit new journos

The Sun-Star Cebo newspaper in the Philippines reports on its Website of a conference focused on Community Journalism held recently in the province of Cebu, called "Reaching out to future journalists: community journalism forum."

According to the report, Sun-Star Cebo editor in chief Pachico Seares "observed that many Cebu journalists regard their work as not just a livelihood but also a means of 'serving the community they cover.'" The report also paraphrased Seares to say "Despite constraints and challenges, community journalists leave the national competition behind in covering their cities and towns."

Another editor at the conference, Stella Estremera of the Sun-Star Davao, reportedly stated that "Equating community journalism as 'the art of making friends and making do,' Estremera encouraged future journalists to regard ordinary citizens as their 'eyes and ears.' By listening to citizen journalists, newsrooms can be in touch with the authentic day-to-day problems, needs and aspirations of the so-called little people."

The newspapers are part of the Sun-Star Community Newspaper network, which publishes 12 newspapers across the Philippines.

Another metro veteran finds success in CJ

Earlier this year, I talked to a reporter for a New Jersey political Web site about where veteran metro journalists are going after they are laid off or take buyouts from big-city newspapers. Some go to work for politicians or large organizations to do PR, I noted, but one option a few are embracing is moving to small and/or rural communities to take over or start community media.

Poynter's Sara Quinn recently wrote about just such a person, Jim Denk, who was a news design specialist for a number of large newspapers (Wichita Eagle, Asbury Park Press, Detroit Free Press, and the Charlotte Observer) before he and his wife, Janet, bought the 11,000 circulation weekly Record in Matthews, N.C. Jim and Janet run the newspaper with a handful of part-time employees, and told Quinn that they enjoy the "doing it all" aspects of publishing a community weekly.

Quinn is a design specialist at Poynter, so naturally her profile of the Denks focused mostly on how they use high-end visual journalism to serve the community and to showcase the kind of news and information that is so common to community journalism – intensely local concerns. Denk has used visuals to tell compelling stories about poorly design sidewalks, wildlife that live in and around the community, even the passing of a pet rooster that was a fixture in a local hardware store. And, of course, the ads – Denk puts just as much effort into custom-designed ads for the businesses of his community.

Read the profile, and see some samples of excellent community-journalism design work, at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=47&aid=151124

Leveraging the job market

I spend a lot of time checking job sites such as Editor & Publisher online, mediabistro.com and journalismjobs.com, not because I'm looking for work, but because I'm looking for hard evidence as to why my J-school should focus its curriculum more on community journalism. Every time I hear a colleague bemoan the layoffs at large media companies, I can dig up scores of job openings at smaller-market media, especially at community newspapers.

A recent post by Mark Glaser on his Mediashift blog has made note of that very trend, suggesting that even the bigger media that have made recent layoffs are hiring in their online divisions. But not all of the jobs are in "new media" -- in Glaser's post, Dan Rohn of journalismjobs.com said, "“Right now we have 628 newspaper job openings in the U.S., from Alaska to Massachusetts to Florida to Indiana ... It’s in small towns, and I think that’s because they’re owned by families or small chains that are successful and not being hit as hard."

As sometimes the only voice for community journalism on our faculties, COMJIG members should take on the task of regularly keeping their colleagues aware of where the jobs are. Our students are scared enough as it is, and the predominant media message adopted by many of our colleagues is that "old media" are dying. I plan to send my faculty a regular summary of the job market to counter the bad news from the big media, and, over time, maybe I will be able to get more of them to talk favorably about careers in community journalism.