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Entering the brave new world of being a reporter dedicated to the Internet
My paper has recently taken some assertive and bold steps into the realm of Web reporting.
One of those steps involved hiring an editorial staffer to be the Web Editor. She deals with all things Web (except for coding and designing the Web page, I think) and handles all the editorial content.
Another step involved hiring a reporter dedicated solely to online journalism. This person (it's me, if you're curious) writes solely for the Web site, takes online photo galleries and will be doing a whole lot of yet-to-be determined tasks involving online journalism. It's an exciting change and one that I am looking forward to tackling.
I think a paper our size (25,000 daily circulation) having a dedicated Web reporter is a pretty unusual thing. I actually think it's unusual for any paper to have a dedicated Web reporter period. But that is just my own perception of how print media has been handling online issues, I have no basis for that thought.
So I'm curious, are there other newspapers out there that have dedicated Web reporters? And if so, which papers are they and what are the job duties of those Web reporters?
One of those steps involved hiring an editorial staffer to be the Web Editor. She deals with all things Web (except for coding and designing the Web page, I think) and handles all the editorial content.
Another step involved hiring a reporter dedicated solely to online journalism. This person (it's me, if you're curious) writes solely for the Web site, takes online photo galleries and will be doing a whole lot of yet-to-be determined tasks involving online journalism. It's an exciting change and one that I am looking forward to tackling.
I think a paper our size (25,000 daily circulation) having a dedicated Web reporter is a pretty unusual thing. I actually think it's unusual for any paper to have a dedicated Web reporter period. But that is just my own perception of how print media has been handling online issues, I have no basis for that thought.
So I'm curious, are there other newspapers out there that have dedicated Web reporters? And if so, which papers are they and what are the job duties of those Web reporters?
4 Comments
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Comment by Jonathan Este on May 18, 2008 at 7:25pm - Good on you Travis - you'll find plenty to write about and yours is an occupation with a healthy future. I'm an old print journo who is climbing the learning curve of web journalism and finding out new and fascinating ways every day of getting one's stories in front of people - which is the point, I think. best of luck.
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Comment by Dave Brooks on May 19, 2008 at 6:20am -
Our paper (Nashua, NH, Telegraph) is 20,000 daily - it used to be 25, but you know how things are these days - and has not gone the Web-reporter route, partly out of fear of ghettoizing the online work. All of us do some Web stuff. But we do have an online editor who jobs involves developing the site (e.g., figuring out how to display comments; integrating a new video player; finding cheap digital cameras for us) and teaching reporters how to work for it.
We do have a morning Web reporter who starts at 6 a.m. and whose job is to post words/pictures to the breaking-news blog until he can hand off stories the rest of the staff in mid-morning and switch over to being general assignment.
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Comment by brian williams on May 19, 2008 at 11:40am -
I'm hesitant to say, but The Sun in Yuma, Ariz., now has a dedicated web reporter. We've had one for about two months. We also have a web editor and a video/special projects person. All three of us do video and work on special projects.
I say hesitant because all of our reporters write for the web. Hate to create that divide between print and web. All of our stories go online before they go into print.
We are trying to have the web reporter develop online exclusives that usually run later in the paper. Still working the bugs out.
Reporter has been concentrating mostly on video. Trying to get reporter to expand tool box so to speak, look for ways to incorporate blog, video and story w/photos and be more mobile. It's a work in progress.
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Comment by Paul Balcerak on May 19, 2008 at 4:39pm -
Travis, that's awesome. I think I might be headed in a somewhat similar direction and I'm really excited about it. I like the Web stuff and feel like, for now, it's the best route in terms of preserving the business.
Good luck with the new gig. I'll keep my eyes open for your stuff.
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