I saw that grants are being given to help journalists who are transitioning to new skills:
It is no secret that the world of print media is struggling with many journalists out of work and finding it difficult to transition with new technology, but grants are helping teach them some new media tools like search engine optimization (SEO).
Recently the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded $50,000 grants to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists to help pay for 76 members to attend the NAHJ Convention and Media & Career Expo in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
and figured that maybe we should put an Australian expo on, for journalists? Sort of Citizen Journalists Extend A Helping Hand? Do you think they would think that was cheeky… or helpful?
The members who attended the event were taught a number of new tools in multimedia journalism including blogging and search engine optimization (SEO) – skills Jose Zamora, journalism associate at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, said will be necessary in the future of journalism.
“The media landscape is in flux. Journalists need to re-tool and reinvent themselves for the digital age,” he said. “The grant to NAHJ gave Knight the opportunity to help Hispanic journalists maintain their competitiveness in today’s digital media market by learning the latest digital skills.”
With so many people turning to the web to find information, many news outlets are already turning to search engine optimization (SEO) to increase readership.
In an article earlier this year for Poynter Online, Amy Gahran wrote that journalist are likely to have to know how to implement search engine optimization (SEO) into their stories and says it’s better for them to figure it out now than to “play catch-up” later.
Think of the Fairfax layoffs, ACP magazines etc. Head in the sand or no, exit strategies have to be more than helping a journo write their C.V. for ever diminishing jobs.
C’mon, it’ll be fun – I promise. Donate your skills in explaining how you took up blogging or how you prefer to consume your News or the balance between passionate argument and impartial reporting or how you built an audience or anything. I betcha it’d be fun. At least it was, when I spoke to 80 Freelance Journos a year or so ago.
Promise me though, no nasty “they started it!” arguments about how the Press always diss social media – this is about bloggers teaching journos and learning from them at the same time. So… who’s in?
PS Not sure but Julie Poisetti’s Future of Media conference at the end of the year may head in this direction. And with the news today of Murdoch confirming the change to paid-for online news in the financial year, these kinds of discussions are going to become even more critical.