Wednesday, November 28, 2012

More proof that journalists need to brand themselves

Version en español aquí.

New York Times editor Jill Abramson says that half the people coming to the newspaper's website in the runup to the election were searching for Nate Silver, the political forecasting whiz who writes the blog FiveThirtyEight.

"He got huge, huge readership," she said at a conference covered by MediaBistro. "They weren't coming for the rest of the Times; they came for him,"

In other words, Nate Silver has developed a personal brand that is bigger than the New York Times when it comes to the niche of political forecasting.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

To young journalists: learn multimedia, languages

Versión en español aquí. 

In an interview with the Spanish website LaInformacion.com, Juan Antonio Giner, co-founder of Innovation Media Consulting, shared some of his strong opinions about how young journalists and traditional media should confront the  challenge from digital media. Spain's traditional media, like those in the U.S., have experienced devastating declines in revenues and have cut staff ruthlessly. Some excerpts from that interview follow.

Q. What advice do you have for young journalists who want to make a decent living practicing their chosen craft?

The job market is limited, and for that reason there will never be work for everyone everywhere and in all media. Competition today is fierce, and that is a good thing. The only ones who will find work are those who are the best trained, who have acquired the most knowledge, who have mastered telling stories with multimedia, who speak more than one language, and, above all, who want to take on the world. This is a profession for people with passion, with fight, who are undaunted, relentless.