10 things for aspiring journalists and communications pros to consider

5 things I wish someone had told me:

1.     The pace of change will accelerate and show no sign of easing. That includes many aspects of society and experience such as politics, technology, economies, demographics and climate.

2.      You must set your own high standards and must be your own critic and fan. While you should ask for and be ready to accept constructive criticism, managers or others might not have the time to give a full accounting of their assessment of you.   

3.      Basic skills such as writing and storytelling are absolutely critical.  Technology and skill sets will change, but core abilities will anchor you amid change.

4.      Many journalists do very well beginning as generalists and that is appropriate for someone starting out. Later, specialization may help your career, whether differentiated by beat or location.  If you can afford to be a freelancer, consider that option.

5.      Journalism and professional communications careers can be very rewarding, financially and personally. They can also take a toll on family and individuals. Most of the people who’ve gone into the professions will say it was worth the effort.

5 action items for you:

1.     Begin immediately to create and build a solid portfolio for display online. Ideally it crosses platforms, such as text and video. Have you learned to do all you can? What about excellent photography and videography, lighting, SEO, interviewing and presentation skills such as on-camera?

2.    Write, blog and write again.  When you are blogging, consider having a content partner or mentor who can give it a second look and edit before you publish. If you publish material containing errors, that sets you back.

3.      HR professionals say LinkedIn is the primary online tool they are using for prospective employees. Don't be shy about asking for recommendations and get specific on your skills and accomplishments.

4.     Think about being a role model, including with your digital identity and in your professional interactions with nearly everyone.  Are your public photos on Facebook a potential embarrassment? In interactions, how you treat people matters, whether in an office or in the field. 

5.     Your network is what sustains and propels you. No matter where you are located at any given time, set up meetings and maintain connections over time. Work to put yourself in a position so you can take advantage of every possible opportunity to learn, fail and succeed again.

This Concludes My Broadcast Day (at The AP)

Back when television stations would sign off the air late at night, they'd run color bars with an announcer saying something like, "and this concludes our broadcast day".

So for me at AP, "this concludes my broadcast day".  The next part of my journey is with Bankrate.com, as Washington Bureau Chief. It is a tremendous and exciting opportunity. 

For now though, I'd like to share some thoughts about the steps proceeding this day.

My recollections of AP go back about as far as any memories I have. That’s because my father had his own 11-year AP career in 5 cities going back to my birth, ending in St. Louis in 1971 when I was 10 years old.  

In the 60’s, I remember visiting the New York headquarters at Rockefeller Center and watching a “Photofax” machine receive images just minutes after a space launch at Cape Canaveral. There were teletype operators back then and tickertape used to help transmit the news. It was there that he wrote the national broadcast report for about 5 years. I have more vivid memories of the bureaus in Topeka and St. Louis.


Fast forward. Having worked in radio for about a decade, including while in high school and college in Kansas, and later in Buffalo, New York, I would be hired by the AP in Dallas in 1986 by the late Brad Krohn. 
 

We operated the regional “Sunbelt” bureau for AP Radio and  the “Texas AP Network”.  A year later, I was transferred to the Washington Broadcast News Center, or what has been called the "BNC". There, I have remained for the last 25 and a-half years.

What a trip it has been.  

Some 26 years ago, we were writing on clunky custom-made computers, each requiring two large floppy disks. Heavy cell phones used in the field were the size of lunch buckets. A fax was sent by placing a phone receiver in an awkward, ill-fitting plastic cradle.

It was in July of 1986 that I first stepped inside the AP bureau in Dallas' Southland Life Building. That month, the Dow crossed over the 1,900 level.  It is now above 13,000. We recorded audio interviews on a cassette recorder or on reel-to-reel tape. A few miles from the bureau, Southwest Airlines was a scrappy upstart company vying against a seemingly unstoppable giant also headquartered in the city, American Airlines.  The latter has since filed for bankruptcy.  

Through it all, the core principles of good journalism have remained the same. But the changes in the media industry have been breathtaking.

By my own rough estimates, I anchored approximately 8800 AP Radio newscasts (including several dozen in the past few weeks after an 18 year interlude). During the AP All-News-Radio era I did about 15,000 “Business Updates”, live and taped. I will always remember the incredible current and former colleagues who always delivered, sometimes in the face of tremendous adversity. I think about wars, 9/11, earthquakes, the fall of the Soviet Union, deadly destructive storms and a whopper of a financial crisis.

On a lighter note, scores of visions and anecdotes rattle inside my brain. They were while working the overnight and every other hour of the day, 7 days a week including holidays. Amid the work, there were plenty of side-splitting laughs between the deadlines. 

The work included those hourly radio newscasts and live special reports, television stand-ups in the field and in the newsroom working with our wonderful photographers, interviews with celebrities and political leaders, and with admirable, regular people. I covered the economy's ups and the downs, and before that, handled the music industry beat in the late 80s while I was a news anchor. 


It is our craft to work with words, but this is one instance where there are no sufficient expressions appropriately reflecting the deep appreciation I have for my experiences. These opportunities were afforded me by a variety of managers, most of whom have since departed. But most of all, I'll treasure my friendships with highly talented, hard working colleagues.  In the future here in Washington, I'll still be down the street in the National Press Building or covering a story. So whether online, on the air, or elsewhere, I shouldn't be hard to find. 

The Olympics Have Shown a Widening Digital Divide

Analog aficionados have squared off versus digital devotees. And a business model hangs in the balance.

Are you a person who doesn't want to know how the Olympics turn out until you can watch it on television? Or do you watch events live during the day on a tablet and perhaps again later at home on the wide screen?

If there's one thing the flow of text and video from the Olympics has demonstrated to us, it is that we're an information society divided.  It is not unlike the way we look at the national political discourse as red vs. blue states. Only in this case, it is those who want their information in real-time vs. those who only want content when it presented on television, even delayed.

Twitter presented a unique opportunity for people who wanted to watch hijacked streams of the opening ceremonies.  NBC opted not to offer online video streams of both the opening and closing ceremonies.  So when Tweets started appearing to point out a live feed (such as from the BBC intended for the British audience), more than just a few folks began watching.  In the end it didn't seem to hurt ratings and NBC now expects to avoid taking a loss on the games. It will be interesting to see if a future decision is made in favor of live feeds domestically in the U.S. for opening and closing ceremonies.When you are paying $1 billion for the rights, it is understandable that an enterprise is looking to manage risk.  The only problem is that enraged viewers can find also find a potentially sympathetic global audience through social media. Check out some of the angry hashtags on Twitter, such as #nbcfail. 

The bulk of the viewing public appeared to be just fine with watching the delayed telecast, as if it were happening in real time. Better at home on the bigger screen perhaps?

Similarly, it has been clear that some folks don't want to know about the outcome of the competitions ahead of their delayed viewing.  Social media is full of people complaining that they weren't given "spoiler alerts".  In case you don't know, an example of a spoiler alert is a sort of warning given before an important movie plot twist or resolution is revealed, such as in a movie review. This divide has put some news/entertainment organizations in the position of having to decide whether to help keep the "secret", at least with headlines, or strictly hold to tradition in reporting news when it happens uniformly across all platforms. 

It seems like a fair bet that as more "digital natives" and their successors come of age, as we older folks go on to that viewing room in the sky, the proportion of the audience demanding real-time content and information flow will predominate.  It also might be that traditional television and Internet technology will have melded by then anyway, making obsolete the question of whether to force delayed viewings and to withhold information on results.