91.7 KALW-FM Local Public Radio, SF seeks Blogger-Reporter

Hey all. I don’t usually post full time job opportunities, but there are a lot of friends of KALW on this list so I thought I’d make an exception. Job summary below, more details in the link. -mia

http://www.cpb.org/jobline/index.php?mode=print_listing&listing_id=7476

KALW is seeking a first-rate writer and communicator to lead a news web site focused on criminal justice-related issues in the San Francisco Bay Area—specifically focusing on San Francisco and Oakland.

The journalist-blogger leading the site will be charged with building a dedicated online following around coverage of criminal justice policy, police-community relations, how the courts are run, and other topics related to criminal justice. The position requires that you establish yourself as the area’s most authoritative voice on the issue, with a strong local profile and a national reach through NPR and the wider public broadcasting system.

Candidates should have subject-matter expertise and a solid journalistic track record befitting KALW’s reputation as a trusted local news source. Requires a demonstrated ability to cultivate sources, identify important trends in criminal justice and collect and verify information through a variety of online and offline channels. Candidates should be conversant with blogging and social media applications and a variety of multimedia tools. The strongest candidates also will have proven experience developing a successful niche news site, building audience, establishing a social media brand, and stoking community engagement. Candidate must have experience in feature radio production. Minimum five years journalism, including broadcast and online experience required.

Say My Name

Does this sound familiar? A news organization is super excited about your blog or story idea. They contact you, give you their spiel, and even mention future work down the line. They seemed excited about your journalism plans.

Then, after maybe writing a proposal for them, or you send in a sample, that same news organization stops responding to your emails. Suddenly, they can’t be bothered to give the green light to your story. Maybe they’re slammed all of a sudden. Maybe they got pulled away to another project. Maybe, the traffic outside their office window becomes interesting.

Or, how about this: You actually get contracted to do work for a news organization. Maybe it’s not a contract, but a verbal agreement. It’s not a deep piece. But you put in effort. Then, trying to get that wee small check means spending chunks of time sending gentle email reminders and making subtle calls to whoever is in charge of accounting. The editor you worked with has gone MIA. Maybe out of town, maybe they’re at a conference, but you’re definitely left hanging. You try not to seem like a stalker, or a very desperate soul, but sometimes that $30 check means groceries, or that the light bill gets paid that month.

Does this just happen in journalism? Is every media organization scatterbrained? Are all editors juggling heavy New York Times schedules? Can’t some news groups just say straight up or down if they’re interested in your work? Can checks ever be cut remotely on time?

I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s hard sometimes not to get discouraged. It’s not about taking it personal, but maybe it’s about expected a little more professionalism.

The best you can do is take your lumps, learn who’s better about treating writers fairly, and keep building your work.  Oh, and no verbal agreements.

Jennifer Inez Ward

J-School Alumni Day Conference Saturday, April 10

Some great panels lined up for this event. Non-jschool alum are welcome for $25.00. -mia

++++++++++++++++++++

*J-School Alumni Day Conference*

Saturday, April 10, 2010

9:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Graduate School of Journalism

North Gate Hall

UC Berkeley

*THE BERKELEY CONNECTION: JOURNALISM & INNOVATION IN THE BAY AREA*

*9:00AM – 9:30AM* – *Meet and greet continental breakfast*

*9:45AM – 11:00AM* – *Anatomy of a Story: Bay Area Investigative Reporting in a Digital Age*

Ever since traditional news organizations began cutting their investigative reporting budgets, non-profit organizations, both established and new, are trying to fill the void with funding from interested and concerned individuals and philanthropies. The Bay Area is a center of innovation for these enterprises. Panelists will discuss the opportunities for deeper investigative reporting and discuss the potential profitability and sustainability of these models.

*Moderator: Deirdre English*, Director, The Felker Magazine Program, J-School

*Panelists:*

*Ryan Gabrielson*, Investigative Reporting Program Fellow, Berkeley J-School

*Lowell Bergman*, Reva and David Logan Distinguished Professor of Investigative Reporting, Berkeley J-School

*Robert J. Rosenthal*, Executive Director, The Center for Investigative Reporting

*Clara Jeffery or Monika Bauerlein*, co-editors, Mother Jones magazine (invited)

*11:15PM-12:15PM: The iPad and its Progeny: Technology and Bay Area Journalism*

The Bay Area leads in developing new technology that profoundly changes the way people get their news, reporters capture it, and producers display it. In the age of multi-media story telling, what skills are required in reporting the news and telling good stories? How does tablet technology and multi-media content change reporting and narrative story telling? What is the impact on magazines and newspapers? How are reporter’s voices changing? With increasing demand for immediate, hard-hitting opinion pieces, where is the place for thoughtful narrative writing?

*Moderator: TBD*

*Panelists:*

*Damon Darlin*, Technology Editor, The New York Times

*Thomas Goetz, MPH ‘07*, Executive Editor, Wired magazine

*Todd Lappin,’95*, Media Product Strategist and Editor, CBS Interactive

*Marcia Parker*, West Coast Editorial Director, AOL’s Patch.com

*LUNCH 12:15 – 1:15 PM. Catered lunch and roundtable networking.*

* Hosts:*

*David Gelles, ‘00*, Reporter, The Financial Times

*Jennifer Kahn, ’00*, J-School lecturer, feature writer and editor

*Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, ’97*, freelance journalist, author and editor

*Tim McGirk ’74*, former foreign bureau chief, Time magazine, just back from Kabul

*Speed Weed*, screenwriter and executive story editor NCIS Los Angeles (CBS); freelance science writer

*Apple iPad Demo*

*1:30PM- 2:30PM: The Bay Area News Project: An Experiment in Situ*

*Moderator: Neil Henry*, Dean, Berkeley J-School

* **Panelists:*

*Lisa Frazier*, CEO

*Jonathan Webber*, Editor- in-Chief

The Bay Area News Project is a recently launched non-profit news organization. Collaborating with the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, its mission is to foster civic engagement by providing original journalism covering civic and community news in the Bay Area. The Project will also be supplying news stories for the Bay Area sections of The New York Times and creating opportunities for journalists to practice their craft in the Bay Area.

*2:45PM-3:30PM Retraining Opportunities for Reporters and Editors *

As technologies evolve, journalists must keep up and adapt to a changing job market. Editors and reporters need to learn new skills and become adept at using the technology (e.g. producing blogs, video, web sites, using multi-media equipment and software). This panel will discuss the essential new skills and the best ways of acquiring them.

*Moderator: Kara Platoni, ’99*, J-School lecturer and editor, Oakland North, freelance editor and science writer.

*Panelists:*

*Connie Hale, ’90*, author and former director of the Nieman Foundation Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University

*Carl Hall*, Media Worker’s Guild

*Lanita Pace Hinton*, Director, Knight Digital Media Center, J-School (invited)

*4:00 pm Reception*

*THIS EVENT IS FREE TO ALL J-SCHOOL ALUMNI. PLEASE REGISTER BY EMAIL: ucbjalum@berkeley.edu*

*GUESTS: $25, payable at door, but please register to reserve a space. [Checks payable to: UC Regents]*

*Please provide name, year of graduation (alumni), phone #, preferred email address if different.*

*Thanks, and see you at the J-School on April 10.*

*We will be providing updates on program and speakers.*

* *

Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism

Fellowship information from our SF Bureau Chief, Molly Samuel. Contact her (info below) if you want more information. -mia

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’m a fellow with Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism this year. They’re starting to send out promo material for next year, so I’m passing it on to you. It’s for journalists at the start of their careers. You pitch a story as your application; if you’re chosen they send you $10,000. There are also two residencies: Bread Loaf in the fall and Big Sur in the Spring, the editors are great, and there are also visiting reporters. It’s a pretty great opportunity.

http://www.middlebury.edu/sustainability/fech/fellowships

ms

More Acquisition Updates from Liaison’s Desk – Pt. 5 TRANSOM.ORG

And another one – this one is open to everyone, artists, writers, etc.. -Mia

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Transom.org

Transom.org acquires pieces for about $300 a pop. We encourage and assist producers in getting their work broadcast after it appears on Transom: on NPR news shows, This American Life, Hearing Voices, and other venues. We also coordinate Transom features with PRX distribution. We sometimes anthologize pieces in The Transom Radio Hour.

We’re looking for great radio — things that are less heard, different angles, new voices, new ways of telling, and any other good pieces that haven’t found another way onto public radio. Editors evaluate material more by what it does than what it is. Some questions they’ll consider:

• On the air, would it keep you by your radio until it’s over? • Is the maker someone of talent who should be encouraged? • Does it push at the boundary of conventional radio in an exciting way? • Will it provoke fruitful discussion online?

Submissions can be stories, essays, home recordings, sound portraits, interviews, found sound, non-fiction pieces, audio art, whatever, as long as it’s good listening. Material may be submitted by anyone, anywhere — by citizens with stories to tell, by radio producers trying new styles, by writers and artists wanting to experiment with radio. As long as it hasn’t already aired nationally, we’ll consider it.

More Acquisition Updates from Liaison’s Desk – Pt. 4 SPLENDID TABLE/STUDIO 360

More updates for radio program acquisitions – thanks to AIRand NPR Liason Paul Ingles! -mia

+++++++++++++++++++++ *The Splendid Table *

*series: *The Splendid Table, starring Lynne Rossetto Kasper, is a show about food — enjoying it, buying it, cooking it — and about eating out, entertaining, health and travel. We’re looking for *produced* field pieces which fit our program. We are always seeking stories about food as a window to a culture; about meals as a memorable part of travel; about food producers (artisans and otherwise), the business of food, and new trends; about food and health; about the behind-the-scenes of restaurants or other food businesses; about festivals, family gatherings, holiday celebrations, and amazing parties — and about people with particular passions about food. Pieces with a quirky point-of-view or a sense of humor are encouraged. Pieces about local restaurants or other food businesses should focus on the exceptional people who run them, or have some other editorial focus which makes the story interesting to our national audience. *compensation:* We will pay $500 for a fully mixed piece that is suitable for air and meets both our editorial and technical standards. We ask for the non-exclusive right to broadcast the piece on radio, and to offer it on the Web (in both”streamed” and/or archival form), both in perpetuity. You would own all rights to the piece other than those granted to us. We ask only that The Splendid Table receive an appropriate credit when the piece, or elements thereof, appears elsewhere. We honor the spirit of the Code published by * AIR*.

*Show*: national one-hour show which airs weekly on over 200 public radio stations across the country and is also podcast weekly. *segments:* we are looking for segments that are 3-5 minutes in length. *pitch:* E-mail a brief description of your piece as well as the edited and mixed piece (mp3, audio link, etc) for our review and consideration. We will respond quickly with ayes or no, or with a proposed modification of the piece. If we say yes, we will send you an Agreement right away. *Contact:* Jennifer Russell, Producer jenrussell@americanpublicmedia.org

*Studio 360*

We are still accepting pitches from independents. Our protocol remains the same – a brief (2 paragraph) pitch to Michele Siegel (mtsiegel@wnyc.org) cc me (dkrasnow@wnyc.org). (We hope to revise our Independent Producer Guidelines in the coming month.)

With regard to rates, we took a tip from the new NPR system and decided that levels based on complexity and labor (rather than arbitrary duration brackets) made a great deal more sense – especially for the kind of feature we make. I’d like to note here that the great majority of stories we assign will fall at Levels 2 or 3.

*A Level 1 Story *would typically:

– Start with topic or subject selection provided by Studio 360 – Consist of interview(s) with a single subject, recorded in person or by remote, or short interviews captured in a brief period of time.

*Fee: $350 **(with mixing bonus: $500)*

*A Level 2 Story *would typically:

– Consist primarily of interview(s) with a single subject, recorded on location or in studio – Involve careful subject selection and research – Use sound richly

*Fee: $475 **(with mixing bonus: $625)*

*A Level 3 Story *would typically:

– Involve significant research – Feature multiple interviews in person or by remote – Require reporting on location – Use sound richly

*Fee: $875 **(with mixing bonus: $1025)*

*A Level 4 Story *would typically:

– Involve significant research and expertise in the subject matter – Require out-of-town travel by the reporter – Involve location reporting at multiple sites – Feature multiple interviews – Use sound richly

*Fee: $1000 **(with mixing bonus: $1150)*

New York Public Radio will apply the mixing bonus of $150 when Producer provides a complete and finished mix of the Piece, upon approval of that mix from the Editor.

Spring Changes

Thanks again to all of the folks who made it out to our last Happy Hour. It was great to unwind with beer and chat about the ups and downs of the media business.

And all that chatting got us thinking about our next steps for the Café. Thanks to our founder, Mia Lobel, the Café has been a great success and is definitely a fantastic online resource for many Bay Area media types.

But now, we’re thinking about changing things up with our monthly Happy Hour. How about rotating around the Bay for our meet up? What about making it earlier or on a new day?

As we approach the start of spring, we’d love to hear from all of ya’ll about improving/changing our monthly Happy Hour. We’d love to hear suggestions for locations in San Francisco, Oakland, and the South Bay. Preferably near BART and also that’s likely to be group friendly.

While you marinate on that, check out the image of Rori and I mugging for the camera at February’s meeting.

Health benefits from the Freelancer Media Workers Guild

An important message from the Freelance Media Workers Guild. -mia

++++++++++++++++++++++

I hear frequently from people whose top priority is medical coverage.

We are making excellent progress lining up dental and vision coverage for our members, and expect to have some other benefits lined up soon.

We are negotiating for a medical coverage plan that features maximum portability and affordability. To start getting bids, we need some very basic census data — from members of Guild Freelancers.

If you are interested in joining the health care pool, you MUST JOIN the freelance unit. We can ONLY amass the kinds of benefits and supports we seek with adequate numbers.

Joining the Freelance Media Workers discussion or announcements-only Google groups does NOT make you a member of Guild Freelancers.

We are not a support group, although we offer plenty of support. We are not a job service, although we provide comprehensive contacts for open journalism jobs. We are a labor union, and we seek to provide the same sturdy safety net that unions always have. By committing to the unit, you gain an unconditional commitment from the union to help secure solid, tangible supports and protections.

To join, log onto guildfreelancers.org right away and click on “Join Us.”

Membership fees are roughly equivalent to a double latte a week. You can pay by the year ($144), sign up for six months at a time ($72). Student fees are only $60 a year.

If you ARE a member, and you ARE interested in helping us secure the best health care bid possible, please shoot me a confidential email at rrosenlum@gmail.com that includes your zip code, gender and date of birth, and, if you wish, the number of dependents you might wish to add to your coverage.

Sincerely, Rebecca Rosen Lum Unit chair, Guild Freelancers rrosenlum@gmail.com

2010 Knight-McCormick Leadership Institute

Knight Digital Media Center fellowship opportunity – deadline March 31. Details below. -mia

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

March 04, 2010

Calling for the best and the brightest leaders in the emerging news ecosystem

Our 2010 Knight-McCormick Leadership Institute will offer tailored training and intensive coaching to 20 fellows who are innovating and pushing transformation both inside and outside traditional newsrooms. March 31 is the deadline to apply yourself or nominate someone you believe is qualified.

Are you leading transformational change in news media? Keep reading.

The 2010 Knight-McCormick Leadership Institute is a new program by KDMC, one that reflects our awareness that new faces and forms of leadership dot the landscape of news and that intensive training, coaching and collaboration can help their endeavors be even more successful.

“There are new players on the field, new news organization leaders who are taking risks and showing a willingness to try new models of information in the public interest at a time the old models are failing fast,” KDMC Director Vikki Porter. While the institute doors are open to the editors of traditional newsrooms that have been the center’s focus in recent years, Porter said the Institute will look at a much wider pool of leaders.

“We still want to help newspaper editors who are battling the odds and working to transform their newsrooms. But now the doors are open and we want to bring in leaders of news organizations – not necessarily “newsrooms” of the legacy past – who might be online only, or who are creating new networks of organizations and info providers looking to satisfy communities’ news needs big and small,” Porter said.

The curriculum is open too. It will be tailored to those who are chosen to participate. KDMC’s partnerships with the USC’s Marshall School of Business enable it to bring considerable business, strategy and entrepreneurship expertise to its programs. The institute will consist of two on-site sessions six months apart with intensive coaching and virtual convenings in between.

We’re being deliberately vague about who might qualify because we’re not sure we have all the answers about what leadership looks like in our exciting news ecology. It will take more than a good idea for a start up (KDMC offers the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp < http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/seminars/archives/news_entrepreneur_boot_camp_2010/for those).

We want people who lead both inside their organizations (whether large, small or tiny) as well as outside extending their leadership more broadly to help the field of news and information. We want people with proven track records they’ve successfully started a project or are transforming their organization and now use the Institute to scale the project or leverage more organizational change. We want bold thinkers who like to collaborate and are willing to share what they’re learning with the field.

That said, this is not a conventional leadership program for a newsroom city editor or section editor or a producer. “We want people who have the power to lead and make the decisions that can turn an organization,” Porter said.

One possible candidate might have established a successful local or niche news site and be ready to scale it to other locations. Another might be a site operator who needs to develop more diverse revenue streams. Another might be a young operation that is financially healthy enough to add staff and expand, a transition that often proves quite challenging for an entrepreneur.

“In the end I hope we have 20 of the best news leaders most passionate about the possibilities of the new news ecology and whom we can help get to the next level of expertise by bringing them together with other diverse leaders in what we hope will be a collaborative learning environment over a six-month period,” Porter said. “I imagine and hope we will have nominations that represent a greater cross-section of the many experiments as well as the many transforming organizations then we’ve had in the past.”

*We’d like to hear from you if you believe you are a candidate or of you want to suggest someone as a candidate. We are trying to cast a very wide net so please get the word out. *

*The deadline is Wednesday, March 31. * More information here .

If you know of someone or if you believe you fit, please send a 500-word or less nomination email to Vikki Porter. Include name, news organization and title, email and phone contact information. Provide us with the specific reasons you believe we should consider this person for this unique opportunity including examples of their transformative thinking and leadership skills. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call (213-821-0071) or email vporter@usc.edu.

(The Institute is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundationand the McCormick Foundation http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/.)

J-School Announces Competition for Two Investigative Reporting Fellowships

Two fellowship opportunities from the UC Berkeley j-school. -mia

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*J-School Announces Competition for Two Investigative Reporting Fellowships*

*From the Graduate School of Journalism | March 8, 2010*

*BERKELEY* – To help develop a new generation of investigative reporters in an era of extensive cutbacks at major news organizations, UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism today announced a call for entries for its forth-annual competition for year-long fellowships in investigative reporting. The two fellowships will be awarded in June 2010.

The fellowships are open to all working investigative journalists, but preference will be given to graduates of UC Berkeley’s master’s program in journalism. A strong track record of successfully reporting on complex subjects in the public interest is required.

Applicants will be chosen based on their qualifications and on the proposed area of investigation they intend to pursue. Story proposals must be those that have been under-reported by traditional news organizations. Proposals may include print, broadcast and multimedia components.

“Providing a unique opportunity for young journalists to pursue their passion to do a story in the public interest is the most important thing we can do,” said Professor Lowell Bergman, the director of the Investigative Reporting Program.

“We are part of the growing movement to preserve, protect and promote investigative reporting during a period of contraction in the news business. This effort does not enjoy the support of state funding and is made possible by the generous support of individuals and foundations. These contributions, along with the work of the previous fellows and my colleagues, Robert Gunnison and Marlena Telvick, have made the Investigative Reporting Program a model for a growing number of non-profit efforts,” said Bergman.

Winners of the 2009-2010 fellowships were Ryan Gabrielson of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Arizona and a recipient of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Matt Isaacs, a 1999 graduate of the journalism school and veteran investigative reporter and editor in California.

Gabrielson recently launched a multi-media, multi-outlet investigation on DUI checkpoints including a print story in The New York Times and an accompanying video on the Times website. The Center for Investigative Reporting’s “California Watch” edited versions of the story for the Sacramento Bee, the Orange County Register, Mother Jones, the Bakersfield Californian, the Stockton Record and in Spanish for La Opinion. The PBS NewsHour aired a broadcast version of Gabrielson’s investigation.

“As a newspaper reporter, I began the fellowship without experience producing pieces for multiple news outlets at once, or for television,” says Gabrielson. “But with guidance, I conducted on-camera interviews for a PBS NewsHour segment, while simultaneously writing print pieces for California Watch and The New York Times.”

“You cannot help but grow as a journalist watching Bergman and his IRP team at work,” Gabrielson says.

Matt Isaacs, who is continuing his investigation of overseas Chinese power in the United States in collaboration with a major news outlet, says, “The Investigative Reporting Program is the only place I know that can catch the ear of almost any news organization in the country. If you have a story worth telling, the program will find somewhere to place it at the highest levels.”

“Lowell knows how to make a good story great, and how to send a great one into the stratosphere,” Isaacs says. “He knows what it takes to play on the national stage because he’s been there so long.”

The IRP also occasionally awards small grants to support investigative projects not selected for the fellowships. Applicants will be notified if they have been placed in a special category for consideration for one of these grants.

Zachary Stauffer, a 2008 graduate of the journalism school and Katie Galloway, a filmmaker and lecturer in the Media Studies department at UC Berkeley were the applicants chosen to receive project-specific funding last year.

Mr. Stauffer is working as a cinematographer and reporter for the IRP. He served as director of photography for the PBS FRONTLINE documentary “The Card Game” and also shot Ryan Gabrielson’s story on DUI checkpoints for the PBS NewsHour. Ms. Galloway has been given in-residence support and editing facilities for her feature documentary on a domestic counterterrorism case.

Fellows will be provided with office space, phones, basic expenses and up to $10,000 in funds for approved travel. Proposals must include an estimate for travel expenses to complete a project. No housing or relocation supplements are provided. Fellows are expected to refrain from outside journalistic projects, and to use the Berkeley offices as their base of operations during the fellowship.

Fellows will be employees of the University of California with an annual salary of approximately $47,000. They also will be able to audit UC Berkeley classes and use campus research facilities.

The deadline for fellowship applications for the academic year 2010-2011 is 12 o’clock Midnight on Friday, April 9th. This year’s recipients will be announced in June. The fellows’ year-long tenure will begin in September.

The application and entry requirements can be found at: http://jobs.berkeley.edu. The job number is #10506. Please note, three letters of reference to the attention of Professor Lowell Bergman will be required. Solicit them early.

For additional details on the fellowship program, contact:

Investigative Reporting Program 2481 Hearst Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709 investigativereportingprogram@berkeley.edu