#jpod: What our new industry report means for job-seeking graduates

Journalism.co.uk has compiled a podcast offering advice for journalism graduates entering the industry, in light of a report carried out by Journalism.co.uk and the University of Central Lancashire which suggested the UK’s population of working mainstream media journalists has shrunk by up to a third in the last ten years.

The impact of this on the graduate job hunt has already been highlighted in statistics from the NCTJ, which reports that the number of trainees registered in the industry has plummeted in recent years, from 633 in 2007/8 to 230 in 2008/9.

With competition rife, we spoke to experts in the industry, from media employers to careers advisors, to find out what their advice would be for those eager to break into the industry.

Listen below for Journalism.co.uk’s podcast for advice on CVs, applications, journalism skills and how to impress prospective employers.

We speak to:

• Chris Devlin – Head of editorial and creative sector at pfj recruitment
• Margaret Holbrough – Careers advisor for Prospects
• Suzanne Kavanagh – Publishing sector manager at Skillset
• Ben Young – HR operations director for IPC Media
• Naomi Blackbourn – Account manager at GradPlus.com

Podcast: Download

Please feel free to share your own experiences of job hunting for the first time, or advice for others in the comments below.

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#followjourn: @alexandrapullin – Alexandra Pullin/freelance

#followjourn: @alexandrapullin

Who? Alexandra Pullin, digital copywriter for Holler and freelance features writer.

Where? Blogs at The Wages of Spin, pops up here on LinkedIn, and contributes to Who’s Jack.

Contact? @alexandrapullin

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #followjourn: @annmroz – Ann Mroz/editor

What can the new multimedia Twitter offer journalists?

Twitter is launching a serious overhaul of its design, adding more multimedia options. An attempt to move people away from Twitter apps to using the tool via twitter.com perhaps?

The key changes as far as news organisations and journalists using Twitter are concerned are the additions of embedded video and images – e.g. rather than following a link to an image on TwitPic that image will appear within the tweet.

When reporting on a live or breaking news event using Twitter, journalists can now offer readers more and a more user-friendly, all-in-one experience. I can also see clever journalists using the embedded feature to tease stories with video snippets and by giving their Twitter audience more content encourage those followers to visit a news site and engage there too.

In terms of newsgathering, the new design should also prove useful. When a tweet is clicked, a sidebar showing details of the author or subject will appear, as well as relevant @replies, a map of where it was sent from if geotagged and other tweets by that author. Essentially, it’ll offer journalists a more efficient way to build up a profile of an individual tweet or tweeter and assess how useful that information or contact might be to their story.

The changes will be rolled out across all accounts eventually – for now, you can see more details about the redesign on the newtwitter site.

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BBC News: Ray Gosling gets suspended sentence for wasting police time

Broadcaster Ray Gosling has been given a 90-day suspended sentence for wasting police time, after claiming in a documentary that he had killed a dying lover, the BBC reports.

The Inside Out programme on mercy killings was broadcast in February and Gosling’s claims in it led to an initial arrest on suspicion of murder and a six-month police investigation. His sentence was handed out after the claims were determined to be false.

The BBC has also issued an apology for broadcasting Gosling’s claims:

In light of the plea given in court today we regret that we broadcast a claim by Ray Gosling which has effectively been withdrawn by him. We apologise to viewers and to those most closely involved for any distress this may have caused.

Full story on BBC News at this link…

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Globe and Mail: Canadian National Post staff offered buyouts

All employees at Canadian newspaper the National Post have been offered buyouts as part of a cost-cutting drive, according to reports.

Parent company Postmedia Network has implemented similar measures at the Post’s sister titles.

Full story on the Globe and Mail at this link…

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data-driven journalism

Data: For inspiration and advice on data-driven journalism check out the website for the 2010 conference on data journalism for videos and slideshow presentations. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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OJR: Online journalism or journalism online?

Robert Hernandez, writing on the Online Journalism Review, tells us a bit about himself and in doing so nails his colours firmly to the online journalism mast:

I’m a journalist, first and foremost… I’m a Web journalist… what I live and breathe is Online Journalism… What can I say? I am a geek. A technophile. An iPhone addict… I’m a Web journalist.

There are certain unique advantages to each different form of journalism – the convenience of print, the visual and emotional impact of film, to name a couple. For Hernandez it is the unique advantages of online journalism, not simply the use of the internet as a publishing platform, that define it, that distinguish online journalism from journalism online. “There’s a lot of difference between the two,” he writes.

Think of it this way: Art Online or Online Art.

Take a photo of Mona Lisa, one of the most famous works of art in the history of mankind. Get a nice, hi-res image of the painting and post it onto the Web.

The single image on the Internet brings this classical piece of art to millions of people who never will travel to Paris to see it first-hand.

That is Art Online.

Now, think of art that takes advantage of, or is based on, technology and the Internet. It’s a type of art that can only exist because of the Web and the latest technology.

Full post at this link…

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Headline mishaps at Johnston Press and Newsquest titles

There’s been headline embarrassment in the past week both for Johnston Press and Newsquest. This headline filler was spotted by Jon Slattery in the Glasgow Evening Times on Friday.

Commenting on Slattery’s post Ol Peculier offers a link to another similar headline mess-up over at JP’s the Scarborough Evening News, posted on Facebook.

The use of the Atex production system at JP has been blamed for similar problems which have occured at titles since integration of the new system, such as cropped, misaligned or even missing pictures and other headline gaffs.

Earlier this year the NUJ wrote to the Press Complaints Commission claiming that a memo from Johnston Press management showed the new Atex rules “removed a number of checks for accuracy and seriously undermined the role of the editor, removing their final responsibility for the content of the paper”.

Update: We originally incorrectly linked the Glasgow Evening Times to Johnston Press, it has now been corrected as a Newsquest title.

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Americans spending more time consuming news, research suggests

A report carried out every two years by the Pew Research Center suggests Americans are spending more time consuming news now than 10 years ago.

The research, released this week, found that rather than replacing traditional media with digital platforms, consumers spend an additional 13 minutes daily getting news online as well as 57 minutes on average getting news from traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers. In the year 2000 the survey reported a total of 59 minutes was spent by audiences consuming news, with no time reportedly spent consuming news online by respondents until 2004.

According to the report, this is one of the highest totals measured since the mid-1990s, which does not take into account time spent getting news from mobile phones or other digital devices. Only eight per cent of respondents get their news from their mobile.

The news consumption survey recorded the responses from more than 3000 adults from 8 to 28 of June. Other findings include an increase in ‘news-grazers’ who consume the news on a less regular basis from 40 per cent in 2006 to 57 per cent in 2010. The survey also found an increase in the use of search engines for news gathering, rising to 33 per cent from 19 per cent in 2008.

See the report in full here..

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#followjourn: @montymunford – Monty Munford/freelance

#followjourn: @montymunford

Who? Monty Munford, “proud dad, founder of Monty’s Outlook, writer/blogger about mobile and technology for TechCrunch, Telegraph and more”.

Where? Monty writes extensively for the Telegraph, covering India, and has his own site, Monty’s Outlook, with issues of ‘Monty’s Indian Outlook’ and links to all his published work.

Contact? @montymunford

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #FollowJourn: @richardkendall/web editor