DECEMBER 2007 SUNOASIS JOBLOG

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If you have access to the NY Times go read this article called, How to Lose Your Job on Your Own Time By RANDALL STROSS It describes the problem of a lack of concern over all the private information people are posting online or giving up to Facebook, MySpace, etc. and the old-time desire on the part of employers to check up on employees, on and off-line in a very anal retentive way.

How do writers and journalists create a digital identity for themselves? And it is not the same thing as "branding."

Here is a wonderful survey of Journalism 2.0, written by and for writers. If you are confused at all by the Web download this PDF and read it.

The last half is especially helpful because it delves into video, podcasting, and audio with a lot of detail.

"No one knows how all of this is ultimately going to change what we do or what opportunities this new model presents for us. But the only way we’ll be able to take advantage is if we’re aware of the technologies and actively participate in the changing landscape."

In other words, have fun but keep a wary eye out for new changes.

Should internet-savvy journalists go out on their own? A lot of jounalists jumped into the dot.com frenzy of the late 90's and even though it didn't pan out never regretted the experience. I think the problem can be nutted down to a simple phrase, "to be in business means a lot more than just having resources." Just ask any successful freelance writer!

Those who want to work for the publishing industry will benefit from this article. It's out of SFgate.com and offers some inside tips about the business.

I always made the claim that librarians and writers are the most resourceful types on the web. Libarians have become hot bloggers.

Why some students are excited about working for newspapers.

Then again, they don't work at the Cinncinati Post.

More from the Writers Strike Front:

The union boss is pitching the idea of writers migrating to the internet to become entreprenuers. It's a clever idea and melds into the initial vision of the internet, "talent free of big dumb bosses."

Talent has to figure out how to sustain itself, how to attract audience and keep it coming back. It has to keep in mind that the audience, too, sees itself as free from the big dumb bosses.

Audience first, fleeing the confines of the big dumb boxes, then, talent cleverly positioning itself in front of the tsuami.

Blogs are the canary birds in the mineshaft. If they are singing with lilt and light in a few years the mine is loaded with gold.

Here are eight very good and helpful marketing tips for freelance writers. The article is plucked from Freelance U.K.

You bloggers out there looking to roll the blog over into a book deal might check this story out from amNewYork Lessons:

• Be a writer first.
• Understand that an online audience is different than a book buying audience.
• Get a feel for the book market before you start to blog.

For all you students that write in to say you want to become magazine editors or write on the staff of magazines, please read this article from Media Life. The problems magazines have are chronic and will result in more folded titles next year. It's not something to despair about but to recognize and think about.

"If anything, turmoil in any market creates opportunity, and the turmoil in magazine publishing will encourage new ways of thinking that would have been dismissed in more stable times."

This article on the infamous cover letter is excellent because it provokes the questions every job seeker should ask before you decide to apply for a job. Questions like, "can I do this job?" and "what are the primary needs of this company?"

Sunoasis gets a lot of questions from young people who want to go into the magazine industry to become editors. One thing they need to do is to get the industry to further embrace the Web. That will be a key skill to gain competitive advantage in the coming years.

Jon Friedman, author of the piece, says, "Listen, the Web is the most exciting part of a modern journalism enterprise for ambitious writers and editors." And we agree as long as the permanent values of journalism are carried over into the Web.

Freelance writers remember the Tasini case of a few years back. In it freelance writers were paid for material newspapers put into their electronic database. That case has now been reversed by an appellate court in NY City. The striking part of the decision is the ruling that only writers who have registered their copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office can sue for damages; they can't sue as a "class."

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David

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