By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News

Are you there God? It’s me, twitter.com/mikecassidy.

Maybe it’s no surprise that we’ve reached the point where, rather than looking to the heavens to find God, we’re looking to the cloud. It’s where we live now, with iPods, iPads, Android gizmos, social networks. The town square, complete with steepled church, has become a digital rectangle that we carry in our pockets.

I’ve been thinking about this since the recent excitement over “Confession: A Roman Catholic App,” an iPhone application that offers Catholics a nifty way to prepare for the sacrament of confession.

Never mind that any Catholic could use help. When I was a kid, I constantly worried that I didn’t have enough sins to recite to the priest. So, I’d make up a few extras, and essentially lie to a priest, which of course meant another transgression and another trip to confession.

As of last week, the app, which provides a digital inventory of bad acts, was the sixth-most-popular in Apple’s lifestyle category, which in a bit of iLife synergy puts it right behind the iKamasutra.

Some of the buzz around the confession app was due to the fact that it was sanctioned by a Catholic bishop — a sign the church was ready to meet congregants in the century in which they are residing. It also held the delicious juxtaposition of modern technology aiding in an ancient rite. And it provided plenty of material for snickering….

Read the entire story on SiliconValley. com.

Way back when — in April, 2009 — I called Writers Lifeguard No. 16, “Mantrae for Our Times.”

Jules Older

It had but four markers of change:

• Screen is the new Paper
• Short is the new Deep
• Pictures are the new Words
• Free is the new Pay

Now, more than a year further into our climb — or plunge — from Gutenberg Era into the Digital Age, I’m ready to add six more

• Canon is the new Nikon (which was once the new Leica)
• Apps are the new Websites
• YouTube is the new Home Movie
• Video is the new Still Photography
• Twitter is the new Pac-Man [Can you guess why?]
• Blogs are the new Poetry. [This time I’ll tell you why. Both are written by many, read by few.]

And so the world turns.

If you have other new mantrae (mantrae being the plural of mantra) to add, shoot ‘em my way. And tell me — are we climbing into sunshine or plunging into darkness?

Jules

– 30 –

Jules Older (amazingly, no relation to Susan Older) is a freelance travel writer, the author of children’s books, the creator of the iPhone app San Francisco Restaurants, a speaker, a broadcaster and a consultant. Learn more about Jules here. To become a Lifeguard, just drop Jules a line at jules@julesolder.com, saying, “I’m a writer. Sign me up!”

By Jules Older

I’m not one who regards editors as bastards. I yam an editor. I try not to be a bastard. Sometimes I even succeed.

Jules Older

Ditto publishers. They’re the ones who feed my family, and I don’t go around biting the hand that feeds.

But. But the ones who don’t pay… ah, now yer talkin’ bastards. And if there’s one thing I hate worse than bastards who rip off writers, it’s the impotent rage writers feel when we can’t get our money from said bastards.

OK, that’s the last time I’ll refer to illegitimate offspring today. From here on out, it’s about how to collect what’s owed.

My ski-writer friend Steve, who has four or five brothers, swears that his solution is to visit the editorial office with his brothers in tow. They conspicuously look around for a while; then the biggest brother quietly says, “You got a lot of expensive equipment here. We wouldn’t want to see any of it damaged, y’understand? Please pay my brother what you owe him. Now.”

That might not be for everyone. Multi-purpose writer David Goodman pulled one of my all-time favorite tricks when he was living in Boston. The publisher — one of the few Black publishers in Boston — wasn’t paying his writers but was throwing a party for advertisers. By mistake, he’d somehow sent David the guest list. David sent him a five-word message; it read: “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”

The checks were delivered before the party began.

When a magazine publisher said he couldn’t pay me the couple of thou he owed, I knew he was nearly broke. So I put him on a schedule. And to his credit, he stuck to it, paying me a couple of hundred each month until the debt was very nearly paid off. By then, he was broke, and I figured we were close enough to even anyway.

There was one debt — a big one — I could not collect. I’d been promised an advance on an outdoors book, but when I delivered the ms, the publisher decided that the words they’d originally loved, they now hated… and were thus under no obligation to pay me a brass farthing. Then they stopped answering my letters. And calls. Can you spell impotent rage?

So I contacted the National Writers Union, which at the time was a righteous organization of which I was a paid-up member. It took the NWU’s Phil Mattera, may his tribe increase, less than 24 hours to get them to pay up. I donated 10% on the spot to the union; without them I’d still be stuck in wrath and dearth.

But the best revenge is success. A year or two later, I re-sold the book… and thus collected that advance not once, but twice.

I’m no longer a member of the union, so these days I have to be even wilier on my own. Here’s what I recommend whey you’re Payless in Peoria:

1. Always, always chase down that money. If you have to, threaten to kill the publisher’s dog, but never let him disappear with your hard-earned cash.
2. Your best protection is prevention. Don’t let yourself fall into debt to a publisher. Stop that before it starts. Go on strike until the check arrives… and doesn’t bounce.
3. If you can’t get the, uh, gentleperson to pay, your best strategy is to threaten to tell all and sundry, with a 24-hour deadline. That means advertisers, printers, warehousers, everyone vaguely associated with the rag. Inform the publisher that if the check isn’t hand delivered to your doorstep in 24 hours, at 24 hours and 1 minute, the email blast goes out.
4. At 24 hours and 10 minutes, the press release goes out — to the media. And, being a media person, yourself, you have a long, long reach and a big, fat Rolodex. See you in print, playah.
5. If you’re still not paid, make certain they do go out.

Here’s what it comes down to. Our best weapon isn’t wealth or lawyers or guys in dark alleys. Our best weapon is our writerly skills. When you can’t get paid for your honest work, this is the time to use ‘em.

Love to hear your experience and wisdom in this pain-filled part of the writer’s life.

Peace.

jules

– 30 –

Jules Older (amazingly, no relation to Susan Older) is a freelance travel writer, the author of children’s books, the creator of the iPhone app San Francisco Restaurants, a speaker, a broadcaster and a consultant. Learn more about Jules here. To become a Lifeguard, just drop Jules a line at jules@julesolder.com, saying, “I’m a writer. Sign me up!”

By Angela Lussier
Special for Displaced Journalists

For those journalists who have read the writing on the wall and are looking for ways to get out of traditional newspapers and into Web-based writing, now’s the best time in the history of the Web to do so. Journalists who follow market and business trends know that, but the way they are currently doing it is often missing the mark.

The traditional resume template is no longer a sure-fire way to get your foot in the door, particularly with technology and Web-based companies who have the cream of the crop from which to select. Now, more than ever, journalists need to differentiate themselves and show their worth, rather than just talk about it.

The top six tips for getting noticed:

1. First, throw out everything you ever knew about traditional resumes. Start thinking in terms of telling your professional autobiography. What does that look like? Think headlines, compelling leads, a bio, not bulleted skills lists. As a matter of fact, don’t use any sort of template, just create something that reflects your accomplishments, your personality, and your vision. This is your anti-resume, and it will give any employer in any industry a true snapshot of who you are and what you want, not just another rambling ho-hum list of the usual job descriptions, dates, and names of companies.

2. Yes, listing all the jobs you’ve held is important, but what’s most important is showing employers why they should hire you instead of the 75 other applicants with the same skill set, the same job titles and the same job duties. The fact that you’ve been a staff writer at the same paper for four years is impressive, but what did you write? Who did it touch? What happened as a result of your stories? What sets you apart from other staff writers? Are you good at getting state troopers to talk? Do you have a knack for portraying victims in a way that preserves their dignity, yet touches readers’ hearts? Your anti-resume should answer these questions.

3. As a professional storyteller, you should be using your resume as an opportunity to tell your story. Turn your resume into a scrapbook/portfolio of stories, photos and slideshows you’ve shot, edited or produced. Pick a theme for the book that truly represents what you stand for, or that represents your beat, and start compiling your best stuff. Have you won any awards? Include those too.

4. Include testimonials from co-workers as well as bosses. You can’t really ask a source or anyone you’ve covered for a reference, but you can go back to some particularly moving or significant stories and follow up on what has happened since you wrote the story. Include that along with your original clip. Has your reporting resulted in any new legislation, or action by city officials? Then tell the story of how! We can all toot our own horns all day, but when you can back up your words with facts, they mean more.

5. Don’t be afraid to get creative. A lot of writers are so used to being objective with their news stories that they’re afraid to show their true selves when it’s appropriate to do so. Well, the story you’re telling this time is yours. How do you want to be viewed? Give your reader or employer the opportunity to get to know you through reading your anti-resume. The #1 purpose of this is to get you the interview. Make it compelling enough that the person reading it wants to pick up the phone and schedule a time to meet you right away.

6. Editors have their pick of the best of the best. So, even if you choose to stay in traditional media, you’ll still need to stand out. That means being a double or triple threat — able to write, shoot video and photos, and produce Web pages or podcasts. So get your real name as a domain name and create a website. Your site should look, read and sound like what you are capable of producing. If you can pull an editor into the site, they’ll know you can pull readers in, too. Take time to learn some basic programs and the basics of design, layout, and both still and video photography. If you haven’t had a chance to produce a Soundslides project, then do it. The demo program is free and the result will show an editor that you can edit and produce. Can’t think of a slideshow to do? Then do one about yourself. Be creative. You get one shot, so don’t waste it.

Finally, target your prospective employer. Don’t just create the same package and shoot off links to 100 papers. Pick two or three papers, sites or employers you’d really like to work for and study them. Do they use a lot of photos? Features? Hard news? Alternative formats? Video? Soundslides projects? Then customize your offering to reflect that. Spend quality time on two or three potential prospects, not hurried time on 100. It WILL make a difference!

Angela Lussier is a Creative Career Consultant and owns 365 Degrees Consulting in Springfield, Massachusetts. She is the author of the Seth Godin recommended book, “The Anti-Resume Revolution” and a speaker at TEDx. Ms. Lussier offers anti-resume writing tips, helps clients discover their target job, and inspires them throughout the job search with creative solutions and personal marketing ideas.

By Michael Gauger

For nearly 20 years, I was a newspaper copy editor in Milwaukee, where I was born and grew up. But in the last few years, the Journal Sentinel had been cutting its staff through buyouts. In the summer of ’09, a round of buyouts didn’t yield enough cuts for the company, and in August I was laid off, among dozens in the newsroom who lost their jobs.

One year later, I’m happy to report, I have landed in a rewarding position: grant officer/writer for the Columbia St. Mary’s Foundation, which cultivates philanthropic support for the healthcare system serving the Milwaukee area.  When I told this to Susan Older, whose Displaced Journalists online community shines light in a gloomy time for journalism and employment, she urged me to write about it, to show out-of-work journalists that we should and could survive, even in a wretched economy. So I’m writing this for Susan, for my friend and fellow writer Julie Weber, who writes a blog that I recommend  (Tales from an Unemployed Interior Designer ) – and for you.

I knew that I could do the job with the foundation. And I wanted to do the job, as I would be writing applications for grants to support programs such as free health clinics for the poor. I would be telling important stories about a vital resource, and how it could be brought to people who lacked access to it. Like journalism, the foundation would call on my communications skills to comfort the afflicted. For me, it was the right opportunity at the right time.

Yes, before making that case and getting the job, I needed to hear numerous résumé critiques and make revisions, to do lots of networking and to profit from luck. Most important, however, was that I could talk about significant transferable skills from journalism: writing, editing, research, working on my own and as a member of a team to meet deadlines. (That set complemented one from my background as a scholar in American history and political science.)

Earlier, I had put those skills to work for scholars who had me edit their grant applications. More recently, I used the tools in volunteer work for two nonprofit groups. I sought out the work after getting excellent advice from a grant officer who was kind enough to give me an informational interview. Build a track record, he said. So I did some cold-calling, got a lead from a networking contact, consulted websites listing volunteer opportunities, and found Make a Difference – Wisconsin and Daystar Inc. The former recruits and trains volunteer instructors who present seminars on basic financial literacy (how to handle credit, make a budget and manage a checking account, for example) to teenagers. The latter operates a long-term shelter for women who are recovering from domestic violence. My work for these groups was very gratifying because it enhanced my credentials and references, showed initiative, gave me a chance to do some good work, and allowed me to add nonprofit experience on my résumé.

In the meantime, I was taking courses at Milwaukee Area Technical College for a certificate in information design and publishing: introduction to digital media, website development, Photoshop and InDesign. The coursework was a step toward another important credential (I need just two more classes to finish): It showed employers that I wasn’t standing still during unemployment, and it let me meet instructors and students who gave me job leads, contacts and valuable advice.

All these things put me in a good position to get the job that I’m fortunate, grateful and proud to have. I’m glad to tell this story, and share some advice that I hope will be helpful, even if it isn’t new to you:

• Get out there and network, network, network. And network on the Web, especially on LinkedIn. If you’re not on LinkedIn, get busy and get connected.
• Get some retraining. Go to school or seek resources on the Web that will add to your knowledge.
• Do volunteer work. You will feel better for it, you will help someone with your skills, and you will make good networking contacts.
• Seek out informational interviews with people who work in jobs or at companies in which you’re interested. They can give you valuable information and lead to job contacts.
• Identify transferable skills and promote them. Journalists: Remember that grant writing requires the type of skills that you have honed for years. So does RFP (request for proposal) writing. Think of how you can communicate important messages, for your own cause and for others you make your own.
• When you see a need for your skills, offer to fill it. You’ve seen many business brochures, PowerPoint presentations and promotional and informational literature filled with typos, grammatical errors and infelicities. So fix them. Look at it as a chance to make freelance money, or to do pro bono work that will make you feel good and gain networking contacts.
• Even though opportunities aren’t abundant in this economy, do not – do not – give up easily. Find a place for yourself. Make a place for yourself.

– 30 –

Michael Gauger blogs here. His LinkedIn profile is here.  On Twitter he is @mtgauger.

By Holly Kerfoot

“Dead man walking!”

The feeling that this should be shouted in the newsroom when I pass by has faded, as have the murmurs of sympathy from those who – for now – will be keeping their jobs.

What remains is the uncertainty.

You see, I work on a copy desk that is being phased out. In April, we learned that Media General had decided to eliminate the 18.5 positions on the Winston-Salem Journal’s desk and split its work between “consolidated” desks in Tampa and Richmond by the end of October. We were told that five positions will be available for those who would consider moving, and the company presented its layoff-compensation package. As of mid-June, we have heard no more, except that plans are moving ahead, though more slowly than expected.

And so we follow the routine, do our jobs, and wonder.

The waiting, oh, how it wears on my soul. I have experienced waiting before, when I turned in my two-week notice and looked forward to a new job. But this is different. I look ahead and see nothing, because how can I plan when I have no idea of what the future will bring? I’d like to think I’m a shoo-in for one of the consolidated jobs, but there is no way of knowing. My 30+ years of experience may price me out of their market. I’d take the job, if it were offered, because at age 53 the bird in the hand definitely is worth more.

I have considered other fields of work – maybe something in health care – but that requires time and money for schooling, and I wouldn’t make what I earn now.

There are in-state jobs involving editing that I probably could do, but some of the expectations frighten me. The level of fear surprises me, too, and I realize the ways in which this forced change has demoralized me.

Some days, I feel some of the old excitement about what new and interesting twist fate will bring me. If I don’t get a job with MG, perhaps another paper will hire me. When I was a child, my family moved frequently, so I like exploring new towns (even if moving is a pain).

But some days it is as hard to be optimistic as it is to really care about the tasks at hand.

And so I plug along, and I wait.

– Holly Kerfoot has worked as a news copy editor at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for 11 years this go-around. And she has been laid off by its parent company, Media General, before. She was a novice copy editor at the Journal when the afternoon paper, The Sentinel, was closed in 1985.

Hi, everyone. I agreed to publish this first-person piece from a member of our community without a byline because sometimes finding catharsis is hard enough without having to put your name up there in bright lights. As much as I’d love to have Displaced Journalists write and sign their stories, it’s getting to the point where blows to your ego take such a toll that I think it’s better to offer anonymity than to have people afraid to write at all.

– Susan Older, founder of Displaced Journalists

Got Work?

I won’t always be unemployed.

Pride slipped away long ago with my looks, so even though I’m the editor who rocks at managing breaking news coverage, I am applying now for every job from bookseller and barista to house painter. I will work for whoever will have me. Something part-time came trickling in this week and it will be too much work for too little pay. Still, money is money.

I expected to get pushed out of jobs after age 60, because older, experienced journalists cost more in salary and benefits. But not so soon – and not after bullying and harassment and being blamed for a bad economy. I know I’m not alone. I just can’t afford to stop and care about that yet because all of us are competing for the same jobs.

The state has been holding up my unemployment benefits for more than a month. How am I supposed to live and pay my mortgage when I can’t appeal the delay? And why am I not given the reason the state is questioning my eligibility? I walk on quicksand all day long.

I try to ration the panic attacks to no more than one an hour. Bedtime is worst – it takes three or four hours to wear myself down because the minute the lights go out and the room is quiet I can hear my brain churning and feel the physical motion of dropping into a deep, deep hole.

With friends I feel testy, obliged to account for my time and efforts to find work, something I already do weekly for the unemployment people. My friends bring me leads and I think, “Oh God, not another one,” but am also grateful in a not-exhausted corner of my brain. We have a cup of coffee and they talk about how bad their employers are or how much they spent on their vacation to Tanzania.

Seriously? I mean because if you’re spending that kind of money, toss some my way for groceries and medicine and socks without holes. Or like a good neighbor, invite your unemployed friend to dinner.

Watchdog reporting is at an alarming low at many federal agencies and departments whose actions have a huge impact on the lives of American citizens. This article appears in the June/July issue of American Journalism Review. It was funded by the Open Society Institute.

By Jodi Enda

After an explosion killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia in early April, the Washington Post and the New York Times quickly produced lengthy exposés detailing a plethora of safety breaches that preceded the nation’s worst coal mining disaster in a quarter century. The Times reported that mining companies thwarted tough federal regulations enacted after a spate of deaths four years earlier simply by appealing citations. The Post wrote that federal regulators had cited the Upper Big Branch mine for a whopping 1,342 safety violations in the past five years, 50 times in the previous month alone.
These are the kind of powerful stories that can goad public officials to make changes–sometimes life-saving changes–by shedding light on dangerous conditions. They also are the kind of stories that more and more often come too late, or not at all.

Just ask the families of the 29 miners.

As daily newspapers continue to shed Washington bureaus and severely slash their staffs, fewer reporters than ever are serving as watchdogs of the federal government.  Read more at AJR.

Jodi Enda (jaenda@gmail.com) is a Washington writer and former White House correspondent for Knight Ridder’s Washington bureau.

Sidebar: Abandoned Agencies

Also Read Jodi Enda’s piece on Abandoned Agencies, complete with an interactive chart and spreadsheet showing which news organizations are covering which government agencies.

By Alan D. Mutter

Posted Monday, June 7, 2010, on Reflections of a Newsosaur

Fed up with furloughs and down-sizing – or forced involuntarily out of their jobs – journalists across the land are taking matters into their own hands by starting their own news sites.

While I applaud these brave and commendable efforts, I fear a good many journalistic entrepreneurs are doomed to fail because they are not objectively confronting the steep odds they face – or putting nearly enough thought and effort into giving themselves a fighting chance to succeed.

After talking to one enterprising journalist after another, I have found almost uniformly that they are making the mistake that has proven to be the downfall of many an entrepreneur: Instead of trying to build a business, they are trying to give themselves the job they always wanted.

The passion for the product they are creating causes entrepreneurs to work so hard on their journalism that it distracts them from the real job of building an enterprise that not only sustains itself for the good of the community but also provides a sustainable lifestyle for the journalist himself.

In an effort to calibrate the daunting, come-from-behind challenge faced by virtually every journalism start-up, I decided to compare…. Read more at Mutter’s blog Reflections of a Newsoaur.

—–

ALAN MUTTER
Alan D. Mutter is perhaps the only CEO in Silicon Valley who knows how to set type one letter at a time, just like his hero, Benjamin Franklin. Mutter began his career as a newspaper columnist and editor in Chicago, starting at the Chicago Daily News and later rising to City Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1984, he became the No. 2 editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the newspaper business in 1988 to join InterMedia Partners, a start-up company that became one of the largest cable-TV companies in the U.S. Mutter was the COO of InterMedia when he moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 to lead the first of the three start-up companies he led as CEO. The companies he headed were a pioneering Internet service provider and two enterprise-software companies. Mutter now is a consultant specializing in corporate initiatives and new media ventures that combine his twin passions, journalism and technology. He also is on the adjunct faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California- Berkeley, where he teaches a class entitled “Journalism in an Age of Disruption.”

Posted on Poynter.org by Andy Medici at 6:25 AM on Jun. 3, 2010

Let’s role-play for a second.

Imagine you are working in an industry that has been battered by the recent recession and rapid advances in technology. Instead of paying for teams of professionals, people are going online to find new content like yours or create their own. The Internet has opened the door to thousands of competitors, all offering content that appeals to just about any niche or taste.

Meanwhile, your legacy company is burdened with an outdated distribution system and is trying desperately to adjust to a new world in which having a local monopoly is not an option.

Sound familiar? Well if you have been working in the adult entertainment industry for the last few years, then this isn’t really news.

In normal times, journalism and the adult entertainment industry would make strange bedfellows. After all, the first is tasked with upholding our democracy and the second is … well, sometimes literally about strange bedfellows.

The two industries share many of the same problems, and a lot of the handwringing can easily be copy and pasted …. Read more at Poynter.org.