The Evolving Newsroom

I was just reading a ReadWriteWeb post about rebooting CVs to bring them up to date for today's market and it chimed with me.

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to see journalists move to using online CVs, especially if it links to evidence of their digital citizenry - blog, published stories, pictures, videos, social bookmarks, social networks and so on.

If I were hiring right now, I'd certainly rate someone who sent a digital CV. CBWorkSpace seems a perfectly useful site for presenting a CV simply and easily. And if you have video gear and are confident of your presenting abilities you might want to try CB Video Resume. The ReadWriteWeb post has a couple of other suggestions too.

I've started including links in my email signature to my blog and profile/career summary on Naymz and LinkedIn, as a point of reference for people 'meeting' me for the first time. Just last week I pitched for a job and found that providing a link to my LinkedIn career summary was enough background information to satisfy the client (we also met in person).

That said, it's important to have a good paper CV too and make both digital and paper versions available. After all, there are a fair few editors around who aren't too comfortable yet in the digital world (she said, rather understatedly).

If you do send a paper CV by email, make sure you save it as a pdf first - you never know how a Word document is going to print out and it could get altered when it's opened.

Final tip: when you get the pdf ready, you might also want to add hyperlinks for your email address, websites, online stories and blog address so your prospective employer can click through from the pdf when they open it.

This is a great example of a reporter getting with the digital programme. Her website is spot on - a blog, information about her, links to her work, her CV, several ways to contact her and engage in conversation.

She is a newsroom recruiter's dream - not only a journalist but a blogger with a science background who started 'teaching herself HTML at age 10'. Now that's a skill set.

Having overheard a couple of conversations in newsrooms recently that ran along the lines of 'you can't trust what you read online' I realise that we have a ways to go in New Zealand on understanding quite how profound the changes are that face our industry.

So, here's a must-read for all reporters, editors, sub-editors and media executives. It neatly encapsulates what's required to make the leap from traditional media to digital. This is not a quick fix, by the way, more like a journey that will take time and a lot of effort.

Twelve things journalists can do to save journalism

May as well read this too:
Five guiding principles for the transformation of media companies

While you're at it. If you haven't already (most have been around for a while), read:

The Cluetrain Manifesto
The end of business as usual
By Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.
The blog, the book.
In a nutshell: the internet is changing the way we do business and the way we relate to one another. Out goes meaningless marketing piffle, in comes honest appraisal of what you've got to offer. Out goes secrecy and walls, in comes transparency and engaging in dialogue with your customers. Out goes pretending you don't mistakes, in comes owning up and accepting help in fixing them. It's a light read and I think worth looking at.

The Long Tail
Why the future of business is to sell less of more
By Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired.
The blog, the book.
In a nutshell: digital products create new business models - without the need to warehouse and stock products on shelves, you can carry exponentially more stock and make even extremely low sellers available year-round. It's an easy read and much more than just a business lesson.

The Search
How Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture
By John Battelle
The blog, the book.
In a nutshell: search is the internet, pretty much. Without search we wouldn't be able to find each other and carry on conversations. This is highly readable and a fascinating look at the history of Search, Google's rise and rise included, and where we are now.

The World is Flat
The globalised world in the 21st century
By Thomas Friedman.
The blog, the book.
In a nutshell: while we're arguing about whether or not text language is acceptable in exams and ignoring science and maths, a gazillion parents in China and India are working their socks off to put at least one of their children through university. Those children are working their socks off to get the best job they can. They speak several languages, excel at physics and eat algebra for breakfast. And because of the internet they can do our jobs. Good to know. You may not agree with Friedman's take on who wins with globalisation and this isn't an easy read, but it's certainly thought-provoking.


And if you haven't already seen these, take a look now: