Comments on: Eight things your college newsroom needs to change (if it hasn’t already)

By: Alyx Minor

Alyx Minor — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:01:41 +0000

As the editor of the Winonan, Winona State University’s weekly 20-page tabloid, I agree with these points and wish they were foreseeable in my newsroom’s future.

As vigorously as I may nod my head and think, “Right! That’s a good idea,” I know that my 35-member staff and our $600 issues don’t equal out to a serious, professional paper. I guess I’m agreeing with what Paul said: How do we implement these changes with a short budget, few staff members, classes and other jobs? Not to mention, the rotation of staff every year!

I wish you had a magical answer to these issues, cause I’m about fed up with “good enough!” What do you do in your newsroom?

By: Harumi Gondo

Harumi Gondo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:27:50 +0000

Hey Brian:
great post. I especially liked points 3, 4, 5 and 7 (I even checked out Jay Rosen’s youtube video).
My heart knew point 5, but my head did not. Thanks for articulating that, I’ll definitely keep it in mind!

Keep up the good work.
Harumi

By: Paul Balcerak

Paul Balcerak — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:03 +0000

Nice post. My college paper was guilty of just about all of them (under my leadership, too, to be fair).

One question (perhaps rhetorical): How does a college newsroom go about making all these changes when it’s almost completely made over every year? Or in other words, who, exactly, should be instituting these changes? It’s my experience that many college advisers/professors are Old Media types and student journalists wouldn’t know that any of these practices exist in the first place.

By: Ben Leis

Ben Leis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:01:48 +0000

Great post Brian. To help with #7 and a step towards intercollegiate student newspaper collaboration we created a bunch of different search engines just for this purpose of linking to related stories. Search College News Sites by Athletic Conference or Search Over 800 College News Sites

By: Student Editor: “Eight Things Your College Newsroom Needs to Change” « College Media Matters

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:23:04 +0000

[...] to college news media outlets’ staffing, production, and presentation in the Web age. In a new post on his personal blog, Brian Manzullo- the current Michigan Press Association College Journalist of the Year and top [...]

By: Rachel Esterline

Rachel Esterline — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:31:17 +0000

While all of these are great points, I really agree with number 5. Usually, if I just want news, I will go straight to the source. I would love to see more conversation between the paper and others. Social media is a two-way street.

Great post!

By: Lauren Rabaino

Lauren Rabaino — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:42:13 +0000

Hey Brian,
Great list you have here, and perfect timing for a new years resolution of sorts for student newsorgs.

I especially like the part about getting rid of the concept of an “online editor” posting all the stories to the web. This is one point I don’t hear reiterated enough. At a session at the ACP conference in Texas, I heard the concept best described as “tearing down the silos.” The news editor should be posting news stories, news video, news tweets, etc., the sports editor should do the same for his/her section, etc. To take it even a step further– the *reporters* should be the ones producing this content and merely run it by the editors.

To elaborate on your comment about the online editor focusing on social media — I’d like to point out the necessity of hiring an online developer too. If the online editor can focus on content while the developer focuses on the technical, together they can produce really stellar projects.

More on the discussion about hiring an online editor is happening on the CoPress forum if you’re interested.