In praise of quiet leaders

Rockford Register Star Managing Editor Lil Swanson gets
high marks as a newsroom manager from Poynter's Jill Geisler. An excerpt:

Unlike some of us who think by speaking and form ideas as we hear ourselves deliver them, Lil thinks carefully and then offers her ideas. She seems to take great care to make certain that other voices are heard and is careful to never step on people's ideas. Make no mistake, she voiced strong opinions on ethics cases we were discussing, but with a gift for engaging thought, not shutting it down.

Bombastic bosses often think that their volume, sarcasm, or ability to terrify is what gets them results. There's plenty of literature out there that says they're wrong...

The Poynter piece also includes a video interview with Lil.

Some great multimedia work

Here's some of the stuff mentioned either by Curt Chandler or attendees at the NINA workshop:

Dail: Life Unbarred, from the Raleigh News & Observer.

Kingsley's Crossing, from Media Storm (and check out other projects on this site.)

The Las Vegas Sun's multimedia section.

iPhone: The Musical, from David Pogue of the New York Times

And some from Jim:
News Videographer, blog by Angela Grant of the San Antonio Express News.

Roanoke.com's video section.

Obviously this is nothing close to an exhaustive list, and there's also great stuff being produced by some NINA newspapers. But I've found the above links to be worth a look.

More equipment advice

A few more hardware and software suggestions from Curt Chandler's workshop:

Video editing
Curt recommends Sony Vegas as video editing software that’s a little easier to learn (and less expensive) than Apple's Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro.

(And from Jim: For entry-level video editing, try iMovie, which comes free with newer Macs as part of the iLife suite. Windows also includes a free video editor, Windows Movie Maker. It works for very basic stuff, but it lacks some needed features like the ability to overlay multiple video tracks.)

Video camera
Curt, a pro photographer, shoots video with a Canon XH A1. That's pretty high-end for newspaper Web sites. It's an HD video camera -- not important for the Web, but important for taking frame grabs and using them as still photos for print. If you want to do frame grabs, use a camera that shoots progressive video, not interlaced video. Progressive captures whole frames. Interlaced captures half frames that your brain assembles into a full image.

Generally it's a good idea to record on tape, not the video camera’s hard drive. This becomes important because in most smaller newsrooms, the camera is also used as a tape deck to capture video to the computer. If you fill up the hard drive, you have to unload it before someone else can use the camera.

Digital voice recorders

At last Friday's NINA workshop, speaker Curt Chandler recommended the Olympus WS-100 as a digital voice recorder for journalists. It typically sells for $60 to $80 at most electronics retailers. But, Overstock.com sells a reconditioned model for $46.99. Unfortunately they're out of stock right now, but it's worth checking back. The advantage there, Curt said, is that an engineer has hand-checked the unit to be sure everything is working.

Here are a bunch of other places to find the WS-100. The newer model is the WS-110, which is basically the same and usually runs about $70.

I use a WS-100 and can recommend it. The sound quality, even from the condenser microphone, is really good. It plugs directly into a USB port and you can transfer all recordings as Windows Media files. Other models do this via a USB cable, which works fine provided you don't lose the cable.

These recorders do work with Macs. You can use a free conversion program like Switch to turn the files into MP3s. Here's another place to get that.

Program reminder

Just a reminder that you have one more week to register for NINA's April 25 Spring Conference on visual journalism, with speaker Curt Chandler from Penn State University. This should be a terrific program, and the cost is only $20.

Full details here. Registration deadline is Friday, April 18 (register by e-mailing me or calling me at 815-753-4239). You can pay on the day of the event.

Score one for the First Amendment

Good news, if you haven't heard: The IHSA has figured out that they'd better knock it off. A settlement reached this week puts news photographers back on the sidelines for IHSA events, with no more exclusivity for the IHSA's selected photographer. Big thanks to the Illinois Press Association, the State Journal-Register and the Northwest Herald for pursuing this legally. And for state legislators who placed pressure on the IHSA.

Here's the settlement, from Sangamon County Circuit Court, via the State Journal-Register.

High school journalism workshop

Forwarded to me by Rick Nagel at the Beacon News. Please pass this along to high school journalism advisers, and/or run it it in your paper:

Scholarships Available for 2-week Journalism Workshop

High school students interested in journalism are encouraged to apply for full scholarships to a two-week workshop to be held July 13-26 in Charleston.
Selected students will stay on the Eastern Illinois University campus expense-free to learn about reporting, writing, photography and putting a newspaper together. A brief internship is included with the workshop, and the program culminates with students producing their own newspaper.
Since 1993, dozens of professionals from 30 newspapers and news organizations have provided the bulk of the instruction for the workshop. The Illinois Press Foundation underwrites the program. The Project for Ethics and Excellence and the Pulitzer Foundation also are significant contributors.
The first week of the program is spent on instruction and journalism exercises. During the second week, students pair up at various newspapers and begin writing their articles. Past students have covered murder trials, interviewed the governor and explored county fairs.
The program includes other field trips for instructional and entertainment purposes. Past trips have included an Amish community, the Lincoln Log Cabin, the Ernie Pyle Museum, the largest bagel bakery in the world, a canoe trip, a hospital and a courthouse.
Applications for the workshop must be received by May 5 and are available from the Journalism Department at EIU. Students must have completed their sophomore year in high school by the beginning of the workshop and must write a 500-word essay about their career goals and how the workshop would help them. Writing examples and letters of recommendation from teachers are also required.
For an application or to ask questions, one may contact Sally Turner, director of the 2008 IPF/EIU High School Journalism Workshop at 217-581-7867 or by e-mail at seturner@eiu.edu. Her fax number is 217-581-7188.