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Background in journalism and communications with training in new media, public relations, and design. Trade publication editor, community journalist, musician, expert social media amateur and overall life enthusiast.



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A ‘wonderful time to be in the news business’?

Is journalism's clock still ticking?

I never really used to be a podcast person — I always preferred listening to music and found the talking distracting, especially if I was working on something else at the time (and who has time to just sit around and listen to something? I’m all about multitasking).

Maybe my boyfriend’s talk radio listening habits are rubbing off on me, because lately I’ve developed a habit of listening to various media-related podcasts while going through my Google News Alerts in the morning. I like the Morning Media Menu series from MediaBistro, and at 15 minutes, they’re easy to digest.

This morning for the first time I checked out the Rebooting the News podcast series with Jay Rosen and Dave Winer. I started following @jayrosen_nyu a little while ago after he tweeted about Journal Register Company (JRC, my future employer) CEO John Paton’s blog covering the JRC overhaul, and Rosen is also heading up the new East Village blog venture between NYU and the New York Times (I’m always interested when journalism and academics mix).

This podcast is definitely longer, and might be better served from a more dedicated listen, as my ear tended to wander and then periodically get dragged back to specific topics they were covering (NYT pay wall, Twitter in Google search results, etc.).

At one point Dave Winer mentioned football, which always grabs my attention. He made a nice metaphor about how journalists often fail to step back and give themselves room the way quarterbacks sometimes do, and then he said the following about the survival of journalists and news organizations:

Continue reading A ‘wonderful time to be in the news business’?

More advice for small-school journalist jobseekers

Okay, my school wasn't that small.

I’m writing in response to another Ask the Recruiter column, this time about an aspiring journalist with an impressive resume coming from a small college.

In his column, Joe Grimm offers some pretty good advice to the student — on his jaw-dropping sixth internship at a daily newspaper — who seems to be having some problems breaking into a bigger daily publication.

It is unclear whether he is trying to land another internship or an actual job, but as both processes are similar, the advice (network harder, reach out to recruiters) is applicable to either.

I want to elaborate on this topic, because while I don’t have nearly the amount of internships and accolades as this student, I do come from a small school and can relate to his situation.

Continue reading More advice for small-school journalist jobseekers

Entry-level: Benjamin Brown

Entry-level is a new series profiling those who are working their first media jobs out of college. Want to be featured? Send an e-mail to d.ceceliamartinez [at] gmail [dot] com with a photo and answers to the questions below.

Founder and CEO Benjamin Brown

NameBenjamin Brown (@RedLeader656)

Location: Albany, NY

Gig: Founder and CEO, New Hand Media

EducationThe College of Saint Rose, 2009

Length of job search: My job search lasted months. During school, I was working for Apple Inc. as a computer tech at one of their retail stores. It was a great job and I was paid well, but there was so much that I felt I was missing. So, making one of the most important decisions of my life, I decided to quit my job and relocate to Charlotte, NC. It was there that I got a taste of the real world and how bad the economy actually is. I spent eight to 10 hours a day sending out resumes and calling companies, never hearing a word back from any of them. This went on for about six months, until I finally ran out of money and had to come back to Albany. I was disappointed, but learned a lot about life and the job market, so for that I’m forever grateful.

Why he decided to start his own business: The difficulty of finding a job in established companies. There are a lot of marketing and ad agencies out there, but in an economy like this, most of them are looking to let people go rather than hire. After a huge amount of disappointment and frustration, I decided to start my own business. I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew that I could do it better than most people that I had come across in the same field. I found what I loved and now I’m making a career out of it.

Continue reading Entry-level: Benjamin Brown