It had been six years since I spruced up my resume and I wasn’t really feeling a particular need to when up popped this job description in my NetNewsWire RSS news reader back in November.
KNIGHT CHAIR IN MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM
We are seeking a professional who has created new knowledge and/or advances in multimedia journalism and the presentation of news using different media: writing, sound, moving and still images, and interactivity. The chair holder will help Medill explore new and emerging ways of delivering news and information on digital platforms.
I was intrigued by this offer and, for a quick reality check, I asked a friend in Paris, Bertrand Pecquerie, for his honest advice about this job at Northwestern. He responded instantly, ‘It is you!”
I believed him and spent a few weeks writing and rewriting my C.V.
That was back in December and, for nothing else, I was grateful for the process. Along the way I rediscovered LinkedIn and found that as I entered my work history I was on my way to a tightly-formatted resume.
But it will not be me sitting in that chair at Medill. I returned home from the World Newspaper Congress to find a ‘Dear Applicant’ letter buried in three weeks of mail.
If I only wrote about what goes right and bright in this blog then I wouldn’t be much of a journalist - I’d just be another consultant who only writes when he can spin. So it is a bit painful and necessary to share with you that my brilliant CV didn’t even land me an interview teaching journalism in my own hometown. I certainly don’t regret applying and I will be watching with great interest to see who does get that golden opportunity.
It’s not like I haven’t been busy . . .
1) Focusing ideas, lists, names, themes, social media, multimedia and pacing.
Prototyping at the Mercury News
When the Maestros of Silicon Valley call and ask for your schedule - you make room. Fast.
A few months ago I got the chance to work brain-to-pencil on a complete overhaul of the Business section of the San Jose Mercury News with Jonathon Berlin and Matt Mansfield. I call it work, but with the chemistry I have with these two - it never felt like it.
We set out to design from a content-based and community-driven perspective for one of the must-read sections of the paper. The tech business is the reason most people live and work in the Valley, so this effort is critical for the paper.
It is bittersweet to write this because of the recent news of the top editor’s departure and announced job cuts at the paper - it now seems like those machinations would be impossible to avoid.
2) Onto the drawing board
The business prototype we set forth was not only an an effort to kick-start the redesign process but a chance to engage some radical thinking about how best to serve the tech community in Silicon Valley.
Like a lot of paper’s operating in large media groups, the Merc had just got local control again of it’s Web site from the corporate masters. Developing ideas for how the Web and print coverage could be better used to drive community feedback drove alot of our ideas.
We prototyped using their current type palette knowing that a separate, stylistic effort was already underway.
Our new strategy isn’t to judge news by an arbitrary number of stories, but to think about lead/centerpiece and how to tell everything else.
- Jonathon Berlin
Wired for the job
First thing I did was steal another monitor and wire JB in to the joy that is the dual-monitor design workstation. On the wall are pencils, page pulls, and inspiration for the project. We filled two walls in his office before we went to the computer to draw pages.
Here’s a prototype of the Data two page stocks spread and a closeup of the left hand page of the final that went to press this week.
Click thumbnails to enlarge.
3) Out of the computer
4) Off the printing press
The new section has now been launched and Jonathon Berlin has posted up Tech Monday pages and shares more about the type he chose and what they are trying to acccomplish with the section now.
Hats off to the journalists in San Jose as they continue to make strides to improve their paper in spite of a wicked newspaper economy.
Sorry to hear about the job! Maybe some day they will figure out what they’re missing.