Editor, revised

We’ve been seriously mixing our mediums at the Spokesman-Review lately. We’re on the air. As in on the radio. And the broadcasts are coming from our newsroom. Check it out here. Read Editor Steve Smith’s announcement here.

We’ve been at it for about seven weeks, by my count, and I think editors, reporters and multimedia people have made strides in incorporating audio collection into our routines.

Regardless of what you think about newspapers doing radio, the push for multimedia in newsrooms makes audio collection and editing valuable skills. At a meeting yesterday, radio reporter/announcer Dan Mitchinson and multimedia guru Colin Mulvany led a discussion on good audio habits. Although we talked mostly about sound destined for the radio, these tips are important for video productions as well.

• Get your recorder/mic as close as possible to the source.
• Learn to listen: If you’re indoors, watch out for electrical hums or fans. If you’re outside, be aware of traffic noise, planes passing overhead, etc. Try to find a place where such background annoyances are minimal.
• At the same time, remember to get natural sound from your environment. This too can help tell the story. (Our editorial page editor raised a valid ethical concern: Don’t use these natural sounds in ways that mislead. For instance, don’t overlay sounds from a park with an interview conducted indoors.)
• Check those recording levels before you start interviewing. If you need to adjust, don’t do it while your source is in the middle of a sentence.
• It’s better to hold your mic a bit to the side of the mouth that’s talking. This helps avoid popping P sounds.
• Use headphones to monitor the audio you’re receiving. It may seem weird to talk to a source while wearing headphones, so just explain why you’re doing it.
• Just as some people are afraid of TV cameras, others are afraid of mics and the way their voices sound. Use humor and self-deprecation to warm them up. You probably don’t like the way your recorded voice sounds either.

We covered other ground germane to our particular operations, but I won’t go into that here. If you’re looking for more tips, check out Colin Mulvany’s blog. He’s been doing this a lot longer than I have.

I remember walking in my grad school commencement a couple years back. Like most fellow graduates, I was smiling. Unlike quite a few fellow graduates, I was smiling about the achievement AND the fact that I’d already lined up a job.

This week, my former adviser Daryl Moen noted in an email to his listserv of Missouri J School grads that he’s noticed more anxiety among graduating seniors/grad students and fewer of them heading into a full-time job right away. This shouldn’t be surprising if you’re following the industry news.

Fortunately, there are some good collections of advice floating around out there. And they’re not limited to how to get a job. If you’ve got a minute between writing cover letters and updating your resume, check these out.

• Journerdism: “Make organization and the elimination of clutter (especially information clutter) a life long process. Twitter is neat, but addicting and dangerous. We lost a lot of good men in the war to Twitter.”
• Innovation in College Media: “Look beyond what job you’ll be doing and take a look at the snapshot portrait that’s being developed right now about the profession.”
• Online Journalism Blog: “As you do your job, as you walk the streets, as you read the newspapers and browse the messageboards, keep your news sense about you: is something happening that is newsworthy?”
• JournalismJobs.com: Besides publishing tons of help-wanted ads, this site has some good career articles.
• My previous post, while a little tongue in cheek and not about getting a job, offers 15 observations I’ve gained in 24 months in the field. “Somewhere, somehow, there is a perfect nexus of efficiency and quality, and it takes more than two years to find it.”

Today is the two-year anniversary of my full-time status at the Spokesman. That means two years as a full-time newspaper journalist, plus several months of part-timing it in Spokane and Stockton, Calif. I thought I’d take the occasion to note, only somewhat irreverently, a few things I’ve learned along the way. Please add to them.

• It’s wise to pick your battles. Whether you be the newest copy editor or a high-level manager.
• Some people are just afraid of the active voice.
• Play good photos big. Play bad photos even bigger.
• We are supposed to frown upon horse race stories in election years, but sometimes that’s secretly what we really want to read.
• Somewhere, somehow, there is a perfect nexus of efficiency and quality, and it takes more than two years to find it.
• Pay extra close attention when editing stories with repetitions of the word “public.”
• It’s safe, but not advisable, to eat the pizza with the sweaty cheese.
• It’s hard to give hope to journalism students during layoffs.
• If you can learn to talk to readers on the phone with sincerity, respect and conviction, you will be an asset to your newsroom.
• When asking a co-worker to do something, it helps to sit down by them.
• The demand for hopeful news out of Iraq far outstrips the supply.
• Gallows humor has its place when talking about the news, and that place should be full of fellow journalists.
• It’s terrifyingly easy to become inured to body counts and stories of suffering from wars and natural disasters.
• If that happens, take a step back and let the tragedy move you.
• Amid the carnage, take comfort in AP pictures of baby animals, but don’t assume your readers will do the same.