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Journalistopia

A world for online journalists. Come all ye scribes, artists and innovators of the press.

Free pro blog accounts for journalists at TypePadYesterday

The folks over at TypePad are offering free pro blogging accounts to journalists and former journalists under the moniker of a “Journalist Bailout Program” (har, very funny fellas). The free plan –which typically costs $14.95 a month– offers technical support, hosting and use of TypePad’s blogging platform (we make heavy use of TypePad for OrlandoSentinel.com’s many blogs, and it’s pretty darn good). While I imagine this behooves TypePad since they’ll get good writers for their ad affiliate program, it’s still a fantastic deal for folks who can’t tell FTP and PHP from the IRS and M&Ms.

Here’s a chance to get a free blog account with technical support on a domain name that YOU own, as opposed to getting a blog on Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.

[UPDATE: Six Apart's Anil Dash's thoughts on the blog offer]

[Free pro TypePad accounts for journos]

[Hat tip to William Beem for the link]

When is working for free OK?November 11

The New York Times Shifting Careers blog has an article that should be of interest to writers and web designers who are thinking of going the freelance route. Michelle Goodman, author of ‘My So-Called Freelance Life,’ has written a guest post outlining how doing freelance work for free –in certain instances– can benefit your freelance career. She also describes how to spot the many junk offers.

Goodman is by no means an advocate of not being compensated for work. But with the slew of non-paid work-just-for-exposure-or-experience offers floating around out there, Goodman has identified what some of the good opportunities are:

You have no clients or portfolio. If you left your staff position without any customer testimonials or work samples, you may have to do a freebie or three for a worthy small business to prove to paying clients that you’ve done this before. Pick short-term projects (several days, tops) so you’re not stuck working pro bono until the next decade.

There’s a wealth of more excellent freelance advice at Goodman’s article.

Journalistopia is off to España, GreeceOctober 15

I’m taking a break! As you may recall, yours truly got married back in July, but Mrs. Journalistopia and I never got to go on our honeymoon. So we’re off on a two-week romp through Europe! We’re flying tomorrow to Venice for a night, then on to a week-long cruise of the Greek Isles topped off with three days in Barcelona and four days in Madrid. And the wife actually convinced me to leave the ol’ laptop behind…*shudder*.

So if you know of any must-see spots in Madrid or Barcelona (and recommendations for the best newspapers and magazines to read while I’m there), drop me a line in the comments! We’ll be staying in Las Ramblas in Barcelona and in the heart of downtown Madrid. Definitely looking forward to churros for breakfast.

Hasta luegos mi amigos! See you in November!

[Photo of downtown Madrid by cuellar]

Multimedia job openings in Orlando, Fort LauderdaleOctober 13

Hey Journalistopians, opportunity is a-knockin’! The Orlando Sentinel, my esteemed employer, has a job opening for a rockin’ Flashionista multimedia artist (who just so happens to share the cube next to me). Additionally, the Sun-Sentinel, our sister paper down in South Florida, has an opening for a web developer.

So if you want to rock your multimedia skills in a couple of towns where the weather calls for shorts all year long, then drop me a line at dsanchezATorlandosentinel.com. If you’d rather not e-mail, drop me a line at the office at 407-418-5984. On to the job descriptions:

Re: Flash designer job description

Orlando Sentinel Multimedia Artist
The Orlando Sentinel is seeking a multimedia artist to create explanatory graphics across publishing platforms. We’re looking for a visual ambassador for the newsroom, someone who can move easily between print and online teams. We’ll be counting on you to foster an experimental mindset in others, maximizing the interactive potential of both daily stories and long-term projects.

Candidates must posses:
• Proficiency in Flash and Adobe’s Creative Suite. Design, photography, audio/video editing or coding skills are a plus.
• The ability to conduct interviews, gather research and report breaking news onsite.
• A bachelor’s degree, preferably in journalism or new media studies, or equivalent related experience.

Garbage SEO journalismOctober 3

I’m a big fan of optimizing headlines for search engines so they can be found, but sometimes sites go too far. At the moment, there are unverified rumors crawling around the Internet that actor James Earl Jones died. So I did a search on Google News. Check out this piece of work I found on a news site called the Post-Chronicle:

The “story” simply speculates on his death without offering any actual facts. Check out the use of “died,” “death,” “dead” and –yes– “no longer living” in the headline to goose search engine traffic.

Folks, don’t become desperate for page views and do bottom-of-the-barrel stuff like this.

(And no, I’m not linking to the story; there’s no way I’m lending any Google juice to that thing.)