$5.00 October 2009 December 2009 Awards Season STUDENTS Ins and Outs of Recognition STILL HEAR Page 45 THE CALL Aspiring Journalists One-Man Put Their Faith Bands in the Future Local Anchors of an Embattled Learn to Prompt Industry Page 6 Page 12 Business & Financial Emmys A custom guide to the program follows Page 16 DѰWho is doing credible and robust journalism that informs and engages society on environmental issues, every day? ѰMembers of the Society of Environmental Journalists Team Coveragery of planet earth S E sa J 2 t r 0 h A n n i v e w g w w . s e j . o r Celebrate 20 years of trail-breaking, boot-stomping, name-taking, policy-wonking, gnarly & vital work. PLEASE GIVE Your Tax-Deductible Contribution Today or mail your check to: Visit ɬɬɬѱɕȐȬѱɄɑȝ PO Box 2492 Jenkintown, PA 19046 Strengthening the quality, reach and viability of journalism across all media to advance public understanding of environmental issues. FROM THE EDITOR The Hope Among Us for CONTENTS Journalism’s Future DECEMBER 2009 Those of us who have been in the trenches of journalism for a couple of decades or longer have endured a period of FEEDS unprecedented transition. John King hustles to fill the prime- Positions that were plentiful when we started out have been time vacancy left by Lou Dobbs at merged with other jobs or have disappeared entirely. CNN ..... Page 4 Once upon a time, on the print side of the business, in A look back at a unique career path addition to reporters the professional world was liberally with Fox Business Network’s Neil populated with people who edited copy, people who proofread Cavuto ...... Page 5 copy, people who moved copy from place to place, people who set On-air talent learns to run own teleprompters in stations’ latest cost cut type, people who put type on pages and people who took pages to the printer. Those many ...... Page 6 job functions now all fall to a single person, thanks to a blinding progress of technology Columbia University suspends its led by computerization and the advent of the Internet. environmental journalism dual-degree Broadcast news, although to a lesser degree, has gone through a similar program ...... Page 8 consolidation and retrenchment, many times with added duties being spread among COVER STORY fewer workers. And as this issue’s story about local stations’ move toward talent-run Why journalism schools are enjoying teleprompters suggests, the quest to cut costs continues unabated. robust enrollment as uncertainty roils the The past decade’s downward spiral in journalism industry economics only further industry ..... Page 12 impacted opportunities to work in or around the processing and dissemination of SPECIAL REPORT professional news reporting. So what you’ve got is an industry with limited opportunities and a blatantly uncertain future that would seem to offer zero appeal to The lines between entry categories fade as awards programs adjust to changing the upcoming generation. Right? times ..... Page 45 Not so fast. As we learn in this issue’s cover story by Elizabeth Jensen — which is Freelancers emerge as new force accompanied by two enlightening student essays on the subject — Journalism among awards and fellowship programs at schools across the country are teeming with students who aspire to forge applicants ..... Page 48 the profession’s new frontier with scant assurance of even adequate financial reward Fellowships were an option never and little or no positive reinforcement from a society consumed with celebrity gossip before considered by these successful applicants ..... Page 56 and self-absorption. As incredible as this may seem to us disillusioned old-school types, it’s true: journalism SIGNOFF still holds its noble call. And among today’s youth, there are still those who heed it — in Tom Petner explores what it takes to spite of, or perhaps even because of, the changes sweeping over the profession. make an effective leader in today’s newsrooms .... Page 58 —Tom Gilbert Newsmakers ..... Page 9 Online ..... Page 10 ADVERTISING SALES Technology ..... Page 11 Ph: (212) 210-0748 Fax: (212) 210-0772 Executive Producer: Jeff Reisman, [email protected] NewsPro, (ISSN 2151-1764), Volume 1, Issue 4, is published (212) 210-0748 Quarterly, August, September, October, November at Crain EDITORIAL OFFICES Producer: Danny Schreiber, [email protected] Communications Inc, 711 Third Ave, New York, NY 10017. 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December 2009 | NewsPro | 3 FeedsINFORMATION AND ANALYSIS FROM THE WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL NEWS CABLE NEWS IN THE WINGS movements in Washington and John King says he wants his new show to be “constructive across the nation.”King said in John King and contextual.” an interview from on the road in Little Rock, Ark., that his new Scrambles to show “will build on some things we know that work, and create Ready a CNN some new things.” The giant touch-screen “Magic Wall” that became his trademark for Show in the explaining election results during the 2008 political Wake of Lou campaign is one of the elements that will make the transition. Dobbs’ Abrupt While ideas are still being kicked around, he said, “one Departure thing I do know is I want it to be constructive and contextual, to BY ELIZABETH JENSEN peel back some of the big CNN’s John King has only had his own questions people have,” whether show on the network, the four- hour Sunday morning “State of the Union,” POLITICAL AMBITIONS Lou Dobbs is now talking since early this year. But sometime next about running for a U.S. January, the veteran political reporter is Senate seat. being handed one of the news network’s plum assignments: The anchor spot weekdays at 7 p.m., where he will head up a new primetime political program. He got the anchor slot when previous occupant Lou Dobbs, who had been at CNN for nearly three decades, abruptly quit the network on Nov. 11, after clashing with its management over his outspoken views on, among other issues, illegal im- After a heady election year in 2008, migration and whether President Obama with soaring ratings, CNN has been has a valid birth certificate (which CNN struggling against the competition, reported earlier that he did.) Dobbs, an seeing a primetime ratings drop in independent, is now talking about running October to fourth place in the for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2012, network’s target demographic of 25- and using that as a stepping stone for a to-54-year-olds, behind even sister later Presidential run. network HLN (formerly Headline News.) For the moment, viewers No Advance Planning appear to prefer opinion in the King, who joined the network in 1997 evening, over CNN’s straight news and after 12 years at the Associated Press, analysis approach. insisted that there had been no advance CNN has noted that it wins when planning at the network for the transition, total day ratings are counted and that which is why the change won’t take place it has no intention of deviating from its until after the New Year. “We’re taking approach. Indeed, with the choice of some breathing space to think of what do King to replace Dobbs, “We’re really about what to do with the economy, or we want to do here,” he said. But with doubling down,” Jon Klein, the president what’s really in the health bill or “who are entrenched competition from Fox News of CNN/U.S., told The New York Times. In the Taliban.” The debate can be Channel’s Shepard Smith, who anchors a a press release announcing the new show, “provocative,” he said, but it won’t be led straightforward newscast, and MSNBC’s CNN said it would be a “definitive political by an anchor who’s an advocate for one “Hardball With Chris Matthews,” a political hour that goes well beyond the surface of side or the other. talk show, King is unlikely to have an easy the day’s top stories to provide in-depth Indeed, asked his view on immigration, time of it. analysis and context to key political King called it “a powerful issue in our 4 | NewsPro | December 2009 country, an issue we need to cover. It’s a NEWSPRO Q&A parallels in the careers? gut- wrenching and divisive issue.” Then, Neil Cavuto: I know it sounds weird but after a beat, he added: “We will cover it.