Editor-in-Chief Application

Transcription

1 INSTRUCTIONS Applicants should submit Hard copies of this completed form, your essay answers, your résumé and your academic transcript. Submit them in a sealed envelope to, director of student media. Electronic files of (1) this completed form (PDF), (2) your essay answers (PDF or Microsoft Word), and (3) your résumé (PDF or Word). Send all electronic files to Ruth Witmer, Indiana Daily Student news adviser, at rwitmer@indiana.edu. The deadline? Noon Wednesday,. Late applications will not be accepted. If only one application is received by deadline, the deadline extends automatically to noon Friday,, to encourage additional applications. The Student Media Board will interview candidates in a public meeting on, in Franklin 31. Interview times will be after the application deadline. Multiple applicants will be interviewed in alphabetical order. Before the interviews, your completed form, essay and résumé will be posted in the IDS office and on idsnews.com. Your transcript will be viewed only by members of the Student Media Board. Carefully read the requirements for editor-in-chief before signing the application statement on the back of this form. Your essay answers let you summarize your ideas for board discussion during the public interview. You ll be asked to expand on your answers during the interview. As in the past, board members and audience members will ask additional questions. Following the interviews, the board will adjourn into an executive session for discussion and possible selection. Any selection will be announced following the executive session. Thank you for your interest in applying. Student Media Indiana University 601 E. Kirkwood Bloomington, IN application / 201 Editor-in-Chief Application Indiana Daily Student 201 name local phone, with area code local address: street, city, state & zip home address: street, city, state & zip class standing major (& minor) Are you now in good academic standing at Indiana University-Bloomington? Have you been in good academic standing the past two semesters at IUB? What is your expected graduation date? For how many semesters have you worked for IU Student Media? For how long have you lived in Bloomington? Your career plans after graduation Staff positions you have had Key experience jobs, internships, freelancing, both collegiate, commercial Organizations to which you belong Check the jobs you ve performed in IU Student Media Covered a beat. Taken photos. Assigned stories. continued on the back Edited copy. Created multimedia. a desk. Wrote commentary. Designed pages. Edited proofs.

2 I will be a properly registered student in good standing at Indiana University- Bloomington during my term. I have read the Indiana Daily Student s charter I have read and I subscribe to the staff s code of ethics. I recognize how the code has been formulated through the contributions of many IDS leaders. I agree the code should not change without consultation and agreement with the IDS news adviser and the director of student media. Printed name Signature Date 2 Application Essay Questions Indiana Daily Student 201 Address the following questions as you describe your proposals as editor-in-chief. Student Media Board members value both specifics and brevity. Limit your answers to a total of five double-spaced pages. 1. Personal statement. Write an essay outlining your ethical, philosophical and professional goals as editor. Describe your management style, with examples to illustrate it. How would you approach a difficult management decision? Describe your approach to recruitment, training and management across departments in the newsroom. Tell us why you are the best-qualified candidate to lead the Indiana Daily Student. 2. Strengths and shortcomings. Build a list of IDS strengths. Then build a list of IDS shortcomings. With each item, include a concise reflection on how you would approach it as editor-in-chief. 3. Serving all of campus. How do you recruit a diverse staff? How will you ensure diverse content? 4... Connecting with readers and serving advertisers. 201 application / 201

3 1. Personal statement. I started at the Indiana Daily Student two semesters later than I should have. In part, it can be attributed to my obliviousness toward the opportunities student media provided. However, once I did venture into the newsroom in Ernie Pyle Hall during my freshman year, I saw an environment I did not see myself qualified to contribute to. I familiarized myself with the legacy past and present IDS staffers left and worried I would never reach the bar they set so high. Had it not been for an editor who was desperate for reporters the next fall, I would probably still be just a student, no journalist involved. I have spent the past two-plus years falling in love with this organization, which has offered me the opportunity to write stories I did not find myself capable of achieving, and interviewing people who I never thought would let me get a question in when I desperately needed to. I am grateful, but I also believe my experience illustrates a broader issue at the heart of many of the non-financial problems the IDS has encountered. I seek to push our organization in vigorous recruitment and training of new journalists. I would like to see our general assignments process renovated to ensure we can both retain every person who has expressed interest in working for the IDS and make sure training is efficient. I was fortunate to have an editor assign me a beat as I became a reporter. It meant there was no acceptable way for me to fall through the cracks. The GA process is voluntary and people going through it can pick up whatever work they see fit. But that is not enough. From Day 1, IU students who aspire to be journalists should know the quality of the work they produce in this newsroom could be a strong determinant of their post-graduation career trajectory. GA editors need to make it clear to their mentees the toughness I d asked them to approach the training with was born from a desire to improve them as writers. On the visual side of the newsroom, my recent conversations with designers indicate many of the training processes are working. Additionally, I think the way the staff this semester has revamped print deadlines and rethought the purpose of our print product is a sprint in the right direction. I hope in the future, our writers can collaborate with our design and photo desks in a way which utilizes each staffer s talents.

4 I believe strong recruitment is key to maintaining not only a full staff, but a diverse one. My understanding of newsroom diversity derives from my experience with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at Indiana University. It s a small group, and recruitment has not been easy, but I managed to triple membership, in part, by making a point of reaching out to non-journalism majors. My goals are also informed by courses I have taken in the Kelley School of Business, where I will complete a minor degree this semester. The most informative business course I have taken deals with behavior and management in organizations. Lessons I have taken into account as I apply for editor-in-chief include but are not limited to: a balance between good stress and bad stress, and how that determines output; how specific task and job descriptions help improve mutual accountability; addressing problems head on; the importance of collaborative decision making; that leaders are nothing without the members of the groups they direct; and a need for dynamic growth with industry. Having served as a desk editor during the first fall and spring semesters when we printed twice-a-week, I am confident in my ability to change with the demands of the position. We have to use good stress to our advantage to write thought-provoking, well-rounded stories. Our reporters, designers, photographers and editors need to know they re expected to produce work they can be proud of. I will be nothing without a well-rounded, talented staff to work with, and know decisions as the top editor need input from the rest of my colleagues. I have seen first-hand the damage of poor communication, especially when a problem in the workplace exists; as editor-in-chief I would address conflicts between staffers directly with dialogue. Leaving a colleague in the dark about an issue accomplishes nothing. I spent the past month observing the newsroom environment, asking current members of staff what is working best this semester, and what they would like to see changed. I hope to elaborate later in this application about those concrete goals. My two-plus years of desk editing and beat reporting, coupled with my experience last summer at the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., and my business studies, make me confident that I am the best candidate for this position. I cannot promise to reinvent the wheel if selected. I can promise to do my best to help the organization which I owe a tremendous debt to be the best and most desired place for budding journalists to work and grow at. 2. Strengths and shortcomings.

5 Strengths: Publish time: One step I feel has been taken this semester to move our organization in the right direction is the decision to publish hard news stories after they are finished with editing. In previous semesters, stories ran at a scheduled time which was not effective in boosting engagement. I would like to continue the work the current management staff has done to improve the flow of content. Features and enterprise reporting : The stories our organization is most known for are big projects. In past semesters, many of these deep dives have come out of journalism classes. I would like to continue this tradition, regardless of whether a course on enterprise reporting is offered. Cross-desk collaboration will be a necessary component of these efforts. Recent social media desk strategy: One strength of this semester s social media and digital staff has been a division of work. Members of our staff have told me they think having one Facebook editor and one Twitter editor has been effective. I would like to continue the progress that we have made. Staggered print deadlines: From conversations with desk editors and design staff, I have learned this semester s staggered print deadlines benefit the entire newsroom. Designers have more time to work their magic on the page, and editors are learning how to distinguish between stories with short shelf-life and stories that deserve to be in print. An opportunity for all individuals: One quality the IDS has kept since I joined staff is a willingness to let our journalists create the stories and visuals they seriously want to. I have had the privilege of writing about national politics, something I may not get the chance to do for a long time after graduation. I know my colleagues feel the same gratefulness about getting to pursue their own passions. Shortcomings: I would like to note that I include these because I feel the IDS has the capacity to change these issues. Posting stories when they re relevant: In our effort to be more active on social media in recent years, it feels as if we have deviated from the goal of getting news to our readers when we need it the most. As editor-in-chief, I would develop a news value-driven strategy to post more timely stories when they are most needed online. Social media strategy is key to reader engagement, which itself has become a necessary effort by news organizations in the digital age. Getting scooped: The campus needs to be seen as our territory as a news organization. It is disheartening to see larger organizations beat us to stories we should have been pursuing from the first news tip. I place blame in no single corner, because all desks have had similar experiences, but I would like to develop a staff which sees its duty to be first to the news without sacrificing accuracy.

6 Unclear role descriptions : As I alluded to above, when job descriptions are not clear cut enough, it is easy to shift blame. I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for errors I have made, and would expect the same of my own staff members. I will specifically tell editors and reporters their responsibilities and will aim to leave no room for miscommunication. This includes a rearrangement of some desk editor positions, including a change in the roles of the news desk editors. However, I would not make drastic decisions without consulting my management staff, if selected. Deviation from hard-hitting reporting : While I have tremendous respect for my colleagues on all desks, I have noticed a decent amount of semi-promotional stories in recent semesters. I recognize there is a need for such stories, but I think IU administration, local and student government stories have potential for deep reporting. Ultimately, we need to serve our readers and what IU needs most of its Fourth Estate is the watchdog reporting in which we have excelled in past years. 3. Serving all of campus. As I alluded to in my personal statement, recruiting a racially and ethnically diverse staff is no easy task. In past years, applicants have alluded to reaching out to NAHJ, NABJ, NLGJA and other professional journalism organizations whose members could serve as assets to our staff. These talking points greatly perturbed me, knowing at the time that NAHJ s membership was in the middle-to-low single digits. A diverse staff requires more than that. It means showing up to culture centers, meeting individually with underrepresented minority students and looking beyond the predominantly white journalism department. One prospective NAHJ member told me just the other week that he was dissuaded from writing for the IDS because it lacked a Latinx readership. I would like to widen our audience and change that perception. Additionally, I believe efforts need to be made in order to improve our relationship with the greek community. Attracting a population which represents almost a quarter of our student body is important to serving all of campus. I hope to meet with representatives of the governing greek bodies in order to build solutions to this divide. Lastly, I will strive to increase the representation of underrepresented minorities in our stories, not just on our staff. Well-informed reporting comes, in part, from sources who understand the experiences we seek to convey in our stories. In past semesters, we met with the heads of campus cultural

7 houses as a full staff to accept critiques of our coverage. I hope to return to that practice, and I am willing to personally meet with any interested parties to discuss how we can better our coverage of underrepresented communities. 4. Special publications. I believe special publications are our opportunity to work with outside partners. Along with providing our organization with a good chunk of revenue, they also serve the University s goals from a marketing standpoint. Special publications can be an opportunity for us to work with partners we would not traditionally collaborate with as a news organization. A special publication about local Bloomington businesses is one example of a product I think can be mutually beneficial for our community and our organization. The work recent special publications editors have overseen and produced has set a standard I believe we should continue to maintain. 5. Connecting with readers and serving advertisers. I believe my answers to the strengths and weaknesses question encompasses much of my approach to the current print frequency and our organization s efforts toward a strong digital presence. Social media presence is key to our success, and the progress made just this semester has been stellar. I hope to reserve our print product for stories that can last multiple days on stands. These do not necessarily need to be feature stories, but I plan on putting the most meaningful and lasting stories in print. In terms of quality and quantity of work, I believe content quotas are important but should be dynamic to accommodate workload and capacity of each staffer. I think the level of output the past two years is something to strive for, but I would like to see an improvement in the quality. This starts with fostering an organizational culture where reporters, photographers, editors and designers are encouraged to do the best work possible. Not only does quality of work affect our organization s standing it also reflects on each individual member of staff. I hope to promote a top-down management approach to push our staff to take pride and responsibility for its own work.

8 Jesse Naranjo c: (917) e: Muck Rack: /jesse-l-naranjo Skills: Deadline reporting, knowledge of Associated Press style, content creation for print and online publication, social media reporting, interview and transcription, familiarity with content management systems, document reporting, Spanish proficiency Current Address: Permanent Address: 1280 N. College Ave, Apt th St. Bloomington, IN Brooklyn,NY News Experience The Post and Courier Charleston, S.C. Reporting Intern Pitched and reported multiple stories on deadline per week on Local/Metro and Features desks Workshopped coverage with visual and digital team to better present stories Crafted SEO-optimized web headlines to boost engagement metrics Indiana Daily Student Bloomington, Ind. Reporter Pitch, report and file content and accompanying visuals for deadline on a weekly basis Live tweet breaking and developing news Report on national politics. Previously reported on university administration, student government and music Government Editor Coordinated and delegated coverage of crime, courts, and politics on student, local, state and national levels using a team of reporters at a daily independent student newspaper Budgeted content at daily desk editor meetings Formulated creative headlines and social media posts to boost web engagement May July 2018 October Present August May 2018 Other Positions & Experience National Association of Hispanic Journalists at IU President Organize events to fundraise and boost awareness for association s objectives Recruit new members Previously vice president Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Brooklyn, N.Y. Server Managed cash register and served customers at the local franchise Liberty! The Musical New York, N.Y. Social Media Intern Produced content for brand social media accounts to boost off-broadway play s success Education The Media School, Indiana University Bloomington, Ind. Bachelor of Arts, Journalism GPA: 3.8 Major in journalism with a concentration in news writing and reporting Minor in business through the Kelley School of Business September Present May August 2017 June August 2016 May 2019