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Recent J-School Grads Add
Online Skills to Repertoire

By Joe Slemberger
J-School Web Reporter

Journalists with gray hair and arthritic hands willingly remind the new generation of scibblers that things used to be different. They used to type on typewriters, call in stories by phone and walk uphill both ways to report.  Well, maybe not the latter.

But just like those senior scribes, new graduates of UM’s School of Journalism are learning on the job how to use new tools to develop and deliver news on their beats.

Stacy Byrne and Nick Lockridge are both recent J-School graduates. Byrne covers features for the Great Falls Tribune, while Lockridge handles prep sports for the Missoulian. Both say the Internet and related technological tools have changed their jobs dramatically in the relatively short amount of time they’ve been in the profession.

And both said part of the job these days is constantly keeping new skills up.
“I was well-prepared to get a job at a newspaper when I graduated from UM,” Byrne said.  “The J-School classes that helped me, or rather pushed me, the most were public affairs reporting and feature writing.”

But even as she was polishing her reporting skills, the sands of the industry were shifting under Byrnes feet. Along with the traditional newspaper, many news publications were beginning to post content on Web sites, making news available 24 hours a day.

After graduating in 2002, Byrne took an internship with the Great Falls paper and converted that to a full time job.

“The push toward online (journalism) began a couple of years after I started working” at the Tribune, Byrne said. “Early on we had staff meetings (and) editors tried to explain that we were transitioning from a newspaper to a "news and information center." They also told us we would be writing for the Web and updating for the newspaper.”

At the time, Byrne said, “It was difficult to understand what that meant.”

What it meant was Byrne needed to become online savvy, and fast. The Tribune kept tech training short and focused.

“We had one or two 20-minute training sessions on writing for the Web,” Byrne said.

“The idea was as soon as news happened we needed to get it on our Web site. That meant reporters needed to hustle to breaking news events and then call the newsroom with a (summary) of what was going on and someone in the newsroom would write up the basics,” she said.

At first only a couple of people knew how to post online, but eventually almost everyone had to know how to post things because, “breaking news happens whenever it wants to.” 

Lockridge graduated in 2003 and quickly found the Internet has expanded the potential of his coverage.

“We used (online posting) very effectively during the (2008) Class AA boys’ and girls’ state (basketball) tournaments,” Lockridge said.  “We got a lot of hits because the tourney was out of town and fans were curious.”

Like Byrne, Lockridge has had to learn on the job with little help from seminars or training sessions from his employer.

“A buddy at the Missoulian and I both run a blog for the paper, but he’s the one who “trained” me, which was almost as easy as understanding how to upload pictures onto Facebook or MySpace,” Lockridge said.  “Still, I wouldn’t have been able to blog if he hadn’t set up the passwords and shown me how to get in the backend of the site.”

Ultimately, as Lockridge sees it, online news will continue to have a bigger and bigger stake in journalism.

“Even now when they talk about getting some of us more online training, I groan,” Lockridge said.  “It’s inevitable.  If anyone wants to hold onto a job, they’d better be able to change with the industry or risk finding themselves on the chopping block.”

At UM, the Journalism School students now offers a variety of courses that build students’ familiarity with the Internet and related technological tools. In the fall of 2008, multi-media training will be available for print students as well as photojournalism students and basic reporting classes will include introduce audio reporting and non-linear editing.

“Most print students haven’t had the chance to work with audio and video and there’s a good chance they’ll have to when they leave here,” said Ray Fanning, a professor in the Radio-Television Department.  “We’ll dedicate half of the semester to audio and half to video so students get an opportunity to experiment with both.”

Recent grads like Byrne and Lockridge are sending the word back to up and coming journalists: Learn to thrive on change, or prepare to be all too familiar with
the employment section of your local newspaper. Or the online want ads.

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