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11 tips for journalists who want their own website

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As more journalists are putting their portfolios online and creating their own websites, more of my friends are asking for advice on how to do it. I am in no ways an Obi-Wan at this, having launched my website only last year, but in the 17ish months I’ve had this site, I’ve gotten some good advice. And I’ve figured out that some things work better than others. I can’t say I can help you with your “brand”, but I can help you with your site.

1. You don’t have to limit yourself to 3 to 5 clips
You can include the link in your cover letter, explaining that you’ve attached some of your best clips but that more are available at your website. Thus, if someone’s coming to your website, he or she wants to see more of your work. You can show the breadth and diversity of your work in a way that 3 to 5 clips won’t always do. It might even help to break them up into categories. Mine are divided by infographics, illustrations, interactives and miscellaneous. Reporters might want to break them up into categories, whether it be enterprise and non-enterprise, types of beat, etc.

2. Include background stories about your clips
A friend of mine said he included a “clip guide” with his clips when applying to a major newspaper. It included information you couldn’t tell just by looking at the clip: the brainstorming behind the concept, the time frame, the deadlines, etc. He was told that the clip guide was very helpful, as it gave insight into his working process.

At SND STL, speaker Jen Lee Reeves said, “We all do a lot of really good work, but we don’t talk about it. But we should.”

3. Optimize your copy
I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating. If you write your text in a way that’s friendly to search engine, you stand a better chance of getting picked up in search results. As my SEO-minded friend explained on the blog last time:

The basic principle is super straightforward: if you have a specific phrase that appears prominently and multiple times in the copy on a page of your site, your site is more likely to come up in the search results for that specific phrase. For instance, ‘info graphics artist,’ ‘info graphics designer,’ ‘Jacksonville illustrator’ and ‘news graphic design’ may all be appropriate for your list. More generic phrases like ‘info graphics artist’ will put you up against more competition, and while they may improve your ranking for those phrases, they may never get you close to the top of the list. As you get more specific, ‘Jacksonville illustrator,’ for example, you’ll be up against fewer sites and can make it closer to the top of the list.

It might seem challenging, but a web producer friend of mine said, “If you’re writing the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story, then you’ll have the important search terms already in there.”

4. Include the names of everyone who worked on the project
There are a few reasons for this practice. It’s good karma to not snub someone and take credit for work they did. They might remember that you gave them credit, but they will also remember if you don’t give them credit. And, in terms of search engine optimization, if someone’s searching for that person’s name, your site can appear in the results. I’ve gotten page views because people searched for co-workers. Florida Times-Union reporter Jeff Brumley’s name nets me a lot of page views.

5. Link to other people’s sites and blogs
Again, it’s good karma, but it’s also good SEO. The search engines look not only at your words, but who links to you and to whom you link. Look at the column to the right of this text. There are some good folks in there.

6. Start a blog!
Again, I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating. Chances are you won’t be adding new content to your portfolio every day or even every week. Writing a blog helps you generate more content that can appear in search engines, even if you’re just writing once a week or so. Write about trends in the industry or use the blog to write longer pieces about how one of your clips came to be. Ever read this guy’s blog? Of course you have. Charles Apple’s blog has become a portfolio piece in and of itself. Not just for Charles Apple himself, but for all the people he’s written about over the years.

7. Share your blog and portfolio links on every site you can
Use Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Google+, StumbleUpon, Pinterest and beyond. You’ll reach some people on one site that you won’t reach on another site. By going to where the different audiences are, you can try to hit as many eyeballs as possible.

8. Use the same avatar everywhere
I have Jen Lee Reeves to thank for this advice. It hadn’t occurred to me, but it makes sense: if I want people to recognize me, I should give them the same thing to recognize everywhere I have a web presence, right?

If you’ve got a public account with a social media site and you’re using that account to promote your site and your work, then it behooves you to use one consistent image.

9. Pay attention to metrics and other feedback
Whether you’re using Google Analytics or some other service, see what on your site is getting the most page views. Where are people spending the most time on your site? What topics garner the most views? The most “likes”?

10. Consider your site’s mobile functions… and limitations
Look into whether the sites you use to build your portfolio have mobile-friendly versions. If you code your own site (which I did for the non-blog aspects of my site), then be mindful of how it will look on smaller devices. (Note: coming in 2012, a responsive patrickgarvin.com). If you’re not coding your own site, look into the mobile versions of sites using that same service (WordPress, etc.)

11. Let your site become a portfolio piece in and of itself
I created my website as a home for the clips of which I am most proud, but found I was proud of the site. I worked through kinks with HTML and CSS, and continue to learn more because of what I’ve done with the site. I’ve found that I’ve learned things that I can apply to my job at The Globe. Some of the responsive interactives I’ve worked on in the last few months have been easier because I had played around with code on my personal site.

Any other tips you have for journalists who want their own sites? Comment below.

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Do we have “brands”? Or just reputations for our work?

Do we have “brands”? Or just reputations for our work?

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A question I’ve struggled with recently is whether journalists have “brands.” I’ve heard that term a lot in the last year, at conferences and on websites, and I’m not always sure what to make of it.

I used to cringe when hearing that term. To me, it was a gimmicky word for marketers and advertisers that had no place in the sacred world of journalism. I, and other journalists like me, drew a distinction: Disney, Wal-Mart and Fox have brands, but we were just people. We were people who worked hard and wanted to be known for doing our particular jobs well, but we were just people.

But Joe Grimm, the guy who became known for the Jobs Page and “Ask The Recruiter,” changed the way I viewed the word “brand.” A few months ago at SND STL, he lectured a session called, “Building Your Digital Brand.” His overall message that was that your “brand,” if we call it that, is what you’re known for, and not some image that you manufacture.

If I and other journalists seem sensitive about the term, it’s because we’ve felt under scrutiny for wanting to promote our work. A few months ago, Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post wrote a column about journalists and brands.

Weingarten wrote the column as a letter to a reader named Leslie, who chose Weingarten as the subject of her journalism school graduate thesis. Weingarten writes:

The best way to build a brand is to take a three-foot length of malleable iron and get one end red-hot. Then, apply it vigorously to the buttocks of the instructor who gave you this question. You want a nice, meaty sizzle.
These are financially troubled times for our profession, Leslie — times that test our character — and it is disheartening to learn that journalism schools are responding to this challenge by urging their students to market themselves like Cheez Doodles.

And later, when talking about modern journalists…

Now, the first goal seems to be self-promotion — the fame part, the “brand.” That’s because we know that, in this frenetic fight for eyeballs at all costs, the attribute that is most rewarded is screeching ubiquity, not talent. It is why Snooki — who is quite possibly literally a moron — has a best-selling book. It is why the media superstars of today are no longer people such as Bob Woodward, who break big stories, but people like Bill O’Reilly, who yell about them.

Yikes. That column made me never want to use the word ever again. But Weingarten’s missive also kind of confused me, because I didn’t think it was bad for journalists to share their work. It gets shared in thousands of newspapers a day, so why is it so bad to group it together in one spot on the Internet? When I need ideas and inspiration, I love looking at other journalists’ portfolios. To me, having your work in one spot to share with other journalists (and potential future employers) was a good thing. Certainly not worthy of the hot poker.

Maybe it’s the word “brand” that bothered him. Because it certainly bothered me. But if Joe Grimm and other journalists are just using the word to represent your skills and work for which you’re known, then is there less fuss? Grimm even pointed out that Weingarten himself has made a name or “brand” (gasp!) for himself and that’s why he’s so valuable to The Washington Post. When you read Weingarten, you know what you’re getting and you probably read it (or don’t) because you know what you’re getting.

And it’s occurred to me that’s been true about several journalists I’ve admired over the years:

  • Mike Royko
  • Lewis Grizzard
  • Brian McGrory
  • Bill McClellan

I like all those guys, but not because of the mystique behind the name, but because I like the work they do.

Which was exactly Joe Grimm’s point:
“You don’t try to brand yourself. The thing that does it is the work. And it has to be real and authentic.”

Think of it this way. Let’s say you’re looking for a graphics person who can also illustrate. You’ll start listing the names whom you know can do what you want, and then you start comparing those people’s portfolios to narrow it down. Then, you’re no longer talking about names, but rather the work and skills that defines those names.

Knowing what you’re good at doing is important as news organizations struggle to stay afloat and rethink their strategies. Grimm says:

“It’s not enough to be good. You have to be good in a remarkable way…
…You need to be good, and you need to be good in a remarkable way, and it has to be a valuable way.”

And why does Grimm suggest this? So that you can do more good work. When I think of it that way, and don’t use the b-word at all, I think I get it.

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11 tips for journalists who want their own website

4 reasons why Adobe Flash was not a waste of our time

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Last week, Adobe Systems announced it would stop making Flash technology for mobile devices and would instead focus on HTML5.

Flash’s end has been predicted for the last few years now, as it is not supported on the iPhone or the iPad. Flash runs on other mobile devices, but Apple products are the Marcia Brady of their kind. If Apple rejects you, you’re kinda sorta screwed.

4 reasons why Adobe Flash was not a waste of our time

For many graphic artists who joined newsrooms before the big push for “interactive graphics,” Flash was the first program we used to make web graphics with rollovers. We struggled with the differences between frames and keyframes. We learned that changing a movie clip changed every instance of the movie clip. We cheered when we figured those things out, and then were challenged when we transitioned from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0.

Don’t take that as a complaint. Journalists pride themselves on being problem-solvers whose job is learning new things. With interactive graphics, there was (and still is) always something to learn. Flash, to me, embodies how a lot of people in newsrooms feel: no matter how fast you try to catch up, there’s always something newer to learn.

Earlier this year, I got to attend SND STL. While there, I met a lot of graphic artists who felt frustrated by Flash’s imminent obsolescence. One guy put it best: “I feel like I spent the last three years trying to learn this program, and now that I’m somewhat proficient, it’s useless. I feel like I wasted my time.”

But I don’t think he wasted his time. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. It was a decent gateway for people who had never coded before. Flash allowed you to create things the way you were used to creating them in Illustrator. Using ActionScript, you could make those objects do things. ActionScript won’t work in HTML or JavaScript, but the general concept is the same: you have code that dictates what the package looks like and how the user will interact with it. ActionScript and JavaScript are not the same but they have similar structures. You can’t waltz from one into the other, per se, but knowing one could help you grasp some of the basic concepts.
  2. It forced some people to learn HTML and CSS. When you finished your Flash file, you had to export it as a SWF. To put that on a web page, you still needed to write code that said, “Hey, show this Flash file.” If you had never used HTML before, having to embed your Flash movies might have been your introduction to basic CSS and HTML.
  3. You proved you could adapt. Remember when we all had to switch from FreeHand to Illustrator? Or ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0? There were quirks and growing pains, and you might have complained that you shouldn’t have to learn this stuff. But you did it. So what if Flash is no longer used by many organizations. The take-away is that you have proven that you are willing to invest time to learn whatever the new technologies are. Spin it that way, and your Flash knowledge makes you look like a hard worker who can try new things, rather than some dinosaur.
  4. Understanding the philosophy behind what makes a good interactive graphic is just as important as knowing the specific technology. Page designers who made good pages in Quark figured out how to make good pages in InDesign. The fundamentals of page design didn’t change when we switched from Quark to InDesign. The fundamentals of good information graphics didn’t change when FreeHand was replaced in newsrooms by Illustrator.

The Nieman Journalism Lab had a good piece about how Adobe’s abandonment of Flash will affect the news organizations who used it. If you haven’t seen it, please do.

And then start on your HTML5 tutorials. There are interactive graphics to be made.

More great work from The Florida Times-Union, Kyle Bentle

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As I mentioned in Sunday’s post, Florida Times-Union graphic artist Kyle Bentle worked on some illustrations for the 9/11 coverage on Jacksonville.com. He did some great illustrations that appeared in the background of the main page:

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

On Monday, Kyle posted JPGs of how those illustrations ran in the paper.

Here’s a few of those illustrations:

For Matt Soergel’s story about children coming of age since Sept. 11…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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For Jeff Brumley’s story about changing perceptions of Muslims…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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For Jeremy Cox’s story about patriotism…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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These are just some of the illustrations Kyle did for The Florida Times-Union’s 9/11 coverage. To see all of them, including how they played on the overall pages, go here.

To see more of Kyle’s portfolio, go here.

To see more of my pontifications about Kyle Bentle’s awesomeness, go here.

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Great 9/11 work from Jacksonville.com, The Florida-Times Union

How to donate beer to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

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The Society for News Design is collecting items for the SND Foundation silent auction. To learn more about that, check out Things you can donate to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL. One of the things they’re looking for is a golconda of beer. Know a good beer that you can’t get in St. Louis? Ship it to the auction.

They have a good start but need your help by Sept. 10th. So, you’ve got this week, folks.

Here’s what to do:

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1. Identify a microbrew you like

It can be a beer from a micro-brewery down the street, or a place you found on vacation.

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2. Get 6-packs of said beer

Some microbreweries will let you buy 6-packs online.

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3. Send your beer to St. Louis!

Send to:

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Attn: Laura Black, Newsroom

900 N. Tucker Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63101

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4. Tell your buddies

Talk up your beer donation to your friends when perusing the auction. Tell them it’s made with unicorn tears.

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The Society for News Design is seeking any support from SND members, their publications and friends to provide donations. All money raised goes to supporting the Foundation’s work helping educate and inspire future generations of visual journalists, from research to travel grants and scholarships.

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Things you can donate to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

SND STL

The Society for News Design

Things you can donate to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

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The Society for News Design’s convention and workshop in St. Louis is less than four weeks away. SND is collecting items for the SND Foundation silent auction and looking for any support from SND members, their publications and friends to provide donations. All money raised goes to supporting the Foundation’s work helping educate and inspire future generations of visual journalists, from research to travel grants and scholarships.

They have a good start but need your help by Sept. 10th. So, you’ve got this week, folks.

Here are some things you can donate:

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Micro-brewed beers from all over the world

Send us six-packs of the best micro-brews you know, whether they come from your neck of the woods or someplace else you’ve liked. More information on that here.

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Gift certificates

We’ll take gift cards and certificates to any businesses or services that are nationally available.

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Unique design, crafts, photos, pages, prints or artwork

This, of course, includes historic newspaper pages. Framed, ideally.

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Travel packages

Have a time share? A weekend get-away nearby? Donate it!

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Local flair

Pull together a package of your local favorite items. See if you can beat Steve Dorsey’s “Detroit Hustles Harder” package from last year. If we get a flair package from Salina, Kan., I will donate $100. Even if I don’t win the bid. The onus is on you, Kansans.

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Sports or collectable paraphernalia

We especially love signed work.

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Consulting or creative service time

Looking to get your name “out there”? This could be a good marketing opportunity for you.

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Software or hardware

iPads are always welcome!

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How to donate beer to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

SND STL

The Society for News Design

What did your headline say? Same-sex marriage? Or gay?

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The New York State Senate passing a bill allowing same-sex marriage was huge news, as was Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signing that bill into law later that night. Most New York papers gave that story big play on A1 on Saturday. Depending on which paper you saw, you either read that the bill allowed “same-sex marriage,” or that it allowed “gay marriage.”

I used to be a hardliner about using those terms in newspapers. I argued that “same-sex marriage” not presumptuous the way “gay marriage” was, and that it was more accurate. Here were my reasonings:

  • “Same-sex” refers to the genders of the couples, rather than the orientations of the people in the couple. If a man marries a man, we know they’re a same-sex marriage. But we don’t know that they identify as gay. They might identify as bisexual. Or, they could identify as straight. Or one could be gay and one could be bi, or one could be straight and the other gay. That seems like a stretch, but it could legally happen. As far as I know, the states that allow same-sex marriage don’t use gay tests. In all of the U.S., a lesbian could marry a gay man, but many wouldn’t think that makes it a “straight” marriage.
  • If a lesbian did marry a gay man, and thus both people were gay, could that be a “gay marriage”? Don’t say it can’t happen, because I know of at least two cases where it has happened.
  • There’s no law against the marriage between two gay people. As stated above, a gay man could marry a lesbian. The law is that two people of the same sex can’t get married, but as far as I know, the law doesn’t say that two gay people of the same sex couldn’t get married. I think two straight men would find it just as hard to get married in Missouri as two gay men.

Now, it might seem I’m being pedantic and splitting hairs. I totally understand that, which is why I don’t really make a deal about it anymore when talking to people in casual conversation. In general, I think we’re lax in conversation in way that we probably shouldn’t be in print. In conversation, I can ask for a “Kleenex,” even if you don’t have Kleenex brand tissues, because it’s become acceptable in conversation to refer to all tissues as “Kleenex.” “Dumpster” is no longer specific to the company, but can mean any large metal trash receptacle. We know what we mean.

But in print, we still hold to those rules. Every copy editing professor I had in college made it a point that if you don’t know it’s a Kleenex, call it a tissue. If you don’t know it’s a Frisbee, it’s a flying disc. I had one professor tell me of a correction a paper had to write when a reporter referred to a man as “African-American” when the man was not American at all. “We don’t make assumptions,” another professor told me.

I would mention all of these points to copy editor friends, many of whom agreed with me. But one smart copy editor friend of mine said, “Yeah, but ‘gay marriage’ sometimes fits in a head spec better than ‘same-sex marriage.'”

Thus, her paper’s policy was to use “same-sex marriage” in all copy, but give latitude in case “gay marriage” fit better in the headline. I’ve not explored too many other papers’ policies, but I would not be surprised if other papers have that policy, too.

And for the publications that use both “same-sex marriage” and “gay marriage” in copy, is there a policy for when to use one and not the other? Or is it OK to just switch them so as to not repeat the same term? I’d be interested to hear what discussions have gone on in other newsrooms.

I won’t deny that this dissection of language might seem anal-retentive. But I was a copy editor. It was my job to think this way.

How Massachusetts, Canadian papers played Stanley Cup win

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Last night’s Stanley Cup game was big news for a few reasons. It was the first time the Boston Bruins had won in 39 years. And on top of that, there were riots. In Vancouver.

So, take a look at how papers in Massachusetts and Canada played the game and the riots. Click any of the pages for a larger view. In a few days or so, I’ll have a look at how The Globe has played the Bruins in the playoffs and finals.

All images come from Newseum.

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The Boston Globe
Boston, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Boston Herald
Boston, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Enterprise
Brockton, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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Telegram & Gazette
Worcester, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Herald News
Fall River, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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Cape Cod Times
Hyannis, Mass.

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Vancouver Sun
Vancouver, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Province
Vancouver, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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The Globe and Mail
Toronto, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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Edmonton Sun
Edmonton, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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Calgary Sun
Calgary, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Canada

Stanley Cup newspaper fronts

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How The Boston Globe/Boston.com covered the tornadoes

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The Boston Globe and Boston.com have done a great job covering Wednesday night’s tornadoes in Western and Central Massachusetts. I’ve included the last three days’ front pages, as well as some inside pages, photos and graphics. To see all of the Boston Globe/Boston.com coverage, go here.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 2

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The inside page:

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The top photo is by Matthew Cavanaugh, for the Boston Globe:

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We used NOAA’s updates to put together this map of reported touchdowns and deaths:

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Javier Zarracina quickly put together this explainer on the anatomy of a tornado:

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To read the main bar (gang byline of Travis Andersen, Eric Moskowitz, Martin Finucane, Glen Johnson, Bryan Marquard, and David Abel), go here.

To read Carolyn Y. Johnson’s story on how tornadoes form, go here.

To see Tom Giratikanon’s map of the history of tornadoes in Massachusetts, go here.

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FRIDAY, JUNE 3

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We had several inside pages, including this color photo page:

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Which included this great photo by David L. Ryan:

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Elsewhere inside was this great map by James Abundis with reporter Brian Ballou. It shows the varying damage of houses on Pennsylvania Avenue in Springfield.

To read Ballou’s story, go here.

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With updates from the National Weather Service, we were able to show which cities had warnings, and more reported touchdowns:

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Javier Zarracina put together an explainer showing how the National Guard and FEMA were deployed to coordinate the search and rescue operations:

To read Brian MacQuarrie’s story, go here.

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SATURDAY, JUNE 4

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The photo up top is by John Tlumacki:

To read Stephanie Ebbert’s story, go here.

To read Brian MacQuarrie’s story, go here.

To see all of the Boston Globe/Boston.com coverage, go here.

WEB COMIC: The conversation many journalists hate, pt. 1

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I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we were all so cavalier to introduce our grievances about topic X as soon as we learn about someone’s allegiance to said topic. Or how inappropriate it would be if we talked about a stranger’s recently deceased relatives the way we talk about their recently laid-off colleagues.

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Web Comic: 10 Reasons You Should Hire A Journalist