College Publisher to start charging and supporting WordPress

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Lauren Rabaino

Well, folks. I didn’t think I’d see this day coming, although I probably should have: For $4,500/year, College Publisher will host and maintain a WordPress install for college publications.

This is good news and bad news.

But first, a little background. College Publisher is the platform that hundreds of college publications throughout the United States use to host their newsorg websites. Until recently, the only CMS option via College Publisher was CP5, a proprietary and absolutely hideous, antiquated system. I had a lot of beef with College Publisher and when I was involved with CoPress, we helped transition student newsorgs to open source software, primarily WordPress.

Now College Publisher will do the same for an affordable fee, but I still have a problem with their approach.

The good news

Finally, College Publisher is offering an open source solution for news orgs — this is definite progress. They claim to support WordPress, Drupal, and Django-based solutions.

College Publisher is also enabling student newsorgs to take back some ownership on their advertising space on their websites. This is a good thing too, since it will get student newsrooms thinking about how to make money online (a thought process that was hindered when College Publisher took sole ownership over most ad slots before).

But…

The bad news

A simple switch to a WordPress CMS isn’t going to help college publications in a drastically new way. The beauty of what CoPress offered was training and education — a sandbox for experimentation. If CMN is still maintaining these WordPress installs for students and restricting plugin usage to CMN-enabled plugins, what incentive is there for students to build their own plugins and tinker with the back end? If CMN is still essentially controlling the entire process, students don’t get to take advantage of the true beauty that is open source.

But, hey, it’s a start.

Mustang Daily summer web goals

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Lauren Rabaino

Before my tenure with the Mustang Daily is over, I want to work with the future online editor and developer (whom we’ll be hiring in the upcoming weeks) to acheive the following goals, most of which are relatively simple:

Develop a better system for sending out the daily e-mail edition. We’re currently using feedburner, which we find to be inconsistent and ugly. We want something customizable that we can send out during times of breaking news. It will also include ad spots ($$$ = good!)
Lay the foundations for a community wiki. The wiki will allow users to contribute information they have about on-going issues on campus, clubs, etc. I have no idea how it will be organized or the scope of our topics, but we’ll start with topics we’re covering, then expand to have a page for all clubs, organizations, administrators, etc.�
Set up a community-generated calendar. Time and time again we get complaints from students about our lack of coverage on certain events. Everyone knows we can’t cover it all, though. But that doesn’t mean those events aren’t important. A community-generated calendar would be a resource for all students and a way for community members to promote themselves. Because it will surely be a populare page, it also means much advertising potential. (e.g. This calendar is sponsored by _____.)
Create an easy system for submitting news tips. This could easily be done using a Google form (through Google docs) or a WordPress plugin. When setting this up, we could also do a form for submitting letters to the editor. �
Make prettier landing pages. Although our front page is bomb (I’m not going to be modest ), our news, sports, opinion, arts and multimedia pages are boring as ever. Those pages were a quick fix when the site launched, but I want to redesign them to have a main, featured story and maybe a secondary story, then the rest listed below. It needs structure.�
A page of aggregated tweets. Although it might be tough working with the Twitter API (thank goodness I’m hiring a web developer), it would be really cool to experiment with a page called “voices on the web” or “community tweets” (or probably something catchier) that agreggates tweets with the words “Cal Poly,” #calpoly, #poly, #slo, SLO, San Luis Obispo, etc.

And that’s just a start. If I can meet all these goals by the end of the summer, then I’ll start up a new list.

If you think of any ways these ideas can be better, let me know! My summer starts June 12. Let the fun begin!

Professors: We take the risks, you should too

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Lauren Rabaino

This week’s #collegejourn chat resulted in a plan to help professors get on board with the 21st cenutry:

Who: Professors, students, journalists, professionals
What: “Bring a professor” chat
When: Sun., Feb. 22
Where: www.collegejourn.com
Why: To discuss ways to modernize college journalism education

Us vs. them

I hate to make this us vs. them, but to be honest, this is an us vs. them situation. Some would argue that “we’re all in this together,” both the professors and the students. But it’s not that way. The students and the industry are in this together. But the professors aren’t impacted directly. If they fall behind, they don’t see the direct consequences of falling behind and thus have no incentive to change.

It doesn’t have to be us vs. them though. Professors can eliminate the us vs. them by taking the risks students are expected to take. The classroom should foster that innovation, not hinder it. We can take the risks together.

“Communication in a communication department would be a start,” said the Mustang Daily managing editor Giana Magnoli when the topic came up in our newsroom. And that’s what #bringajprof chat is about. Bringing that communication between staff and students to a national worldwide level.

I recently wrote a blog post that sums up the changes I’d like to see in journalism education:

Scrap print as a track: There is no such thing as a purely print publication. Thus a solely “print” concentration is pointless. Replace it with a “multimedia” track and keep very minimal print aspects involved.
Make video a must for all concentrations: Public relations and news editorial both need to know video editing. Broadcast students who already know how to shoot/edit video need to know how to get it on the Web. All three need to know how to live stream and incoroporate a live chat.
Create a class about social media: Not about platoforms or social networks, though. A class about the community, the conversation, the two-way dynamic of the Web.
Create media business course. Joey Baker said it best in his recent blog post: ”What we need more than anything else is a business model for our industry that is sustainable. Why need students not only to be aware of the problem, but contributing to the brain storming that will eventually lead to a solution.”

There’s more to add since I last wrote that blog post. The following tidbits are the result of a discussion with my boyfriend Ryan Chartrand — former editor of the Mustang Daily who graduated from Cal Poly’s journalism department in June and now works as the lead content producer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Even since his graduation 8 months ago, social media has blown up and rules have changed
Faculty should have acknowledged the problems within their industry (of which they were unaware) and recognized the new trends of news consumption early
By acknowledging and recognizing, they could have then incorporated that knowledge into their coursework
Instead, they figured that teaching the fundamentals of journalism were more important than the tools you report with (they were wrong)
They didn’t understand how much the tools and the medium had changed the game
When the game changes that much from the tools alone, the fundamentals change too
Ultimately, they were teaching fundamentals that didn’t apply anymore

In summary, professors go back to college not to simply teach what they already know. They should come back to continue learning, because they miss that knowledge and keeping up with it. I may be speaking for myself, but as a student, that’s the expectation I have from my professors.

What I’m asking of journalism faculty everywhere:

A thirst for knowledge within their industry
Willingness to learn new media with us
Creating an environment that allows students to innovate

Professors: Catch up, or we're all left behind

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Lauren Rabaino

*Note: this blog post was originally posted on CICM

This week’s #collegejourn chat is yet another example of how great minds can come together with great ideas (if you’re unfamiliar with #collegejourn chat, read more info here). After an extra hour of chatting, a small group of dedicated #collegejourn chatters have devised a plan to get college educators on board with the 21st century:

What: “Bring a professor” Chat

Who: Educators, professionals, journalists, students

When: Sunday, Feb. 22 (8-11 p.m. EST, 5-8 p.m. PST)

Where: www.collegejourn.com

Why: To discuss ways to modernize college journalism education

A common theme that arises from each #collegejourn chat is a general dissatisfaction with college professors’ unwillingness to think forward. Put simply: j-professors are stuck in their ways. And we want to change that.

Next Sunday, Feb. 22 from 8-11 p.m. EST (5 -8 p.m. PST) we’re inviting journalism professors to join a discussion with students worldwide. The topic: how to prepare your students for the real world. We’re not just suggesting, but demanding an education that prepares us for the real world of 21st-century journalism.

We’re also working to bring this topic to a panel at the Associated Collegiate Press convention on Feb. 27 that will be updated live on the web. Check back soon for details.

How you can help us

We can’t do this alone. We need your help to promote the chat and come up with topic ideas. By tomorrow — yes, tomorrow, Feb. 16 — at midnight PST, please write a blog post about:

How good journalism can be made better with new media tools
How your j-school program could be improved
What is going right at your school, or at other schools
The one thing you could change about j-school
What prevents professors from embracing the web
Why learning the business side of the journalism industry will help us all

Contact Suzanne Yada (the chat moderator) with a link to your blog post: suzanneyada at gmail dot com or twitter.com/suzanneyada or post a link to your blog in the comments. We will aggregate the posts to send to participants.

Spread the word

We want everyone to be get something out of our discussion. The more, the merrier. Here are a few ways you can promote the cause:

E-mail your professors
Retweet the information
Post our flyers (or make your own) in your journalism department (if your professors are unresponsive to e-mails)
Approach your professors/faculty face-to-face
Tell your journalism friends

Leading CICM's nationwide classroom

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Lauren Rabaino

You all probably know from Twitter, but for those of you who don’t: I was chosen as the first intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media.

It’s a huge honor to be a part of the organization, but now it’s time to get to work. I have big plans (which Bryan said were perhaps over-ambitious), but I know I can follow through with it all.

In addition to interviews with media professionals and discussions with students, I have tutorials in mind which will be part of my “Nationwide Classroom.”

How it works

We post a tutorial
You take your tutorial to the newsroom/classroom
Implement what you learn and post it to our comments
We feature the best work as a result of our tutorial

Why participate?

Great opportunity to learn
Chance for national exposure
It’s fun!

Now, give me your feedback. What do you want to learn? What should our first lesson be? Any suggestions for how to make it more interactive (I’m planning on a Q&A chat)?

Let me know:

cicmintern {at} gmail {dot} com
twitter.com/cicmintern
collegemediainnovation.org

Student newspapers: Don't be afraid to break the rules

Posted on January 11, 2009 by Lauren Rabaino

At the end of last year, Emily Kostic (web editor of Rowan University’s The Whit) wrote a blog post about New Years Resolutions for college newspapers. A few things struck me on that list:

#5 Get away from College Publisher
#6 …and in the process go Web First

One I’d like to add to Emily’s list is: Don’t be afraid to break the rules. These days, that’s the only way to make it in this industry.

Getting away from College Publisher

That’s right: I said it. After a recent conference call with Adam Hemphill and Miles Skorpen of CoPress, it’s official. The Mustang Daily is switching to WordPress.

The switch away from College Publisher is something I’ve wanted for the Mustang Daily since before I was even a student at Cal Poly. Not that College Publisher is bad; it’s a great starting point for newspapers who are trying to learn the dynamics of the Web. We used to be that paper. Now we get it. Now we’re ready for new things. We’re ready to generate our own revenue and move on.

Plus, WordPress is open-source. College Publisher is far from it. If we want to make changes, we have a world of developers to turn to. With College Publisher, change comes in the form of submitting a query to their support team. That makes it less than easy to be innovative.

This summer I started seriously considering WordPress as a CMS and built a mockup. But there’s a huge difference between saying, “This is what I want to do,” and actually doing it.

Our former online editor created a Joomla mockup last year, just as I had done with the WordPress, and after getting the “Ok!” from our general mananger, his plans went nowhere.

Why? Fear. Fear of not being able to pass down an open-source CMS to future online editors. Fear of failing.

That was the same concern that came up when I proposed the idea of moving to WordPress.

To me, it’s a non-issue. If my future replacement doesn’t “know” the system, then he/she has to learn it.

We’ve all been new to it at one point. The fear of learning something new is possibly what got the journalism industry in the position it’s in now.

After news that CoPress would start hosting college newspapers, I had the final push the editor-in-cheif and I needed to convince our general manager that we’re done with College Publisher.

It’s really a great deal: cheap hosting (off-campus, so we don’t have to follow strict ADA rules and pay the school for space), a support network (so that we’re not relying only on me), and a solid relationship with leaders in college journalism.

Tentative plans set our launch date for March 14. Cross your fingers for us. We couldn’t be more excited.

Structural changes to the Mustang Daily

With our big redesign come huge structural changes. With College Publisher, we were limited to posting stories based on the date of our print issue (although, to be fair, CP5 has improved). With WordPress, we’re ready to move to a 24-hour news cycle where we’re posting news continuously.

Even if your newspaper isn’t planning a major overhaul, you should still consider ending your shovelware methods.

It’s what your readers expect from you. Most students are getting their news online from the local paper, CNN, NYTimes, etc. They’re used to getting news updates all day long, and it shouldn’t be any different with a college newspaper. News doesn’t stop during the day just because the print issue isn’t done.

Of course, the change isn’t as simple as posting news updates throughout the day. The way our process is structured requires copy editors to come in around 5 p.m. to start reading over stories. With their red pens, they sit at a table and edit stories that have been printed out.

Hours are wasted between the first Word Doc printout and the flat printout. Copy editors aren’t done with the final changes until 10 p.m. each night (which is when I post the stories. That’s just wrong).

I have a few problems with this method:

Why are the copy editors only coming in at night? Future (meaning this spring or summer) structural changes to the Daily will require copy editors on duty all day long to edit stories as they come in.
During a time when the Web dominates the news industry, why is it our last priority? The web should always be the number one priority on every editor’s list. Not a place to dump stories that don’t fit in print or an after-thought at the end of the night. And while most editors tend to agree, they sure have a hard time putting it into practice.
Why do copy editors need to use a red pen on a printed Word Doc? What about a little thing called a computer? Editing on paper seems so primitive. Slowly, the Mustang Daily staff has started using Google Docs for assigning article and photo assignments. And WordPress makes editing articles online even simpler.
As Greg Linch wrote on the CoPress Blog, stories can be edited on WordPress, rather than through multiple Word Doc revisions. This means the copy editors don’t have to come into the newsroom to copy edit. All they need is a computer and internet access.
Also, as Greg notes, when print designers are ready to layout their pages, they simply pull the already-copy edited versions of the articles from the CMS. It saves time and everyone wins.

Breaking an age-old tradition

Another way the Mustang Daily is breaking the rules this quarter is through implementing a “track” system for our reporters.

Because the Mustang Daily reporters are enrolled in a class (taught by student editors), they get credit for writing. So the syllabus is structured like any other class: you do a little of everything so you can be “well rounded.”

Traditionally, it’s always (and I mean forever) worked this way– Each quarter (10 weeks) every Mustang Daily reporter writes:

Four news stories
Four arts stories
Three sports stories
One feature story (1,000+ words)
An opinion piece
+ four miscellaneous (from any section)
Last year, we added a multimedia requirement to that list. Starting in summer 2008, it jumped to two multimedia pieces.

But now we’re breaking the rules. We’re switching it up. Reporters are now on a track system, which works like beats. We have sports writers, news writers, arts writers and general reporters. Each reporter will do two multimedia pieces for their respective tracks.

The system is seemingly common-sense. Reporters build up their contacts in their tracks and get story leads. They get the kind of experience they’d have in a real newsroom.

We made the switch because we had crap stories for our sports section. Reporters who knew/understood sports couldn’t write for the section because they had to fulfill news/arts requirements, and news/arts writers who knew nothing about sports were trying to cover soccer games. It doesn’t work that way.

Yet somehow, for uncountable years, the system continued. Not because it worked, but out of fear of change. Because the world supposedly wanted journalists who could cut out diverse clips to paste into their portfolios.

Well the industry is changing. Physical clips don’t exist (or at least they shouldn’t). Students need experience that reflects the real industry as close as possible. College newspapers need to mirror those industry changes, or even better — come up with innovative changes the professional industry hasn’t yet.

I challenge you to look at aspects of your newspaper that have always been the same, and ask yourself if those strategies still work. And even if you think they do work, come up with ways to make them work better.

Change is the only way to win. Are you up for it?

Google tools to use in the newsroom

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Lauren Rabaino

Google Calendars

Things to schedule:

Budget meetings
Deadlines
Must-cover events
Special editions

Why it’s useful:

Can be shared with everyone on staff
Collaborative – everyone can contribute
Embeddable

Google Documents

What to use it for?

Stories: If the newsroom server goes down, it’s good to have all your stories saved somewhere remotely (or, if a natural disaster forces you out of the newsroom, your resources are still available)
Organization: You can easily filter stories by section, and they’re color coordinated
Collaboration: Editors and reporters can see who’s working on which document. You can also see “history of revisions” to see who changed what
Contact lists: Use Google Spreadsheet documents to keep a cumulative list of all your key contacts.
Data collection: Keep information for in-depth research (council member salaries, history timelines, etc.) in spreadsheets that can be accessed anywhere

Google News Archives

What is it?

Online database of news archives dating back 200 years (obviously, though, the collection of articles isn’t complete yet)
Small cost: Some publications require a small fee of $2.95 to access an archived article. They do, however provide a pretty thorough preview.

Why use it?

While microfiche is free and basically the same thing, when working on a tight deadline for a story, sometimes the few extra dollars is worth the time it will save you to dig through library archives
Quick, efficient way to do research on a topic in a hurry

Google Alerts

As Ronald Wong reminded me in his comment (how could I forget?) Google Alerts are one of the best tools for editors and reporters (especially beat writers). Google alerts show you news as it breaks and give you the potential for great story ideas.