As the summer winds down, I’m guessing that everyone’s got a chance to speak at length with the multimedia folks at your companies and formulated some thoughts on the future of print journalism, especially in how it’s moving into the new media realm.

Hence, my question is what are have you learned about the future of the newspaper journalism industry now that you’re done, or nearly done, with your internship? What are some of your ideas for the new multimedia journalism news product (besides the typical video, blogging & tweeting, that would compliment the written article)?

Are you going to continue to pursue print journalism? If so, what new skills and/or ideas would you inculcate into your education (if you’re returning to school) or job (supposing you’re hired) so as to help shape this future print/online journalism product?

Since I spent the last few months at a newspaper with no multimedia features, I feel I have a renewed love for print journalism. I also have faith that print journalism is still alive and ticking. I will continue to pursue this particluar field but will also leave my options open for multimedia journalism as well. Now, more than ever I feel it is important to be versatile and multifaceted as a journalist. I want to be able to put on my resume that I am both a print and multimedia reporter. Working in a smaller newsroom with an “old-school” working environment I realized how much I love the basic idea of journalism and getting the news out to my audience. In a nutshell, I’m ready to take on whatever the journalism world throws at me.

I too spent the last few months at a newspaper that’s not well-equipped to face the multimedia world. Sadly, I think that this will come to hurt this paper, and hurt it hard. In the middle of this summer, I made the final decision to go to graduate school and get my MBA. While this doesn’t mean that I won’t be working in the news, I’ve been told by journalists at the Trib that this is the best decision I could make. So, if I continue to pursue print journalism, it will be from a management aspect.

I’ve learned that print journalism is not going any where any time soon. This summer taught me that people hold newspapers at a high value, especially when something big happens. In the case of the Advertiser, its the SEC (south eastern conference) When the Univeristy of Alabama football team took the SEC title people lined up to buy multiple copies, either to save or to send to family members and friends. This past year the same thing happened when Auburn University took the title, I heard the line was out the door and into the parking lot. Extra copies of the paper had to be printed to meet the demand. This really woke me up and made me realize that even if its not a big event, people will still want to save a paper when thier photo makes it or a story of them makes it. Print is still very important to a majority and that’s all you can ask for. I guess a sound clip would be cool, if you weren’t going to do a video or slideshow. I’m not exactly sure how you would use it but I think it could work if done right.
Yes, print journalism has become a new mission and this summer sparked some motivation to really knock it out of the ball park and embrace it more than I have been. I have a new respect for it. I will be taking my first set of journalism classes this semester and I am so excited because I feel I have a better grasp on the subject.

Interacting discussion --while all this tech stuff is going on, I am always amazed to hear things like Angela and Roshni’s post saying their paper is more “old school” than new. The fact that Stacy’s paper had to print extras for the U of Alabama win is reminiscent of real old days, when they printed Extras for big news events that happened in the middle of a news cycle (like the shooting of President Reagan back when I was in Roshni’s desk!) I’d be really interested to hear if any of you feel that your journalism education well-prepared you, or ill-prepared you for what you’ve been doing this summer. The institution of the university is one of the slowest ships to try to turn around. even though there’s some really interesting innovation going on in some of the larger and more experimental scho9ols, much J-education (it seems to me) has more of an “old-school” approach. Thoughts? Bertrand—thanks for the compelling post. You guys are the best.

I’m at a pretty old-school paper, but I think we can all carve out a space for new-school reporting/Web-based journalism. We sometimes let multimedia journalism overshadow Web journalism, ie better use of the Internet through blogs, links, SEO, social media ... things WE’RE good at but some of the more weathered folks in the newsroom aren’t. So I still see the basics of good reporting and accuracy and speed staying with journalists (at least successful ones) forever. How good reporting is manifested may change, but as long as we’re open to that change, it’s nothing to worry about.

Thanks for everything, guys, and it’s been real nice chatting with y’all online.

And Roshni, best of luck in your endeavors. When you’re a big newspaper exec, please please please don’t let anything like this happen.

I think we’re the people who will change the future of journalism and hopefully influence where it is going as an industry. There are a lot of big questions to answer, but I believe the foundation still lies in the basic, fundamental skills we have to learn. It’s why I want to go into journalism. I just want to be able to tell stories. It doesn’t matter to me what medium it is and whether or not there is a print product (though I really hope there is one and don’t think newspapers are going anywhere soon). I’m definitely going to continue pursuing print journalist, though it’s difficult to answer when asked what my focus is. I was asked that a lot at the AAJA convention and I would always respond with, “print, but I’m doing a lot of multimedia work.”

I think we can incorporate new media/multimedia into everything we do, while still emphasizing what is important. To me, the important thing is telling a good story using solid basic journalism skills. All of the apps, programs, etc. we learned about simply build on that and give us another skill set. I am definitely going to emphasize putting out two solid products when I return to the campus newspaper: print and online. We’ll be doing a lot more with video and audio, which I learned how to balance this past week at AAJA. Sorry for the rant, guys. I’m just really excited about the future of journalism after this summer.

I felt that my paper was doing a great job at using multi media--almost scary at times. Not only would us photo people Benoit there doing video but so were the reporters. As a photojournalist this is scary, why would they need me when tree reporter can do both? Sure the overall look may not be the same but with lay offs and money cuts maybe papers will lack that usual aspect for someone who can just do it all. For me I need to find a way that makes me more “worth while.”

Recently I’ve been lOoking at journalism job postings and they are looking for “mulitmedia journalist” while at school that is what we are starting to call ourselfs because we can shoot photos along with shoot and produce video--but what the “real whole” wants is a journalist who can do it ALL including report and write. I feel like photojournalist we have a long road ahead.

For me to leave journalism there has to be a death: either I’ll die or the industry will.

I’ve known without a doubt that journalism was the career I wanted to pursue since I chose my school almost four years ago now. I’m very fortunate that I found what I loved so early on, and after spending my summer at the LA Times that hasn’t changed at all—if anything, I’m more excited about my profession. Although the LA Times is a bit of an unstable company with its weird organizational structure with the Tribune Co. and with questions about whether it will be sold, my experience there was great and I would love to go back.

As for the multimedia and the technology of the company, I thought one project that the Tribune Co. has been working on that was leaked my last week at the Times was pretty cool and exciting. According to CNN and an LA Times employee who was laid off in this last round last month, the company wants to develop its own Android tablet to give to home subscribers. It would work like cable companies where they give you the box for free but you have to sign a two year contract. This would replace the actual physical newspaper, but I think this could possibly work. Although it might alienate older readers, the promise of a free tablet alone would lure in a ton of new, younger readers.