JESSICA DaSILVA

It took a few weeks, but I’ve finally settled into my new life. And after settling in, I’m ready to reflect on my semester as editor and look ahead to my new life.

I know my editorship at the Alligator was not perfect, but in the end, I accomplished what I set out to do. The Alligator is switching its content management system from TownNews to WordPress, and the editorial department’s needs are finally being recognized by the management and board of directors.

I made some very difficult decisions during my term, but the toughest was by far the decision to publicize the Alligator’s dilemma of not having an editor-in-chief applicant because of internal problems. (Editor’s note: The story did not come out as planned, but in the end, I guess it got the job done.)

Despite receiving a lot of flack, I still stand by that decision, and I am proud of it. It was because of that story that so many alumni got involved (including, but not limited to, financial donations). And the staff this semester started off with up-to-date software, some decent equipment and a positive outlook.

In the end, I’m happy with how last semester went.

This semester, I’ve taken a job at the UF Web Administration, where I’ll be helping improve its blog and doing some (X)HTML, CSS, etc. I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s very laid back and will definitely fine-tune my Web skills.

I’m also working as the Alligator’s ombudsman, a position I plan to use to assist in recruitment and image. I would really like to create a conversation with the Alligator’s audience and implement some of the ideas I mentioned in my State of the Newsroom Report from December. I would like to start an ombudsman blog to make the newsroom more transparent and approachable. I’ll let you know when this happens.

Finally, some of my random goals for this semester include brushing up on my American Sign Language, blogging much more frequently, practicing my crappy photography, and learning Flash and video shooting/editing. Oh, and studying for the GRE (groan). Looks like I’ll be pretty busy! Better get to work.

After the Friday meeting that selected the top three editors for the spring semester, the Alligator’s board of directors met with the Alligator staff to review the problems discussed at the crisis meeting and take suggestions for solutions.

As the outgoing editor, I summed up the problems/answers I could see in a state of the newsroom report, which I’m sharing here:

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so I posted this response to the Alligator’s crisis on the Alligator alumni Facebook group the other day. I figured I would post it here to see if anyone else out there has suggestions on how we can pull ourselves out of this hole.

Dear Alumni,

Thank you for all the e-mails and messages you’ve sent. However, I think our own story missed the staff’s point, which is our fault.

Let me say this once: This staff is not working here for the money. We didn’t start at this newspaper for the money, and we’re not going into journalism for the money. We’re not afraid of long hours and hard work.

What we’re afraid for is our futures.

Mary is absolutely correct. We are not getting the experience that we need for internships and jobs that are out there.

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard, “You worked at the Alligator? That’s great. What else have you done?”

The truth of the matter is that the Alligator is NOT getting us internships and jobs anymore.

Many members of the staff find their first internships through personal connections with the faculty. Others sign up for programs where you pay to take classes and intern in a big city (the programs guarantee you an internship).

The problem? We’re not a place for innovative journalism anymore. Today, journalism is not just copy and headlines. We’re being expected to (at the very least) know (X)HMTL, CSS, how to gather/edit audio (and sometimes video), build Soundslides and more.

We put out what little we can, but that’s just it; it’s not enough. We don’t have equipment or staff to do what’s necessary to uphold our reputation.

We’ve built bridges with the faculty to get them to encourage students to work here, and they’ve done that. Staffers visited every single reporting lab to recruit new writers. We’ve done everything we could think of to build up our staff, and it hasn’t worked well enough to build up a strong incoming class of staffers.

We had funding for a full staff this semester. As it stands now, we have three writers on the university desk and two on metro. That makes up our entire staff of writers. The rest are freelancers. We have five writers. Five.

Those five writers are covering ALL of our important news. They typically write three stories a day. How are they supposed to gather and edit the audio for those stories and build a Soundslides when they have to write those stories? They can’t learn those new, vital technology skills when they’re making up for a non-existent beat partner.

The skills students need to succeed in today’s journalism industry are not being taught in full at the Alligator. They’re finding opportunities to learn those skills elsewhere, especially in the college, which is constantly upgrading its technology and curriculum and emphasizing the importance of multimedia skills.

And so it becomes a vicious cycle. We can’t attract students because we don’t have the technology or manpower to spearhead the online movement, so the current staff suffers. They get burned out because they’re doing more than just working hard, they are doing the work of several reporters and editors.

Many of you cited that despite the workload, you had fun. I can say that’s how I felt when I started here, but after being part of a staff that has been recycled over and over again, I can tell that no one is having fun anymore. We’re in the same position that all of you who are in newspapers now are in.

The only difference is that working at the Alligator is optional, so people are finally choosing to leave, and they’re leaving heartbroken. They work their fingers to the bone every day only to get Dear John letters back from internships.

So once again, thank you for your encouraging words and testimonials, but for the Alligator to remain the place you remember it to be, it’s going to require much more.

I’ll keep you updated.

Jessie DaSilva
Editor-in-Chief, fall 2008

Since I posted this, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and suggestions from alumni. We’ve also had an editor applicant, but it doesn’t fix the problems we’re still facing.

As I wrote to one alumna, if I had to boil everything down, I think our two improvements would be:

1. Monthly board meetings - The board of directors, being our publisher, has become far removed from our issues from only meeting once a semester.

The Alligator staff has been dwindling for about five years, and the board didn’t do anything until this semester when the last of our recycled staff decided to leave. If they had heard about our problems on a monthly basis, there would have been more time for brainstorming and alumni outreach.

2. New equipment/software - We’re not asking for top-of-the-line equipment and software, but what we have now is not even industry standard. We all recognize that the problem with technology is that it becomes outdated so quickly.

After 10 months, there’s already something better out. However, we’re working on computers that are 10 years old. It wouldn’t be a problem if it could support our outdated software, but it barely does that. Some of them don’t even have USB outlets for our thumb drives.

Meanwhile, all of our software is outdated. Photo doesn’t even have a recent version of Photoshop, which is a pretty basic need.

So if anyone has any additional ideas, shoot them my way. I have to write a report of our problems and some proposed solutions for our board and staff meeting on Friday. I’ll take as much input as I can get.

I can’t speak for college newspapers across the U.S., but The Independent Florida Alligator is in a position quite different from the professional journalism industry.

From my understanding, the paper is on very solid financial ground, though I won’t get into specifics. We have enough money for a full staff, which is more than many newspapers can say, and I’m very thankful for that.

However, here I am, with seven weeks left in the semester, and there is still a drastic shortage of writers.

Our budget allows for five university desk writers, three metro writers and one features writer. Right now, we have three university writers (one who was just hired within the past two weeks), two city writers and no features writers (just freelancers).

It doesn’t seem too bad at first. These are shortages we normally face. But let me put this into context.

We started this semester off with almost a full staff. University had a desk of five strong writers, leaving metro with the opportunity to have its pick of the freelancers.

Within a month, four of those writers quit, and only one had a valid excuse (16 credit hours). Meanwhile, barely any of our freelancers seem to be interested in staff positions.

We were not given any warning or reasoning as to why three of them left. I won’t lie. I was angry. But I thought we would find replacements relatively soon, especially as freelance writers started sending in assignments for their reporting classes. Not so.

I’ve been at this paper going on three years, and I can say recruiting has never been this difficult. For the first time, I’m hearing students turning down staff positions because they have to keep their GPA up just in case they have to choose a backup career if journalism doesn’t work out.

My hypothesis is that journalism students are jumping ship. They see the numbers, and they’re scared. I think we can’t find student writers because students may be switching majors or using journalism to prepare for law school. I plan on speaking with the college to see if enrollment data reveals any trends.

I understand the industry is in a bad state right now. Believe me, I’m scared about not having a job after graduation. However, this bad news is just a reminder that I have to try harder at what I’m doing now to prepare myself.

Not going into journalism isn’t an option for me. It’s my calling. Could a nice salary and designer shoes replace passion? I don’t think so.

I’m OK with shopping at Payless.

Busy does not even describe my schedule the past few weeks.

After I was selected as editor, I immediately started putting together my staff and working on issues for the Alligator. Now the end of my internship and the beginning of my editorship seem blended together in my memory.

Still, I’ll try and give an overview of the lessons I learned in Tampa and the lessons I’m learning in Gainesville.

The Tampa Tribune

I can’t really say I’m a better writer than I was at the beginning of the summer, but I still learned so much (and so much more than just the blog post experience).

During the summer, I learned different methods of interviewing sources from the experienced beat reporters who sat around me. I also got some of the best journalism advice during my last days.

I’m just going to list my favorite advice here:

• “Learn to work for yourself and not for anyone else. If you don’t, you’ll drive yourself crazy.” -Emily Seawell, online producer/copy editor
• “You need to read more Hemingway; you need to learn to say things without saying them. You’re writing too much and trying too hard.” -Copy editor from the CND (this was the best writing advice I’ve gotten in about a year).
• “Get used to bad editors. For every 10 editors you have, you’ll be lucky to get one good one.” -Metro desk reporter
• “Don’t expect nurturing or praise when you’re in the real world. Do your job well because you should.” -Another metro reporter
• Learn to keep your head up when newsroom morale is low. You’ll forget why you love journalism otherwise. -I got this from a few people
• Limit the amount of time you talk and read about layoffs and the scariness of the industry. You won’t be able to keep going every day if you don’t. -I picked this up from Mary Shedden, health reporter

The Alligator

When I started, I was confronted with a broken staff. My managing editors (Hilary Lehman and Ken Schwencke) and I spent our first week back in Gainesville meeting with members of every desk to assess their needs and hear what they wanted from us.

I think taking the extra time to come up with gameplans with the section editors really helped us earn some street cred with them early on. It showed them we cared to work with them to get their goals accomplished, so long as we worked within the constraints of their lives outside of the job, i.e. class, tests, boyfriends/girlfriends, family events, etc.

We’ve gotten the ball rolling on a lot of what we discussed, including starting a discussion about a new content management system. I already feel like Hilary, Ken and I have done so much, which gets me excited to find out where we’ll be at the end of the semester. I think our being excited and involved really makes the staff feel like they’re a part of something truly great.

I really feel like I was just born for this job. I like managing people and brainstorming with all the brilliant people who work here.

And following editors who haven’t been especially conscientious about the way they interact with the staff, I make sure to check myself before I wreck myself. This newsroom has always been a haven for me, and it would kill me to know I ruined that for someone else.

For example, the other night, I know I stepped over the line and snapped at a section editor for a late story, which I shouldn’t have done. Late stories happen. We didn’t miss deadline. The world was still intact. After I was done editing pages and talking over the night’s events with Hilary, I went and apologized. We hugged it out, and all was well.

I think that event really sums up why I love this newsroom and how much I love this job. At the end of the day, we’re all friends — regardless of deadlines or mistakes.