The seven qualities of the 21st century journalist

Joe Grimm of JobsPage.com posted an article today on a talk by Owen Youngman, a Knight Professor of Digital Media Strategy.
At a recent discussion with Northwestern’s National High School Institute journalism students, Youngman talked about the basic qualities he believes all 21st century journalists will need in order to survive. The seven traits he listed as invaluable:

• Accuracy
  
• Self-Awareness
• Numeracy
  
• Appropriateness
  
• Business Savvy
• Audience Awareness
• Adaptability
  

Numeracy is a trait we at the Reynolds Center believe all journalists should have because of how essential it is in a variety of reporting beats. From the article:

"To be accurate, we have to understand and handle numbers better. They are embedded in almost every story we do and they become even more important in an age when so much of what happens online is data driven."

To improve number-literacy, Youngman suggested the book "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper". We suggest some of our short online tutorials for brushing up on basic math and business information. We also recommend this article for budding business journalists.

Learn more about the seven traits here.

Ex-business editor starts financial planning business

Joe Grimm posted his interview with David McPherson, the former Deputy business editor of The Providence Journal today on Poynter.
McPherson left the Providence Journal in 2007 to start his own financial planning business. He departed the news industry after 20 years to help people "make sense of their financial lives" and to avoid growing to dislike his journalism work.
He started setting up Four Ponds Financial Planning LLC immediately after leaving the paper and got his first customer within a few months. He now runs his business and writes a financial column for ABCNews.com.
McPherson discusses some of the difficulties he faced leaving his job, what motivated him to continue on with his goal and what he learned along the way. The now-business owner said he wished he had pursued an MBA while still in journalism. From the article:

"That would have made me a better reporter and editor and would have helped me prepare for the next stage of my working life...Seek education and training in another career field even if you feel secure in your job and you can't imagine a life without journalism."

See the entire story here.

JobsPage relaunches with eNewsletter

Joe Grimm, the former recruiter for Freep.com, has relaunched JobsPage and created a new eNewsletter to accompany it. The Web site offers "Career Strategies for Journalists" and provides workshops, articles with career advice, journalism job/internship listings, an "Ask the Recruiter" section, and more.
Check out the new site here.