Photo: Grand Junction event

From left, Ian Neligh, Carla Jean Whitley and Steve Knopper talk about their experiences writing and publishing books during careers mostly focused on newspaper and magazine writing Sunday, Feb. 11 at the Mesa County Library Central Branch in Grand Junction.

Turnout was low but conversation robust at a Feb. 11 SPJ Colorado Pro event in Grand Junction featuring three Colorado reporters-turned-authors.

Steve Knopper, a Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of “MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson”  and “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age”; Ian Neligh, editor of the Clear Creek Courant and author of “Gold! Madness, Murder, and Mayhem in the Colorado Rockies”; and Carla Jean Whitley, features editor at the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent and author of “Birmingham Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Magic City” and “Music Shoals Sound Studio: How the Swampers Changed American Music” spoke at length about the process of researching, writing and publishing their full-length books.

SPJ job and internship fair turns out “impressive talent”

Thirty-five students from six schools participated in the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter college student internship and job fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club. The event was for underclassmen seeking summer internships and for May graduates interviewing for jobs.

Thirty-five students from six schools participated in the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter’s college student internship and job fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club. The SPJ Colorado Pro board sponsored the event so underclassmen could interview for summer internships and May graduates could interview for entry-level jobs.

“Some very impressive talent, and a terrific turnout from the students,” Evergreen Newspapers editor Doug Bell said. “These events not only provide our imminent graduates a chance to practice their interviewing skills but also are a networking bonanza.”

Greeley Tribune editor Randy Bangert, right, interviews Mike Tolbert of Metropolitan State University-Denver at the SPJ College Student Internship and Job Fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club.

The session was scheduled for 1-4 p.m. and ran 30 minutes longer because many of the print, broadcast and digital students interviewed with three or four of the news organization representatives.

The fair was open and free to students, and they were encouraged to bring their resumes, clips and portfolios.

According to Bell, “The editors on hand to do the interviewing were clearly impressed, and came away with a valuable collection of resumes.”

Loveland Reporter-Herald managing editor and Prairie Mountain Media representative Jeff Stahla, left, interviews Ashley Dumas of the University of Central Florida at the SPJ College Student Internship and Job Fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club.

Janis Carrasquel Hernandez, a Metropolitan State University-Denver fall 2015 journalism graduate, said, “I enjoyed the job fair greatly. It was an occasion to meet face-to-face with Colorado’s prospective media employers and learn about what they are looking for.

“It was also a good professional networking event where I talked with colleagues about their projects and exchanged job hunting tips and knowledge.”

Mile High Sports web editor Michael Jaycox, far left, interviews a student at the SPJ College Student Internship and Job Fair on Feb. 19, at the Denver Press Club.

Denver Post internship recruiter Alexandra Alsonso also noted the students’ appreciation for the interiew experience.

“I’m so glad that that a few of the students felt like they left the fair with helpful information,” she said. “I was very happy to meet such a diverse group made up of attendees who were well-prepared, had great questions, and who were receptive to feedback and suggestions when talking about their next step.”

Mile High Sports web editor Michael Jaycox appreciated the students’ enthusiasm in pursuing journalism careers.

Denver Post internship recruiter Alexandra Alonso, left, interviews Rachael Worthington of Colorado State University at the SPJ College Student Internship and Job Fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club.

“This was my first time representing Mile High Sports at a job fair, and I couldn’t have been more impressed,” he said. “The students and applicants were not only qualified and prepared, but engaging to speak with. What I was most impressed with, though, was their excitement to know more about the industry and different possible pathways towards a journalism career.

“Even if Mile High Sports wasn’t the perfect fit for an individual applicant, we were able to discuss their future in other ways, and I feel both sides came away with something useful.”

Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting president Laura Frank, left, interviews Jeffrey Will of Metropolitan State University-Denver at the SPJ College Student Internship and Job Fair on Feb. 19 at the Denver Press Club.

Colorado SPJ partnered with the Colorado Press Associaton in visits to college journalism programs last fall, and the visitation team members emphasized the importance of internships. The Feb. 19 program was the first internship/job fair hosted by Colorado SPJ because the chapter board believed spring semester was a good time to reconnect with students.

“Thanks to SPJ for putting on one of the best internship/job fairs I’ve seen,” Greeley Tribune editor Randy Bangert said. “I came away with a stack of more than a dozen resumes from passionate, enthusiastic and talented journalists that I’d like to have in our newsroom at some point. It’s great to see so many young journalists who are eager to develop their skills and experience real-world journalism.”

Save the Date for SPJ Regional Conference in Albuquerque

Mark your calendars now for the April 15 -16 SPJ Region 9 Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

SPJ Rio Grande and the University of New Mexico student chapter will be hosting the regional conference in the Land of Enchantment.

The two-day event will include speakers Robert Hernandez and Fred Brown, and will feature a variety of panels and workshops including: digital security, covering elections, crunching numbers, “backpack journalism” and multimedia, covering the environment and Indian Country, diversity – and much more!

The conference will be held at the University of New Mexico. The event hotel is Hotel Parq Central (which includes free shuttle service and free breakfast). When making your hotel reservations, be sure to mention SPJ to get the group rate.

Follow this link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spj-region-9-conference-tickets-21018198999

SPJ Rio Grande has reserved space on several of its panels, so if you feel you could help guide the conversation, reach out directly to organizer Laura Paskus at laura.paskus@gmail.com.

The conference schedule is listed below:

Friday, April 15

2:30

Registration

3:00

Digital Security: Journalists may pride themselves on protecting their sources but we leave them vulnerable every day with outdated digital security practices. Whether you’re covering national security for a major news organization or law enforcement in a small town, you should equip yourself with privacy tools for the age of StingRays and cell phone metadata. In this session, Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation will provide a crash course on digital security to keep journalists and their sources safe.

4:00

Covering Elections:

2016 Political TV Ad Tracker: Nancy Watzman of The Internet Archive. This Knight-funded project uses audio fingerprinting to deliver data on how often political ads air, on what stations, in what states, etc.

Crunching the numbers: Sandra Fish on tracking data in your state with a review of tip sheets on Money in Politics, New Story Ideas, Politician Interviews and Covering Polls and Surveys.

Saturday, April 16

8:00

Registration and breakfast

9:00

Introduction by Fred Brown, former national SPJ president and key player in new SPJ Ethics Code.

Panel: Telling the Untold Stories: Bringing diverse voices into your coverage

Whose stories aren’t being told in your coverage? The session focuses on identifying the sources we don’t hear from in our newsrooms’ work, and creating an action plan for bringing those sources into our coverage. This is a hands-on workshop session with lots of interaction among attendees. Participants will leave with great sources for their organizations to reach out to and a game plan for how they’ll do it.

Panel: Multi-Media, Crossover, and Backpack Journalism

In today’s journalism world, reporters can no longer survive without multiple skills across platforms. But how can writers take photos that aren’t horrible? Television producers write great copy for the web? And all of us take video footage that doesn’t make people nauseous? SPJ’s regional experts on multimedia and backpack journalism share their tips.

Keynote speaker: Robert Hernandez / Lunch / Mark of Excellence awards

Covering Poverty

Co-sponsored with UNITY

New Mexico remains one of the poorest states in the nation and it is showing no signs of changing. From reservation life to rural Hispanic villages, the conditions, poor schooling and the lack of services seem to foster a repeating structure. What are we missing? How can we do a better job at coverage? How can we avoid poverty porn in our coverage? This panel will have journalists, activists and some politicians from both parties.

Panel: Covering the Environment in Native Communities

The Gold King Mine Spill had a significant impact on farmers and ranchers on the Navajo Nation, but that event was one of hundreds of potential environmental stories last year in Indian Country. Leaders in Native communities are using both traditional knowledge and innovations in technology to respond to environmental concerns and climate change. In this session, Native reporters and other journalists with extensive experience covering tribes in New Mexico will share advice and ideas for covering the environment in Indian Country.

Panel: Challenges for College Journalists

Is your campus news keeping up with user demand? How are you adapting to new platforms and competition for student attention? What constraints are impinging upon your journalism? We are crowd sourcing our list of challenges to be discussed; we’ll complete that list in the weeks leading up to the conference. [Please provide your thoughts to UNM Professor Mike Marcotte (mm@mikemarcotte.com).] Our panel will feature a college newspaper editor, media advisor, writing coach and a recent grad who’s gone pro.

Panel: Cops and Criminal Justice

The public’s relationship with law enforcement has undergone a fundamental shift during the past couple of years, with increased awareness of excessive force, police shootings captured on video and a growing number of federal investigations of police departments around the country. As journalists, we have an important duty to hold accountable individual officers and the systems in which they operate – for there is no more plain expression of state power than a police officer with a gun, a badge and the legal authority to use the power of both in an incredibly personal way. Further, police officers are asked increasingly to deal with some of society’s larger problems – addiction, mental illness, etc. – even though they are ill-equipped to the task, reform advocates say. Covering these issues is complicated and difficult for journalists, because law enforcement often is a more closed society than other areas of government. This panel will explore strategies that have and have not worked in telling these important stories.

Panel: How To Report On Solutions  

When you report on a problem in your community, do you offer potential solutions? We end our regional conference with an introduction to new approaches from organizations like the Solutions Journalism Network and Images of Voices and Hope, which trains journalists in a “restorative narrative” model of reporting.  We present the opportunities and challenges in these models and tell you where you can go to find resources and training.

Gender equity panel to present at Auraria

Jan. 30 — Colorado Press Women will start the new year with a program on “Exploring gender equity for professional women in journalism and mass communications in Colorado.” We are using this gathering to launch a conversation about how far women have come in our members’ professions, how far we have to go, and how we can “lean in” to level the playing field for women journalists and communications professionals.

The panel discussion on gender equity features Tiffani Lennon, author of research on gender equity and a book Recognizing Women’s Leadership; Patti Dennis, longtime news director of 9News who is now vice president/regional news director and director of recruiting for TEGNA Media (formerly called Gannett Broadcasting); and Meghan Lyden, senior editor for photography and multimedia at The Denver Post.

The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Jan. 30, at the CCD Confluence Building on the Auraria Campus. In addition to campus parking lots, the location is well-served by RTD’s Light Rail – the Colfax at Auraria and Auraria West stations for lines W,C,D,E,F,H. See Light Rail map for the line nearest you. The CCD Confluence Building is near Colfax.

Registration fees of $5 for communications students, $10 for CPW members, and $15 for guests will include coffee, tea and pastries. Register online through PayPal. http://coloradopresswomen.org/events.shtml

Panel: Covering Race Relations in America

 

The Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and Arapahoe Community College Journalism & Contemporary Media Studies sponsored a panel discussion on “Covering Race Relations in America” April 2 on the ACC campus in Littleton. Left to right: Donna Bryson of The Associated Press; Jamey Trotter, head of the ACC program; Joanna Bean. editor and vice president/content of The Gazette in Colorado Springs; Francisco Miraval, founder of Project Vision 21 and an ACC adjunct instructor. SPJ Colorado Pro president Ed Otte was the panel moderator. More than 100 students and faculty attended the program.