The newspaper industry had another bad year in 2010. Overall, circulation for newspapers in the U.S. declined 5 percent during the six months ended Sept. 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Fas-Fax, the industry’s semi-annual scorecard.
Just one American newspaper — the Wall Street Journal — managed to increase its
circulation during that period — up 1.82 percent. Some papers, like the
San Francisco Chronicle (11.2 percent), saw its paid circulation take a double-digit tumble.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Word for Discouraged Writers
Are you a discouraged writer? Take heart and be encouraged from this glimpse into the life of novelist Mary Higgins Clark, who has now sold 80 million copies in the U.S., and millions more around the world.
She grew up in the Bronx during the Depression, the daughter of Irish immigrants who ran a pub.
She worked a secretary, then as a flight attendant for Pan Am, married at age 22, and had a child nine months later. She would have four more children in the next eight years. Then her husband died. To make ends meet, she wrote four-minute-long radio scripts for a show called Portrait of a Patriot.
But in the early mornings, before her kids woke up, she sat at the typewriter and wrote short stories — her true passion. She sent them off to magazines, and she got back dozens of rejection slips. One read: "Mrs. Clark, your stories are light, slight, and trite." Another slip said: "We found the heroine as boring as her husband had."
While she was still writing radio scripts she decided to try writing a novel, a historical one about George Washington. It was published, she said, and then "remaindered as it came off the press."
A group of her radio co-workers went out to lunch and she pointed out her book in a Manhattan bookstore window. When they came back from lunch, the book was not there any more. She insisted that it must have been snapped up. But when they passed by the store again at the end of the workday, the book was there in the window again. She went inside to ask about it, and the bookstore employee told her: "Whoever bought it returned it."
But she was highly encouraged by the fact that she had been published at all, and she decided to try writing a suspense novel inspired by the time that her three-year-old child had gone missing briefly near a deep lake. In 1974, she sold it to a publisher for a modest $3000. Three months later, she found out the paperback rights to the book had sold for $100,000.
Her second suspense novel sold for $1.5 million, and soon she was being paid $12 million per story. Each one of her suspense novels has been a best-seller.
She grew up in the Bronx during the Depression, the daughter of Irish immigrants who ran a pub.
She worked a secretary, then as a flight attendant for Pan Am, married at age 22, and had a child nine months later. She would have four more children in the next eight years. Then her husband died. To make ends meet, she wrote four-minute-long radio scripts for a show called Portrait of a Patriot.
But in the early mornings, before her kids woke up, she sat at the typewriter and wrote short stories — her true passion. She sent them off to magazines, and she got back dozens of rejection slips. One read: "Mrs. Clark, your stories are light, slight, and trite." Another slip said: "We found the heroine as boring as her husband had."
While she was still writing radio scripts she decided to try writing a novel, a historical one about George Washington. It was published, she said, and then "remaindered as it came off the press."
A group of her radio co-workers went out to lunch and she pointed out her book in a Manhattan bookstore window. When they came back from lunch, the book was not there any more. She insisted that it must have been snapped up. But when they passed by the store again at the end of the workday, the book was there in the window again. She went inside to ask about it, and the bookstore employee told her: "Whoever bought it returned it."
But she was highly encouraged by the fact that she had been published at all, and she decided to try writing a suspense novel inspired by the time that her three-year-old child had gone missing briefly near a deep lake. In 1974, she sold it to a publisher for a modest $3000. Three months later, she found out the paperback rights to the book had sold for $100,000.
Her second suspense novel sold for $1.5 million, and soon she was being paid $12 million per story. Each one of her suspense novels has been a best-seller.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
PR Agency Project Coordinator Position Posting
Here is a current job opening posted at the DeMoss Group (public relations agency) in Atlanta. I post it just to give you insight as to the skills needed, and potential duties of a position with an agency.
Project Coordinator
Position Description:
Assist the project manager in the implementation and management of projects, schedules, creative production and distribution for public/media relations, marketing and administrative campaigns.
Key Responsibilities:
* Project Coordination: Maintain a master calendar for all projects requiring distribution, printing, compilation, mailing and creative development, as well as keep projects on schedule.
* Quality Control: Proofread all materials for grammar and spelling errors, applying extensive knowledge of the Associated Press Stylebook; modify Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents for formatting and content consistency.
* Computer Knowledge: Possess a high proficiency in multiple software applications including, but not limited to, Web-based applications, Word, Excel and PowerPoint; a working knowledge of the programs Visio and Photoshop is beneficial.
* Website Newsroom Maintenance: Update and maintain online client newsrooms through the web-based application Expression Engine.
* Production: Complete general production tasks, including copying, collating and assembling press kits, notebooks and reports.
* Systematization: Organize and maintain client stock media materials and collateral, archived projects, production supplies, etc.
* Clipping Management: Procure, lay out and maintain media clips, including press kit articles and clipping packets.
* Record Keeping: Assist with producing and filing information regarding completed projects.
Core Proficiencies:
* College degree (preferred)
* Ability to manage multiple projects and demanding deadlines
* Excellent grammar and proofreading skills
* Computer expertise
* Aptitude for learning new software packages and web applications easily
Project Coordinator
Position Description:
Assist the project manager in the implementation and management of projects, schedules, creative production and distribution for public/media relations, marketing and administrative campaigns.
Key Responsibilities:
* Project Coordination: Maintain a master calendar for all projects requiring distribution, printing, compilation, mailing and creative development, as well as keep projects on schedule.
* Quality Control: Proofread all materials for grammar and spelling errors, applying extensive knowledge of the Associated Press Stylebook; modify Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents for formatting and content consistency.
* Computer Knowledge: Possess a high proficiency in multiple software applications including, but not limited to, Web-based applications, Word, Excel and PowerPoint; a working knowledge of the programs Visio and Photoshop is beneficial.
* Website Newsroom Maintenance: Update and maintain online client newsrooms through the web-based application Expression Engine.
* Production: Complete general production tasks, including copying, collating and assembling press kits, notebooks and reports.
* Systematization: Organize and maintain client stock media materials and collateral, archived projects, production supplies, etc.
* Clipping Management: Procure, lay out and maintain media clips, including press kit articles and clipping packets.
* Record Keeping: Assist with producing and filing information regarding completed projects.
Core Proficiencies:
* College degree (preferred)
* Ability to manage multiple projects and demanding deadlines
* Excellent grammar and proofreading skills
* Computer expertise
* Aptitude for learning new software packages and web applications easily
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Is Internship the New Entry-Level Job?
This is an excerpt from a CNN posting entitled "Is an Internship the New Entry-Level Job?" To read the entire article, click here.
(CNN) -- Ani Kevork has interned at seven companies since she graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2009. She's trying to get a full-time job, but there's just nothing out there.
"It wasn't really a choice," she said. "It's just the reality of the job market today."
No. 7 proved lucky for Kevork in that her current internship at a film studio in London is paid, unlike her six previous internships. Still, she has no benefits, no job security and no idea where she'll be in a few weeks.
Kevork and two of her former classmates started a blog, The Eternal Intern, about the struggles of the current job market for other college grads with the same plights.
"I want to do what I studied, and I don't want to settle," she said. "I'm still applying for full-time positions, but I don't see that happening anytime soon for me."
Like Kevork, a growing number of college graduates are forced into internships after graduation because of the lack of entry-level jobs. For now, it's important to take those internships, said Phil Gardner, director of Michigan State University's Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
"In this environment, if a young person gets an internship, I'd tell him to take it," Gardner said. "Not because he needs another internship, but because he needs to stay engaged in the labor market so that when jobs open, he can switch to a full-time position.
"You can't go home and sit and whine and wait for something to happen. This is one way to be proactive."
(CNN) -- Ani Kevork has interned at seven companies since she graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2009. She's trying to get a full-time job, but there's just nothing out there.
"It wasn't really a choice," she said. "It's just the reality of the job market today."
No. 7 proved lucky for Kevork in that her current internship at a film studio in London is paid, unlike her six previous internships. Still, she has no benefits, no job security and no idea where she'll be in a few weeks.
Kevork and two of her former classmates started a blog, The Eternal Intern, about the struggles of the current job market for other college grads with the same plights.
"I want to do what I studied, and I don't want to settle," she said. "I'm still applying for full-time positions, but I don't see that happening anytime soon for me."
Like Kevork, a growing number of college graduates are forced into internships after graduation because of the lack of entry-level jobs. For now, it's important to take those internships, said Phil Gardner, director of Michigan State University's Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
"In this environment, if a young person gets an internship, I'd tell him to take it," Gardner said. "Not because he needs another internship, but because he needs to stay engaged in the labor market so that when jobs open, he can switch to a full-time position.
"You can't go home and sit and whine and wait for something to happen. This is one way to be proactive."
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