Opinions from Outsiders...

Taylor Hodgdon, Male, 21, Geology Major UNH:

"I think that's a fantastic idea.  I think it's an interesting take off of the news on television... it's a news perspective that most people don't see it from... and I think it does a good job at getting the attention of people who don't always watch the news but like skiing as well so it gets a big group of people."

Will McKernan, Male, 21, Junior UNH:

"I think you still face a little bit of the problems with facing the niche market just because you're still looking at the skiing of it... you're relating current events to skiing... you might have a little bit more success as a ski reporter, because there are a lot of people who just casually ski, in my opinion... don't just write about skiing... I think that it could be interesting too, as a lot of skiing mountains are multi- functional... that might have other implications on that so then you can get into like the wedding market."

Cory Snyder, Male, 21, Senior UNH:

"The ski industry as a whole is an interesting place... I don't know very many people who are writers int he ski industry, I know skiers who happen to write...  people help them] ski by writing... it all depends on where your writing is being published cause it's sort of... like it doesn't fit in the NYT or... it fits in the union leader or a local paper... it would probably be an interesting column in a local paper."

Questions and Answers (?)

Q: At this point you should have some idea of who the average user of your product will be. What is the profile of that person?
A:  My ideal user would be a person who is passionate about skiing also wants to learn about what's going on in the world and how those events affect the ski world.  I suppose my ideal user would be a person like me- someone who wants to get his or her news in a creative way through a lens which they are familiar with, comfortable with and interested in (in this case, skiing).
Q: Who wants this product that you intend to develop?
A:  As a ski instuctor, I think that ski resorts and mountains would be interested in this product because it provides an interesting look on their mountain or resort that is not necessarily a "cookie cutter" review.  It gives visitors to the town or resort a different look at a mountain or at the sport of skiing in general.  It will allow visitors to not only get a glimpse of the skiing offered at the mountain but also how the surrounding area and mountian itself are being affected by current issues. 
Q: What problem or need are you satisfying for your customers? (Remember, the customers aren't necessarily the people who will be using your product. For example, television audiences aren't customers unless they pay for the product, as in HBO. The customers are advertisers.)
A:  As a skier I have always noticed that most ski news is just gear, conditions and mountains with awesome scenery.  As a skier I love this about ski news because it informs me about many of the things I want to know as a skier.  However, I sometimes find and articles that are ski related but are about wider reaching subjects, like climate change or the economy.  This got me thinking that there is a need for this kind of news- ski relted current events.  
Q: Who wants this product?
A:  Skiers, ski resorts and mountains, newsies, people who enjoy laughing and being entertained by my witty voice and bad puns. :)
Q: We all have to live. Where is the money in this product?
A:  This is actually the one answer to which I don't have a solid answer (even though it's probably the most important question).  I suppose there could be money it it from asdvertisers who want to pay for space to display their products, etc.  I haven't really thought of a creative way to make money off this idea though... I'd love help/suggestions!
Q: You are a journalist. Where is the journalism in this product?
A:  The journalism here is looking at current events and news stories and writing them creatively through the eyes of a skier and, especially, looking at them in regards to how they affect the ski curlture of a town or resort. 
Q: We've read that passion is key to success of a new venture. Money alone will not sustain it. So where is the passion in your product?
A:  I may not know about the money in this venture but I sure have the passion!  Skiing, travelling and writing are (and have always been) my three biggest passions in the world.  One of my Grandmother's favorite things to look at is a ski "newspaper" I made all by myself when I was ten.  I basically just drew the columns and wrote about skiing in my town of Jackson, so this is an idea I've had since I was younger.  I would love to take my childhood idea and turn it into something bigger and more wide reaching, something that a broader audience could enjoy and learn from.

Branding etc.

The reading this week talked a lot about branding, especially in regards to blogs.  Chapter 10 in Newsonomics says, "It is no longer enough just to create good or great work... It's all about getting your brand, your story, and yourself out there and having others multiply your impact."  I found this to be a really important and critical point.  With so many blogs out there, it is really important to make yours stand out by having a "brand", or something that sets you apart from everybody else and makes you unique.  I have set up a couple blogs in the past, just to talk about my study abroad experiences etc. and this is something I struggled with.  Do I want to be the quirky/geeky writer? Do I want to be the knowledgeable traveler? Or do I want to be the writer just bumbling through life with a few helpful hints along the way? I still don't really know.  Then, once you decide on an image, how do you go about marketing yourself and your image to the right people so you succeed in you ventures?  This is something I'd really like to explore a little bit more throughout the rest of the semester.  I recently started a blog about my experience applying for a semester in France and I plan to continue this blog all though my semester abroad in the Spring.  I think knowing how to brand myself will help me and my blog succeed in the coming year.

Skiing the slopes on news mountain

For my project, I would like to create a blog (or other online news source to examine worldwide events through the skiing culture.  This will look at social, economic, environmental and more conflicts through the worldwide ski culture.

Chatting with Jan Curley: Marshfield Hills Pottery

Me: What exactly do you do with Marshfield Hills Pottery?

Jan: Marshfield Hills Pottery has 2 components:

It is my personal art studio where I create art. I make pottery that I sell at art fairs. I create sculptures that I exhibit.  It is also a classroom where I teach kids, teens, and adult pottery classes year round.

Me: What inspired you to start your pottery business?

Jan: I was the kid in high school who hung out in the art room. I went to school for Art Education and minored in Ceramics. I have been a public school art teacher for over 18 years. Creating art has been my passion for as long as I can remember, and teaching enriches my life more than I can explain. 

When we moved into this antique house 7 years ago, I knew I wanted to convert the old horse barn into my studio. I was renting studio space in another town and making a lot of pottery. I saved every dime from every craft fair to finish the barn. I paid for the lumber, the electricity, the plumbing, everything with money made from selling my art. I've been open for a little over one year now and it feels like a huge accomplishment having realized the dream through my own hard work.

Me: What has been the the hardest part of this process for you?

Jan: The hardest part is that I can't give MHP my full attention and it isn't reaching it's full potential. Because I have a full-time job outside of my home, and I have 2 children, I don't devote enough time to the business. I have turned down opportunities to make money because I don't have the time.

Me: What has been the most rewarding part?

Jan: The most rewarding part is the positive responses I get from students who take my classes. It's great when you receive affirmation that you're good at what you do.

It's also pretty great to not have to rent studio space and drive 20 minutes each way to get there. I literally walk out of my kitchen and I'm in my own space.

Me: If you could do anything differently, what would you do and why?

Jan: If I could do something different it would be to have a person who runs the business aspect of MHP for me. Admittedly, I'm not good at it. I don't market myself well, or advertise effectively and I am terrible at answering e-mails in a timely fashion. It all goes back to not having enough hours in the day. I wish I could afford to hire an employee to fill up my classes, market, advertise, and make my sales. That way I could just make art and teach classes and not have to worry about those tasks.

Me: How did you get started?

Jan:  I think I answered this in question two. To expand a little...I couldn't have pulled any of this off without my husband's support. He worked so hard in that barn to make MHP a reality. He spent a lot of nights and weekends over a few years time working on the construction of the studio. He purchased my website and the sign that hangs out front. He schlepps all my stuff to and from fairs. He's been unreal.

Me: Where do you imagine MHP going in the future?

Jan: I will keep doing what I'm doing for now; teaching classes and doing fairs and adding to my income. It is and will continue to be a second job and a supplementary income for years to come. Jim and I can't work out how I could possibly make enough at MHP to quit my full-time job. Nor do I know if I would want to leave teaching high school. I love the career that I've chosen, and like your mom : ) I think I am very good at my job. When my boys are grown and out of the house, I will be able to devote more time to the business. But I'm not wishing those years away because they're already growing up too fast. When I retire from teaching  (in about 17 years) I plan to devote all of my time to MHP. That's the plan anyway.

Re-Vamping the News...

Chapter 11 in "Newsonomics" went along quite nicely with my former blog post. I really found this chapter helpful because it discussed what happens after the classes finish and we leave the lovely UNH campus. Like how Bezos is now running The Washington Post, this chapter discussed the business side to news and how running a media organization is very similar to running a business. Despite all the new aspects emerging onto the "journalistic" scene, the foundation remains stable. Although journalists nowadays must be "tweeners" with multiple skills (including multi-tasking) the basic foundations of journalism remains. Being able to report, interview, edit and write are still the most important skills a journalist can possess. However, in today's more digitized age journalism is "also about getting handy with a camcorder and digital audio." It was actually really fitting because we have been talking about this a lot in my 21st century journalism class: how to react to the changes slowly happening in the world of journalism while also sticking to those important journalistic basics. We've actually been thinking about the question- is this influx of technology a blessing or a curse? I don't have a definite answer because on one hand I think having the capability to get information more easily is a great thing for journalists but on the other hand, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Because there is soooooo much information floating around out there, we need to be more skeptical of where the information comes from. That's where the good ol' fashioned basics of journalism come back in!

In the business of news...

The Nieman article brought up some really interesting concepts I want to talk about real quick. As a journalist, when I see a person, with no experience in reporting the news, step in to take over a newspaper or a news organization, I honestly think, "what gives you the right?" It's slightly ridiculous because, as we see in the Nieman article, businessmen have really great ideas for the news industry. One quote from Bezos that really got me thinking is, "Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient... If you replace 'customer' with 'reader', that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too." Well said, Bezos, well said.  I think that newspapers can very well succeed by using this "business" model.  By inventing new ways to get the news out to people and innovative ways to get people reading (then waiting, nothing's instantaneous even in this world of twitter and facebook") maybe the whole form of journalism will be made better and, eventually, saved!

Possible Project???

When I went abroad over the Summer I had a blog just to keep my family up to date on all my goings on in England.  I'm also planning a study abroad trip next semester so having a blog this summer got me thinking about blogging and future journalistic ventures in general.  I have this idea for a blog (not just for next semester but something I'd like to pursue in the future) which combines three of my favorite things: writing, travelling and skiing.  I'm a huge skier and lover of travel so I thought it would be fun for me to create a way to combine all my favorites into one niche area.  I have found that skiers (in general) like to travel and try new places, explore new trails and rip up a new mountain. So I think it would be fun to have a place where people can read about all the different places to ski in the world from the perspective of a travelling (financially challenged) girl-on-the-go.  It's just an idea right now, I'm not sure if I'll run with it or if it will take me anywhere but I think it could be a fun way to get me started!

7SSC

Dan and Christine were recent UNH alums when they founded the 7 Stages Shakespeare Company in the Summer of 2012.  Both active thespians in college, the two bonded over their love of everything Shakespeare and decided to create a company committed to "bringing the Bard to the seacoast".  Since then, Dan and Christine participate and direct performances of well and little known Shakespeare plays alike.  This spring, the group will be putting on a performance of a 1950's rendition of The Taming of the Shrew with the help of another local theater troupe, The Players' Ring.  In addition to these "pay for ticket" shows, the group also brings free shows to the seacoast area for theater lovers to appreciate.  One popular achievement is the group's "Shakes-BEER-ience".  These free shows (donations accepted, of course) are typically held in The Press Room in downtown Portsmouth and, the actors believe, are performed in a way the Bard himself would have been proud of, "over pints with food and friends".  Today, the group hosts auditions as far away as New York and fills The Press Room each month with thirty theater goers, hungry for more Shakespeare.  

2 New Ideas!

1. Kind if like Tumblr for news sources.  That way you can just scroll through what other people have been reading/posting and see if anything catches your eye.  Then you can re-post that article so you can save ti for later.  A lot of times I'll say "oh, I read about that in an article... but I can't remember where..." so with this Tumbr-news idea, you can save articles, videos, tweets, etc. about what you're reading and what you're interested in.

2. Meet and greet a newsroom.  I think one of the main image issues journalism has is that they are behind the scenes. Journalists (not TV anchors) are just a name in a paper to many people, the story is what matters not the person who wrote it.  But I think it would be fun to have an "open house" day for newspapers or news organizations where the public can go in, meet the writers and editors and see what goes into producing the daily news. I think this would eliminate some of the mystery of journalism and make it more accessible to residents.

Let's talk about Syria (in 140 characters or less)

The tension in Syria is something I've been really interested in the past few weeks.  I've been reading US news sources (like the Globe) as well as international news sources (like BBC or The Guardian) to try and get different perspectives on what's really going on in the Middle East right now.  Something I was encouraged to do for my 21st Century Journalism class was go on Twitter ans see how an important/popular story was being covered.  I looked up the #syria as well as handles with "syria" in their titles.  I found people in Syria tweeting pictures and videos, organizations attempting to free Syria, US handles discussing what should and would happen and lots more.  I find it interesting that people are having similar conversations on Twitter as news articles from varying sources are reporting.  Twitter does have one thing that is both a blessing and a curse for people interested in getting news: it comes from individuals with distinct opinions and agendas who are encouraged to blast their opinion all over my feed.  I really like this because I get to see so many different views and read about what people in Syria were saying about the US's potential military action.  Twitter also gives me the news I'm looking for fast.  I can easily scroll through my feed and see what journalists, residents, celebrities and friends are saying about Syria all while waiting for my friend to turn up for lunch.

Lemonade... more sour than sweet

When I was a kid, my cousins and I would make lemonade and try to sell it to people on the beach.  My Grandmother lives on the beach so we thought we had some prime real estate.  Sure, those other kids could stand on corners and shout at cars passing them but we could walk in the sand, dipping out toes into the water and annoy innocent sun bathers, no competition.  I think my family probably suggested we try to make some money by selling lemonade to get us off their backs for an afternoon and keep us busy so we didn't resort to tackling each other or wreaking havoc in my Grandmother's pristine house.  We used lemonade mix (my Grandmother's), water, a jug (also my Grandmother's), ice and plastic cups (Grammy's).  We charged 50 cents per cup but most beach don't have money with them, let alone a fully stocked wallet, so we frequently just gave it away fro free... not my best business move, in hindsight.  We had fun, made enough money for an ice cream each and gave the adults an afternoon of peace.  However, "real life" lemonade stands are not nearly this simple.  To really start up a small lemonade stand you need to take into account prices of individual items (something I NEVER did as a kid), permitting rules, advertising and how much to charge to make a profit.  There's a lot more to it than just whipping up some lemonade in a kitchen and pestering people for money.  Starting up a business, even something as simple as a lemonade stand, is definitely not as straight forward as one would think and, at first, doesn't have nearly as sweet a payoff as an ice cream cone or cup of lemonade.

10 Ideas to SAVE Journalism!!!

1. I've always found contrasting perspectives on the same views event from different sources.  My idea is to have a place where people can take a topic they're interested in and then see all the different coverage on it so they are not getting a on sided, biased take on an event.

2. There are some newspapers that print every day and other that print once a week or once a month.  My idea is to have daily news sources (ie Boston Globe) publish a weekly paper or journal summing up all the news that happened that week, a summary of the week.  The articles would be more in depth, more magazine-y so people could use the daily to get a brief overview then read the weekly or monthly to get a broader picture of the subject.

3. A comprehensive, local news source that takes "real" reporting and combines it with local tweets, videos, sound clips and Facebook updates on the event.  This way local people are being incorporated into the news articles.

4. A site where all the news is portrayed in song.  Like "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel.

5. A social media, news source, verifier.  A team that verifies tweets, Facebook messages, instagram photos, etc. pertaining to a particular news event.  This way people can see what (or who) is a reliable source.

6. An interactive world cloud of the day's news.  Put in the time frame the the viewer is looking for information on and see which words or topics were BIG in that time period.  The words would link to different articles on that word/subject.

7. A website that "rates" articles and news sources on how well researched/objective they are.  Kind of like rotten tomatoes for news sources.

8. A cultural, international news site that takes news events and links it to cultural blogs and sites pertaining to that area.  For example, say someone was reading an article about Syria.  At the bottom of the page there would be links to blogs, articles and other sources on Syrian music, food, festivals, history, etc. This way people get a deeper understanding of the culture of a place and might relate more to that news article.

9. A website or news source that makes connections between current events and works of literature (fiction).

10. News or kids.  Weekly or daily news in an interactive, kid-friendly fashion.  Making current events more accesible to a younger population (ie relating current event to Disney).

do journalism school really need to be teaching hospitals?

In this article, Justin Ellis talks about how journalism is being taught in some schools and how he thinks it should be taught.  Ellis describes the "teaching hospital" route of teaching journalism as a model, offering students real world experience for their (hopefully) future careers as journalists.  However, this model could be detrimental to those studying journalism, argues Ellis.  He says that the "teaching hospital" method reinforces practices that do not help the industry and do not respond to the current change in journalism.

That's where entrepreneurial journalism comes in!

Some argue that more innovative and new techniques should be used to give students a head start on dealing with the changing industry.  Personally, I think both schools of thought are pretty important.  On one hand, the "teaching hospital" style is more classic (from what the article was saying) and give students a basic, background understanding on how journalism works.  I think everyone studying journalism should know at least the basics of writing, reporting, interviewing and writing to a deadline.  However, I see how teaching journalism the way it was taught 25 years ago could be detrimental to the future of the field.  Journalism is changing.  I think everybody, even people who are NOT journalism majors can see that.  Therefore, I think it's important for people (especially journalism student) to be aware of these changes and how to adapt to them so we can market ourselves more effectively when we are thrown out into the real world of jobs and work... ugh!      

News Today and How We Got Here...

Yesterday in my 21st Century Journalism class we were actually talking about this so I figured it made sense if I did a blog post about it!  In class yesterday we watched several clips on youtube.  One was Walter Cronkite's first broadcast where he interviewed John F. Kennedy.  The second clip we watched was a clip from CNN where they were talking about the current tension in Syria and different courses of action to take.  The Cronkite clip was very slow paced compared to the flashing, whirring, buzzing, constantly changing CNN one.  In Cronkite's video, a pre-recorded clip of Cronkite interviewing JFK at his home in the Cape was shown (in its entirety).  It was slow paced, relaxed and the viewer saw the whole interview, which allowed them to really get a sense for the presidential candidate and made him seem more human, especially when he was joking around with Cronkite lounging in adirondacks on the grass.  Contrarily, the CNN clip was full of information overload!  There were changing pictures, quick quotes from officials and sources, dramatic noises and even a tag line at the bottom of the screen recounting what was going on and even predicting the next day's weather.  SO, how did we go from Cronkite's slow and deliberate interview to the flashy and dramatic CNN video?  I'm not 100% sure but I have some ideas... I think, in this age of twitter, facebook, online news, reddit and more, people expect instant news.  They want their news to be quick and to the point so they can get back to the lives ASAP.  Sitting down and watching the news (or reading the news) has become an archaic practice, acceptable only if you are working in the field or retired and have nothing else to do.  In the 21st century where people are constantly moving, news has to be dramatic enough to grab the viewer's attention, quick enough to give them what they need and busy enough to inform the viewer of multiple stories simultaneously.  Personally, I think a lot can be said for the slower paced interview of Cronkite and the romantic idea of reading the paper over a cup of coffee in the morning.