Recruiting Writers
I am the news editor of a weekly paper, and I have the hardest time recruiting writers for the news section.
Last semester, I had a good, solid group of about seven people I could rely on. However, most of them are not writing this semester due to busy schedules, heavy class loads, etc. I have story ideas and issues that need to be investigated and reported on, but I have very few people willing to write.
How do you find writers who know what they’re doing — writers who do not need very much training? The kind who know what a lead is, know how to use the inverted pyramid style? Anyone else dealt with a shortage of writers?
About cvanorde
I am the news editor of The Sentinel at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga. I also co-host a weekly show called Pregame with Midnight and Ginger on Owl Radio, KSU's online radio station.
5 Responses
Journalism classes, of course.
Just as important as finding those people, however, is keeping them. Creating a culture within the paper that is appealing to students is critical — have pizza, have fun, do good work, etc,..
Of course, paying doesn’t hurt.
if people are leaving in flocks, it’s probably a bad editor at the some point in the food chain. or bad organization. or they’re sick of their stories getting edited a certain way.
we had a ton of people leave, but we’ve started to build back up by recruiting in journalism, pr and english classes, really emphasizing how good it is for your writing skills, professional skills and resume. we also have luck recruiting political science folk a lot.
we try to give writers a lot of feedback too.
im assuming you have house ads?
Online apps are also great.
Hope that helps!
We usually have a fair number of Politically Minded people on staff as well.
Another thing we’ve implemented has been to really keep an open door policy, regardless of available positions and hire writers on an interim basis. These writers get assigned stories, come to staff meetings and all of the other good stuff, except we don’t pay them and we don’t put their assignments on a high priority.
This allows us to take non journalist, PR or english minded people who have a passion for writing and give them a sort of try out. If they give us a couple of top notch stories, then we bring them on as full staff writers and pay them for their content after that. Both parties get a feel for the job, there is some hands on mentorship and time isn’t wasted putting all your commas into one sentence (play on the eggs in one basket line. No good?)
I’m currently staffing our paper, a very ambitious weekly 16-page tabloid. We don’t have staff writer positions, exactly. We’re kind of like a revolving door. If you can get at least three stories published, you’re a staff writer. It’s always been that way. I’m thinking of implementing a per-semester minimum next year.
That said, I think the best way to keep writers engaged is to offer them solid training in the basics. If they’re working without pay, they usually want to learn. The best thing an editor can do is give them opportunities to hone their skills and acquire new ones. For example, you could give thorough critiques of their stories. You could require them to bring pitches to meetings. You could assign them to work in teams on long-term projects. You could teach them new skills (including web skills), or hold a workshop with another editor (or even a professor).
It’s a hard truth that our paper doesn’t have the greatest track record—but we’re trying to change that. Of course, we only got our first journalism prof last year. We’ve been learning everything purely through our own enterprise up until now. Our staff is growing because people are proud of their work.
As for recruiting: Some of our best reporters are majoring in the sciences. I wouldn’t hesitate to recruit from all departments.
If you’re not able to pay writers, giving them other perks is a good plan. Educating? Yeah, help them get that experience, but also help them network. Bring in some people from the local paper to critique and bounce ideas off.
Web skills are a must. Even if twitter hasn’t made a big impact or your paper’s website isn’t exactly robust, learning to use it is important for everyone from editor to writer and in between.
Remind everyone to have some fun. Don’t let that go out of style.
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