The world of journalism is changing as many readers only get their news online. With that change, journalists are having to learn a new set of skills for the newsroom, including search engine optimization (SEO).
Writing for TechNewsWorld, Renay San Miguel says today’s journalists need to be able to handle more than just writing and interviewing in order to keep a job in the newsroom of the 21st century.
"HTML? XML? SEO? The alphabet soup of computer languages – and acronyms for boosting searchable headlines to the top of the Google News pack – are now up there with John Peter Zenger, New York Times vs. Sullivan and AP style in terms of must-have knowledge for new-century journalists," writes San Miguel.
Michelle Nicolosi, executive producer for Seattlepi.com (the website left in the wake of the closing of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer), agrees that today’s journalists need to have a vast knowledge of online computer skills.
Nicolosi told San Miguel that she’s surprised more writers don’t know tools like search engine optimization (SEO) and believes that journalists who have been in the industry for more than 10 years haven’t realized that they need to update their skills.
But some people are realizing the need to learn the new tools. Recently the National Association of Hispanic Journalists received grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help send 76 writers to a convention in Puerto Rico to learn search engine optimization (SEO).
