eChaser: October 2012 / p3

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GET A JOB

The Community News, an award-winning paper in Aledo, has an opening for a person with InDesign and Photoshop skills to produce news pages and in-house advertising materials. The position requires about 25 hours a week, with the potential for more. If the right candidate has talent in news writing, feature writing or copy editing, additional hours may be available. Contct Randy Keck at 817-441-7661 or rkeck@community-news.com. ...

The Denton Record-Chronicle seeks a full-time reporter with experience in finding interesting stories and presenting them with multimedia, to cover police, fire and the civil and criminal courts. A journalism degree and at least two years j-experience are preferred. Send an e-mail with résumé and clips to drc@dentonrc.com. ...

The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, a Hearst newspaper with more than 100,000 daily print and online readers, seeks a news editor to coach, edit and otherwise lead city desk reporters and be responsible for collaboration in web and social media efforts with other editors. Technical knowledge of computer systems, InDesign and Photoshop is desirable. Send résumé, references and an explanation of how you would approach the job to managing editor Ashley Sanders at arsanders@beaumontenterprise.com. ...

Sports fans, can you edit? Bleacher Report, a fast-growing online sports network that claims more than 30 million monthly readers, has a copy editing internship program. Course credit is available, and paid jobs exist for those who excel. Apply here. ...

Several top- and mid-level positions in various departments (arts, food/dining, web/social media) are available at a new Texas magazine for Texas-based writers and editors (or expatriates with close ties to the region) who have at least five years of newspaper or magazine experience. Send résumé, a cover letter describing background and suitability, links to five published pieces and three story ideas to newtexasmag@live.com. ...

BubbleLife.com has an immediate opening, with benefits, for a full-time neighborhood editor to write and take photos; curate content from multiple local online news sources; maintain social media platforms; and update calendar events and business directory listings. Apply here.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Allyson Cross, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

It’s that time again, when budgets and strategic planning invade our already hectic daily calendars. As you plan for next year, you may find yourself trying to increase your organization’s perception of the value of public relations. Rest assured, PRSA can help.

An advocacy campaign titled ”The Business Case for Public Relations” is driving industry growth by helping professionals in the field educate key audiences about PR roles and outcomes, demonstrate strategic value and enhance reputation. As part of the effort, PRSA is assembling resources to:

• Measure the attitudinal and behavioral impact of your PR programs.

• Sell-in public relations services to your clients or senior management.

• Communicate the roles, outcomes and value of public relations.

• Create a better understanding for what we do as a profession.

• Capture a greater share of your clients’ or organizations’ investments in marketing and communications services.

• Change entrenched perceptions about public relations.

• Arm yourself with information on the latest industry research and techniques.

• Establish industry-specific evaluative benchmarks.

As always, I encourage you to visit the PRSA website so you’ll know the resources the national organization provides to members.

Our chapter will take a break this month as we encourage all of our members to support our friends across the Metroplex at the 2012 Communications Summit hosted by Dallas PRSA. I hope to see you there!

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

Texas Watchdog may go away in a couple of months if funding can’t be found. The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a libertarian organization, gave the four-year-old venture $300,000 to cover its online-only efforts this last year, which was enough to pay six full-time reporters and editors but not enough to keep going. "We've done some really good stuff, and I just wish I knew how to pay for it," editor Trent Seibert told the Houston Press. "I've loved following the money when it comes to dirty officials, but I'm not good at getting the money to run the organization. I'm not a businessman. Part of this is my fault. If I was better at the fundraising side, maybe we'd be around a little bit more." Trent, Steve Miller, Mark Lisheron, Lee Ann O'Neal, Jennifer Peebles (previously departed to The Examiner in Washington, D.C.) — there will always be muck to rake. May you always, somehow, be able to make a living at it. ...

Kim Pewitt-Jones may no longer be chapter president, but she’s still playing the game. Back home from the national SPJ-RTNDA convention in Fort Lauderdale, she Facebooks: “Congratulations to Fort Worth SPJ Pro member Jason Whitely and his wife! They have a beautiful new baby boy — Quinn! ...

Congratulations to Fort Worth SPJ Pro member Eddye Gallagher — our official new Region 8 Director! ... We are proud to have an SPJ Diversity Fellow among our Fort Worth Pro chapter members — Britney Tabor Johnson! She is also our VP for programs. Go Britney!” Go Britney, indeed. Her first program — journalism legends Dave Montgomery and Carolyn Barta on the November elections — drew a standing-room-only crowd at Joe T. Garcia’s. The speakers had excellent information and entertaining stories, and the audience was very engaged. Questions kept coming beyond the allotted time. And Dave and his wife, Linda, were celebrating their 42nd wedding anniversary. Victories all around. ...

The SPJ eCampus has expanded with five training videos on smartphone journalism and four videos on personal branding. The online training sessions, featuring expert SPJ members, are available to members at any time and are included in their national dues. In addition to the new videos, sessions already exist on freedom of information, freelancing and social media. More at spj.org/trainingondemand.asp.

Caught my eye. Scotts Miracle-Gro fined $12.5M for knowingly selling bird seed containing pesticides. ... Solar-powered oven makes fresh water. ... Read the death threats sent to a top climate scientist. … Stanford scientists give new life to Thomas Edison’s nickel-iron battery. ... Israeli company grows medical marijuana that doesn’t get you high. ... Cost-effective solar power module could also serve as eco-friendly furnace. ... 1 Liter of Light project illuminates thousands of Filipino homes with recycled bottles. ... DARPA’s new fire suppression system extinguishes with sound. ... eBay to power flagship data center with Bloom Energy fuel cell farm. ... Study finds Western world must halve meat consumption to feed global population by 2050. ... Affordable, small-scale fuel cell could revolutionize residential power. ... ‘Inverted nanopyramid’ solar surface cuts silicon use 90 percent in photovoltaic cells. ... Share a hotel room with a 100-year-old clock tower. ... 10 electricity-free iPhone speakers.

Closing words: “Yes. So are most writers.” — T.S. Eliot, replying to the assertion that most editors are failed writers ... “No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture.” — Lillian Disney to her husband, Walt, re: “Snow White” ... “There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.” — novelist and dramatist Booth Tarkington

Closing words II, taking it to the streets division: “If a writer could write the truth about one Chicago street, that would be a good life’s work.” — Nelson Algren, who also said (wrote), “Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.” and, “When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don’t have enough.”