Month: October 2008

Journalistopia is off to España, Greece

I’m taking a break! As you may recall, yours truly got married back in July, but Mrs. Journalistopia and I never got to go on our honeymoon. So we’re off on a two-week romp through Europe! We’re flying tomorrow to Venice for a night, then on to a week-long cruise of the Greek Isles topped off with three days in Barcelona and four days in Madrid. And the wife actually convinced me to leave the ol’ laptop behind…*shudder*.

So if you know of any must-see spots in Madrid or Barcelona (and recommendations for the best newspapers and magazines to read while I’m there), drop me a line in the comments! We’ll be staying in Las Ramblas in Barcelona and in the heart of downtown Madrid. Definitely looking forward to churros for breakfast.

Hasta luegos mi amigos! See you in November!

[Photo of downtown Madrid by cuellar]

Multimedia Job Openings in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale

Hey Journalistopians, opportunity is a-knockin’! The Orlando Sentinel, my esteemed employer, has a job opening for a rockin’ Flashionista multimedia artist (who just so happens to share the cube next to me). Additionally, the Sun-Sentinel, our sister paper down in South Florida, has an opening for a web developer.

So if you want to rock your multimedia skills in a couple of towns where the weather calls for shorts all year long, then drop me a line at dsanchezATorlandosentinel.com. If you’d rather not e-mail, drop me a line at the office at 407-418-5984. On to the job descriptions:

Re: Flash designer job description

Orlando Sentinel Multimedia Artist
The Orlando Sentinel is seeking a multimedia artist to create explanatory graphics across publishing platforms. We’re looking for a visual ambassador for the newsroom, someone who can move easily between print and online teams. We’ll be counting on you to foster an experimental mindset in others, maximizing the interactive potential of both daily stories and long-term projects.

Candidates must posses:
• Proficiency in Flash and Adobe’s Creative Suite. Design, photography, audio/video editing or coding skills are a plus.
• The ability to conduct interviews, gather research and report breaking news onsite.
• A bachelor’s degree, preferably in journalism or new media studies, or equivalent related experience.
• One to three years of experience as an artist for a medium or large circulation daily newspaper

****

Sun-Sentinel Web Developer
The Sun-Sentinel, a subsidiary of Tribune Company, is seeking a full time Web Content and Applications Developer to develop, operate and maintain multiple websites, including portals, e-commerce, and content management systems (CMS).

This person will develop database applications, e-commerce solutions and templates for Sun-Sentinel online products.They will have assist from the best app developers as well.

Working in the product-development department, the successful candidate will work on a wide variety of projects with a team of local designers, journalists and a central technology staff.

Position Responsibilities:

Participates in product-development project teams by providing technical expertise. Creates and develops relational databases that serve the information needs of our Web users. Creates and supports e-commerce projects.

Qualifications & Requirements:

Strong skills in HTML and CSS, internet file formats and web coding concepts.

Working knowledge of relational databases and how they are used on the Web.

Working knowledge of prototyping tools and scripting languages including JSP, PHP, Java and XML.

Good understanding of Web usability and user information interface, with a strong user/consumer orientation.

Expertise in the following areas is a major plus: e-commerce solutions; various programming languages, including Perl or Python; Google Maps JavaScript API.

Experience developing Flash multimedia projects, including actionscripting, a plus.

Ability to handle multiple projects in a fast-paced environment with a high level of service orientation.

Communicates technical concepts clearly and effectively and enjoys working in a collaborative environment with non-technical staff members.

Translate strategy, business requirements and consumer research findings into products that lead to exceptional customer experiences.

Keeps up to date on technological advances.

Bachelor Degree in design, journalism, computer science, business administration, engineering or related discipline.

***

Interested? Shoot me a note at dsanchezATorlandosentinel.com. Or if you’d rather not e-mail, drop me a line at 407-418-5984.

Garbage SEO journalism

I’m a big fan of optimizing headlines for search engines so they can be found, but sometimes sites go too far. At the moment, there are unverified rumors crawling around the Internet that actor James Earl Jones died.

Today, Google is used to find answers to any and every question we could ask, and the internet brings a multitude of information to users. They could spend days reading all the pages that appear in the results. But of course that is not what happens: they remain on the first page, especially the first few positions. Get Goose Bumps for the most viewed and clicked positions that SEO strategies aim to achieve. Therefore, SEO for journalists intends to conquer these coveted positions for the pages of journalism professionals. Our best seo services melbourne will make your website the king of search results for a variety of keywords related to your specialty and business.

Google’s top positions gather more visibility. Estimates show that only 0.78% of users click links on the second page of Google results. Therefore, SEO for journalists helps your website appear on the first page so people can easily find it.  Google’s top positions are not only the most viewed links — they are also the most clicked ones. When users click on your link, they join your organic traffic statistics. That means you did not have to pay for the digital ads or media that made these potential readers reach your website.

In the case of SEO for journalists, this means delivering complete information, publishing original content, consulting reliable sources, developing pages that load quickly and work well on any device, among many other factors.  It’s clear, then, that SEO is not just a matter of coding and programming. Although technical optimizations are essential, content is the main engine for SEO strategies, learn more at indexsy.com where you can find many related posts.

So I did a search on Google News. Check out this piece of work I found on a news site called the Post-Chronicle:

Thе “story” simply speculates оn hіѕ death wіthоut offering аnу actual facts. Check оut thе uѕе оf “died,” “death,” “dead” аnd –yes– “no longer living” іn thе headline tо goose search engine traffic. Search Engine Optimization, оr SEO, takes a lot оf continuous work. Aѕ online competitors continue tо surface, іt іѕ mоrе important thаn еvеr tо make sure thаt уоur website іѕ getting noticed bу thе search engines ѕо thаt іt appears аt a high place wіthіn thе search results pages. Buy backlinks іѕ trend based. Thіѕ means thаt whіlе оnе technique mау work great thіѕ month, nеxt month іt wіll bе necessary tо tweak уоur pages appropriately tо work wіth thе nеxt big SEO trend. Thіѕ іѕ whеrе аn SEO specialist соmеѕ іn аnd whу уоu ѕhоuld consider hiring оnе tо help уоu, get the best results with this marketing execution software.

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Folks, don’t become desperate for page views and do bottom-of-the-barrel stuff like this.

(And no, I’m not linking to the story; there’s no way I’m lending any Google juice to that thing.)