Inside CMA

A few words about money…

Hi Everyone

I am the CMA Treasurer and thought perhaps I should add a few comments about CMA’s finances.

At the Summer Board retreat and fall and spring convention board meetings, two things dominated the discussion:  how can we make the CMA organization better in the things that we do and the things that we offer our membership and how do we trim costs and run a much leaner organization at the same time.

We so appreciate your concerns and suggestions and ideas.  We have discussed many of these ideas, while keeping in mind all of our membership, including those who still want print copies and those that are ready to move to digital.  We have worked hard on the budget and trimmed and eliminated those things that are not essential.  We have considered our limited revenue sources and have seen the decline in convention attendance because of the budget issues at individual schools.  Of course, our sponsorships are extremely important and appreciated, and although we have seen some pullback, we continue to be grateful for those we have.

We try to be sensitive to all of the membership and take the ideas, suggestions and criticism into consideration in making our decisions.  We struggled at the New York board meeting with increasing the cost of membership, and in the end we felt we had found a modest compromise.

As an organization, we feel we have weathered the storm and now have a firm grasp on our budget.  We we have seen better times, but we are still trying to improve our organizations while learning to live with a reduced budget.

The board will have a retreat again in July where we will continue to discuss how we can be a better organization.  We are excited about the future of CMA and look forward to more suggestions from our members.

If you have questions about some of the actions we have taking regarding the budget please feel free to contact me.

Annette Forbes

• CMA Treasurer
• Iowa State Daily
• aforbes@iastate.edu
• 515-294-2609

College newsrooms help student journalists practice their craft

By Sally Renaud

CMA President

I loved to write. And I was lucky to have teachers throughout grade school who with great spirit and high expectations created class newspapers, which encouraged me to combine my curiosity and love of talking to people with my love of writing.

By the time I finished the sixth grade, I already had worked with enthusiastic advisers and had experienced the thrill of seeing my byline in ‘newspapers.’ The stories were, well, elementary, but I just kept going, asking questions, talking to people, writing. I continued writing throughout high school and college.

And that seems to be the most important thing the collegiate media newsrooms provide: the environment for staffers to practice – with the benefit of advisers who enthusiastically or curmudgeonly provide guidance and careful feedback.

Sometimes I hear advisers bemoan a lack of curiosity or news judgment in their staffs, but providing a safe and regimented place to practice their craft can be the very thing the students need to improve. These student journalists already have the news bug; after all, they have ventured into your newsroom or your classroom. But they might not know what to do with it. It is not refined.

Sometimes I show my students the writing I did in college and in my early career: sports stories, personality profiles and school board coverage. I point out to them that it was OK, a bit pedestrian but generally acceptable, but it got better as I practiced. After all, few people are really good at journalism when they are 18 or even 21. But with advisers who had high expectations for me and demanded a better level of performance each time (often expressed by frustration, disappointment or pleasant surprise), I got better.

As a journalism historian I read stories of famous writers and journalists who reminisce about their first years in newsrooms, and their tales are full of false starts, mistakes, challenges … and their mentors. These professional ‘advisers’ opened the journalism door for their novice writers, and they created an atmosphere of expectation and exhilaration. The young journalists learned from each writing assignment; they practiced.

Our students will have both successes and failures. They may fall a bit, pick themselves back up and keep going. They have to learn about the process of journalistic writing, about researching, about the business of journalism. They have to learn about its role in their community and the responsibility created by its permanence and power.

As advisers we have to help our young writers navigate this profession, teaching them about the nuances of news gathering and reporting. And then we help them do it all over again the next day and though their collegiate careers, getting a little bit better each time.

Change is the constant

Annette Forbes
CMA Treasurer

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin.

No quote could be more profound as it pertains to our industry today. We are in the midst of revolutionary changes, which make for an exciting and challenging time to be in the media business.

Journalism will have a future. Of that we can be certain. But the future will only be bright for those who react quickly and with enthusiasm. As advisers and mentors for tomorrow’s leaders, we have to help implement, embrace and endorse change. We have to be willing to take the risks that will position our products for what our public is demanding. Gone are the days when we can assume people are reading what we think they want. We have to know what they want and in what format they want to receive it.

As teachers and leaders, we have to lead the charge with vigor and commitment. We have to hire the best students and give them the guidance and support they need. If we aren’t up to the changing times, then we need to get out of the way.

As leaders in college media we have a perfect niche market, and now we have to create and carve our products to give our public the kind of information it wants. We have the audience and the genius of today’s youth to pursue the loftiest of goals; we just have to be savvy enough to know what those goals are.

And so here we are, with a supreme opportunity to lead the change and give our students the experience of a lifetime. We can position our products for a more marketable future, and we can position our students with the knowledge and experience they will need to land the big jobs.

But are we capable of reacting quickly to change and do we know where we are going? Hockey legend Wayne Gretsky once said, when asked why he was such a successful hockey player, “Most people skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

As advisers, we should take that advice. We need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and ask if we are positioned for change and if we are willing to take the risks that are associated with that change.

If the future is really in niche publications and websites, then we have to identify, develop and market “our niche” quickly and relentlessly. We need to ask what they want and then quantify and endorse those niche products with the intensity of a star athlete. Then we have to protect and continually improve and latch on to every opportunity we can. Remember, it is not the strong who eat the weak; it is the fast who eat the slow.

It’s a wrap. The New Advisers Workshop concludes today (June 25) in Nashville, Tennessee at the John Seigenthalter First Amendment Center.

The workshop, an annual event sponsored by CMA, provides intensive instruction to those who are newcomers, or relative newcomers, to the world of advising college media.

Participants were immersed in three days of intensive instruction that included introduction to adviser ethics and responsibilities, technology, advertising and financial concerns, legal matters, student mentoring, and impromptu discussions on a wide variety of topics related to advising duties at public and private colleges on both small campuses and large ones.

Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, guided the participants Tuesday on a tour of the impressive facilities and provided an overview of the mission and outreach of the center in promoting the core freedoms embodied by the First Amendment.

Next on CMA agenda will the Advising Today’s College Media, a workshop held in conjunction with the Associated Collegiate Press gathering in Washington, D.C. in August. This year’s ATCM topic in crime on campus and will explore the Cleary Act and efforts to create awareness on college campuses across the nation.