Local SPJ chaper has a free workshop upcoming for freelancers

From my e-box:

Are you up Freelance Creek without a paddle? Come to SPJ’s free seminar on Saturday, June 6, at the University of Texas at Arlington and you should leave with, if not a paddle, at least some ideas on how to navigate chores like finding clients, negotiating with them, creating your own website, and dealing with taxes and 401Ks.

We’ll have panels on getting out in the market, dealing with the business side and visual and multimedia freelancing. The seminar is open only to media professionals; there is no fee.

Panelists will include:
Carol Zuber-Mallison, who, after stints at both the /Morning News/ and /Star-Telegram/, has had a successful freelance graphics business for 17 years;
Photographer Manuel Pecina of the American Society of Media Photographers
Paul Foutch, former stock market editor and business reporter of /The Dallas Morning News/, now with Edward Jones Investments;
Catherine Team, creator of NeedMedia.com, and an advertising and marketing pro for the past 30 years;
Meda Kessler, editorial director of /360 West/ magazine.

The seminar will run 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with most of the action in Room 258, Fine Arts Building (Central Section). The Fine Arts Building is on the west side of Cooper Street at Greek Row Drive. Parking is available in faculty lots on the north side of the building and across Nedderman Drive to the west. Once you park, there should be signs directing you to the room.

Directions to UTA from I-30 are available at: http://www.uta.edu/maps/directions-i30

And here’s a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=700+Greek+Row+Dr.+Arlington,+Texas&hl=en

Please RSVP to Gayle at gayle.reaves@fwweekly.com so we know how many donuts to buy. Also message Gayle with any questions or requests.

See you there!

Sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists-Fort Worth Pro chapter, with assistance from the University of Texas at Arlington and friends in the media.

Recent Dallas-area job postings

From a couple of readers:

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=510512

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=786114

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1051313

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1027379

and

Just got word today about an opening for an assistant public information officer at Lewisville ISD. It’s posted on the Texas School Public Relations Association website under job listings: http://www.tspra.org/page.php/services_jobs_listings.

Job posting -- Dallas PR firm

A reader sends this:

Hi, I’ve followed your blog and am so sorry about all of the cuts at the Dallas Morning News. I was a journalism major and would-be reporter before making the switch to the PR side of the business and am troubled by the industry changes. In any case, I am hiring at Jackson Spalding Dallas: http://www.jacksonspalding.com/employment.html. JS is an Atlanta-based independent marketing communications firm and we opened our Dallas office in March. In Atlanta, we have many former Atlanta Journal Constitution and Atlanta Business Chronicle reporters/editors on staff – journalists have always been highly valued and respected within our firm. I’m looking to fill a full-time position for someone with 2-4 years of experience and a summer internship.



Best,

Joanna



Joanna Singleton

JACKSON SPALDING

O 214.269.4401

M 214.206.5963

E jsingleton@jacksonspalding.com

Another freelance opportuntity

A reader who many of us knows says:

A woman I profiled a few years ago in Texas Living, Deb Lewin, is looking for a freelance editor to help her with a memoir. Don’t think she can pay much, but it’s a chance to sharpen book-editing skills, and Deb is a rare and special person. She was an Olympic athlete who was partly paralyzed in a car crash and has been an advocate for (and exemplar) of equestrian therapy. Deb won the 2009 NorthStar award from Henry S Miller and Highland Park Village for exceptional community service and volunteering, and anyone would enjoy working with her. Contact her at baobabbb@aol.com.

Please pass this around. Thanks!

Steve Steinberg
Director of Communications
Office: 206-616-0827
Fax: 206-616-6269

The sound of ghostly chains rustling

A reader sends this:

I heard a rumor today that the plans for the next round are already being made.

If anybody out there can either confirm or knock this down, please e-mail me.

The DMN is hiring

Save the irony. It's a job that somebody out there might want. A reader sends us this:

The Local News department is looking for a super-organized journalist with good writing and reporting skills for a news assistant’s position. The successful candidate will work on our fast-paced Metro Desk night team on a variety of assignments including writing news briefs, writing obituaries, assisting on the reporting of stories, manning the phones and watching newscasts. Aggressive staffers with good news judgment have an opportunity to cover breaking news and do enterprise reporting. Interested candidates should contact Mike Drago in Local News at mdrago@dallasnews.com or 214-977-8931.

And a boss says that while the layoff rules say something about people not being eligible for rehire for some period of time, applicants will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Meaning, I guess, that if someone they want to rehire applies, that the rules can be amended to suit.

Interesting job available in Dallas

A reader tells us:

PIO for the Dallas County health department is suddenly open -- right in the middle of the swine flu mess. The position will be posted on the Dallas County web site at Dallascounty.org. The salary range is between $45,000 and $57,000.

And as long as I'm posting:

We have a temporary opening at Sunwest Communications for a receptionist position. It would be 3 days a week for four to six weeks, depending on the health of our current receptionist. Contact stownsend@sunwestpr.com

Another Grothe tale

There may be a book in this for somebody. This story is about Randy Grothe, from David Hanners who, a lifetime or so ago, was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for the DMN for an amazing special section on how to investigate a plane crash. I can still remember the clue that the filaments of the light bulbs offered. Do they still use light bulbs? Anyway:

Jeezamae. What a sad tale. I remember when we called the DMN “The Voice of Texas.” Now it seems more like “The Hoarse Whisper of Dallas.” You could run a damn-fine newsroom with the people who have left that place. Not that anybody's in the mood to run a damn-fine newsroom these days, though.

I remember traveling with Randy up to the Middle of Nowhere, Okla., to do a story on a guy who ran a company that manufactured barbecue cookers. He was having some beef (no pun intended) with the government because he called his stuff “barbecue” and it didn’t fit the FDA’s bureaucratic definition of what constituted barbecue. The feds wanted him to cease and desist, but this guy knew barbecue; in fact, when he’d been in college, he’d written a scholarly paper on the subject.

So Randy and I fly up, rent a car and head out. To reporters, photographers had different reputations when it came to traveling, just as I’m sure the photographers rated the reporters. Most of the shooters were ok to travel with, and some were actually fun. On the other side of the spectrum, there was one photographer we derisively nicknamed “Mr. Personality” and we’d generally make some excuse about “logistics” and insist on taking separate flights and cars because the thought of being stuck in an enclosed space with him for hours on end was unbearable.

The word on traveling with Randy was that he always had to have his five squares a day. Crammed in his camera bag was a book or two listing cool out-of-the-way places to eat. So we’re heading down the road to the barbecue cooker factory and Randy pulls out the book and, sure enough, it lists some café in a small town a few miles ahead that is known for its pies.

“Let's stop and eat," he said.

“Uh, Randy, I think the barbecue guy will probably have some food for us when we get there. He’s wanting to show us what his cooker can do. I’m thinkin’ we don't need to stop.”

“Nah, they're not gonna feed us,” he replied. “We need to get lunch.”

Randy could be persuasive and I was hungry anyway so we stopped and ate. I had chicken-fried steak -- one of two times in my 12 years at the DMN I had chicken-fried steak, and don’t ask me why I remember that -- and then since the place was known for its pies, we had some of that, too. I had banana cream.

We waddle out to the car, climb in and continue to our destination. We get to the town (it was some small town founded by freed slaves, oddly enough) and drive up to the business, walk inside and there, in a conference room, is the single largest spread of barbecue I have ever seen. The Titanic set sail with less food. The guy wants us to try a bit of everything, so Randy and I look at each other and, being the professionals that we were, we took one for the DMN team and ate the guy’s barbecue. And I don’t care what the Food and Drug Administration said. This stuff was barbecue.

It turned out to be a decent story, but when you were traveling with Randy, the quality of the story was kind of a secondary issue….

New Yahoo group for former DMN-ers

From a reader:

Several of us laid off on April 9 got together yesterday with Trey Garrison to discuss freelancing. We decided to create a yahoo group to allow us to network with each other and others who have left the Dallas Morning News.

There, we can post info about the type of jobs we are seeking, our contact information, if we want, jobs that may not be right for us but may be perfect for someone else, tips on navigating unemployment benefits, Cobra, 401K rollovers, and more.

All former DMNers are welcome. The more we have, the better this works. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/aftertdmn/

Well, one more job posting

Too good not to pass along. A reader sends this:

I know the DMN layoffs blog has gone dark but my editor at McGraw Hill, Andy Wright, asked me to put the word out for a recent job opening. If you can put something on the blog or pass this along to folks who can spread the word, I would appreciate it.

He's looking for someone with journalism experience who can handle overseeing a regional publication covering the construction sector in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Anyone with a few years under their belt reporting or editing at the DMN would be able to take it on provided they are willing to handle the spectrum of duties; editing, reporting, layout, budget management - you name it.

McGraw Hill has not posted the opening anywhere yet but they need to fill this relatively quickly. I've worked with the company and this editor for the past five years and they are good people.

McGraw Hill Publications is looking for an editor for its regional magazine Midwest Construction (http://midwest.construction.com/) based out of Chicago. Contact Andy Wright News Director, McGraw-Hill Construction Andrew_Wright@mcgraw-hill.com