It’s that time of year. New journalists and young journalists are flooding into newsrooms, ready to change the world. OK, flooding is probably a thing of the past. But many newsrooms still hire summer interns, because they’re cheap (sometimes, even free) and you can force them to work weekends and holidays.
Although dozens of journalists, young and old have been called on the carpet for their personal blogs, relatively few newsrooms have developed a meaningful policy that addresses personal blogging. It’s time. This generation has grown up on the Internet.
Liz Allen, administrative editor at the Erie Times-News in Pennsylvania, is getting ready for her crop of interns. She wants to set down boundaries about personal blogs at the very beginning of the summer. That’s a good idea. Last year Allen had her summer interns create an “official” blog at the paper. But it didn’t really work, Allen said. The content seemed stilted. This year she’s hoping to create a policy that allows for personal expression, but protects the paper’s interests.
Here are a few suggestions about personal blogging policies:
- Write one. Maybe start a blog about policies. But do it now. It’s way too late to claim that blogging is just too new of a phenomenon to merit a policy.
- Reconsider your policy if it states: No personal blogs. Telling a 20-year-old he can’t blog is like telling a 50-year-old she can’t write a holiday letter. You won’t win that one.
- Consider what you’re comfortable having employees discuss in public:
- Nothing about the newsroom at all? That might be unrealistic.
- Nothing about stories in development? That seems fair.
- Nothing that puts the company in a negative light? Sure, you’ve got a right to require that, but you might define negative carefully.
- Nothing about sources? Good idea. Journalists who say things about their sources that they wouldn’t put into their stories are treading in dangerous territory.
- Nothing embarrassing or negative about your colleagues. (I had a young journalist once ask me if she crossed a line by blogging about a fellow reporter’s bathroom habits. Yes, I told her, I thought that was rude. Maybe not unethical, but definitely rude.)
- I counsel journalists who keep personal blogs to employ a no-surprises rule. Always let your boss know if you have a blog. Ask for guidelines, if they don’t exist. Never say anything in the blog that you wouldn’t say out loud, to the primary stakeholders. This could all be included in a policy.
Social networking has magnified personal expression. Young journalists have always needed a guiding hand as they make their transition into the professional world. Now, in addition to learning how to dress and act like a professional, they must learn to manage their digital lives in a way that puts their professional reputation ahead of other concerns.
Former Poynter Summer Fellow Laura Fries came back after a few years out in the business and taught some of these skills to our crop of 2007 Fellows last year. Here’s a link to some extensive thinking on her part.
When your interns arrive, what will tell them about blogging? And if you’re one of those interns, what do you want to know from your new employer?
