I intentionally left off video, because I don’t think it’s the great option for someone with little or no new media skills.

It requires more investment in time and resources than the other suggestions i made. I think every reporter should have a digital audio recorder. I’ve had a cheap one for years and have a really good one at work. Anyone who has ever written an enterprise story or done some longer writing knows how much they come in handy.

Who among us doesn’t own a digital camera? All of my friends have at least one digital camera. I should hope all young journalist have one. Well, if you have one start using it for some photojournalism.

Soundslides is a good way to put those two skills together, it’s cheap and easy to learn. Video is none of those things. Yes, a lot of still cameras take video, but it is usually pretty crappy. Plus, if you ever want to do anything over a few minutes, you’ll need a camera that holds more than just a SD card. A cheap video camera costs a few hundred dollars. They don’t take very good audio and the video is so-so.

But the really issue is that unlike a still camera, most people won’t use a video camera in every day life. Why spend money on something that you wouldn’t want to just use whenever? That’s the best way to learn too.

It’s easy to carry around a small digital camera wherever you go, but the same is not true of a video camera. Even small ones have some size to them and they take a bit of time to turn on and set up. Most people don’t have any real need for a video camera.

Then we have to get into editing software. There are some good free or low-cost options, but video editing isn’t as intuitive as photo and audio editing. Plus, once you have learned photojournalism and audio recording/editing, it will make the transition to video that much easier.

Now, if you have some new media skills and know photojournalism and audio recording, I’d say go for video. But I cannot recommend for someone who has spent a career doing just writing.

And HTML is the cheapest of all the options I listed, which is great for us poor journalists.

That is what I am going to grapple with in 2008.