Any blogger will tell you that for all the posts that make it an awful lot don’t.

Many posts just get deleted, while others morph into something radically different than originally intended. I still have some partially-written posts waiting to be published. I’m not sure if any of them will ever see the light of day.

Here are some posts that could have been (and might one day be):

1. Journalism internships reflect a dying industry - This post was supposed to be a sister post to “Did your internships pay?” The point was that journalism cannot be a thriving industry if many companies treat their interns so poorly. Many journalism interns produce a lot of copy, edit a lot of copy and in general work hard. And many of them aren’t paid. This is in stark contrast to in-demand fields like engineering, where interns often do little work for a lot of pay. Companies in those industries often use internships as a form of talent scouting.
2. Blogs are the minimum - This post was supposed to be about how the minimum thing all j-students should be doing is starting a blog. It’s a great, free way to learn a CMS. It’s also a great way to learn about the social aspects of the Web. This blog has been an incredible lesson in the Web for me.
3. Newspapers have a serious credibility problem - This would-be post was inspired by The New York Times’ embarrassing non-story about John McCain. Some days I just think I should stop reading the Times. Jayson Blair still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth (and yes, I remember reading many of his supposed stories).
4. Students, you are the future - “Whether you like it or not journalism students, you are the future of this profession. Its legacy and ability to survive will depend on you.” There are some great j-students out there today, and they seem to be getting better each year. It is them who will right this industry.

Let this sink in for a minute:

The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

If you needed any more proof that the newspaper industry was doing historically bad this should be it. We’re not talking about the NY Times Co. having poor profits by industry standards (the 15-20% range). We’re talking about the company having one of its worst quarters ever.

The NY Times Co. is a diversified company, but it is their newspaper business that is faltering:

The poor showing stemmed from The Times Company’s core news media group, which includes The Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, as well as several regional newspapers.

Conversely, Internet properties like About.com are showing strong growth within the company. About.com had an operating profit of $12.6 million, up 9.5% from a year ago.

Anyone who denies the newspaper industry is in a historic (not cyclical) funk is blind. This industry needs radical change if it is even to survive.

I’m convinced that most journalists don’t really understand blogs or the power blogs have.

So, it’s time for all journalists to start understanding blogs. Yes, it would be great if all journalists experimented with blogging and blogging software, but that is overkill in some ways and just unreasonable given the reality on the ground (we’ll start with baby steps). We can start with journalists reading and posting on blogs, and then maybe one day we can ask all journalists to get their own blog (blogging is a great way to learn about the Web, new media and social media).

For now, I think it’s reasonable to ask every journalist to pick a few blogs to read and start posting on them. I got this idea from journalism professor Mindy McAdams, who is asking her students to pick a few blogs and post on them. McAdams came up with the idea because she wanted students to start reading blogs (I assume many students did not on their own):

One of the things we try to get journalism students to do is, um, read other people’s blogs. And not only their friends’ blogs!

Here are my suggestions:

1. Pick a few blogs and start reading them - Romenesko does not count. Your friends and colleagues do not count. The Guardian has a list of the world’s most powerful blogs. Or you can check out Technorati’s 100 most popular blogs by amount of fans or authority ranking. Both are great places to start if you don’t know of any blogs. It also makes sense to read blogs about topics you care about.
2. Read before you post - The first time you read a blog is not the best time to post. Read several posts. Read the blog for several days. Then you’ll have an informed opinion about the blogger(s), what the blog is about and, importantly, what the community is like.
3. Post something worthwhile - Don’t just post to post. If you post on a blog, it should be a meaningful comment that helps further discourse. That is the power of blogs. It’s a communal event.

Most journalists do not understand the social aspect of the Web, but blogs are a great crash course in that. All news organizations should encourage their employees to read and participate in blogs.

I don’t thumb through the newspaper.

My generation discovers news in much different ways than previous ones. We don’t stumble upon random stories in a dead tree publication. We share news.

No one ever says to me, “did you see that story in the paper yesterday?” No, if someone wants me to read a story, he or she will send me it. And then we’ll discuss it.

My friends e-mail me stories, send me instant messages, shouts on Digg, Twitter direct messages, Facebook messages, etc. And I do the same. I send my friends stories I think would interest them, and they send me stories they think would interest me.

News is a communal event for us. It’s not the solitary experience that many previous generations had, where it was just a person and a paper. Thumbing through the news might make sense if it were a solitary event, but it doesn’t work in a social world.

We experience news together. We talk about news. My two greatest sources of news have nothing to do with front pages or homepages.

I get news from my friends and colleagues, and I subscribe to RSS feeds that matter to me (I have Google Reader open all day long). I’m not alone. When one considers this reality, the concept of a front page or a homepage makes little sense.

The traditional funnel of news was the front page, where people started their news experiences for the day. That’s quickly becoming obsolete. The concept of the news homepage never had time to become obsolete — it never stuck.

Users rejected poorly laid out homepages. In fact, the concept of mimicking a newspaper front page in digital form is insulting to the very concept of the Web. The Web is organic and social — it literally is a interconnected Web of information.

Armed with this knowledge, news companies need to completely rethink how they disseminate news. People often talk about making pages more sticky, but it’s more than just talk. News organizations need their sub pages to be sticky.

Many Web sites get the majority of their traffic from referrals. People don’t get referred to a homepage. They get referred to individual story pages, and it’s those individual story pages that are usually the least sticky.

News organizations have done a good job in recent years of making their homepages more sticky by listing the most popular stories, most e-mailed, etc, but those same concepts need to be better applied to sub pages. The individual story pages need to be treated like a landing page, a launching point for someone’s Web experience.

News organizations need to start offering full RSS feeds, because many users refuse to view and subscribe to partial feeds. This means monetizing RSS feeds, which most users don’t have a problem with.  RSS is not a side show or a way to get people to a Web site — it is often the main event for many people.
Many old timers (mostly print veterans) lament how it’s not possible to thumb through the news on the Web. But that’s the point. The Web doesn’t make information a solitary event.

When news becomes more social, it becomes more powerful. People are more involved in a social product. If news companies want to thrive in the 21st-century (and make a difference in the world) they’ll have to harness the social abilities of the Web for news.

This has nothing to do with journalists or journalism.

It has everything to do with poor decisions by business staff members. We can talk all we want about how journalists need to make more compelling content or care more about what readers and users want. But none of that matters if a newspaper company is buried under piles of debt or doesn’t do online advertising right or makes poor, highly-overpriced acquisitions.

The business decisions made by many newspapers, and their parent companies, have been killing this industry. We have witnessed an era of serial incompetence at many newspapers and their parent companies. Here are a few examples (and I’ll save you any discussion about how newspapers allowed Craigslist to fill an obvious void):

1. The Journal Register Co. is about to be booted from the Big Board and is on the brink of defaulting on its massive amount of debt. This company proves that profit margins in the 20% range mean nothing when a company has seven times more debt than its operating earnings.
2. Tribune Co. faces a default threat in 2009 because of its massive debt. Sam Zell took the company private with a leveraged buyout that has saddled the company with more than $10 billion in debt.
3. McClatchy Co. buying Knight Ridder has been an unmitigated disaster for the company. In less than six months, McClatchy’s market capitalization has dropped in half from about $1.6 billion to around $800 million. It had a market cap around $2.5 billion the day before it acquired Knight Ridder.

Now not all newspapers are owned by large, incompetent corporations. Family-owned papers still need to compete more aggressively in online classifieds and field a better online advertising strategy. Some companies, like The Washington Post Co. have even seen stock market growth the last few years, due to smart business decisions.

How are these companies going to turn it around? I’ve got news for you — most won’t. Something has to give.

No amount of cost cutting will boost profits enough to cover some of these debts. In fact, cost cutting will hurt revenues, and thus gross profits, making it harder to meet debt covenants. If the newspaper industry is to turn itself around, it will be the business side leading the way with smart decisions.

The writing is on the wall. Much of what we know as the mainstream media is dying. The journalism that emerges from those ashes will be better, nimbler and smarter.

And hopefully we’ll all learn something from these past failings.

Are most journalists intellectually curious enough?

If they were they wouldn’t be asking for someone to give them training in new skills. Rather they would have already discovered new — in demand — skills, and they wouldn’t be afraid to seek out help to learn new skills on their own.

And isn’t an intellectually curious person willing to learn new things just for the sake of learning or out of sheer curiosity, instead of just want to learn new skills to save his job?

A reader recently e-mailed me asking advice about his sister because she wants to get a graduate degree in journalism from a prestigious university.

She has an English degree, hasn’t done journalism before but loves to write. He was concerned, however, that now is not a great time to be entering the journalism field, and he’s right. It’s a difficult time time for journalists, and I’m not sure how many would-be journalists know about the struggles facing journalism. Nor am I confident that many would-be journalists realize what kinds of skills they’ll need to succeed in journalism.

He asked for advice, and this is the e-mail I wrote him:

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Journalism is under fire right now, much more so than just about any other industry in America. More than a thousand jobs have already been cut this year from mainstream media organizations and thousands more will be in the coming months. It’s a very dark hour for journalism.

But that’s traditional journalism. New media journalism is just beginning to flourish. Your sister will have to be willing to entertain the idea of working for non-mainstream media organizations if she wants to make it in journalism. I’m confident that journalism will eventually be stronger than ever after this transitional phase.

I personally wouldn’t get a graduate degree in journalism, but I also have an undergrad degree in it and a good job. My job, however, is highly tied to the fact that I have multimedia and online skills. There in lies the issue with your sister going back to get a journalism degree.

Journalism is increasingly moving online. Journalism is really about reporting, not about writing, which means she might also have to do video, audio, HTML/CSS, databases, etc. Journalists just entering the field need to be digital natives.

My advice to her would be simple:

Only get into journalism if you are willing to work for non-mainstream media outlets. Only get into journalism if you are willing to learn new skills and techniques. Only get into journalism if you are willing to report in other forms besides writing. Only get into journalism if you are a digital native who loves the Web.

Only get into journalism is you are willing to turn this industry around. Don’t get into journalism because you loved All the President’s Men. Don’t get into journalism because you think you were born to write.

Get into journalism because you love to inform people. Get into journalism because you want to make a difference in communities. Get into journalism for the people, not yourself.

The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded yesterday, which begs the question: Are Pulitzers good for journalism?

Do awards cause journalists to work harder to refine their craft, or do they cause journalists to pander to award committees? Do the Pulitzers even recognize the best work in journalism or do they tend to only honor an elite sub-set of American journalism?

Do Pulitzers foment the wrong mindset? Instead of trying to win awards, journalists should be trying to win readers. No amount of awards will make a publication relevant to the audience that matters most — the public.

Jack Shafer of Slate blasted the Pulitzers again:

Whether you’re for or against the Pulitzer Prizes, there is no excuse for putting the winners on Page One. For one thing, the payout is a paltry $10,000. People win $10,000 every day in the lottery, and they don’t make Page One. For another, the Pulitzers for journalism aren’t for the best journalism of the year, merely the best newspaper journalism of the year. Make that the best American newspaper journalism of the year. Even the Academy Awards are more ecumenical than the Pulitzers, honoring foreign films, short subjects, technical achievement, animated features, and even the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (As long as we’re cataloging the Ewwww Factor, don’t forget that the Pulitzers are named after one of the inventors of yellow journalism, Joseph Pulitzer.)

Do you think the average person really cares who wins awards? Or do they just care about good, relevant journalism? I’m betting on the latter, and they’re not synonymous.

People have asked me this question, and it has become a hot topic in the journalism blogging world.

I would personally not get a graduate degree in journalism. Journalism is not one of those fields where practicing journalists will see a big benefit from additional schooling. In fact, work experience and skills are what ultimately matters, which is why so many journalists do not have journalism degrees — let alone more than one.

A master’s degree will not help you get a job over someone else, especially if that person has better work experience. A master’s degree will not get you a higher salary, but it will give you more debt.

If I were to go back to school for another degree or just to learn new subjects and skills, it wouldn’t be in journalism. It would be in an area I would want to cover or in a field like computer science. I understand journalism as well as I ever will. What I — and any journalist really — could always use is more skills.

Journalism professor Mindy McAdams also advises students to steer clear of graduate school:

This post is for your mom and dad, who are pressuring you to go to grad school immediately after undergrad.

I don’t know why your parents think that’s a good idea. Maybe in whatever field they’re in, it’s what people do. Like law. Like medicine. But not in journalism. Not usually.

Now that’s not to say that no one should attend graduate school for journalism. It all depends on each individual situation, which McAdams also points out.

For instance, I have an undergraduate degree in journalism (and political science), and I was working at a 100,000 circulation paper when I was 22. I also have plenty of contacts around the country.

Plus, I regularly attend seminars, fellowships and conferences and try to learn new skills year around. There is not a strong benefit for me to go to graduate school (and incur even more debt). But that doesn’t mean graduate school is a bad idea for everyone.

If you don’t have an undergraduate degree in journalism and you want to switch careers, it’s probably your best way to break into the field, unless you already have strong multimedia and online skills. If you have strong online or multimedia skills, you just need a good way to showcase those skills to perspective employers (hint: personal Web site).

If you went to a small journalism program/not well known school and you work at a very small paper, you would probably benefit from going to a strong graduate program that could not only teach you additional skills but also give you contacts. It can be hard to break out of a small paper, and often it’s the contacts — not skills — that well-known schools give you that will have the biggest impact on your career.

Skills are easy to learn. I didn’t learn any of my multimedia or online skills in my journalism classes. I’ve been building Web pages for years, and I’ve experimented on my own with multimedia. Since graduating, I’ve also attended seminars and fellowships to add to my skill set.

Any journalist can sign up for seminars, conferences and fellowships. They are also much cheaper than grad school, but attending a really well-known graduate school for two years will probably give you much better contacts.

There are way more people with journalism degrees, and people who want to be journalists, than actual journalism jobs. That’s why it pays to know people.

Going to a well-known program can be a great way to break into the industry. By breaking in, I don’t mean toiling around at some small daily or weekly newspaper, but actually having a chance to work for a big or well-known company. And hopefully an innovative company that will be around for years to come (this is what you really want to break into).

Many internship opportunities are only available to students, and it’s almost impossible to get a journalism job (besides a programming one) without an internship or three. The best journalism schools usually have access to the best internship opportunities.

Obviously, there are people who would benefit from grad school. Most journalists, however, will not.

If you’ve made the decision to attend graduate school, make sure you are attending a program that is heavily into online journalism, multimedia and entrepreneurship. But long before you decide to even apply to j-school, make sure you realize the realities facing journalism. It’s going to be a tough few years or so for this industry.

And eventually most journalism jobs won’t be at traditional outlets. You have to be ready for when that storm hits.

There is a school of thought that says journalism students should only worry about clips they receive from internships and not about grades.

Sure that makes sense if a student is going to work for a newspaper but most students won’t. Most journalism students won’t even work in mainstream media. And, honestly, all students will need more than just written clips to succeed in 21st-century journalism.

That’s a given.

Armed with the knowledge that most journalism students won’t be working for the typical journalism organization (the kind that doesn’t care about grades and used to not care about degrees), it’s probably sound advice to prepare for the reality of other fields and endeavors. Plus, the average U.S. worker changes careers 3-5 times. It’s smart to be prepared to work in a variety of careers, which means having a well-rounded education (and it means caring about learning too, not just clips, because those clips won’t help a student out if he changes careers).

First, many fields and companies do look at GPAs, and when they do they usually want at least a 3.0, if not higher (the world of business and finance comes to mind). No, I don’t know of any newspaper that really cares about grades, but the vast majority of journalism students will never work for a newspaper.

Second, many students will graduate and later realize that the traditional journalism world is not doing so well. Many won’t be prepared for new media opportunities, they’ll panic and want to try to go to graduate school. Except, graduate schools care deeply about GPAs.

Graduate schools aren’t looking for students with 2.7s. A GPA is a pretty good indicator of work ethic, and a student shouldn’t close off the opportunity for additional education. And let’s not forget that grants and scholarships are often given to students based on grades.

Newspapers and most journalism companies don’t pay well, and education costs are far outpacing inflation. Scholarships and grants can make a huge difference in the amount of loans a student may have to take out. Trust me, you do not want to have a lot of student loans while making $25,000.

And I, nor anyone else, really knows what future new media companies will look for in candidates. I know, however, those companies will eventually be the bulk of journalism opportunities. A lot of new media is about learning new skills, and new media companies may look at GPAs as an indicator of the ability to, or the desire to, readily learn new skills.

Now, I’m not saying to forsake internships or the ability to get good (multimedia and online) clips, but journalism students need a balance. Journalism student Sean Blanda wrote:

My GPA doesn’t matter. I have been told this by nearly every journalist I have asked. All they want are clips, clips, clips. So what is my incentive to do that absurdly mundane assignment I was just given in class?

Now Sean isn’t your typical journalism student. He has online and new media skills. Written clips probably won’t mean much to his future as a journalist, and I believe he’ll have a brighter future than most of his peers.

So, I think advice aimed at being a writer for a newspaper makes little sense for him. In fact, advice on how to be a writer at a newspaper makes little sense for any journalism student. Ultimately, Sean will probably find himself eventually working for a company other than a newspaper (and maybe even going back to school), and who knows if they’ll care about GPA or not.

I know they probably won’t care about his written clips. It’s hard to predict the future. That’s why it’s best to be prepared for a variety of outcomes and possibilities.