As the Online News Association annual conference unfolded last weekend, my coworkers and I were eagerly watching and griping at the same time. It would have been awesome to be there.

As tightly scheduled, financially struggling journalists, these big industry conferences seem more and more out of reach to attend but they also offer the greatest payoff in an industry where networking and skill sharpening is nearly the only way to stay afloat.

Lori Todd and I coauthored a blog post about how the expensive cost associated with these beneficial industry events ends up hurting several areas of our business in the long run, in ways that industry leaders may or may not realize. A tidbit:

Expensive conferences put out-of-work journalists at an even greater disadvantage. Attending industry events and keeping skill sets up-to-date are all we can rely on to market ourselves in a suddenly flooded field of applicants. Attending a conference is resume material. Following a conference online is not.

The rest of the post is over at Lori Todd’s blog. We’d love to hear feedback on other ways or ideas to establish more affordable training and networking opportunities that don’t necessarily involve staying connected through social media. Another 10,000 Words post from Mark Luckie stresses the importance of real-life relationships. I couldn’t agree more, I just wish they were more affordable.

Find us on Twitter: @malcolli, @loritodd. Let’s strike up a conversation.

You already know me. Lori Todd graduated in 2006 from the University of Miami and has worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Austin American-Statesman before returning to the Miami Herald as a news page designer in September 2008.

One of the biggest issues plaguing print journalism with the rise of the internet is the inability for a newspaper to encourage interactive reader discussion. This usually takes place online in story comment sections or community forums. In print, this kind of audience sound-off can only take place among the few letters that are selected to print in “letters to the Editor” section.

These days, readers are talking and discussing and ranting more than ever. Even according to the 10,000 Words blog (one of my favorites), the only section that appeared twice in their post about the six Newspaper sections rendered obsolete by the web, was the Opinions section, which they say both isn’t going anywhere (“Even at their most basic form, newspapers will always contain someone’s opinion, albeit with a lot more fact-checking.”), but also serves less purpose because of comment sections.

Digging to the Opinion section means flipping through chunks of other sections to find a jumble of editorials from columnists and cartoonists and selected letters to the editor, all on different topics thrown together for the sake of keeping bias separate from fact. The story on 1A, for example, about South Florida housing becoming more affordable may or may not have a letter or opinion piece to accompany it over in the Op/Ed section, but readers are forced to go and scope it out, with or without a teaser from the story.

What if the Op/Ed section was dispersed throughout the entire paper? Each section — Nation, World, Local, Living, etc. — could have three or four pages in the back dedicated to letters and columns about the current events and issues in that section. I know some papers already do this in some form. The Miami Herald has certain columnists that are published on 1A and 1B on a weekly basis. These are usually the pieces that get readers stirring online the most as well. Comment sections for online versions of columns usually fill up pretty quickly. Some examples: Myriam Marquez, 33 comments and Linda Robertson, 148 comments .

In certain scenarios (like yesterday’s news of A-Rod’s positive steroid test), we had our column up online before it ran in print the next day. If we scooped some of the better-quality comments that were posted online and ran them beneath the story as “What others are saying,” print readers would get a taste of the buzz happening on our site. Online readers would also be compelled to write more thoughtful comments on the Web with the opportunity to get some play in print. This isn’t something that hasn’t been said before, but a stronger effort should be made to link print and the Web. Promos on the bottom of stories to “go online for a photo gallery” don’t paint a good picture of the conversation taking place about that story.

If we encourage more reader contribution to the print product, “citizen journalism” to use a cliche, it would allow more readers to talk to each other in addition to reading the static opinions of a few returning columnists.

As a more online-centric person when it comes to news, I know the argument could be made that this already occurs online in the ways that I’ve stated, so why duplicate it in print? But I think that goes against the nature of starting a conversation.

We have painted this picture of the prestige of becoming a journalist. That somehow after a few years of J-school we are granted the exclusive ability to feed information to people. In the online world, information is shared. You are not being talked AT, but rather talked to, listened to and open to a world of infinite conversation. Print newspapers should do a better job of emulating that.

I don’t want to sound naive. I fully understand the dire state of newspapers and as an online producer it is easier for me to envision a future of paperless news. But before we hammer the last nail into the coffin, what do newspapers have to lose when trying new things? It’s now or never to take some risks with the print product. I’d love any links to examples/blogs of papers who are doing this already (I doubt this is a novel idea).

Inspired by this blog post at Journalistopia from Danny Sanchez (@dannysanchez) of the Orlando Sentinel, I was forced to come face-to-face with reality.  As an online producer, what I do isn’t exactly technical rocket science. I am lucky to have a job at a transition time when most people have not had the chance to keep up with the online learning curve. And for most people, it’s no fault of their own, in my opinion.  Reporters are busy digging up dirt, driving to crime scenes and going to press conferences. I can understand how it would be difficult to use down-time to putz around teaching yourself the necessary online skills to survive in this business. Lucky for me, I am needed as the liason between print and online. But, as Danny points out, it is only a matter of time before new reporters will trickle into the newsroom already fully equipped with the skills that I use. Eventually the middle-man will no longer be needed. His post gives insight and encouragement on how to stay ahead of the game.

In the spirit of this, I am making a committment to myself to use at least a few of his 10 things we can do to protect our jobs.

1. Writing this blog post is one of them, which I do using WordPress and host myself at my own domain name. Soon, this blog will be the landing spot for MalloryColliflower.com, and include my Flash and Web portfolio.

2.  I’m still debating on which Lynda.com class to enroll in, but that is at the top of my list. Any input from journalists on which script would be most helpful for an online producer like myself would be greatly appreciated.  I have yet to delve into my ActionScript 3 book. Between the untouched book and a Lynda.com class, that might be a good place to start.

3. I would like to be more of a fly on the wall in the graphics department at The Miami Herald. There are a lot of sharp, creative minds buzzing around there and even kindly eavesdropping on upcoming projects can’t hurt my own creative juices. Though my skills are modest at best, I would like people to know that I have them.

4. Lastly, I need to do more independent journalism. Being an online producer doesn’t give me the opportunities to keep my clips fresh and my portfolio well-stocked. If it entails taking more photographs with my Nikon D40x and using my eye a little more stategically when shooting, or borrowing my dads digital camcorder on days off just to get some practice, I need to do more. Putting together a Soundslide every once in a while takes little effort but can show editors my journalistic abilities. I’ve also got my own publishing outlet right here under my fingertips.

**Addendum**

What are you doing to improve the staying power of your online media job? What classes or courses have you taken to stay on top of your skills? I’d love some feedback in the comments!

The 2009 Presidential Inauguration.

We’ve been prepping for the event all this week and will be continually adding new content to the homepage of MiamiHerald.com through the big dance on Tuesday. We will be staffed with five producers all assigned to different tasks to keep new info coming cleanly and smoothly. I’ll personally be tweeting from my own account (@malcolli) and you can catch all headlines from @MiamiHerald.  Stephanie Rosenblatt (@steph_rose) is building a graphic to contain all the good content from our inauguration page, similar to what she helped build for our ‘Cuba: 50 Years’ special report.

For now I’m assigned to attach links to new stories and moderate the comments sections, which I’m most excited about.  Being a “community moderator” is a role that pops up more and more on the job boards so I’m intrigued as to what monitoring comments will actually entail in real time.  I wasn’t lucky enough to be on staff during election night, which from what I’ve heard, was a newsroom party until five in the morning, but I don’t mind settling for this.  We’ve also been on the watch for a certain former Cuban dictator to pass away after back-and-fourth reports of his continuing failing health issues. In South Florida, that’s about as big as the news can get.

If I was back in school, the upcoming week would be like midterms, only nothing to study. But I’ll learn a lot, no doubt.

After a long and patient wait spent folding clothes at Banana Republic, ladies and gentlemen, I have landed a job. Actually, I’ve been at said job for about a month now and every week gets more and more exciting and challenging. You know all the stories and photos and videos that are posted on your favorite newspaper’s Web site? Well there isn’t some robot there posting all that content.  Computers aren’t doing it either. Producers who monitor, edit and select content make sure things on those Web sites are fresh and newsworthy. Luckily, in the state of this economy and the state of the industry of journalism as a whole I can be proud, thankful and relieved to call myself an online producer at the Miami Herald. Gotta give mad props to my classmate and good buddy Adrian Ruhi who also works there who recruited me for the spot.

I’ve learned a ton so far working with the McClatchy content management system and tweaking my news judgement, which is what I’m trying my best to work hardest on. My boss, Shelley Acoca, has been coaching me to put myself in people’s shoes. “What are people thinking and talking about today?” That has been helpful so far. I even polled some peeps on Twitter to see if they thought news judgement was learned or innate. Got some confidence-boosting answers that mine could improve over time if I work at it.  I think I just need to find my niche. Having control over something so public and wide-read is a little jarring at first, but networking with other online producers on Twitter and getting to know everyone in the newsroom is making me more comfortable.

So that’s the 4-1-1. It’s likely that if you’re reading this you found it via Twitter, but if you didn’t, you’re much more likely to keep track of my happenings there (@malcolli).

We’re also working to tweet more from our Miami Herald twitter account (@miamiherald) so follow us to stay on top of your South Florida local news.