Conference can shed light on media
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
My first exposure to newspapers was an internship I received at the former Holyoke Transcript-Telegram in the spring of 1972. I was a high school senior and I was assigned to work so many hours a week at the "T-T."
It was at a time before the T-T had moved into their building on Whiting Farms Road and was still downtown on High Street. The newsroom was a collection of desks with typewriters and long rolls of paper on which you wrote your stories. You literally tore the story off the machine and handed them to Mike Burke, the editor and still one of the best newspaper guys in the area who would edit the story, roll it up, put it in a plastic container and place it in a pneumatic tube, which whisked it up to composition.
There in a loud and hot room several men sat at linotypes, a hulking device that resembled a cross between foundry, a typewriter and a pipe organ. On them, the men would type in the stories on a typewriter keyboard and freshly made metal type would be formed.
If the reporters wore snap-brim hats and there were candlestick telephones on the desks, one would think you had stumbled into the set of "The Front Page" or "Five Star Final."
Technology and the news industry has changed greatly in the last 30-odd years and while the changing technology has allowed more people to disseminate their views and creations easier and for less cost, the irony is the drive for profits by corporate owners has actually resulted in less news.
In many markets media owners used to be families with investments in the community. Today many outlets are corporate-owned with an eye on the bottom line. Don't get me wrong. I'm a capitalist and I want private enterprise to thrive; however, too many corporations have lost sight on the importance of local news and content has suffered.
That's why if you're a person delegated to work with the local press, it's important to understand the local media climate.
One good way is to attend "Getting Noticed in the 21st Century: The Fourth Annual Communications Conference" coming up Jan. 9 at Western New England College (WNEC). WNEC and the Valley Press Club are the presenters of the conference.
There are 11 different workshops ranging in topics from public speaking, Internet resources for communications, design techniques, Photoshop basics and two different media roundtables with people who can explain how to get your news to the press. I'm privileged to be part of one of those round-tables once again and promise to have some new jokes.
This is solid nuts and bolts information, just the kind you need to make your life with the media, or the Internet or marketing a lot easier.
The luncheon that day will be the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Valley Press Club to the late Jack O'Neill. People can attend the luncheon separately from the conference.
For more registration information, log onto to www.wnec.edu/communications or call 800-660-9632.
This column represents the opinions of its author. Send your comments to mdobbs@reminderpublications.com or to 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028.
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