Why the heck is it still so hard to make iPhone applications? You'd think some smart HNer would realize that every publication on the planet wants to have its own iPhone app. But few of them can afford to pay someone $10k to build one. I bet a lot of them could afford to pay $500 bucks though...
This is why (college) old media is failing
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Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#32There are more than 600 college newspapers in the US. This means that an opportunity exists in these hyper-local markets to also report community news and, perhaps, create something that may "save" (I know that's the wrong word) the newspaper publishing industry.
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#33Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#34And they allowed commenting... big mistake.
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#35The collegian's web site runs on a windows server. lol'in at LAMP.
Well, theoretically, maybe they would like to switch platforms if the "intern" could do it?
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#36At my student paper in the UK we are all unpaid volunteers. Is it any different in the States?
The Daily Collegian gives "scholarships" (stipends) to all editors and some senior reporters. These stipends don't come close to a wage, but it's something . Giving something to all editors and some reporters and then giving nothing to a web developer is insulting.
I don't understand why it's insulting. I assume that the editors and senior reporters have been on the paper for at least an academic year - otherwise, I don't see how they could become editors or senior reporters. So the little money they have goes to the people who've put significant amounts of time into the paper.
The advertisement is for a new staff member. I assume new reporters don't get stipends either. So I don't see why it's insulting to treat this staff member the same as other staff members.
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#37Based on this posting it's obvious they need to come to grips with a few things.
1. unpaid internships are not a sought after opportunity for programmers.
If a coder wants to build work experience it's a trivial exercise to track down an Open Source project to contribute to. Benefits include working with some of the best developers in the world on projects that are used around the world. By way of comparison what can you offer?
2. iPhone app developers are in demand. So much so it's easy to find someone willing to pay you to learn how to write one.
3. You've listed .NET and LAMP, this is a clear indication your server space is an unsupportable trainwreck and your IS/IT services are operating with no clear goals in mind or are being interefered with by management.
Going forward they should seriously consider picking a single technology stack for your web services, it'll cut the support workload in half and make finding talent a lot simpler.
Anyone versed in both LAMP and .NET is out getting paid $80k+ a year with full benefits.
Journalism majors might still be jumping at the chance for an unpaid internship but developers definitely are not. Tell the university to cough up a budget for the position or (much better) start making journalism students take web design and development classes.
After three years building websites for the 3rd largest newspaper company in the US I can tell you that there's nothing quite as useless as a journalist who doesn't understand the web.
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#38I don't see how this is different from the real world. I see lots of ads for "Unpaid Internships" that want extensive knowledge of the field and expect you to already have the skills and experience the internship is supposed to teach you.
My other favorite is looking for a technical person for whom they will "split the profits". Your local CraigsList "computer gigs" section will be filled with these.
My favorite recent: "We are a couple of mompreneurs who are launching a business geared to moms. We are looking for someone, preferably a mom so you will already have knowledge of the target market, to help us with website design, online promotion etc. etc." http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/cpg/1621222670.html
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#39I used to be the online manager at my college newspaper (http://mndaily.com).
Working in the newspaper publishing environment is challenging for programmers. For instance, while online advertising made up a sizeable portion of the paper's revenue many of the salepeople at the paper had no idea where the ad spots were on the site or even what a CPM is.
Also challenging was working with different departments that had different workflows. We had to support the editorial process, the sales process, the hiring process, etc.
But wanting to get programmers for nothing is crazy. The programmers at the Daily were among the highest paid employees (only editor-in-chief, controller, and president were paid more than the online staff I believe) there and it would still takes months to fill a position with someone who had any competence (knew HTML and could write something more than Hello World in PHP).
While I know times are tough this is pretty disgraceful. College newspapers offer a good opportunity to get training in programming and allow prospective coders to start working with teams and real projects. But doing it for no pay really makes it a non-option.
Re: This is why (college) old media is failing
#40There are more than 600 college newspapers in the US. This means that an opportunity exists in these hyper-local markets to also report community news and, perhaps, create something that may "save" (I know that's the wrong word) the newspaper publishing industry.
We're working on that. e-mail me if you'd like to talk =).
-Marcio