Which are the critical skills needed for today online successful journalists? What do you need to know and do to compete with bloggers and independent reporters springing up all around you?

Photo credit: Robin Good

Right now, at the end of 2009, newspapers are buzzing around a report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations which states that the average weekday circulation of nearly 400 dailies in the US slid 10.6% from April to September, compared with a 7.1% decline during the previous six-month period.

What is worse, this steep decline in newspaper circulation (which obviously has a deep reflection in advertising revenues) takes place when the whole publishing industry worldwide is suffering from one of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

What is the formula that online journalists can adopt to get through this long tunnel?

Alan Murray of the WSJ identifies some key skills that online journalists need to acquire to keep themselves valuable to their publishers:

• Have a sincere passion in what they are doing
• Be fast to cover a piece of news and be willing to post multiple times a day
• Build a community of loyal supporters and always engage readers
• Use social media tools like Twitter to keep in touch with the buzz
• Know how search engines work to drive traffic to their content

Most importantly, online journalists should be able to learn how to utilize a balanced mix of editorial and marketing techniques and tools in their normal day-to-day work. Being capable of writing great content and knowing how to distribute it and market it efficiently online is definitely one of the most valuable pair of skills an online reporter must have:

The art of a good blog is figuring out the right mix between the piece that you know is going to get maximum search engine hits to the piece that really defines what you are doing that is uniquely valuable. That second piece might not bring in as much traffic, but it is the piece that is going to keep the traffic once you get it in the door.

In this video interview, Alan Murray, online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, paints the profile and the key skills needed by online journalist wanting to become indispensable asset to his newsroom.

Here all the details:

Alan Murray Of The The Wall Street Journal On Hiring and Managing Online Reporters

Duration: 2 44''

by Zachary M. Seward - Nieman Journalism Lab

Full English Text Transcription

Online Journalists Become Community Marketers

In the digital area, you do want people who can be very fast and are willing to post multiple times a day and to multitask. They really have to get engaged in finding their audience.

In my generation, the notion of marketing your own copy... that was like dirty. "Do not make me get near that. That is somebody else's job". But in fact, now, marketing - we do not call it that - but it is a big part of what online journalists do:

• Figuring out which blogs they need to be in touch with, in order to keep their audience together,
• using Twitter to drive traffic to your stuff,
• figuring out the right mix.

The art of a good blog is figuring out the right mix between the piece that you know is going to get maximum search engine hits to the piece that really defines what you are doing that is uniquely valuable. That second piece might not bring in as much traffic, but it is the piece that is going to keep the traffic once you get it in the door.

All of that, which is part of the job of building a community, building an audience - those are totally new skills.

Can Any Journalist Adapt To This New Online Role?

When I say entrepreneurial, I am talking about people who have shown some ability to play that game, which is very foreign to most journalists of my age. You have to play to people's strengths.

What we have done is we have gone out and tried to figure out who are the people in the newsroom who can really adapt to that new style of posting seven times a day and enjoy it. Because, one thing about the web is - and I think you guys know this - if you are not enjoying what you are doing, it is going to come through. It is a much more personal medium.

If you are not in there, having a good time, excited about what you are doing, there is very little possibility that you are readers are going to get excited about what you are doing.

There is not much point in taking a reporter who - you mentioned one minute ago - and saying you ought to be writing eight times on the web. It just does not get you anywhere.

As a manager, what I have tried to do, what we have tried to do, is: find the people who are particularly suited for posting and let them be the ones to do that. People get very excited about it, they get juiced about it and enjoy doing it. And then try and create jobs for other people to do the type of journalism they do best.

Because we are still doing the full range, going to keep doing long-form journalism, going to keep doing daily journalism and we are going to be building up these real-time columns, all at the same time.

For us, at least, there is a wide swath of types of writing you can do, and it is up to managers to get the right people in the right job.

Original video of Alan Murray and video transcription republished with full permission of Nieman Journalism Lab and first published on April 14th, 2009 as "The new skillset for online reporters: speed, marketing, audience-building, tweeting, and "having a good time"". First published on MasterNewMedia on October 28th, 2009 as Online Journalism: New Skills For Passionate Online Journalists - Alan Murray"

About Alan Murray

Alan Murray is online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, and author of the "Business" column, which runs on page 2 every Wednesday. He is also a regular contributor to CNBC, and author of the book "Revolt in the Boardroom: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America". Mr. Murray has management responsibility for the Journal's multimedia efforts, including its relationship with CNBC television, the Wall Street Journal books business, the paper's events business, and a variety of online ventures.

Photo credits:
Online Journalists Become Community Marketers - Darren Whittingham
Can Any Journalist Adapt To This New Online Role? - Lev Dolgachov