Survey of Journalism Groups'
Web Sites
An effort to learn
how nonprofit journalism organizations can maintain quality
Web sites--given the limited resources of such groups.
Updates/corrections to Sreenath Sreenivasan <ss221@columbia.edu>
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Last updated:
April 26, 1999 ASNE |SPJ-NY| EWA | IRE | ONO | NAHJ | NAJA | NAJP | NAMC | NYABJ| NYFWA | NCEW | SAJA South
Asian Journalists Association CONTACT: Sreenath Sreenivasan, Webmaster (saja@columbia.edu) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; used to be on Angelfire.com. WHEN ESTABLISHED: February 1995. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Updated several times a week, esp. Job bank, Newshole and Stylebook sections. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One volunteer WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist & co-founder ROUGH ESTIMATE OF
TOTAL EXPENSES: Since equipment is provided by Columbia and no salary
is paid to Webmaster, hard to estimate. But on average, 15 hours of time
a week are dedicated to site upkeep. At $45/hr, that comes to about $34,000
a year (The $45 figure is based on what some Web freelancers Columbia
deals with have charged recently. Others charge $50-$75/hr). ANY OTHER COMMENTS: SAJA is considering creating a Web internship, and paying a student $20/hr to work on the site, doing mostly site maintenance. But getting someone competent who can make editorial decisions is not easy. [ Top ] Investigative
Reporters & Editors CONTACT: Brant Houston Executive Director (brant@ire.org) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: University of Missouri School of Journalism FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Daily HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Eight including part-time WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalists ROUGH ESTIMATE OF
TOTAL ANNUAL EXPENSES (hosting + staff + equipment): ANY OTHER COMMENTS: We have nearly 4,000 members, both U.S. and international [ Top ]
Native
American Journalists Association CONTACT: Ben Winton (benwinton@msn.com) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Northwestern University, Medill Graduate School of Journalism, Evanston, Illinois. WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1996 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Twice weekly HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One volunteer WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist, NAJA member and a volunteer. ROUGH ESTIMATE OF
TOTAL EXPENSES: Zero cost to NAJA. About $500 per year to the volunteer
for software and hardware needs, but these expenses are not borne by NAJA.
ANY OTHER COMMENTS: Look into using qualified volunteers who are members of the organization. Even if you have to reimburse their expenses, it is considerably less expensive than paying someone outside of the organization. It would be helpful to include perhaps $1,000 per year for outside consulting work for Web site development that may be outside the scope and time of the volunteer's activities. [ Top ] Organization
of News Ombudsmen CONTACT: Kerry W. Sipe (sipe@infi.net) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: InfiNet, a commercial ISP in Norfolk, Virginia USA WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1996 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: When necessary; averaging once or twice a week HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One volunteer. I am an editor with The Virginian-Pilot newspaper. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Volunteer member ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: Nothing. Server use and all web design and maintenance costs are gratis. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: A useful web site can be established and maintained with a minimum investment of money and time. [ Top ] National
Conference of Editorial Writers CONTACT: Phineas Fiske, NCEW Web manager and assistant editor of the editorial page, Newsday (fiske@newsday.com) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Outside Web company. Hosted by Infinet, otherwise supplier to Web presence to newspapers, as a service to the journalism community. WHEN ESTABLISHED: September 1995. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: As needed to accommodate new information, as often as daily; but on no schedule (and not often enough) to keep existing information, links, etc., up to date. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One, in his spare time (equivalent to maybe a quarter-time job at first, a lot less once the site was up and running). WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist and NCEW member. ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: Hosting is $0. Because work is by a member of NCEW, salaries come to $0. Because hardware and most software was already owned by the Web manager, equipment was a few hundred dollars. If everything had to be purchased, $5,000 would be plenty. [ Top ] Education
Writers Association CONTACT: Lori Crouch, assistant director, EWA (lcrouch@crosslink.net) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: NICAR at the University of Missouri-Columbia. WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1995-96 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Some pages are updated more frequently than others. (the links page, for instance, is updated weekly, sometimes biweekly. some pages every month or two months. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: None. Assistant director spends four to five hours a week on the Web site. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: None. nicar provides web site (and listserv) at no cost. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: I do the web work, but I'm self-trained, and just do it in my spare time between other duties... We're trying to get a grant so we can hire someone part-time to full-time to work on the web site, so it can become more useful. [ Top ] National
Assn. of Medical Communicators CONTACT: Tom Linden, M.D., President (linden@unc.edu) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: University of North Carolina server. WHEN ESTABLISHED: Web site begun in 1998 and moved to UNC server in 1999. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Member directory update monthly. Employment service is automated and so is updated immediately. Newsletter is quarterly but lags behind the print version by several weeks for reasons hard to figure out. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: 2 part-time student webmasters and NAMC office staff (2-3). WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalism grad student and undergrad tech expert. ROUGH ESTIMATE OF
TOTAL EXPENSES: Can't release numbers. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: The biggest problem is updating membership information and organization newsletter in a timely fashion. [ Top ] New
York Financial Writers Association CONTACT: Dan Bases, NYFWA VP (sciennes@worldnet.att.net) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Hiway Technologies server (design and production done on NYFWA's computer). WHEN ESTABLISHED: August 1998. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Weekly to bi-weekly. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One volunteer WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist and VP ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: Gateway Computer, monitor, pre-loaded software plus Web building software (Microsoft FrontPage) ran approximately $2,300. Hosting costs about $25/month. Internet connection is $9.95/month plus more per hour. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: I learned how to do this on my own and I think it would be very helpful if the journalism organizations could share know-how. I'm in the dark on many areas and stumble through on my own. We want to create a password protected area for members( give them something for their money) for job listings etc. Anyone who could help with that would be great. It took me a month just to settle on a design and I think that is a work in progress. [ Top ] New
York Association of Black Journalists CONTACT: Thomas Holcomb (holcomb@nytimes.com) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: University of Missouri. WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1995/6 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Infrequently. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One volunteer WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Journalist ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: Webmaster's time is donated. Hosting is gratis. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: We are considering the purchase of a redesign and restructuring to make the site a viable arm of the organization. Restructuring largely entails the mechanisms for getting information to the person who will post it. If we do not pay for a redesign, we will solicit help from the membership to get it done but the result would certainly fall short of what a professional can offer us. [ Top ] National
Arts Journalism Program CONTACT: Peter Leonard (pl212@columbia.edu) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. WHEN ESTABLISHED: August 1997. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: Infrequently. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: one part-time Webmaster (also Webmaster for rest of Journalism School). WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: Non-journalist ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: Hosting: provided free by Columbia University. Software tools: paid for by Journalism School for pan-School purposes. Salary: $20/hour chargeback on large, involved projects. [ Top ] American
Society of Newspaper Editors CONTACT: Craig Branson, publications director (cbranson@asne.org) WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Infinet in Norfolk, VA. WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1995 initial set-up; really got under way in 1996. FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: generally weekly; more often as needs increase. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One main Web staffer. This person is also responsible for ASNE's publications, PR and information requests. Systems manager is responsible for certain portions (updating certain database-driven lists like the membership list and the Council of Presidents information); SM's main job is keeping computers running and helping with publications. Administrative assistant transforms our magazine into HTML, which is easy, but time-consuming; her main job is answering phones and keeping up with the office staff's needs. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: I am a former journalist, but the other staffers are not. ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: No clue. All of us are full-time staffers who do this as part of our job duties. We do it on our office PCs and on free software; hosting is free for us. ANY OTHER COMMENTS: We keep our site very, very simple; text mostly. We don't go in for time-consuming graphics. If you can get a high school student interested and know pretty clearly what you want on the site, you can pay them as little as $7-10/hour. Look at high school journalism programs, especially. [ Top ] National
Association of Hispanic Journalists CONTACT: Anna Lopez, executive director 202-662-7145 WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: LatinoLink WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1996 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: weekly HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One part-time that updates the job listings and the communications director is responsible to make sure that all other aspects on the site are updated on a constant basis. I also check the Web site to make sure things look good. But we don't have anyone on staff that can actually make direct changes to the site. All work is done by the Web master (LatinoLink) WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: non-journalist ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: $550 this only includes maintenance fee to maintain site no salaries [ Top ] Deadline
Club (SPJ NYC chapter) CONTACT: Robert Anthony,
Webmaster & past president <newyorkbob@prodigy.net> WHERE SITE IS HOSTED: Pipeline (Mindspring) WHEN ESTABLISHED: 1996 FREQUENCY OF UPDATES: weekly HOW MANY PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: One WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ON WEB STAFF: journalist and member ROUGH ESTIMATE OF TOTAL EXPENSES: $0. Account donated by Mindspring. Site is maintained with Netscape Composer, which is free and comes with Netscape Communicator. Home page is updated as club events are announced. [ Top ] -30- |