Great news, folks!
A few days ago, a journalism professor at the University of Tampa, Dan Reimold, advised his students not to admire the success of our Deputy Editor, Joe Weisenthal, who was named the best finance journalist of 2011 and recently profiled in the New York Times.
Joe Weisenthal, the professor warned, works too hard.
Joe Weisenthal also produces journalism that, in the professor's eyes, journalism students should not strive to produce (This advice came despite the fact that our readers LOVE Joe Weisenthal's journalism: He's one of our most popular writers month after month.)
Rather, Professor Dan Reimold seemed to be suggesting, journalism students should strive to produce long magazine articles, like those in the New Yorker or those written by the famous and amazing print-journalism war-correspondent Anthony Shadid.
Well, we love the New Yorker and Anthony Shadid, too. And we also produce a lot of long-form journalism ourselves. So if Professor Reimold's students want to write long magazine articles or be war correspondents for print newspapers, we wholeheartedly endorse both as models.
But we also suggested that Professor Reimold was not understanding or acknowledging that digital journalism is very different from magazine journalism--because digital is a different medium. And we explained that, contrary to the professor's dismissive view, what Joe Weisenthal and our other very talented digital journalists do is much harder than the professor seems to think (There's real craft here. And art. And style. And voice. And storytelling. And smarts. And all the things that go into great journalism in other media, albeit applied differently).
And we suggested that, if Professor Reimold were to sit in Joe Weisenthal's chair for a day, he would find it far more difficult to do what Joe Weisenthal does than he thought.
Well, we are now thrilled to report that...
Professor Reimold has accepted that challenge!!!
He's coming to New York to write for us for a day!
We haven't worked out the details yet--in fact, we haven't even talked to him about it yet--but we already have his desk ready.
(We would respectfully suggest that Professor Reimold might want to work here for more than a day, because it will take that long just to get comfortable with the publishing system, images, etc. But we look forward to having him here for as long as he'll stay,)
And, of course, we're going to document the whole thing. On video! This could be amazing reality TV. HIDEBOUND JOURNALISM PROFESSOR VENTURES INTO INNOVATIVE DIGITAL NEWSROOM!!!
(Okay, it may not be a nationwide blockbuster. And we'll have to think of a better title. But you get the idea.)
Anyway, we're looking forward to this.
Professor Dan Reimold, your desk is waiting!
SEE ALSO: DEAR JOURNALISM STUDENTS: Don't Mean To Intrude, But Your Professor Doesn't Get It
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