Staff Report

Last month, Fairhope Courier reporter Mike Odom attended a weeklong training program in multimedia reporting at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism as one of 20 fellows selected by the Knight Digital Media Center.

Founded in 2006 to help journalists succeed in the rapidly changing media landscape of the 21st century, the center offers workshops to midcareer journalists to enhance their expertise and multimedia skills.

“Our goal is to provide the foundation of technical skills and storytelling techniques required by New Media platforms,” the KDMC website states. “The seminars aim to increase the depth and sophistication of Fellows’ work and understanding of the changing news ecology.”

As one of 20 fellows selected from more than 120 applicants, Odom represented Gulf Coast Newspapers to learn about the latest journalism tools and strategies as part of GCN’s efforts to improve its reader services.

“Since spring 2010, Gulf Coast Newspapers has been engaged in improving its delivery system of local news information to its readers,” said Sheila Propp, GCN executive editor. “We have been restructuring our print products to provide more local, relevant content, even changing our weekend publication to Friday to get pertinent information into the hands of readers before the weekend begins.”

During the intensive week that started many days at 9 a.m. and went to 10 p.m., Odom was trained on video, audio and other digital reporting tools. He was then sent into the field with a team of three other fellows – Michelle Holmes, editor-in-chief of a Chicago daily newspaper, George Hicks, technical director/producer of special projects at the NPR affiliate in Boston and Cecily Burt, staff writer for the Oakland Tribune – to gather information for a feature multimedia news story.

For the rest of the week, his team studied together in a news production lab, learning about a variety of digital editing software and tools to produce a multidimensional story using several new media platforms. That multimedia story about the Athletic Playground in Emeryville, Calif., is archived at the KDMC website and on YouTube.

“I appreciated GCN’s support of my application and was honored to study with a talented faculty at the top of their field and with a group of experienced journalists,” Odom said. “Having come to journalism late in life, the training was especially important to me. Although I thought I had received adequate training when I made a midcareer move from law to newspaper reporting in 2005, I had little idea how quickly the industry was changing under my keyboard and what it would take to make a successful transition to the new digital media world.”

In her letter of support for Odom’s fellowship application, Propp said the training would assist GCN in its ongoing efforts to improve its reader services.

For example, since last year, Bill Atkinson, GCN director of online media and audience development, has been engaged in redesigning the company website, to give online visitors more depth and breadth in information, as well as a more easily navigable site, she said.

“Our digital presence will continue to grow and develop as we reach out online to our communities,” Atkinson said. “More and more people are turning to the Internet as their vital connection for information.”

GCN subscribers can now choose to receive their community newspaper in print, online or both, he said.

Some of the journalists Odom studied with from Jan. 9 to Jan. 14 at UC Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism work at the Los Angeles Times, the British Broadcasting Co. and New York University’s journalism department.

“We are proud that Mike Odom was selected to participate in the Knight fellowship program last month,” Propp said. “The training he received during that conference will be shared with all of our editorial staff, yet another step in our goal of developing a vibrant, multiplatform information delivery system.”