SPJ needs to dole out yet another award.Yeah, I know. If there's one thing SPJ doesn't lack, it's recognition for everything journalistic. You can't flip open a reporter's pad without the cover smacking into a Wells Key or a Green Eyeshade or a Hero of the 50 States.
Appropriately, there are scads First Amendment awards: the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award, the Pulliam/Kilgore First Amendment Internships, the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award, and (finally and quite simply) the First Amendment Awards.
There's an award for outstanding grad student and distinguished teacher. There's even an award for Historic Sites in Journalism — but none for best websites in SPJ.
I'd argue that the national and chapter websites are the greatest recruiting tool we have. Whenever I pimp SPJ to college kids, the first thing they do is whip out their iPhones or netbooks and ask for a URL. They make their decision to join right then and there.
Most chapter websites are an accurate reflection of reality. When I was reviewing all of the annual reports this summer — the only duty an at-large director really has — I also looked up the chapter websites.
So it's no surprise the least-active chapters had the most outdated websites. But even among the four-star chapters, I saw a lot of good and bad. Sadly, no one's coordinating among them. SPJ should have someone at a national level finding out what works and offering advice to those chapters who want help.
After reviewing every chapter website, here are some of my favorites...
• BEST DESIGN: The Orange County chapter's site looks clean and reads easy. While we're not the Society of News Design (SND), we should acknowledge the importance of design not just in our websites, but also in our futures — because the media jobs of tomorrow (and increasingly today) are going to demand we know a little bit of everything. (Runner-up: Iowa.)
• MOST UPDATED: The New England chapter has a right-hand rail of area media jobs called "local gigs," but most of its real estate is occupied by a feed called "New England Media News." While a lot of SPJ sites have RSS feeds of industry news, this chapter's unique approach is summed up in the subtitle: "the latest posts from local bloggers." That's so much better than a broad swath of national news I could acquire quicker elsewhere, and it's something easy enough for any chapter to set up.
• BEST USE OF STUFF THAT AIN'T WORDS: The Press Club of Long Island offers short video clips of almost everything it does. And what isn't captured in moving pictures is caught in still photography. They also use Twitter and Facebook, pose online poll questions, and have a LinkedIn profile. (Runner-up: Chicago Headline Club.)
Finally, here's some advice for the rest...
• If you link to your newsletters, and the last one up there is dated November 2007 — you know who you are, chapter in District 1 — then it's best not to link at all. I found a half-dozen chapters with newsletters from months and years ago.
• If you're gonna list your local board members, at least offer an email address to contact the president. You'd be surprised how many chapters have no way to email a person with a name and a title. Along those lines: If you're gonna provide an email address, make it clickable. There's more than one chapter that requires you to copy that link and paste it into an email yourself. That's so 1998.
• If your site has more than one "coming soon" page, kill one of ’em completely. Because trust me, no one's coming back soon.
TUESDAY: What if they held an election and no one ran?
