Q. I work for a major metro daily and was hoping to jump ship. In the past year or so I've worked at my current paper, I've had the opportunity to shoot and produce a couple of videos that I was hoping to send out in my clip packet.
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The videos are saved in a weird format (flash video), which makes them great for the Web but hard to put onto a CD to mail out. I was wondering, would it be best to direct a potential employer to my current paper's Web site with links, or should I put the videos and the software onto a CD?
I know people are wary of installing things on their computer from people they don't know, but the links to the Web site are kind of unwieldy and would be kind of difficult to type into a Web browser. As a recruiter, which would you prefer?
Reporter 2.0A. You're right to be reluctant about sending programs to be downloaded on editors' computers. Many places even have policies against downloading programs. They are designed to protect the office network. You also want to show you work in high-quality formats that are quick and easy for the editor to access.
I would use links. To get around cumbersome URLs, go to
TinyURL.com and order up a free, shorter replacement for each of the URLs you want to include.
While you're at it, download copies of the online videos so they will be archived with you in the event that the newspaper takes them down.
Coming Monday: He has heard that reporters applying for jobs should attach explanatory notes to each writing sample, but worries that it might bug editors.
Good addition, Wasim. Thanks for the assistance.
