Photo by Aaron Roberts

Another friend and former colleague of mine, Steve Fox, took the plunge into journalism education last year, too. Well for Steve, it was more like a graceful dive. While an editor at washingtonpost.com, Steve taught in the journalism program at the University of Maryland for several years and has lectured at many other universities during the time I’ve known him.

Steve spent the better part of the last decade as a senior editor at post.com, leading, at various times, the politics, nation and newsdesk teams. At the end of 2006, he teamed up with Jay Rosen, of New York University, and others to launch Assignment Zero. Now he spends his days molding the next generation of journalists at the University of Massachusetts.

See what Steve says motivated him to make the transition and where “true innovation” can be found.

Several journalists I know made the transition from online newsrooms into classrooms this year. With decades of journalism experience under their belts, these new media trailblazers have decided that molding the next generation of journalists is how they want to spend the next leg of their careers.

Photo by Aaron Roberts

Over the next week or so, I’ll share their responses to questions about their current roles and the challenges facing journalism and journalism schools.  

Let’s start with Retha Hill, director of the new media lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Retha is the former vice president of content at BET Interactive, where she launched BET.com seven years ago. I know Retha from her days at washingtonpost.com, where she was an executive producer for special projects and an editor for local news and arts and entertainment.

I spoke to some students from Howard University a few days ago — most of whom were seniors and hadn’t had much online experience. Some had done online internships; a couple had dabbled in video. My advice to the rest of them was it’s never too late to start.

Many of them had blogged on occasion, but most admitted to letting their blogging lapse. I understand being busy — in fact, this blog has been on my to-do list for quite some time. However, I have a job in new media, and because some of them want to get one, my first suggestion was to dust off those blogs and start writing again. Online managers, I told them, would appreciate some evidence that they were familiar with certain tools and techniques of the Web.

Other suggestions: