OJR: The Online Journalism Review

Online Journalism Discussion

Online Journalism Job Titles -- Who's that Guru?

What do you call your Blog Czar, your Infographics Guru, your Forums Flibbertigibbet? And don't say Steve.

Submitted by Scott Phillips
Posted: 2007-05-30
What do you call your Blog Czar, your Infographics Guru, your Forums Flibbertigibbet? And don't say Steve.

I'm really curious. Can community blogs have "editors"? And just how durable can terms like "new media," "digital," "online," or "user-contributed content" be? Is there an emerging standard nomenclature for journalism iJobs, or are we still making this up as we go along?

If so, I'd like to be called Blogswain. And Matey. Arrr!

Responses:

From Robert Niles on June 2, 2007 at 7:19 AM

I've been called an "executive producer," "senior producer" and "editor" when I've worked for others, and I prefer the term "editor" when I work for myself.

There seemed to be a trend for a while there for newspapers to use broadcast journalism terminology for their .com employees. (At one place I worked, that was to avoid a conflict with the union, since the paper did not want .com jobs covered by the Guild.)

I think "host" is a great term for forum moderators, much friendlier than "moderator" or the awful "admin." "Webmaster" implies a code jockey. (As a proud geek, I'm comfortable with that. Some aren't.)

Ultimately, yes, we all *are* making this up as we go along. ;-)

From Mac Slocum on June 11, 2007 at 8:57 AM

Let's see ... I've been an associate producer, a producer, a Web editor, a web publisher, a webmaster, a web editorial editor and a managing editor.

And in each position I was doing the same thing. The ambiguity really isn't all that important as long as a paycheck is attached, but it *does* wreak havoc on services like Salary.com ;)