Google Reader: A journalist's best friend

I have a pretty normal morning routine when I open my laptop: Check my e-mail, check my blog, check my Google Reader.

Never used it? Never heard of it?

Well, let me introduce you to your new best friend.

Whether you’re a beat reporter, a designer, a photographer, a copy editor or a multimedia specialist, you can benefit from using Google Reader — or any other aggregator of RSS feeds.

“Aggra-who? RSS-what?” you ask.

Here’s how an aggregator service like Google Reader works:

• Log in using your Google account user name and password.
• Click “Add Subscription” to start getting updates from your favorite blogs or sites.
• As new posts are added on a site, they will also show up on your Reader.
• Once you have a few different subscriptions — or feeds — feel free to organize them into categories.

Basically, your Reader will collect any new posts from sites (newspapers, blogs, etc.) you ask it to monitor and then list them for you in a super-streamlined way. (And, in case you’re wondering, I’m not trying to act like Google’s corporate mouthpiece. It just happens to run the aggregator I use. If you find another that works for you, super.)

So how would using a Google Reader — or any other aggregator — improve your journalistic know-how?

• For beat reporters, the more you know about your beat, the better off you are. So if you’re covering higher education, you can subscribe to trade publications and speciality news sources to see what others are saying. Also, you can read about trends in other states and see if they appear in your community, too.
• For copy editors, you can subscribe to a blogs run by fellow editors, such as John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun, Bill Walsh of the Washington Post and Andy Bechtel at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
• For designers, oh boy, do you have options. I suggest typing “design” or “graphic design” or “interactive design” in the “Add Subscription” search box. Design blogs seem to pop up everywhere, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding one that hits on your specific design niche.
• Photographers: Same goes for you, too.
• For those wanting to learn more about new media, Will Sullivan has great feeds at his site Journerdism. You can subscribe to just get his commentary, just get news links or both.
• For those interested specifically in video, I’d recommend News Videographer, though you can find plenty of other top-notch sites.

Plus, you can add RSS feeds for other things you’re interested in, but may not relate directly to your work. I subscribe to Playbill and New York Times’ theater section, though I’m not a features editor or reporter. I also read a couple personal finance blogs for good measure.

Paul Bradshaw over at Journalism.co.uk calls using RSS aggregators and other tools “Passive-Aggressive Newsgathering.”

I call it a time-saver.

Either way: Check it out. Just add one or two news feeds at first if you’re just starting out. It’s not a difficult tool to use, but it will save you tons of time and effort.

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