Here's something you probably haven't seen in your recent scouring for the scant jobs on Craigslist: Start-up Publish2 is launching a contest for journalists to promote themselves as the future of journalism.
"The winner of the “I Am The Future Of Journalism” Contest receives a prize that we know is increasingly valuable in journalism due to shrinking supply — a job."

Not only are you openly competing with people to get a job, but hey, your entry gets "promoted" for other news organizations and media companies. Eh, you mean posted on their Web site? What if your boss doesn't know you're looking for a job or your past few jobs weren't all that impressive? Power of omission? Power of fudging?

Publish2 informs us that journalists Tammi Marcoullier and Josh Korr joined the team and  hey they look legit, so maybe this is the future trend of job applications.

I like the out of the box thinking and transparency in the process which already vets people out by the sheer fact that this contest will make some folks cringe and shy away. It's what Scot Karp explains is the thinking behind the contest.  It was perhaps popularized by the Knight News Challenge grants that lets you check out other people's proposals when they submit them. There's an entire category in there for applicants under the age of 25 which Knight is always short on.

In the same way that Craigslist revolutionized our job searching experience, I do think contests such as Publish2's provide a similar change. The anonymity factor is the one that most of us hold onto until the last pixel.

 

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