By CAROLINE KILDAY
J Alumni News staff
Newspapers may be struggling to survive, but that unhappy situation has offered one J school alum the opportunity of a lifetime.
TJ Montemer, 25, did what many of his peers warned him against: He purchased his own newspaper. The Santa Monica Mirror is a weekly local paper that Montemer has transformed into a multimedia outlet
Montemer didn’t set out to be a newspaper owner when he came to UNL to study broadcasting. The Seal Beach, Calif., native chose to attend UNL because of family connections to the school — and because of Husker football. And he knew the CoJMC was one of 96 accredited broadcasting schools in the nation. Montemer cites the education he received at the J school as the reason he has been able to accomplish what he has.
After graduating from UNL in 2007, Montemer moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting and documentary film-making career. Like most actors just starting out in Hollywood, Montemer took on any job he could find to support himself. He got a job selling advertising at the Santa Monica Mirror but also began occasionally writing stories as a way to make some more money.
“One day the copy editor got hammered and never came back,” Montemer said, and so with his background in journalism, Montemer stepped in to fill the void.
From NewsNet at school to an editor in the real world
A broadcasting major, Montemer said “newspapers weren’t my thing,” and the only real experience he had with writing was from taking the NewsNetNebraska multimedia course at the J school. Within four weeks of being copy editor, Montemer was making major improvements to the paper. Within four months, he was promoted to editor.
The owner of the Mirror was suffering from cancer, so as editor, Montemer took over daily operations. He incorporated new concepts such as updating the website daily. The owner asked Montemer if he’d like to buy the paper, but it was, Montemer said, “the last thing I wanted.”
Then he began to think about it. Santa Monica was a lucrative, busy city that could support a local paper. Though he wasn’t interested in newspapers, Montemer was interested in media. He decided to purchase the paper as the first step toward sliding into other aspects of media.
Professor Jerry Renaud, who had taught Montemer in his NewsNet class, said he was surprised to receive an e-mail from his former student about his foray into print journalism. Renaud said Montemer showed “a lot of talent, but at the time his interest didn’t lie in being in journalism.” Renaud said Montemer looked liked a surfer, talked like a surfer and wanted to be an actor.
Montemer knew he had to be innovative if the paper was going to be successful — or if it was going to even survive. Today the Santa Monica Mirror publishes a weekly paper but also supplies 60-second podcasts of daily news and manages a regularly updated website.
The future has bright spots
That is where the future of journalism is heading, Montemer said. Hyper-local, community-oriented publications are what he is interested in.
“It’s not all doom and gloom,” he said.
He understands that it is a tough time for journalism today. He said “it’s eat or be eaten — be as fierce as possible.” But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a future.
“There are no rules for journalism,” Montemer said. “Nobody knows where it’s going.”
The Santa Monica Mirror is bucking the norms and conventions of traditional newspapers. The need to get information to readers as fast as possible is changing the face of reporting. In the past, it was “not acceptable to publish copy with holes, [but] now some other dude is going to do it,” Montemer said.
Montemer laments the short attention span of today’s audiences.
“We’re a victim of our own age,” he said. “Why offer someone more than they can bite off?”
To attract readers, he said, information has to be entertaining, short and to the point, no more than 300 words or four paragraphs. It must also include visuals such as video or photos.
People still want information, though, he said. To deliver what people want, journalists today must possess diverse skills, Montemer said. That’s where his background at UNL has helped him the most. He stressed how the broad journalistic education he received helped prepare him for the challenges the industry is facing today.
J school grads can do it all
Once he became the owner of the Mirror, Montemer flew back to Nebraska to hire employees because he trusts graduates of the J school to possess the skills he needs to run his business.
“Gotta get kids that know what I know,” Montemer said. “I don’t trust anyone else but me.”
He described the students from Nebraska as “jacks of all trades,” which is what he is looking for. Montemer said journalists need to know how to take video, appear on video, write, produce and photograph.
“I only look for people who can do three or four things,” he said. For future graduates, he warned that “it’s only getting harder” in the industry.
‘NewsNet on steroids’
He said the Santa Monica Mirror “could be NewsNet on steroids.” The skills he learned in school are helping him run the paper.
“I use stuff I learned in every one of those classes,” he said. He said the idea for the 60-second daily podcasts came straight from his Broadcasting 472 class.
Running his own paper is not easy. With no background in business, Montemer said his learning curve was more of a “learning line straight up.”
He hasn’t taken a vacation in more than a year, and he doesn’t actually do journalism himself anymore. But the challenge of running a successful newspaper business drives him. He said he wants to show people that there is still a future in newspapers and journalism. He said he has gone into debt in a dying industry just to show that it can be done.
The Santa Monica Mirror is just the beginning for the young maverick. He now prints seven other publications and wants to purchase as many as 42 local newspapers in the area within the next three years. He is also developing a new website for the paper that he hopes will help the Mirror be a leader in local online news.
Even his activities outside of the newsroom are influenced by his drive to succeed. As a business owner, he feels it is important to take part in community activities. He is a member of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club and also works with the Boys and Girls Club, where he spends time hanging out with kids. An avid surfer, Montemer is involved in several ocean conservation projects.
“I want to be involved in the community, the place I live,” he said.
Learning to be a journalist at UNL and now being involved strictly in business is not what Montemer expected.
“I wanted to be Matt Lauer,” he said.
He said he still wants to be an actor and make films, but he’s happy right now.
“You have to be happy with what you want to do,” he said. “If you’re not jonesed to get up in the morning and go to work, maybe it’s not the right thing for you.”
Working in his sandals and jeans, with his 2-year-old rescue dog Teegan by his side, is part of what makes him happy.
Proving people wrong about journalism is another.
“You think newspapers are dying?” he asks. “Watch this!”
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