Required Reading: You should be reading the online Washington Post or Washington Times each day, along with Baltimore's Sun --focusing on Maryland politics, schools, health, development, business and technology.

Because the field is changing so fast, I also recommend that you periodically read a few sites about the business of online journalism: American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review and the Online Journalism Review carry columns and stories about new media. 

Dress: Dress as you would for a paying job as a reporter or producer in an online newsroom. No shorts, jeans, T-shirts or tennis shoes, please. Dress pants and shirts and blazers or nice sweaters are recommended, in case you are called on to go out for an interview. Skirts or dresses are also great, but not necessary unless you are trying to get into a legislative or congressional hearing room or floor session. Exceptions to the code can be made with prior permission of your instructor. (For instance, if you're going out to interview homeless people, I'll likely ask you to dress casually.)

Telephones: We have no office secretary or receptionist, so please share in answering incoming calls and in taking messages. Be sure when taking a message to get the caller's name, phone number, message, day and time of call. When answering all phone calls, please say your full name and "Maryland Newsline." It makes you sound professional. 

Be sure to periodically check for voice mail messages, by dialing 301-405-5300. You'll also have to type in the last five digits of our student-reporter phone line (x42694) and our five-digit password (I'll give it to you the first day) to retrieve calls on the office phones. 

Note that personal long-distance calls cannot be made on our lines. We get monthly printouts of calls and enforce this rule.

Our main newsroom number is: 301-314-2694.

My number in the bureau is 301-314-2696.

Our fax number is: 301-314-2566.

The Washington bureau number is: 202-628-1677. Its director is Adrianne Flynn.

The Annapolis bureau number is: 301-858-5431. The director is Rafael Lorente.

The broadcast bureau director is Sue Kopen Katcef. The TV newsroom phone is 301-405-2405. We'll also sometimes talk to Al Perry, who works at UMTV and helps digitize the Newsline show.

Who We Are: If someone asks who we are, you can tell them something along these lines: Our sites are student-staffed online newsmagazines run by the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and edited by teachers with years of experience as professional journalists.  We publish stories on state and federal politics, school and health issues, business and technology, and courts and criminal justice, as well as environmental issues and local development issues around College Park, Hyattsville and University Park. We package content from our wire and TV bureaus in Annapolis, Washington and College Park -- but also produce our own work. Stories from our wire are fed to subscriber papers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia--including Baltimore's Sun, The Washington Post and The Washington Times. Television stories for Maryland Newsline can be seen on UMTV, which also airs on Prince George’s and Montgomery County cable.

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