UC Berkeley j-school can’t find a dean – Sounds like candidates and students are ready to move the school’s venerable j-program into the 21st century but old guard faculty aren’t 100 percent on board, leading to a longer decision-making and interview process than candidates were willing to put themselves through.

That’s no typo – John McIntyre, long-time copy desk chief at the Baltimore Sun and the red pencil behind the You Don’t Say grammar column is leaving. I picked Your Don’t Say as one of the best blogs for writers in 2008 so am especially said to see him go. (Stay tuned for the 2009 list of best blogs for writers coning soon.)

New media training wheels – Webbmedia Group’s new media Webinars have proven so popular with newly unemployed journos and other writers the company’s creating an online community to carry on its mission of educating the ink-stained class in the ways of Web 2.0. The new Knowledgewebb site has live chats and message boards as well as plenty of online training sessions. Annual subscription is $129, or $80 if you’ve ever attended a Webbmedia Webinar before. Look on the site for more details.

This week’s online news link love:

• So you’ve been scammed – Advice from Bizzia freelance writing biz blogger Allison Boyer on what to do if you’ve gotten stung in a freelance writing scam.
• Regret the error – Reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the media. The blog’s the creation of Craig Silverman, a Montreal-based freelance journalist, CJR columnist and author of the book Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech .
• Happy birthday Freelance Writing Jobs – The reliable source of how-to articles and job listings turns four.

Twitter tools:

• Twitter homepage highlights search: The microblogging service tweaked its front page by positioning a new Search window high up in the right-hand column along with Following list. The tools column also has a collapsible Trending Topics list making it easier to see hot topics people are tweeting about.
• Twitter Guys make Time’s Most Influential People in 2009 list – Ashton Kutcher, who famously rode the Twitter craze to become the service’s first Millionaire – first member to hit  1,000,000 followers, that is – wrote the profile.

But if you want to stay in journalism, you’ll have to change with the times, and that means looking beyond the traditional newsroom walls for different venues in which to practice the reporting trade.

That’s the basic take away from a Webinar called “Now What? Rethinking Your Future” on journalism’s new directions that I listened in on last week. The training session was sponsored by Webbmedia Group, a new media training consultant run by a group of ex-reporters and editors turned Web 2.0 journalism specialists.

During the session, Webbmedia founder Amy Webb and her colleagues presented recently laid-off reporters and other writers – including a few of us long-time freelancers – with a variety of options for continue to pursue old-fashioned journalism in new settings. Without giving out too many of the details – which I promised I wouldn’t, they are running a business after all – here are some of the suggestions for actions ex-newspaper reporters can take presented in the session, along with some of my own observations:

Figure out how what you do best – And what type of work you like the most. That could be writing straight news, arts criticism, computer-assisted research, whatever. Then think about how to do that in a new way.

Team up with other journalists. Form a mini-syndicate writing on a single or related topics with multiple tiers of content, including paid subscriptions for the most in-depth stuff.

Start a blog. Get over whatever hangups you have about blogging, Webb says, it’s just a platform. It’s a way to dip a toe into the water of Web 2.0. Experiment. Write about the same beat you used to cover, or pick a new one. What you write is secondary to learning how to do it, at least at first.

Start a neighborhood news blog. Webb calls them hyper-local Websites, other people call them community blogs or microblogs. These ultra-niche blogs can cover a town, a neighborhood or a particular slice of life in a city or other area. Webb pointed to examples such as Broad Street Review, a Philadelphia arts scene blog edited by Dan Rottenberg. Others: the SealBeachDaily, an online newspaper for the coastal Orange County, California, town, and NewzJunky, a Watertown, NY, town blog started by a local photographer turned community news reporter.

Have fun with numbers. If you’ve done computer-assisted reporting or just geek out over numbers, consider aggregating some kind of public records into a database and using it as the cornerstone of a Website. Charge for access and write related content. Voila, instant business.

Go mobile. “It’s what’s next,” says Webb. Pair up with a developer who knows mobile apps and build a business around travel tips, product reviews or other content that could fit on the screen of an iPhone. One example: GoodGuide, a Website that tracks green products, which has created a special version of its site for the iPhone.

Work for a tech company. Reporters might balk at the suggestion that they go to work for a company – too much like PR. Get over it, Webb says. Pick a company, agency, union or other organization you admire or one that could really use help with its Internet presence. Approach them with suggestions for how they could beef up the information on their Website, user interface, content management platform, etc.

Have a biz plan. Think about what you want to do and how you’ll get there. But since online and digital media trends happen so fast, don’t plan too far into the future. Stay flexible. Keep up on trends by reading pubs like ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch.

Build a network. Use LinkedIn,Twitter and Facebook, but don’t forget to network in person too.

Have your affairs in order. If you’re still gainfully employed in a newsroom congratulations! But just in case, make sure you have copies of your business contacts, clips, etc., in digital form stored somewhere other than your work computer so they’re handy should you need them.