Gawker’s “recessionomics” piece last week on the job market for journalism school graduates painted a grim picture.
Gawker’s suggestions for new lines of work in journalism
| War reporter: Army private. Gossip reporter: Bartender. Sports reporter: NBA superstar. Foreign correspondent: Peace Corps. Feature writer: Subway performer. Paid intern: Unpaid intern. Travel writer: Cruise ship employee. One Web site reader’s comment: Working journalist: Journalism professor – “skip the long, boring process of learning the trade and get busy clawing for tenure and sleeping with 20-year-olds.” |
The weblog magazine compiled a list of career alternatives that journalism grads may want to consider, such as the possibility of ditching their futures as sports reporters to become NBA superstars – two careers that Gawker reports have equivalent likelihood for j-grads.
The recent closure of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and Hearst Corporation’s threat of closing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the San Francisco Chronicle may make journalism students uneasy, but Bil Morrill, career services coordinator for the School of Journalism and Communication, said there is hope.
“There are jobs out there, but not a lot of them,” he said.
University news-editorial student Vera Westbrook said she is taking additional classes in magazine journalism and public relations to diversify her skills.
Westbrook said job prospects in the field look slim, but she’s willing to try her hand at other trades while she waits for the job she wants.
“I’m trying to take a lot of things, so I can do other things if I can’t get a job in newspapers,” she said.
Although jobs in the news industry may be running dry, Morrill said with a little strategy students have some advantages in competing for jobs.
Job-hunting tips
| ? Grow your base of skills while in school. ? Don’t wait until the last minute. ? Extend internships when possible. ? Network, network, network. ? Broaden your search geographically. ? Consider taking jobs other than your most desired job. |
“Jobs aren’t just going to fall into students’ laps anymore,” he said. “It’s going to take some work.”
He said editors still e-mail him with notices of job openings, but less frequently than they did years and even months ago. However, students may have a leg up on industry veterans who now find themselves out of work.
“Entry level is a way to save money,” Morrill said. “It’s cheaper than hiring someone with 10 to 15 years of experience.”
Morrill encourages students to learn multimedia skills to better adapt to the evolving industry.
“We’re not going to see reporters who write and do nothing else, or photographers who take photos and do nothing else,” he said.
The fear of print media dying out runs high in journalism classrooms and newsrooms, but journalism professor John Russial said the skills of new media are not much different from the skills of old media.
“You still have to know how to put a story together,” he said.
While journalism students may hear they need to master new media and a plethora of multimedia skills, Russial said, they may actually not need to revolutionize their skill sets. Russial said the most marketable job candidates will likely specialize in one skill but will be familiar with others and able to adapt their knowledge to new forms of storytelling.
Journalism instructor Jerry Sass agreed.
“Still learn the basic stuff – that gets you noticed,” he said. “Any multimedia skill you can get is just gravy.”
Katie Wilson, a senior in the news-editorial sequence, said she worries about job prospects, but she thinks her fundamental camera and Web skills will help her cope with industry demands. She still hopes for a career in print media.
“I kind of figure the apocalypse will come and we’ll go back to print media,” she said. “I still have a typewriter.”
Wilson’s strategy is not far off from Russial’s advice:
“Hedge your bets, learn as much as you can, but focus on doing one thing well,” he said.
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