Alternatives to a Journalism Career

Just don't say, "He has 25 million reasons to live" ... and look like you're strung out on crank.

 

To answer your question, you must ask yourself what you want to do and what will make you happy. Yes, most newspaper jobs don't pay all that well. You can make enough to live, however, and you get to cover sports. IMO, that's better than sitting in a cubicle writing TPS Reports. However, in most places you'll be covering high school sports. If you can get a gig covering college or pro sports right out of school, hey, go for it.
The biggest key if you want to go that path is getting internships and experience early. I would string for the local newspaper and get internships starting the summer of my freshmen year. I know one guy at my school who did the latter. He got a pretty good job with the Associated Press out of school.
I do think being at a small newspaper making jellybeans is a young man's game. I quit my newspaper in part because I hit that magical 30-year-old mark and one of my desires was to find a way to make more money so I could get some of the things I want in life. Right now, I'm freelancing and figuring things out. Freedom really isn't free. I figured out writing for a newspaper really wasn't for me, but I have been entertaining thoughts of going back as a sports editor.
This is a very tough business, but personally, I could never get into public relations because I have no ability or desire to bullshit. I would feel like a sellout as well, but maybe you wouldn't. I wouldn't judge you for that nor do I think anyone else really should if you go into media relations or publicity or sports information.
Luckily you're thinking about this now. In most cases you have two years of college before you get past your general education courses and on to the courses for your major.
Again, I would look inward. Look at what fits your personality and your goals in life. You can give newspapers a try in college through stringing, desk jobs or internships, get a degree in journalism and use that degree for something other than a newspaper job. People do it all the time.
As my dad said before I went to school many years ago, "The biggest thing a college degree shows is that you can handle bullshit."

 

Mr. Alliance;

Take every inch of the "this job sucks" sentiments with a grain of salt. Sportswriters typically bitch because, somewhere along the line, it was established that that is what sportswriters do. And because this business suffers from a virulent strain of pack mentality, there are some who join in the kevetching solely so they can sound like the cool kids. Check out the routine panning of entry-level jobs on the job board for further explication.

If this is what you want to do, go do it. But I fully agree with Zeke...college is a time to branch out and discover a few of your hidden inner paths. Find out who you are without sports, because it will make you a better sportswriter.

 

after that answer Fish, I think you should look into being a guidance counselor while you're 'figuring things out'

 

"So I'm going to college next year and thinking about majoring in journalism but I keep hearing you guys bitch about how much it sucks and how little you get paid, so I'm wondering what would be some other jobs that involve communications skills that would keep me close to the action. Media relations? Publicity?"

New to this board, love what I do presently and have worked in college, pro, newspaper and magazine realms (all sports-centric -- and both on the media and pr sides). If money is truly a consideration, think long and hard (gives meaning to 12 inches, no?), but ultimately go with your gut (and it will change, fig. and lit.). Fifteen years out of college and I am by far the lowest-paid of all classmates that mattered (in my head anyway), but believe I've traveled the right path. That's for you to discover for yourself, Fantasy Alliance, and best of luck.

 

I'd suggest to fantasy alliance, as others on this thread have suggested, to pick a major field of study that piques your interest(s).

I started majoring in business when I was a freshman in college. After Accounting 101, I figured I didn't have enough interest in numbers to be a business major. So I considered it intently while tripping on acid and smoking lots of pot.

I discovered that my interests were multifold, but knowledge of things past was my biggest interest. Even as young as eight, nine years old, I could peruse history books for hours and not notice the passing of time. It finally donned on me that I should study history.

While taking a history of philosophy course later in my freshman year, I fell under the spell of a very wise professor who convinced me that the love, study and pursuit of wisdom should also be my  major field of study. He also convinced me to do a quad-major, and I was good at my freshman economics classes and reading various great works of literature, so I settled on those four majors.

I knew I wouldn't ever get a good job or get rich with that kind of a background, but I sure as shit loved going to school for five years. I flourished in that environment while I had good friends laboring in some crap they detested, i.e. biology, or finance because that type of major field for them was a means to an end.

For me, my major fields of study were an end in and of itself. But I still draw on my training everyday as a journalist. Studying history, if it taught me anything, I learned how to evaluate sources. Philosophy taught me how to make a sound, cogent and valid argument, economics taught me how money affects humanity and English taught me how to bang hot babes and be witty at cocktail parties (I already had a firm grasp of how the English language works, growing up the by-product of two English teachers).

*but nothing taught me how to proofread, obviously.*

 

Plastics.

Woops. Wrong thread.

 

Very witty, micropolitan.

 

sartrean - Good stuff. I had but two majors and thought I was the shit.

 

"You said read the telephone book last night. Dibbs Sally. 461-0192."

 

I'm counting cards, counting cards...

 

sports medicine

Majoring in print journalism = Titanic reservations