Study: Journalism School enrollments largely in decline

Always said that the clumping together in newsrooms of so many people who can actually write depresses all their salaries. Spread out into corporations and fields where talented writers are scarce, they'd each be worth more.

Then the news industry began to enforce the spreading-out part.

 

Never thought of it that way before. You are absolutely right.

 

Had talk with my wife the other day, telling her how the best courses I took in college were all the liberal arts requirements. The greatest value of my journalism classes? They were non-rigorous enough to permit me the free time to work on the campus newspaper and at the local metro. I've long advocated majoring in something of substance while learning your journalism by doing, on the side.

 

I wish I studied art history and just worked at the school paper.
J-school is not very fulfilling for students who are already secure in their writing skill.
That courseload never made anyone a better writer.

 

What's the career outlook for art history grads these days?

 

Not the point.
I believe I still could have gotten a decent job in journalism with any lib arts degree in tow.

 

A hundred million years ago, J-school had good value for the trade school aspect of it -- made for a much easier entry into the workforce. A person had already been schooled on how to write your basic City Council wrap-up or game story, whereas creative writing or English or history major types would tend to be more experienced writing for themselves than for a broad audience. (Longform training!)

But the value of that quicker transition to the workforce is mostly gone now, so yeah, journalism does seem like an odd major even if you want to come out of college ready to be a journalist.

 

Depends on what you study, where you study (as in,. curriculum offered, connections in the industry), the focus of the particular school, and your own ability to understand what success means.

People who major in print and only print, logging time on the student paper without real internships, don't get to finish college and then say "I was lied to!" when the job market is tough.

Too many, especially here, confuse the death throes of the print industry with some kind of deathbed for all of Journalism.

 

I guess I'm one of those that's guilty as charged, but I would love for someone to point to me where all these jobs are that people keep referencing in the new journalism. I would be interested to know where in America there is a core of starting "journalists" making above poverty or near-poverty wages.

 

The "new" journalism is even less financially viable than the "old" journalism. And with little to no potential or incentive to become more so.

 

Years ago, there was a rumor any Ivy League degree could get you a job at The New York Times.
You could be the crappiest writer around, and you're gold.

 

The new model is a small core of fulltime people handling contract writers' work.

If you can crack the small core, your pay will be dismal, unless you're the founder and getting some VC cash for whatever dumb website idea you have and the contract work will pay a fraction of what you might make for a legacy print publication as a freelancer assuming, of course, you'll even get paid a small amount of money.

That's the future.