Hey kids! Should you go into print journalism?
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Like you, I’m sure, I regularly get letters from high school and college students asking for career advice.
They used to ask what steps they should take to become a newspaper columnist. But that’s changed. More and more in the last several years, they’ve been asking me if I think there’s enough of a future in print journalism that it makes sense to aim for a career in newspapers.
My standard answer has been a variation on the cornball exhortations I heard at that age:
Do what you love to do–study, work hard, don’t give up–and eventually you’ll find a way to get paid. You may never be rich and you may end up disillusioned, but you’ll always be able to say you gave your life’s passion your best shot.
Lately, however, to avoid mentor malpractice lawsuits down the road, I’ve been adding a stern caveat: Have a Plan B. Cultivate skills and areas of expertise as a fallback. Lay the academic groundwork for an alternate career, just in case.
You’ll recognize this as the sort of cautionary advice usually reserved for those who aspire to be movie stars, astronauts and golf pros.
Should I be more encouraging? All the newspaper jobs that have vanished recently won’t come back when the recession ends, and our industry has yet to solve the problem of how to fund quality journalism as readers migrate online.
But there’s a huge and growing audience for news, information and commentary, so, theoretically, there will be many jobs in the future for good writers, whatever medium they end up in.
What’s in your crystal ball, o vocational counselor?
admin @ July 1, 2009