Get out of journalism school

I wish I had finished this post draft, although I understand why I didn’t as I was busy the entire fall “semester” last year with applications to…that’s right! J-schools!

That is, what should students get out of journalism school?

The plight of J-schools to be relevant, let alone useful, in the shifting industry has been the topic of recent polling, musing and, of course, blogging.

To take a serious crack at this discussion, the first step is to throw out the idea of the journalism degree and to replace it with the notion of a multi-disciplinary discourse on the myriad aspects of the theory and application of the profession, institution and public service that is journalism.

20% profit margin is enormous…and won’t last much longer

Another draft I never finished, or even developed past note form.

Basically I recall being angry with some news industry story that conveyed the same gist as this piece (although it was likely more recent). This one begins as follows:

“Contrary to popular belief, newspapers aren’t dying. Newspapers are making tons of money.”

– MARK CUBAN

The Tycoons Are Rushing to Make a Deal

When the Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, went on the block, it was another response to stockholders’ insatiable demand for rising returns, even for papers with loyal readership and steady ad support. But now that a bevy of bigwig buyers are itching to own prestigious dailies, newspapers in key markets may benefit from a return to private ownership..

These were my thoughts basically in bullet-points. Note the last one. Still makes my blood boil to think that’s why many of my friends have been losing their jobs.

• Newspapers dug their own graves and now they are being buried by the outcomes of greed. Rebellion against the notion of the “gate-keepers” of news has, well, opened the flood gates. What’s been unleashed are essentially the many expressions of defiance for everything that represents traditional media… even for those principles which worked.
• Because of this, even professional media Web sites are taking their cues from participatory, grassroots media, abandoning the journalistic values which transcend the medium.
• *Idea that shareholders are taking advantage of the option to cut overhead (journalists on payroll) rather than dip below the monstrous 20% profit margin

Flirting with abandon… of journalism

I discovered a slough of unpublished post drafts, which I hope aren’t too incomplete and abrupt to hoist on my blog now, especially since some, like this one in particular, explain why I’m pursuing study of the media.

The idea to blog about the media “meltdown” nudged me when I read the news that the New York Times was planning 100 newsroom job cuts. Blogging, it dawned on me, would deepen my understanding of both the birth pangs of digital news and the simultaneous decay of journalism’s traditional practices, from which even the Times is not safe. The legendary paper, in its story on the downsizing, wrote about the on-line takeover,

There were scattered buyouts and job eliminations in The Times’ newsroom in recent years, but the overall number continued to rise, largely because of the growth of its Internet operations.

Having worked in newsrooms struggling with similar circumstances, I’ve also experienced rounds of buyouts, hiring freezes and restructurings that were necessitated on the print side by new positions created for the Web team.

When I was re-assigned from reporting community sports for a major daily paper to the parent company’s experimental five-days-a-week advertisement rag, I decided to cut my losses and run for it. I’d go back to school for a Master’s degree and wipe away that undergrad in print journalism. A prestigious copy-desk internship wouldn’t count against me and work experience is work experience for potential employers, so I knew a career shift wouldn’t be a difficult transition.

My plans to pursue international business lasted for less than two months. Very quickly I realized that I not only wanted to continue practicing journalism, but to help save it as well.