The Associated Press, September 21, 2009:
For a new crop of journalists, with many more wannabes starting journalism school this fall, tumult in the news industry means new opportunities for connecting with readers online, but also fresh anxiety about finding a way to get paid for it.
Consider the latest job market statistics.
According to a survey released this summer by Lee Becker at the University of Georgia, only six in 10 graduates from journalism and mass communication schools during the 2007-08 academic year had full-time employment within six to eight months of leaving school, the lowest since the annual survey began 23 years ago. At the same time, those programs granted more degrees than ever, about 55,000.
. . .
“The construct at this school, really until very recently, was that your relationship to the business side should be to keep them at bay – that it was sort of inherently corrupting for a journalist to think about it,” said Nick Lemann, dean of the Columbia Journalism School. “Now we have to think about it.”
This isn’t exactly heartening. I too am trying to figure out how to make it out here, and am realizing that I can’t freelance forever.
Anyone got any ledes on any full-time/contract journalism work?
