Always a newspaper-woman

As a jaded young journalist, I found this excerpt from Steven A. Smith's Still a Newspaperman comforting:

"It’s always great fun to work with young journalists. Idealism AND energy are a great combination. I am heartened to see that the angst that is so debilitating to old-fart veterans doesn’t seem to have infected young journalists, at least those with whom I have been working. They are dedicated to the craft, fully realize the old career tracks are gone or soon will be and are just looking for the new paths."

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's overly hopeful about my future.

The love of the game

I'm fortunate enough to be able to say that I'm 22 years old and I've already met one of my life goals.

A group of UGA students came to visit the Capitol today, and we (the aides) had to show them around, give a tour, introduce our reps, and talk about all the wonderful experiences we're having up here. We went into the House and Senate Chambers, the Senate Mezzanine, the Coverdell Legislative Office Building (my office). We were in our element. Or at least I was.

It wasn't until I was walking down the north stairs of the Capitol with a box laden with folders and booklets and other information for the students that I realized that I made it. I did it. The one thing that I've consistently wanted to do since my senior year of high school - I'm doing it.

I am a legislative aide. I came to UGA wanting to be one, and I'm going to leave having been one. It's probably the most satisfying feeling - to have a goal and to reach it.

But I'm not just carrying around boxes and taking phone calls. Every day, I don't just check Rep. McKillip's mail and maintain his schedule. I am the head contact for his legislation. I make calls and talk to other reps about it. I talk regularly with the county clerk of commission, county attorney and superintendent. When Rep. McKillip has a question, I can usually answer it. If I can't, I can certainly find someone who can. I know his bills backwards and forwards. I know where they are. I know what they are. I know who they affect, who will be against them, who will be for them. How does a bill becomes a law? I'm living it.

I'm a pawn in the game of politics, but I'm in the game nonetheless. And while I will always have a passion for journalism, it seems that by the end of session, politics will come in at a close second.

Bah humbug

There were 15,554 job cuts in newspapers last year, according to a journalist who's been slowly putting all of the pieces together on a web site cleverly coined Paper Cuts. More than 830 jobs have already been lost in 2009, and it's not even February yet.

This is certainly not good news for me and any other graduating journalism majors. Sometimes I'd like to think that I'm special. That my passion and my knowledge and my experience will trump all of those other graduates and that I'll get the one newsroom job left in the country. Unfortunately, I can't sustain that optimism for much longer.

However, I'm no longer just competing with other graduates. I'm competing with those 15,000+ journalists who've lost their jobs in the past year.

So what are they up to now? Here are some stats from Paper Cuts:

- 53% of journalists found a new job, including about 20% who turned to freelancing full-time

- 10% of those journalists took longer than a year to find a job

- only about 6% found other newspaper jobs

- 85% miss working at a newspaper

- 78% enjoy their new jobs

Allow me to be whiny for a second. It's not fair that what thousands of people have been working hard for should be stripped away so quickly and leave so many people (85%) yearning for what they used to have. Yes, I know - it's life, it's growing up, it's the real world. But this isn't what I expected when I fell in love with this industry four years ago. And sometimes it's hard to accept and be okay with that.

Increase in J-school kids

Apparently, J-school is booming with new applicants.

I'd love to be able to say that it's wonderful that there's an influx of new people who will be ready and able to step up and take over the industry.

However, my real question is: do they really know what they're getting into? And are they really going to be willing to dive headfirst into a struggling industry to try their hardest to salvage what's left and turn it into something great?

I don't think there's really a major for that.


Also:

Median starting salary for journalism and mass communication graduates who earned bachelor's degrees in 2007: $30,000

Ay ay ay...

Passion

Since my internship this summer, I've been talking about how passion is key. The profession you're passionate about is the one you want. The people who are passionate are the ones you want. The life that's passionate is the one you want.

DigiDave has the right idea.