PJNet

Mark Glaser at MediaShift looks around and discovers that as traditional news jobs are being cut there is long list of jobs available on the digital side — even at traditional media companies.

Dan Rohn of JournalismJobs.com tells Glaser, there are also jobs at small papers:

“Right now we have 628 newspaper job openings in the U.S., from Alaska to Massachusetts to Florida to Indiana. It’s in small towns, and I think that’s because they’re owned by families or small chains that are successful and not being hit as hard. The big companies, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, they are publicly traded and it’s a whole different ballgame. The small papers are still serving a need in their communities.”

Rohn adds for the larger companies:

“You see the buyouts and that’s what gets the headlines, and then they hire digital folks because they’re trying to get the younger set, the technologically savvy journalist who doesn’t have the pay built up yet and has the skills of the next generation,” Rohn said.

mediabistro.com founder Laurel Touby reports she:

was floored when a large magazine publisher came to her recently for help in hiring a whopping 400 new digital positions over the next year, a prospect she says will be difficult because of the lack of tech-savvy applicants.

And what about journalism schools:

Paul Grabowicz, assistant dean and director of the new media program at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California-Berkeley, said that so many students were taking the Intro to Multimedia Reporting elective that the school decided to make it a required course for everyone….

“Students who are well versed in digital media often find themselves being placed in key positions in news organizations that are trying to ramp up their multimedia or online operations,” Grabowicz said. “So it’s not just that it’s becoming a requirement for a job; for many students it’s an opportunity to help lead a news organization in the transition to digital media. Which is pretty exciting.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Journalism Education, digital media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.