If you were just starting out in journalism and were given the chance to turn back the clock to the 1970s, a golden era for newspapers, would you do it?
About half of the young journalists I spoke with yesterday would. The discussion was a kick-off to a full week at the Freedom Forum in Nashville for the new crop of Chips Quinn scholars.
A quick post on Twitter with this anecdote brought some interesting reactions:
@johnhcook That’s depressing. They really want to go back in time to journalism in the 70s. No thanks.
@joemichaud Seen that myself. Sad. Plus, I’ve been to the ’70s and this is better.
@osazuwa don’t journos feel excited? despite challenges to biz model, its never been easier to gather, create, share, and have impact
I spent the next two hours trying to persuade them that now is still a great time to be in journalism, even if the job listings have dried up. I also relayed the state of the job market in 1991 when I started my career.
Not able to even get a part-time job answering the phones on Friday and Saturday nights in the sports dept. of a small daily, I found a gig writing high school sports summaries for a weekly newspaper out somewhere in cow country. To pay the rent, I also found a job waiting tables and helped a friend remodel a house for his mom. Glamorous, huh?
That was in 1991, another recession and pre-internet, when there was no way to get published unless you worked for someone with a printing press. Now, of course, you don’t have to wait until someone hires you to start publishing digitally. You can take control of your own destiny and start learning the digital world (see @copress, @alanataylor, @digidave, etc.) so you have skills and experience to land the gig you want when the job market turns around. (Five years after I got out of school grads were getting signing bonuses!)
You can’t control the timing on when to launch your career, but you have more control over your destiny than any generation before you. Use it.
Mark Briggs 
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Well you are right about the bad timing of graduating. I am finding through networking a world of possibility. Though the market is terrible you can create your own opportunity if you are willing to do the work and get your name out there. Sometimes you even find your circles keep crossing! So create your own life and don’t settle which is really scary but there isn’t a point in being under paid for something which is not going to bring you happiness.