Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus”

Newspapers without the Associated Press?

The new issue of American Journalism Review asks the question of whether making Associated Press content (which was originally created for the newspapers that were part of the AP collective) available to Internet portals was A Costly Mistake?

I didn’t need to read the article to know the answer: Duh.

But the piece does a good job of explaining why it seemed reasonable at the time to make the content available, and that no one was able to foresee the present time, when readers, quite naturally, wonder why they need to read their local paper, when they’re getting national, international, sports and entertainment news for free, well, everywhere, via the Associated Press (and, to a lesser extent, Reuters and Agence France-Presse , better known as AFP).

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Fringe’s Observer

I know, this is a few months old, but the Observer on Fringe is so cool, especially as he’s pretty clearly based on the mostly-known-to-hardcore-UFO-theorists Men in Black urban legend. (Or maybe that’s just what they want you to believe.) Playing spot the Observer (who is conveniently on the scene of all the show’s weirdness, like a eyebrow-free Jessica Fletcher) is one of the show’s little pleasures.

In case you’ve missed him (and I certainly have in many episodes), please to enjoy:

On the Media on The Sound of Young America

It’s the podcast equivalent of chocolate and peanut butter.

Journalism school applications way up

I’d heard it before that when the job market is down, grad school applications go up. With the double-whammy of an already reeling newspaper (and TV and radio news) industry and a general down economy, I guess it’s no surprise that j-school applications are way, way up:

The Pew Research Center estimates 5,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2008. Since 2001, more than 10,000 newspaper journalists have lost work, leaving the total count of those still employed at 47,000 nationwide. It’s getting worse, fast. Erica Smith, who runs the online layoff tracker Paper Cuts, counts nearly 7,500 newsroom jobs lost so far this year.

Yet punishing times for journalism have been an unlikely boon for journalism schools. Would-be Woodwards and Bernsteins hiding out from the bad economy or learning new skills to compete stormed the admissions offices of top-tier programs last fall. Columbia, Stanford and NYU applications increased 38%, 20% and 6%, respectively, from the previous year. Same thing at state schools. The University of Colorado (up 11%), University of North Carolina (up 14%) and University of Maryland (up 25%) all saw gains. “I’m amazed that enrollment continues to be so healthy,” says Associate Professor Stephen Solomon at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Costs are up too. The average price for graduate school and living expenses has reached $31,000 per year. This despite earnings for journalists with a graduate degree averaging just $40,000 in 2007 ($10,000 more than for those with just bachelor’s degrees).

“I’ve never met a single person in 35 years who went into journalism out of pure economic reason,” explains Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism. “It doesn’t make us recession-proof, but it makes us less recession responsive.”

What are all these people going to do for a living? Some may actually get jobs in journalism. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2016 the number of positions for entry-level reporters and news anchors will increase 2%, while those for experienced writers and editors will grow 10%. Expect trade publications, freelance work and digital media to supply the bulk of the jobs.

I choose to blame the crush of applications for me getting turned down by Columbia and not my admittedly appalling undergrad grades. (But hey, it was more than 15 years ago! Look, Columbia, awards!)

Naturally, the guys on TWiT seemed to think this was about bloggers wanting to go to j-school. When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.