My daughter just interviewed for a job at a Newspaper

[JanetRose]

She is journalism major and the job will involve multimedia tasks.

Just wondering if anyone works in this field?

Thanks!

 

[tar heel]

Well, there are a lot fewer people working in the newspaper field than a year ago . . . Pretty much every newspaper in the country has laid off employees in the past year. Right now, newspapers are not a good place for job security.

My first job out of college was at a newspaper and my husband has been in the field for about 30 years. I've never had more fun or worked harder at a job than I did at a newspaper. It's always been a stressful field with lousy pay, but but the good used to outweigh the bad.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I was a newspaper reporter right out of college. It was fun, but stressful.

 

[shortbun]

Around here all the newspapers have had huge layoffs. My BIL worked for one and he's been out of work for a year. A shaky job is better than no job but tell her to keep looking for a more stable industry, imho.

 

[tomthebarncat]

He works for an international newspaper doing newspaper production and is in Abu Dhabi. He is on one year contract at a time and I do worry about budget cuts, etc. As you can read his paper online, so no need to actually buy a hard copy. We just hope for the best and try not to think about it too much, but the reality is that this is a dying business FYI, my husband got this job because no local national would touch it for the money, after all UAE is a very rich oil country.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I have worked for 2 newspaper chains for a total of 12 years and still work at a paper on the circulation side today.

Many papers have laid off people. Several 2 newspaper cities have turned into 1 newspaper cities. The big trend I see within the industry is to cut costs, not necessarily people. Many newspaper employees are leaving voluntarily as they feel the "writing is on the wall".

The lower revenue trend has slowed, most of the cuts have been made. It is not unusual to bring in a new reporter at 25K a year to replace someone who was laid off making 60K a year.

It is a long hour job, depending on the paper it could be swing shifts 24/7, and being the new one, expect to work the major holidays. You would need to do the job for the love of it, not to make a ton of money.

From someone inside the industry, I wish you the best. Good writers make my job easier to sell the product.

 

[KSchwagg86]

I'm media--not newspapers though, television! Hopefully she can get involved with the internet aspect of the newspaper--that's where the future of newspapers is!

 

[si-am]

I worked at a newspaper (as an editor/reporter) for a while. It wasn't much fun. The pay was terrible and the hours were worse. No holidays off, either!

I would hesitate to enter this field now. Doesn't seem very secure.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I Concur about the layoffs. A local paper has had them here as well.

They have also cut the size of the paper (literally--they trimmed the edges!), combined and reduced the length of sections as well.

Ad sales are down nationwide.

They are branching into multimedia to stay alive. My friends' DH works with that at our local paper.

If she will be doing multi-media tasks...it is likely that her job will be more secure than those just doing print tasks. If I were her, I would stay well diversified within the field and pay attention to any clues that newspapers are going the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[::Snow_White::]

I'm in highschool and work on our paper as a reporter and photographer. Even in high school it's the most stressful class I have. I like it, and don't like it equally. It's really hard work, but I love writing articles. Unfortunately, since newspaper jobs seem to be looking bleak for the future, I'll most likely end up going into another field.

I can't help your daughter, but good luck to her!

 

[MissFitt]

been there done that for about 10 years after college...left the position of managing editor at a local paper for a less stressful position -- attorney