Young journalists these days are frustrated, very frustrated. I know how they feel. Last year I lost my job in New York to “restructuring.” Now I’m happily employed here at ideastream® but it wasn’t easy finding a new gig. For a while, I even considered going over to “the dark side"…public relations. And to think -- I spent all that money on an expensive graduate degree.
But – despite my setbacks – I’m still in the field. Elias Okach hasn’t been so lucky. A native of Kenya, he dreamed of a career as a muckraking journalist. He did some freelance work for the L.A. Times and attended Columbia’s prized graduate school of journalism. He graduated in 2005 and has yet to get a job as a reporter.
Okach: "What I would hear is that you’re over qualified. Too qualified to start at the bottom but also too new back in the scene to go right back to where I felt my qualifications granted me."
Okach is managing by teaching history at the University of Akron.
Lakewood native and St. Ignatius graduate Tony Maciulis also fell on hard times soon after he received his Masters from Columbia. He was laid off from his job at a New York radio station in 2001 – right before September 11.
As the Marines like to say, Maciulis learned to persevere, improvise and overcome. He carved a new media niche for himself in an industry that asks new journalists to be able to write, report and produce “across platforms,” as they say in the biz. He produces special Web videos for “The Evening News” with Katie Couric.
Maciulis: "It’s simpler and cheaper to send one person out who can kind of do it all. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, actually. You know a journalist is a journalist is a journalist. I don’t necessarily feel like I’m a TV journalist or a Web journalist or a print journalist. I’m telling good stories and our goal is to tell good stories. And whatever format it comes is fine."
Advances in technology are undoubtedly changing the way people get the news – and transitions can be painful. But Lee Becker - journalism professor at the University of Georgia – studies job placement of recent journalism and communications graduates. He says we should calm down. We don’t have it any worse than other industries do.
Becker: "Overall the pattern is when the economy is strong, journalism and mass communications graduates can find work. When the economy is weak they can’t."
Becker says journalists are no different than everyone else. When they read about layoffs at newspapers or television stations, it hits close to home. He says we're naturally more alarmed when we hear of colleagues losing their jobs.
Becker: "Journalists are very sensitive to it because it’s their own field. There may be some over reaction to it – I mean it’s a difficult time selling cars, too."
Becker does empathize though, to the extent that this year’s and next year’s graduates are likely to have a very difficult time finding jobs. That doesn’t deter John Carroll senior Andrew Rafferty. He’s currently interning at Cleveland Magazine, writes for the college newspaper – and is determined to make a go of it in journalism.
Rafferty: "I wouldn’t want to go a different direction just because I thought it was going to be hard or I thought I would have some difficulty finding a job. I’d rather have a little bit more difficulty and try to stick to it and end up doing something I like – if not immediately after I graduate."
I think Andrew’s making a brave, but good decision. Journalism really is a great career and hey -- in case my supervisor is listening -- I really love it here. And don’t mind getting your coffee at all! Is that with cream and sugar?
Caitlin Johnson, 90.3