Joe Grimm, a visiting journalist at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, writes a regular recruitment column for Poynter Online. I typically don’t pay a lot of attention to Grimm’s column because most of the content seems obvious to me. However, this question caught my eye.
“Q. Where have the summer intern applicants gone?”
The writer, an intern program director at the Orange County Register, questioned the decrease from up to 150 summer internship applicants and an equal number of inquiries to 85 applicants. The writer still had seven paid positions and was wondering where all of the competition went.
Grimm’s answer was that although journalism school enrollment is holding steady, “word is out that traditional media are suffering and are not as secure as they once were as career choices.” He also wrote that some student likely heard that industry officials weren’t going to hire interns and decided to take courses this summer. Read Grimm’s column here.
If the number of industry applicants continues to decline, it could be good news for those seeking journalism jobs. Although there will be fewer positions available, the positions that exist will be for niche types of jobs that today’s j-schoolers are trained to do. In short, I think the future looks bright for the tech-savvy Millennials.
Tip says
Hmm,
I don’t know if I agree with this posting. I tried to get an internship at a couple of papers in the Seattle-area a couple of summers ago, and it was the best thing that happened to me. While the papers in Seattle are crumbling (the *cough* PI *cough*), I have a great job in marketing. Did I mention that this job pays better than your average journo job?
thekrg says
Thanks for writing. I’m glad you’re enjoying your job in marketing.