Some good news for J-school grads

Newspapers may be on the ropes, but J-schools are doing just fine...and so are many new grads. That's the gist of an article in today's New York Times.

This year, the article notes, the nation's journalism schools "will churn out more graduates than ever into a job market that is perhaps more welcoming to entry-level multimedia-taskers than it is to veterans who began their careers hunting and pecking on Olivetti typewriters."

Some estabished J-schools are expanding enrollments and increasing their multimedia offerings; Yale is even starting a new journalism program.

The article says new grads with the right skills are now replacing many old-school reporters. The article quotes Richard J. Roth, senior associate dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, who said:

"They're just buying out the people who are earning at the top and replacing them with people at the bottom, but those people at the bottom know how to put up podcasts and video."

Also quoted was Mike McKean, chairman of Missouri's convergence journalism faculty, who said,

"Things are changing so quickly that it's not so much about learning a particular tool or software. It's more about an attitude of working in teams and producing content for different audiences."

Food for thought.