The crash of the newspaper biz trickles down to college papers
November 17, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Wayne GarciaFormer Tampa Trib intern Jessica DaSilva wrote an interesting piece on how the media biz meltdown is affecting her college newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator at UF.
DaSilva is now editor at the Alligator and says she can’t keep a full staff, despite having the budget for it. Four writers up and quit and she can’t find replacements in a newsroom that, back in the day, used to be the most sought-after job at UF’s journalism college:
I’ve been at this paper going on three years, and I can say recruiting has never been this difficult. For the first time, I’m hearing students turning down staff positions because they have to keep their GPA up just in case they have to choose a backup career if journalism doesn’t work out.
My hypothesis is that journalism students are jumping ship. They see the numbers, and they’re scared.
