Journalism faces budget cuts
By Will Weiss
Jan. 22, 2008 9:49 p.m.
Faced with losses in ad revenue to online outlets, newspapers across the country have had to endure severe cuts, from reduced staff sizes to shut down foreign bureaus.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently announced that by the end of summer 2007, its newsroom staff would be cut by 25 percent.
The Los Angeles Times has ousted two editors-in-chief in recent years because of their refusals to make dramatic budget cuts.
Such cuts have become commonplace at newspapers across the country, as print outlets struggle to balance the financial health of their publications with the careers of their writers.
Because of the instability of the media job market, many aspiring journalists might find the prospect of pursuing a career in news reporting less than desirable.
Despite these complications and the seemingly continuously fluid nature of the newspaper and news media industries, college students continue to pursue both
undergraduate and graduate level degrees in journalism at increasing rates.
Gerald Nicdao, sports editor of the Daily Californian and a political science and sociology student at UC Berkeley, expressed concerns over the monumental cuts to budget and staff that professional papers in the Bay Area have been forced to make due to suffering ad revenues, but said that he is nevertheless determined to get involved in the industry.
“For traditional print media there have been cutbacks,” he said. “Because of that, it puts people at a disadvantage. There’s a lot online, but people think that online isn’t as prestigious.”
In 2006, 49,092 undergraduate degrees and 4,338 masters degrees were granted in journalism, up from 38,294 and 3,300 respectively in 2000, according to a recent survey.
The availability of employment opportunities in the newspaper industries is, nonetheless, still a point of continued impediment for many college students pursuing degrees in journalism and for student journalists at collegiate papers in the U.S.
“There are a lot of possibilities out there,” said Stephen Chen, editor in chief of the UC Berkeley Daily Californian and a fourth-year mass communications and business student at Berkeley. “Even though people are going away from print, there are a lot of alternatives, which I think is a good thing.”
Chen said that changes in the professional news media industry have influenced the way in which the Daily Californian delivers its material to readers.
“(Production) hasn’t changed over the past few years although our paper is expanding online more and we’re trying to get readers to go online and take advantage of the other media options that are available,” he said. “We greatly expanded our staff this year and we’re focusing on keeping an open mind to possibilities of putting content online.”
Chen also said that the Daily Californian and the college newspaper industry, unlike professional papers, have been largely unaffected by the movement of advertisers away from print media for electronic alternatives.
“I think there’s a long life for print media ““ people were talking about this decades ago,” he said. “It’s still the easiest way to gather information quickly. The online aspect compliments the print edition. The whole industry is transitioning, and that’s why there is a bit of instability, but I think the direction in the long run will be good.”
Others in the realm of professional journalism and media show similar optimism.
“I don’t buy into the doom and gloom that the news media is in perils,” said Joe Skeel, Quill editor for the Society of Professional Journalists and an experienced newsman in central Indiana.
“There are fewer jobs in newsrooms, but I’m not sure those are all reporting. Maybe you have a few fewer reporters, but the bigger story is how journalism is changing, not how it’s declining,” he said.
Neil Ralston, vice president of campus chapter affairs for the Society of Professional Journalists said that professional papers are making cuts due to reduced advertising funding, but that the veteran staff members with larger salaries are the most common victims of layoffs.
“Many places are replacing them with students coming out of college who they don’t have to pay as much,” he said. “The product is coming from less talented people, but for the new people coming into the industry it’s not a bad deal.”
