So it appears I filed the last blog a little too soon.
I just discovered a Bloomberg.com report that the 136-year-old Harvard Crimson, which has turned out 12 Pulitzer Prize winners among its crop of future journalists, are “fleeing the ravaged profession.”
According to the report, just 3 of 16 of the paper’s graduating seniors who were on the paper’s executive board, plan to pursue a career in journalism. Of the last 10 managing editors, only two are working at newspapers.
One student said that newspaper recruiters that came to the Crimson’s job fair encouraged students to consider other professions. The same student said that after the event, work samples given to the recruiters by students were found in the garbage.
Another student said that classmates considering journalism don’t typically tell others to avoid ridicule.
While other students their age are looking at the industry’s transitional period as an exciting time to get a foothold and be a part of a new and exciting future, the kids from Harvard are smart enough to know that the non-traditional journalism fields are still a risk.