Yikes. I've been following the Globe's predicament quite closely ever since the NY Times Co. announced in early April that unless the paper made $20 million in concessions, Times management would close the 137-year-old daily. In the short time that I've been living in Boston, the Globe has made a huge impact on my life. My first co-op was in Living/Arts section, followed by a six-month part-time gig at City Desk, and finally from May 'o8 to last December, another co-op at Boston.com's A&E section. Frankly, the prospect of co-oping at the Globe one day was pretty much the sole reason I chose Northeastern. During the past few years, I've made contacts, and even some friends there, and to think of a city like Boston without a thriving daily newspaper is just scary. Fortunately, even after tense negotiations between management and Union employees, it seems (at least for now) that the Globe will be saved by making deep cuts. However, even if it survives, I wonder how valuable it will actually be. Other than huge losses in pay and benefits, the elimination of sick days, paid vacations and (probably) lifetime job guarantees, both the co-op and summer internship programs will be cut. This directly affects Northeastern's School of Journalism, which reguarly touts the co-op program as a one of the main reasons for enrolling. Without the Globe co-ops, print journalism students are pretty much have squat. I mean, there's the Boston Herald, (which is a tabloid, and is actually fairing much worse than the Globe), the Weekly Dig, the Boston Phoenix, (both weeklies), and while nothing's wrong with any of them, let's face it, the crown jewel of journalism co-ops is working at the Boston freakin' Globe. The j-school will almost certainly lose prestige and probably a lot of interest from potential j-students.
Now in Scotland, I don't really hear too much about print journalism in general, because well for one thing Edinburgh doesn't even offer a journalism program. Neither do the other two major universities in Scotland, St. Andrew's and Glasgow. Clearly, journalism training is not big in Scotland. When I first got here, people were pretty interested to hear about my major because they've never heard of anybody majoring in it before. From what I've seen, the two major dailies that are picked up in Scotland are the Observer (which is affiliated with London's Guardian) and the Scotsman. Scotland's papers in doubt exempt from the decline in readership that is plaguing American print media outlets, but I do notice an interesting and unconventional advertising ploy. Many times, I see that the Scotsman will offer random free gifts inside their pages, like DVDs and CDs. I've even seen commercials on television trying to sell newspapers through this method.
OK, so I did intern at the Skinny for roughly two days in early February. Dubbing itself "Scotland's cutting-edge culture magazine," the monthly mag houses its main office in a tiny office in the outskirts of the city. When I interned there, I had to bring my own laptop because there weren't enough computers available. Based on my experience, there were about five or six full-time editors that worked in the office every day, some who worked from home, and freelancers provided most of the content. The editors didn't look that much older than me, and while they all very nice people, didn't really have much journalism training. One of them told me over lunch one day that he was a former music video director (and former art school student) who one day decided he needed a more consistently-paying job. However, I was pretty impressed with their operation, and actually thought more than once that this is the kind of publication that I eventually wouldn't mind working for: an arts-focused print outlet with a fairly strong online presence that seems laid-back. And according to a recent Facebook message from the Skinny, they're actually hiring four new positions.
It's been well-documented how print media is a dying profession. When I picked journalism as a a major four years ago, I hardly thought that it might not exist by the time I graduate and am looking for jobs. Now I'm forced to reevaluate my goals and find ways to make myself marketable come graduation time. I've been considering grad school, to hone my skills in the art of online journalism and new media, but it's pretty expensive. I've toyed with the idea of finding a marketing or PR job, but I find it much more exciting to be able to tell a story, as opposed to selling a product.
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