A little more than ten years ago, I stumbled out of a liberal arts college with a mediocre GPA into a job with a weekly business journal with a smallish circulation in my hometown of Memphis, Tenn. I’d never studied business or journalism, and I came from a family of academics. I didn’t even really understand what a stock was. But there was something I loved about it. I had great editors, and I was learning a ton everyday about everything from how to get information out of people to where I was supposed to put a comma and where I was definitely not supposed to put a comma. Like most great careers, I just sort of fell into it, and I’ve been there ever since. I’ve covered everything from old money cotton brokers to Facebook, and I’ve met some of the most fascinating people in the world along the way.
Also about a decade ago, one of my oldest friends had graduated with a degree in journalism and was doing an internship at the same paper. It was the late 1990s and everyone needed business reporters, so the job market was booming. It was in this environment that my friend decided to go to journalism school. She reasoned – as well-heeled professionals told her—that the sheer number of connections she’d get would ensure her a greater headstart in the job market than just spending those years working.
Fast-forward and my friend no longer works in journalism. Meanwhile, I’m not only gainfully employed, but have managed to make more money every year the industry has declined all around me. I get to travel around the world looking for great stories. I’ve had the privilege of writing one book, and I’m mid-way through another one. Frankly, I’ve gotten farther in ten years than I thought I would in fifty.
I like to joke that I’m “unqualified” to do my job. But I think it was precisely that total lack of journalism training that gave me an edge. I never worked the cops-and-courts beat. I don’t know how to write an inverted pyramid story or even really what that is. I do know how to write for different platforms, be scrappy and break news. I’ve had zero important alum connections and never got an internship at a big daily. And, in hindsight, that’s probably the greatest stroke of luck I could have had.
Journalism schools are like foot-binding. They force you into a style that a bunch of dinosaurs all agreed was acceptable a zillion years ago. So in an age of blogging, you have no voice. In fact, if I were in J-school now, I’d have my knuckles rapped for using the rhetorical “you” in those last two sentences.
Fortunately for me, my feet were never bound. I use the rhetorical you with impunity and a great many other sins that would make a Lou Grant equivalent choke on his bad Styrofoam cup coffee. That means a lot of people hate my writing. It also means a lot of people love my writing. But guess what? Both of those make money in an online news economy. You know what doesn’t make money? Rewriting an earnings report according to a formula you learned from a book.
Of course, this is all obvious by now, right? When I ask aspiring journalists where they want to be in ten or twenty years, not a single one says The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. They want to have a famous blog. Some already do.
So who the hell are all these people enrolling in journalism schools? Forbes has reported today that enrollment is soaring, even though nearly one-sixth of newspaper jobs have evaporated since 2001, and those left pay an average of $40,000 a year— just slightly more than journalism school will cost you. I know people do crazy things in a recession, but taking out a student loan for a degree that won’t give an edge in a wheezing industry actually makes getting an MBA look smart.
It’s not that I’m pessimistic about the future for good journalists. Quite the opposite, in fact. Journalism isn’t dying; it’s just in a period of extreme volatility. And in any time of volatility, there’s huge room for opportunity. But you’re not going to learn how to exploit it in a stuffy classroom taught by people who got there by working at newspapers.
I agree completely…the age of people sitting in newsrooms writing stuffy articles is pretty much past, forever.
Sarah’s text is too long. And too boring. She would have known that if she had studied.
Sarah makes what may be a valid point, but comes off looking like a schmuck, thereby invalidating her point. The video about the worthlessness of getting an mba is so sloppy rambling and pointless that it makes getting an mba seem, well, worthwhile.
Can’t handle 1000 words on an interesting topic?
And it’s a shame there’s no pictures, huh?
Go back to sleep, dork.
sarah lacy is tasty. i would love to review a app with her anytime
Corporate media rarely puts out “journalism”. Techcrunch is closer to a tabloid than anything with journalistic integrity.
You, Sarah, also get the “attractive woman” handicap. You get a pass on things like professionalism because you are an attractive woman.
The material success of blogs like this, tabloids, talk radio, and prime time tv does not mean that people who truly care about their craft are stupid for doing so. It does mean that you guys might be more of a sell-out than them.
Sorry, anon, the reason this Sarah chick is doing well is because she embraces her media whoredom. Have you seen her Web site? Her cartoon character self is way cuter than she is in real life. She’s selling a package, just like she oozes on geeky tech boys to get any info she can. Or course, now she’s getting old — and cute doesn’t work when you’re well into your 30s.
I’m hot, although I cover the financial industry, and I also never went to journalism school. I learned on the job which is probably the best way. However, I wouldn’t call J-school foot-binding, it’s simply a choice. Just as it’s simply a choice to wear short skirts, low-cut tops is to get male attention or flirting with sources to get a scoop.
Yes, I realize that was bitchy, but how most female business reporters feel about Ms. Lacy, mistress of marketing as she is.
@gadget – I agree completley.
I have to wonder how many of the angry commentors here have Journalism Degrees… They’re just upset that the status quo is changing and they stopped learning in college.
The real problem: most people hate reading.
Newspapers could pretend people read what was published because they had no metrics.
I went from the newsroom into a library. It’s not that people hate reading; it’s that they don’t read the way they used to. We professional journalists put lots of pictures in to go with the stories. We put the thesis statement in a cute little box set in bigger and different type. All the while, people were calling us and asking us to do more in-depth stories. People are subconsciously used to getting their news in sound bites and in the crawler at the bottom of the screen on cable news, all while they’re doing something else. And, yeah, they want those news bits for free.
The stats say that 20-somethings have been reading newspapers like no previous generation in a long while. They read newspapers (most often, the FREE alternative publications, but the traditional rags too) when they get their hands on them, but they make it a point to read blogs on the internet. They read their friends’ MySpace ramblings. They participate in the Fan Fiction phenomenon, both by reading and contributing their own writing. They’ve cut their teeth on things like graphic novels. I know. I see the happenin’ places in the library where they hang out.
The thought of famous — SuperStar — writers is thrilling to me. It’ll be like a renaissance for the 21st Century.
I wouldn’t wish a Journalism degree on my worst enemy!
I graduated with a B.A. in the field in 1991. My husband’s been toiling away in the industry for over 25 years.
Here’s where it got us: I’m heading to dental assisting school in the fall and my husband’s bracing for a layoff.
+1
Glad your paying her to tell everyone how wonderful and successful she is. Obviously a lack of reporting chops doesn’t hurt when all you’re dealing is this kind of fluff.
+1
-50
Is this like “Who Line Is It Anyway?” where the points don’t count and they’re made up as we go along?
my sentiments exactly, what kind of journalism is this. f-ing boring
I’ve never seen an article by Sarah Lacy where she doesn’t compliment herself excessively. I missed her at SXSW this year. Her train wreck of an interview with Zuck last year was the highlight.
A little journalism training (or even brains) might have helped prevent that disaster and actually make it an engaging discussion. I guess the new era of journalism is about the journalists being the news.
Sarah, it is you who should be enrolling in Journalism school. I, too, fell asleep, and why do you always compliment yourself in your posts?
I don’t know why this was posted on TechCrunch. I think Sarah is preparing her commencement speech to journalism students, but I have no idea how this fits in with TC. We all made it through half of this post before going straight to the comments to complain.
+1
Every writer ever is narcissistic, not just Sarah. I’m pretty full of myself for making such a great comment, myself. It seems that you are too, Matt. +1 for us.
No Mike. Go pickup a good British newspaper like the Sunday Times or the Guardian and you’ll appreciate good journalism.
I think it’s quite sad that the world is losing a true art form. I don’t see why journalism and blogging need be mutually exclusive. As someone who appreciates well written and considered English (but can’t reproduce it!) it often frustrates me reading your great coverage but mediocre journalism.
Who goes to Journalism school these days? Chicks trying to get their Mrs degree… (same as it was in the late 80’s)
@Sarah,
Very well stated.
Best,
Curtis
I agree to a certain extent, but there are some schools that are doing exciting things with online journalism. Additionally, I think the J school is there to instill the ethics and best practices that true journalism should have. The technology and delivery method will evolve and change, but if you have a solid foundation and skillset I think real journalists can thrive in any environment.
Exactly what I came to say.
Amen.
That said – we’re also in a period which can help realize more works in the vein of Izzy Stone and Amy Goodman in promoting independent journalism that reports a more objective stone-cold story.
Not trying to be rude, but I think journalism is dead. People do not want to read long articles that are flowery. We want the news now, short as possible, from the source aka over Twitter or whatever other Social tool.
Online video is exploding because people do not want to waste time reading. Additionally, a lot of what is communicated from one human to another is via body language, and you just cannt get that same caliber of communication with written text versus Online video.
My 2 cents. Have a good one.
People will always want a newspapers, to read. It’s the natural thing to do.
That’s ridiculous. How is reading a newspaper any more natural than reading papyrus?
The newspaper fit two consumption needs – digestable news, and lots of it in a fairly small physical medium, but enough details to be reasonably informative. The format was built around this compromise, and did a pretty good job. I know I enjoy reading a paper from time to time.
But nowadays we don’t need to compromise so much, we can get specialized content based on our needs. Want lots of details? You can find it online. Want a real quick summary? You can find that online too. Want it oldschool? Find a newspaper site for a publisher that hasn’t embraced the internet beyond copying their print edition to the web.
People want to read about things that interest them. You, right now, are on a site that asks for nothing but that you read. Reddit, Digg, /., the list goes on… nothing but sites full of text with links to more text! People are not inherently disinclined to read, and the newspaper is not a medium handed down from on high.
Fair point
Old joke, maybe old enough to be new to some:
You can’t use a Kindle to wrap food packets. It also fine when you’re researching mutant species in tropics and have no access to formal sanitation
In fact, I think that’s the best use of a printed newspaper. LOL!
Journalism is the field concerned with producing news reports and editorials through various forms of media, including video – digital or film.
I think what Sarah is speaking of, through her own personal experiences, is that a lot of successful people don’t have to prepare for their career with a standardized academic course of study to be successful in a chosen field. Sometimes experience is worth more than study. Although I think her point is moot regardless of her opinion that a volatile industry means that we stop going to school to learn the next best thing is viable. Or that the schools don’t know anything about the change in industry and the only way to learn anything is to blog all day hoping to be discovered.
Because she’s not a journalist – she’s a blogger.
Now, writing in that arrogant tone that J school isn’t the place to learn the latest forms of application of the art of Journalism is a not only ignorant but an excellent example of bad journalism within itself. Amazingly well done to say all of that – without actually visiting a school and finding out the story and reporting it for us. Quite the expert of this new form of fake journalism, all opinion no facts on her own little piece of the web here (obviously the next best thing). Why do people think and accept that journalism is just a camera phone and a website?
Her view of the statuesque is a little skewed in that she obviously has been an outsider to the normal path of academic journalistic preparation her whole life. For good reason – she not reporting anything. Not that there is anything wrong with it for a blog but how much work was really done here? Spell check?
I personally feel like people like her assuming themselves the title of journalists is ignorant, a product of the times, and sad – all of the opinions and no facts. No tracking down anything of merit. Not solving anything, they are entertaining little stories.
Journalism is about reporting facts completely and with as much efficacy as possible without opinion as much as possible. Sometimes doing that challenges the statuesque by finding something in tracking down all of the facts – and she attempted to do it without any facts. That’s an opinion – nothing else. Other than a plug of her book and how many frequent flyer miles she might have, there’s nothing here other another misguided, intelligent person telling a story. The sad part is when it becomes mistaken for the art of journalism. She’s a born natural by today’s standards, even if she does come across a little arrogant, ignorant, or proud on the subject she’s writing about – the new statuesque.
Journalism, the field concerned with producing entertaining stories with through various forms of media.
Based on the poor state of the schools I have to cover as a journalist, I’m not sure future generations are going to be able to read when they graduate. Perhaps people will want to read, but don’t count on them being able to do so.
@Jeff:
“Journalism is about reporting facts completely and with as much efficacy as possible without opinion as much as possible.”
There once was a time when this was true, but it is nearly impossible to find accurate factual reporting without opinion anymore.
My god.. I WAS a 1970’s journalism student,but I dropped out… What I want to say here is, a journalist is a FACT provider, and not only that, knows why the facts need to get out into the light of day.
No way is a story something on Twitter. A lead is what you may see on Twitter, if it is original and leads to the bigger picture.
TV is the worst nightmare of history. But a lot of fun for entertainment. The internet is so full of maybe true info, who can determine its value? Just a reader, just like with a newspaper. However, newspaper readers knew there was probably a slant from the editors/publishers; I do not think internet info gatherers spend enough time pondering the validity of what they are reading, or why it is there.
I learned in J school that reporters were the true watchdogs of the Admini
stration of this country. I still believe it. So, I hope real reporters keep their trade alive in whatever form they can.
Blessings to you all.
“Not trying to be rude, but I think journalism is dead. People do not want to read long articles that are flowery. We want the news now, short as possible, from the source aka over Twitter or whatever other Social tool.”
“Journalism” isn’t about writing long, flowery articles.
“Journalism” is more about ethics, being responsible, and verifying sources.
Communication styles change over time. Many journalists have been saying for a long time that the inverted pyramid is overrated.
The basis of respected journalism isn’t changing.
Bob is dead on. Journalism isn’t about where you learn it, the form it takes or how it evolves: the basics are the same.
Accurate, reliable facts in meaningful context.
The form is irrelevant. Just because the horse and buggy are no longer used much doesn’t mean people stopped traveling.
I first broke into journalism without a degree and mid-career went back for a master’s degree in journalism because I wanted to understand the thinking behind the news and expand beyond what I knew then.
So Sarah, I’ve done it both ways, have had many of the interesting experiences you’ve talked about both with and without a degree and both were equally valid in my experience.
As for blogs, they are like belly buttons: everyone has one. Been there done that.
Try simply enjoying what you personally do and choose and let others do the same. There is no one “right” way. If there were, Totalitarian regimes of all stripes would be far more popular.
Could be why Americans are falling way behind globally on general, common knowledge. Why waste time reading when we can be entertained on YouTube? … just a thought.
+1 of both Bob and Sandi.
I think you’re confusing journalism with newspapers, and the two are not mutually exclusive. While the business models and pay structures will change, true journalism – fact-based, clear, concise reporting – will not be dead.
“True journalism – fact-based, clear, concise reporting – will not be dead.”
Sarah Lacy has a job as a journalist and Josh Prager doesn’t. You sure about that statement?
Are you kidding me? Twitter as a news tool? Twitter can be useful for a news outlet or blog tweeting, “Breaking: Obama addresses Turkish Parliament. Story to follow” and then following up with a link to the full story, but using Twitter as a real news source? No way.
And since when is reading a waste of time? You *read* this article, right?
I don’t know about you, but I like being *informed* about the world around me.
The evolution of language is also making it easier to communicate your point in a smaller amount of letters.
Be Right Back -> BRB.
I forsee in the coming decades, the English language changing, as well as other languages changing, to allow the ability to communicate large amounts of information in a short space of letters or possibly all languages may evolve into character based languages similar to Chinese.
@Adrian
I have to disagree with you. I don’t know if language has a single evolutionary direction, but it has certainly expanded over the years, if anything moving from simple to nuanced, towards the specialization of words not just in sciences but subtle shades and connotations. There’s a perfect example in your misuse of “smaller” instead of “fewer.” In your view, they’re interchangeable. To someone who knows what they mean, they’re not. But I’m in grammar-nazi territory, regardless of relevance, so I digress.
Regarding the letter count specifically, acronyms like BRB are a function of input devices. It’s the medium affecting the message, not unlike this whole newspaper-vs-web-affecting-journalism discussion we’re in. We don’t have perfect input devices yet, but anyone trying to be taken seriously will stick to using full words, and as technology improves and the barrier to inputting characters approaches zero the use of acronyms like BRB will become as foreign as Ham radio jargon.
Many of the acronyms used today were created long before the internet and instant messaging for Telex communcation and “etiquette”. Since it was half-duplex communication certain phrases were used and they got shortened to save space and money… and some of the acronyms survived to this day.
True but didn’t the schmucks who are doing the current pathetic reporting (Fox, NBC, CNBC) go to J-school?
Though I wish it wasn’t true, I couldn’t agree with this more.
Spot on! Totally gonna fwd this to my journalism major friends.
I couldn’t get into journalism school cuz of my f’d up gpa. It’s super competitive and chic-fav. I ended up settling for communications and in retrospect don’t think it’s a bad choice for anyone who wants to do journalism.
IMO a COMM major teaches a lot more critical thinking vs. journalism major’s getting-the-punctuation-right.
right..except that a comm major is universally known as the easiest and most grade inflated discipline. a natural home for jocks and idiots.
that is true. I got half our ‘09 NCAA championship team in one of my class=)
I never plan on holding a job so I don’t care too much about grade inflation and the easy reputation. But I can see why it may matter a lot for those seeking a job.
Way to congratulate yourself under the guise of writing about old-guard journalism practices being dead. Arrington obviously agrees with you because he’s in the same boat.
Although WSJ and NYT are full of old stodgy people and business practices, their better journalists do write better than you. You’re not successful because you use the rhetorical “you”, you’re successful despite it (and yes, the constant grammar and spelling errors on TechCrunch are annoying).
There are other things TechCrunch does better than the old guard, but apparently you’ve copied the art of slow-news-day drivel articles quite nicely.
Hey WOW, I never even looked at it that way. I guess we all like to pat ourselves on the back now and again
yeah i’m confused why the stats are at the very end following extensive puffery.
you have succeeded, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily have to do with your major.
> “and yes, the constant grammar and spelling errors on TechCrunch are annoying”
Hmmm. The typos. Google catches typos just fine. If Michail arringtno is the cause of all troubles in tyis wrold, gogole knows abotu it.
Try it. It works.
Old school ain’t gonna teach you the Googley importance of typos
I cannot believe that is the case. But the reality is, there are certain careers that are seemingly more glamorous than they are in actuality. I spent about a decade in advertising and I see kids dying to get into advertising – for what? A mediocre salary, to create very little value in the world and to get booted out of the industry before you’re 35?
I have a lot of friends who were journalists in fashion, dining and other “lifestyle” or trendy areas, they are in their 30s living with roommates and get paid in perks – a free dinner here, an invite to a great party there, and if they’re lucky, a cool piece of jewelery.
Not worth it. Perhaps it is up to parents to guide their childrens’ career choices better. I really don’t have an answer.
funny aside – at a college I went to in the 80’s, an “Undeclared” student accumulating 60 credits was automatically switched to “Advertising”. All the CompSci majors assumed it switched to the first degree program alphabetically. I do wonder how many stayed in the field.
Journalism really fits in nicely with almost the entire spectrum of undergraduate degrees at this point…the idea of taking out a huge mortgage at age 18 for any of it strikes me as a really bad move. Debt financing – much of it government-boosted – on the level of $60K+ and you get…well, I don’t know what you get other than an opportunity to date a lot of cute girls (or your preference) in a short period of time.
I’m a big fan of learning how to write. Note: this is not the same thing as journalism.
And you can do it in a few months at your local public library. Or (gasp) faster if you know how to sift through the litany of garbage online.
Most J-School students should just get right into politics, or go to law school, that’s what they want to do anyway.
You’re right about one thing: you aren’t a real journalist. You’re a pop writer. That is a totally respectable profession and you do a fine job at it, but let’s not kid ourselves here. People don’t feel called to journalism because they want “a cool blog”, they do it because they believe that objective reporting of events happening around is us important in a free society.
“objective reporting of events happening around is us important in a free society.”
i’ve never seen objective reporting. can you point something out to me?
here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
We don’t all watch Fox you know!
The BBC is far from objective. It only appears to be objective to those who share the same bias.
omg lol I hope you aren’t serious…I suppose MSNBC is objective, too
Anytime you’re ready to explain the omission of the fact you endorsed Webaroo without mentioning you worked with founder Brad Husick’s wife Gail back when you were an attorney at Wilson Sonsini.
I can point out the opposite of it:
http://tinyurl.com/cerhpa
http://en.wikip.../wiki/Straw_man
I guess the thing is, most true journalists strive to be objective by having multiple sides of the story have their voice heard. True objectivity will never be possible because its being produced by humans, but I do think there’s value in having organizations that try to be objective.
With that said, there’s also a lot of room for opinion-based news like TechCrunch. Hell, I love this site, and you’re a big part of the appeal Mike – and I don’t really care that much if you’re invested in some of the companies you write about without disclosing it.
This, of course, is your *subjective* opinion…
Sure, there’s no pure objectivity. But clearly there are different levels.
Journalism is not just writing. The idea is that you gather information as completely as possible and are transparent as possible about where you got it from.
It’s a combination of investigation, analysis, synthesis, and communication. It can be done on a blog, on a podcast, on a television station, and yes, in a newspaper.
Like this:
http://www.wash...reed/index.html
If the Washington Post had not broken this story, many vets would still be getting subpar treatment from our government.
The story wasn’t about the writer; it was about the public’s need to know. Compare that package to this blog post, and I think it’s clear who the journalist is.
You’ve never seen objectivity nor reporting…how would you recognize the two together?
The problem a lot of newspapers are facing is exacerbated by not being objective reporters of events. When you have a large part of your audience that doesn’t have the same value system and the newspapers are doing punditry (either “right” or “left”), it is not a recipe for maintaing an audience.
J is right on here. Even if Michael is right that there is no such thing as objective reporting, Sarah is confusing entertainment with news, then assuming that both require the same professional training.
Unfortunately, consumers of news seem to be just as confused as Sarah, so we see Britney Spears stories on the front page, and even hard news stories have devolved into glorified press releases. But this doesn’t mean we don’t need real news, or that journalism school and some editorial conventions won’t help someone deliver high quality.
J — So true. Sooo true!
Article summary:
Why are people enrolling in Journalism programs? Look at how far I got without one.
—
A lot of TechCrunch is rumors, OPINION and PROMOTION. It is business reporting at best, but doesn’t compare to what I regard as journalism in the tradition of Woodward and Bernstein.
Spot on Sarah. In our current economy the last thing you want to do is make a $40,000 mistake. Currently all you need to get started in Journalism is a computer and something to say. Before any of you head off to find a new career, make sure you peruse a current list of in-demand jobs.
Although I appreciate your experience… this is a pretty personal insight Sarah.
Spare us.
Your rag needs J School oversight more than ever. If you’re not getting sued, you’re endorsing your friends Webaroo and not telling your readers of your prior business dealings with its founders–the Husicks!
Sarah: Your boss is using you. He has advertorial deals coming out of his chubby butt. No one on this planet cares as much about Ycombinator as Tubby. Not even its incompetent ownership.
Is it me, or is this half-baked disjointed article actually MAKE the argument that J. school is more important today than ever?
File this muddled drivel in your Barbie DreamHouse Diary.
BTW: Charles Manson wrote a book. So did the world’s fattest man. So did Hitler.
We can argue the merits of an MBA, but the bottom line is that I make a ton of money because of the degree. Small sample size, I know. But it’s worked for me.
Re: the journalism degree, you’re correct in that it’s a bad investment. Unfortunately, the thing that gets lost by bloggers is integrity. So desperate to be the first on a story that they often report things without legitimate secondary sources. This garbage happens on our beloved TechCrunch quite often.
Worthless MBA – re: integrity. As if integrity doesn’t get lost with our journalists. It has throughout history, in fact, they make movies about it. The only difference is, people who read blogs read with a watchful eye vs. a newspaper they perceive as being the truth. Maybe this will teach people to pay a little more attention, do their homework before summing everything up so quickly.
Solid point. Even ESPN has now gotten into the habit of reporting nonsense without substantial evidence, but I believe it’s to compete with the real-time bloggers who are eating their lunch. In the end, bloggers are causing and perpetuating a bad practice. That said, they’re not going away any time soon, so we’ll just need to deal with it. It was just nice when there was at least some brand or standard behind it that the journalist needed to answer to. Sure there are rare cases when a journalist reported BS under the respected New York Times brand, but he or she then had to answer to that brand if called out. Nowadays, rumor-mongering is encouraged by blogs.
Second, I wouldn’t overestimate the discretion of the mob-like audience who reads blogs. Have you read half the comments written on TechCrunch? They are inarticulate at best. And this is the readership of the most commercially successful blog on the web. Present them with any piece of shit that was reported here and they will gladly fly it up the flagpole. Don’t get me wrong – TechCrunch is certainly compelling, but sometimes it’s flat-out wrong with no accountability whatsoever.
Bah. I wrote for a paper, independently owned, that has endorsed local and statewide candidates who’ve lost in the last two or three elections, and the losing presidential candidate this last time around. When I was still at the paper I overheard the editors marveling at how they got their endorsement of a high profile ballot issue so wrong.
The main thing I noticed about newspapers is how completely clueless management is about their product and the changes they make to it. A big part of the problem is that they have two masters: advertisers and readers. The relationship with the advertisers is easy to understand. It’s all about money. Now, that money’s going away. Management can point to valid causes (the economic downturn, craigslist.org, etc.) and they come up with a seemingly simple solution: shrink the width of the newspaper. This action freaks out subscribers no end. It’s tactile and it’s deadly and management is ignorant for not seeing that.
But they have a completely dysfunctional relationship with their most important master. (Isn’t it really all for the reader, any way?). They think their subscribers want to know about the guy in Pittsburg who killed his whole family and then himself (If It Bleeds, It Leads) but feel they need to be sensitive to readers’ squeamishness and not publish the accompanying photo of body bags being removed from the Pennsylvania home. (In this day and age of shoot-em-up video games and Terminator-type movies, who the hell passed the edict that graphic photos in newspapers are Just.Too.Traumatizing??) They did some studies and found that people weren’t reading anything but the first paragraph of their dumbed-down “just the facts, ma’am” style of writing, so they went ape-shit crazy over InfoGraphics, which are kinda like TeeVee but not really. They wet themselves in anticipation of the next roll-out of a redesign that only graphic artists would be able to discern. (Ever notice how frequently they do redesigns these days, and not just because of the narrower press width?). They lure the big box stores into taking out splashy and colorful full-page ads of glamorously photographed models, making their newspapers seem kinda like magazines but not really.
Newspapers are rather schizophrenic, now that I think about it.
“Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick” was the title of the first newspaper
published in the colonies. It was produced for the first time and last on September 25, 1690, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was intended to be published monthly, “or, if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener.” It was printed by Richard Pierce
and edited by Benjamin Harris, who had previously published a newspaper in London. The paper contained four six-by-ten inch pages.
Sure sounds like a blog to me.
You said it in your article – Degree programs now-a-days are outdated, and they don’t want to be revamped because they are scared of what might happen. School shouldn’t be a bad thing, you just need to be taught the right kinds of things, obviously material Journalism is going to stop being the largest market.
I agree with you to a point. If you had gone to J school you would still have had a great career as a journalist simply because you’re creative and talented . Any school, j school, business school, whatever can be helpful but ultimately the individual needs to go out and make the career, respond to the market (like you did), and find something to be passionate about (which you did).
Praise from Caesar’s kid sister…
Is it me, or is this half-baked disjointed article actually MAKE the argument that J. school is more important today than ever?
TC is the archetype of “conflict of interest” stories, and if newspapers are dying, why is tubby making deals with them to accept TC’s feeds?
Seems strangely, umm, what’s the word Sarah–unethical.
Yep. That’s it.
BTW: What do you, Hitler, Charles Manson, and My Grandfather have in common?
Answer: You’ve all written books. Big whup, sweetie.
File this muddled drivel in your Barbie DreamHouse Diary. Not here.
On TC, you get lots of “stuff” but you’re never really sure who the sources are, and whether said sources (Ycombinator) pay for the stories.
BTW: Charles Manson wrote a book. So did the world’s fattest man. So did Hitler.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Thanks for the post. I had a similar experience – I never even thought of working in journalism and was hired at a Boston paper specifically for my propensity to think outside the “pyramid” box. Granted, I no longer work there; I’ve taken up work as a blogger for a software co; but I left out of choice not necessity and it was because of my unconventional experience at a newspaper I was hired for my current position. Sometimes the straight path is far too narrow to navigate successfully.
any “amateur” can be a good journalist or blogger?
not always. Good journalist are not only geeks.
If enrollment is soaring, those schools probably need to be more selective on whom they accept.
Though I agree on strong volatility like you said.
Time(s) of change, yes.
Schools, especially now, have a financial incentive to not be as selective.
thanks,
ah money (!)
does not buy you ethic though.
Every time a print publication goes Web only, my journalism degree dies a little. Every time I see “website” instead of the grammatically correct “Web site,” my journalism degree dies a little.
Journalism IS changing. The community and readership want it to be more like blogs. But as a nation built on free press, the concept and practice of the Fourth Estate can not perish.
It is these objective checks and balances that are important. Blogs and the commentary provided are also great. But true, objective analysis is key.
Website, one word, lowercase, is becoming the standard btw.
“web site” is not grammatically correct, it is a paleologism
There is no such word a paleologism. Only Paleology
Cannot…one word…
Ugh, believe me, I used to cringe at seeing “website,” but I now think “Web site” is outdated as capitalizing Internet. The times and standards change at a pace that is far too quick for my AP style book.
Color me old school, but I still capitalize Internet and use Web site as two words (Web capitalized). But I’m a stickler to a fault. I side with the cringers on this one.
What you say about journalism school may be true; however, what infuriates me about many bloggers is the tendency to use fallacious arguments or to not cite sources, or to engage in hearsay. That bloggers don’t use rigid formatting guidelines is not the key issue for me.
What I would really like to see is some professional standards adopted in terms of the *content* not in terms of the format. Maybe it would be helpful for there to be independent and unbiased auditing of bloggers for the quality and reliability of their works? I would definitely like to see a system for flagging people who are caught making stuff up and reporting it as fact…
Really, this would help with even old media, where there have been a number of high profile cases where reporters have made up sensationalistic stories and managed to get them published in reputable newspapers. Individual accountability for individual journalists would be more effective.
amen brother, who is TechCrunch’s ombudsman?
An ombudsman would be an excellent idea!
Hey everyone!
Sarah says J. School is dead because she didn’t go there and she wrote a book!
And Star Jones is a lawyer, honey.
You actually make the argument FOR the need for J. School, not against it.
Your employer is the Devil. And the devil does business with Webaroo without telling us he did business with its founders–the Husicks, years earlier.
That would not have been overlooked at a newspaper, sweetie.
BTW: You, David Duke, Hitler, Manson are all authors.
Good for you.
Well, as a recent graduate of Medill @ Northwestern, I suppose it’s my job to disagree with you. But I do and I don’t.
I agree that the best form of education is on-the-job experience. The problem is that nowadays, that’s virtually impossible to get. Papers aren’t hiring, even for online positions. So what’s a young, “I’m-called-to-be-a-journalist” type do? He figures that he’d better diversify his abilities and put off the empty job market. That’s why I went to Medill. I worked for a community newspaper that I quickly outgrew and wanted to do more.
I think you’re mistaken with the premise that J-school is full of a bunch of old-school newsmen who keep a bottle of Scotch in their bottom drawers and still use pica rules. (Well, maybe the Scotch is still there.) My professors were web designers, Flash professionals, Internet marketers, NYT bestselling authors, and, of course newspaper investigative reporting and breaking news vets. We didn’t just learn how to “write an inverted pyramid.” We learned how to start our own websites, create relevant hyperlocal content, build interactive media pieces, AND write damn good pieces. It was an incredibly hard year-long program, but I’m better in general for it. I don’t regret it for a second, even $40,000 later.
Right on, Sandi. The generalities and stereotypes in this story are (yes) those of someone who didn’t attend journalism school. Or maybe the friends Sarah asked about their j-school experience went to terrible schools. I don’t know. But I also want to second Wow’s comment that bloggers like Sarah are successful IN SPITE OF their lack of journalism training, not because of it. As Wow said in another comment, the evil “real” journalists at the NYT and WSJ write much, much better stories than anything on TechCrunch. TC’s success is due to its subject matter and inside status, not its writing.
Fwiw, I read NYT journalists to pick up writing tips and admire what a lot of the geeks over there are doing – data visualization as journalism, APIs, etc. Last month I went to a conference of investigative journalists (traditional ones) and though it was mostly pretty uninspired – there was some cool work being done there too.
I can’t stand people who devalue education because of some market success that they have had. Sorry…but in the parlance of blogs, ARTICLE FAIL.
You go, girl. However, I think you meant to say “further,” not “farther.”
Keep up the good work.
That’s some weak-ass stuff you’re bringing into the lane, girlfriend.
Poor writing, bragging, terrible noun/verb agreement. Horrid writing style.
This nonesense is better left in your Dairy than on a cruddy website such as this.
PS: Your fat boss is a human conflict of interest study in pay-for-play Journalism.
See. I do it too.
Nonsense. Diary.
If only we BOTH had an editor.
The cost of college now far exceeds the value of education. There is no way an undergraduate education is worth 150k even at the best school in the country. Paying that much is might be unwise, but hard to avoid at the age of 18 when the decision is made. As far as graduate education that is a completely different game altogether.
As the internet expands and better less expensive resources of information & education pop up schools are going to have more competition, but the power and scope of professional cartels (AMA, ABA, ADA) is what will largely define the value of a particular degree. For journalism or even MBAs the associations don’t exist, and the mere existence of a cartel could threaten the health of employers, so there is little or no chance that will ever exist.
This is not the case for lawyers, doctors, dentists and academics whose professional cartels are so powerful they basically dictate the laws, and hiring practices that govern their professions. These laws & policies prevent any chance of successful amateurs like Lacy.
In any meritocracy the cream will rise to the top, so grad school is largely irrelevant (Business & Journalism). When cartels are granted a monopoly on a market, the price of grad school becomes an entry fee to enter that market.
I can’t speak for others, but the J School I attended was actually very forward-thinking, focusing on both the fundamentals of journalistic writing and the creative aspect that some journalists are taught have no place in reporting. A good J School (and I think mine was as many graduates are working for big papers, PR firms, Ad agencies, Major non-profits, producing amazing freelance work, winning prestigious awards, etc) has a faculty with varied experiences (the “old-schoolers” and fresh faces). The old school professors have experienced an era that was about a hard core/traditional approach, offering valuable lessons about diligence, ethics and what it’s like to get your hands dirty. Coupled that with young faculty, students can get the best of both worlds. Like you mentioned Sarah, journalism isn’t dying, it’s just in extreme volatility which is why some J Schools mare adapting. They are helping students, such as myself, develop skills and a solid foundation that will make them good journalists or help them migrate to a related (or possibly not!) field where they flourish. Skills such as writing, critical thinking, analysis…you can go so many places. My school has proved that.
EASILY the best Techcrunch post I’ve read. Your points hit on so many levels.
Well said Sarah!!
People born between 1990-1992 who are college bound should shoot for Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan, Duke or a school on par with that reputation.
If you don’t get in the first time, go to a community college and shoot for a 4.0, do your two years, start a non profit organization or another side project that earns you major press in the NYT and apply to get into one of the above mentioned universites. While you are at these universities, network, network, network.
Take some computer programming, science, business and/or economics courses. If you don’t take the Zuckerberg or Gates route and drop out to create the next big hardware, software or internet thing or patent a cure for AIDS, enroll in Harvard Law, medical or B School, Stanford Law or a Ph.D. program at Princeton after you graduate.
Forget about liberal arts courses, fashion design degrees and J School.
I never could understand the critics who argue that Lacy’s writing/interviewing is too focused on her and not her subjects.
If studying journalism would have pidgeon-holed you into a certain type of writing, it is only because you are not a very good writer.
It’s like saying studying classical piano kills the creativity in a piano player — only if they are uncreative to begin with!
And perhaps if you’d have gone to school they’d have taught you that using “with a” three times in a sentence
Ah, yes. And Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, so why bother wrapping up your degree? Or, if you must, why not spurn the Ivy League altogether? After all, Warren Buffet went to the University of Nebraska.
Look, obviously, you don’t need to go to j-school to succeed in journalism. And you don’t need to go to college to be successful in life, so what would you say to someone who suggests your a fool for having spent four years in college?
And, frankly, maybe j-school or a serious internship would have helped with the Zuckerberg interview.
J-school can adapt; so can the rest of them.
I had the good fortune of graduating with a Journalism degree from Miami University with a focus in Interactive Media Studies. This was a program started by ex-newspaper faculty that realized emerging technology was the way to go. I’ve now complemented that with an MBA and doing OK working for an interactive media agency.
Go in with a plan and be ready to adapt.
Geez Bob Aarons, I can’t stand people who don’t read the article or fully comprehend the context, but more than that, I can’t stand people who think that higher education is the be all end all when it comes to success or competency. There are a lot of MBAs and whatnot running companies into the ground today and there are more than a few college drop-outs engaging in useful and important innovation and running good companies – small and large. Quit whining Bob, it doesn’t become your alleged elevated educational status.
Sarah, I appreciate the sentiment of this post, and some of what you say is true, but some of it is honestly a little naive. Please don’t mistake your talent and – let’s face it – extreme good fortune as proof that a formal education isn’t important. Also, your idea of what actually goes on in J-school is … charming?
A kind understatement!…
Who’s applying to J-School? People who can’t succeed on personal appearance alone.
This post reads like a personal blog post. The first four paragraphs are the “All About Lacy Show.” Sure, there needs to be some personal interest, but how about some actual content instead of all fluff?
I completely disagree with you. J school is changing, and graduating with the knowledge of basic writing skills (and first amendment law), I’ll have a step up on any other amateur.
I’m a journalism major at NYU. The journalism program here is evolving to equip students with the new skills they need to succeed– not only writing but also using multimedia.
So at the point when you stumbled out of college and had to learn where to put a comma, we’ll be stumbling out of school and applying the skills we’ve already developed. Oh, and we aren’t reading it out of a book. While we are shown the basics of writing an article– you mentioned inverted pyramid?– we aren’t bound by anything. In this economy it’s pretty clear that your success in this field depends on how enterprising you are.
You make some good points, but there’s no reason to value stuffy newspaper reporters more or less than brash bloggers and witty features writers. An Internet full of TechCrunches would be incomplete without some NYTimes and WSJs, and the opposite is also true. So for every Michael or Sarah, we need a few straightlaced reporters too.
Just because the demand for printed daily news has gone away, I don’t think it follows that the need for trained journalists is going away.
In spite of the bankruptcies and layoffs, media audiences have never been larger. The problem is not demand; it’s monetization. And a bunch of bloggers, however inventive, are not going to fill the breach. Sure, they can supplant the drivel of your typical daily columnist (opinions being as common as an unnameable part of the anatomy), but the work of beat reporters is harder to commoditize.
Back to j-schools, you’re running with some broad generalizations here:
1. All j-schools only prepare you for work in 20th century models.
2. J-schools only teach moldy methods like the upside-down pyramid. (Counterpoint: As a magazines major, I was hell on the editors at my first few newspaper jobs.)
Like any academic discipline, I’m guessing at least a few journalism programs are adapting. Really, why stop at MBAs and Journalism degrees? Eventually, every academic discipline gets its comeuppance in the real world. Science once taught that the world was flat, but for some reason people still study it.
Sorry, hon, but you don’t seem to know too much about journalism school. Maybe because you never went to one? Not that that little detail has stopped you from spouting off about its supposed failures.
I actually did graduate from journalism school — and I never once took a course in grammar. (But I have been lucky enough to edit lazy writers’ jacked-up prose at more than one publication, whereas I doubt you could copy-edit your way out of a paper bag.) And no, second person is not the problem. Poor sentence construction and a lack of coherence, on the other hand, are.
Anyway. J-schools need to adapt, sure. But that doesn’t negate their value. At their core, j-schools have always been about teaching students to research, write and relentlessly think. Tell me what’s wrong with that.
In fact, my program — where I focused on feature writing — was more like a liberal arts program seen through the lens of effective communication and storytelling than anything else. And it certainly wasn’t some sort of narrow-minded, rote-memorization, inverted-pyramid BS. Yes, it required structured writing. Yes, it required learning several typical formats.
But structure does not equate stifling. If anything, working within structures forces you to be more inventive with your prose and more reasoned with your argument. If you’re talented, that is.
Since finishing j-school in 2005, I’ve moved from magazine writing and editing into copywriting — and then into web writing and content strategy. And I’ve never once regretted my major choice.
Sarah;
I was going to write a separate reply, but since you covered the key aspect so well, I will simply distill your thoughts and add some of my own.
Sarah L, and many of those “agreeing” with her above, are making an understandable but nonetheless fallacious direct “hard link” between a profession and a delivery medium.
That the two have been inextricably linked in the past was due to the “co-dependent” relationship they had in order to actually produce and deliver news. That means that superior J-school programs undoubtedly had some intellectual training in areas of communication and research, AND some “vocational” training in how to setup a 2-column layout, copywriting, etc. Those same superior programs are likely evolving and retooling their syllabus to address the evolving nature of the profession. The vocationally oriented version will undoubtedly change at some point too.
Just like the emergence of desktop publishing in the early 80’s didn’t suddenly make everyone a quality publisher, similarly, the emergence of the web as an “all-access” content distribution channel doesn’t make everyone a quality “journalist” (the term itself likely to go the way of actual “journals”).
As always, inherent skill and talent, supplemented with good reasoning and cognitive abilities, and seasoned with “industry” experience (school, professional, or other), and some sense of balance (even if one can’t ever be completely objective) are the hallmark of a quality “news person”, and that will be apparent and valuable whether the content from those with such ethos is delivered via paper or electrons.
-avi
This is exactly what makes me hesitant to get an MBA. Once you know what you ’should’ do, it can be tough to go against that grain.
Hard to get past about the first 2/3 of the article–the author relating (and relating… and relating) how great she’s done and is doing. And and almost-gleeful tone in relating how little she knows about journalism.
When we wade through all that, zounds, people in J school are more interested in blogging than in writing for the NYT or WSJ.
And the sun is expected to rise in the east tomorrow, too.
Speaking of the NYT or WSJ–or countless other established media outlets regardless of medium–the thought that this would see the light of day in any of ‘em is laughable.
Wait, you have money!! People listen to what you have to say!!! Squee!!!!. You and Glenn Beck.
Your point is actually quite irrelevant as you have not looked at the current curriculum of Journalism courses.
I have friends doing journalism, and they are not just taught about the English language, grammar and the art of writing – which of course is key to being a good writer/blogger/journalist.
They are also taught about social media, Facebook, viral marketing, web 2.0, blogging, Twitter etc.
It is obvious that you could do with some grounding in fundamental journalist principles, including researching your topic.
It is evident, that you don’t understand that universities continuously adapt and strive to be relevant.
This applies to Journalism and any other course.
On a personal note, I am not a fan of your writing Sarah. You are noticeably the weakest writer on the TechCrunch team. You have tried writing in-depth articles and they were too long and boring, and you have tried going for the headline grabbing article and you have failed as you are misinformed.
^This
I agree, New001.
Sarah, you are out of touch with the realities of journalism schools today.
I proudly graduated from the University of Missouri last year with a degree in convergence journalism and found myself on the cutting edge of the field and the job market.
I’m not surprised slacker types like Sarah don’t know people who want to write for the Wall Street Journal. That’s like Lindsay Lohan saying she doesn’t know anyone who wants to be sober.
Techcrunch always makes for great comedy when I read posts like these. It just reminds me really are still in the birth of the web. The great beginnings when the industry doesn’t know the fuck it’s doing, and it can just spew garbage at the public and they’ll accept it.
Eventually though, the dust settles, traditions form, and maturity creeps in. This tells me we’ll have WAY better stuff to read in the future.
Good times ahead. In fact, probably great times.
Plzzzz to the person who said, “…writing in a newsroom… Going to J school was the subject. I have a 30 year work history that will testify that any journalism or communications course I took in college gave me a great past ahead of me!
So yes, invest in yourself, go to J School, University of Missouri has one that was very profound in the day. Check them out. I always remember the day, I attended a J-School seminar and they were trying to explain the internet and email to us… it had yet gone public and we all looked at the lecturer like a dear in headlights!
A J-School education could be the foundation of your career, regardless of what direction you might take!
Sign Me—a seasoned radio, television and public affairs professional.
Why go to journalism school, when all you have to do is write about Twitter! Anything, really. So long as it is twitter.
I agree completely. I edit 3 blogs and never had been in a J-school. My academic background is History and Philosophy.
Opp! Fingers got in the way of the mind… mis-spelled “deer” oh, well… maybe a jschool refresher is in order…Sizemore Seminars.