Career in print journalism

Parent Cafe
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<p>NEM --It really depends on the mag. Time and Newsweek for instance are virtually totally staff written. Most magazines allow editors to do a fair amount of writing if they want, and MANY do have staff writers even if they freelance most stories out.
You are absolutely correct that it is easier to get a job on a magazine as a designer or copy editor than a writer. Most WRITERS get jobs as editors --acquisition editors-- if they work on magazines. Those positions are more dificult to get, but if you are a JOURNALIST then they are the only jobs (aside from the staff writer jobs) that enable you to practice your profession.</p>

<p>Copy editors and designers may be valuable but they are not journalists and the positions are not what any journalist would aspire to. i would advise anyone who wanted to work as a journalist for magazines to pursue the adquisitions editor track.</p>

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<p>"NEM --It really depends on the mag. Time and Newsweek for instance are virtually totally staff written."</p>

<p>True. Their staff, however, are excellent, and very experienced reporters, not students just out of J school. Most of their reporters start at newspapers.</p>

<p>Big question for the OP: What kind of articles do you want to write as a journalist? My question is about the subjects of the articles, not about whether they are in newspapers or magazines. </p>

<p>And what attracts you to magazine journalism?</p>

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<p>tripleplay: You have good questions. I recommend that you set up a handful of informational interviews with professional journalists and ask them these questions. </p>

<p>cheers: I've been in the newspaper/magazine business for more than 20 years, worked at three papers and had friends at more papers and magazines that I care to count, and the anecdotes you mention about Crimson staffers are the exception and not the rule. Perhaps Crimson reporters can write their own ticket and walk into the New York Times and get a reporting job. But the vast majority of people do not have that experience. I don't mind you mentioning the success of these people, but not if it leads aspiring journalists to think that getting a job at a major metro is that easy. Because typically, it's not. And getting an enviable internship at a major metro is quite different than getting a permanent full-time job at one.</p>

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<p>Hi tripleplay - I just wanted to throw my 2 cents into the discussion. My oldest graduated from UGA with a degree in Magazines. She also majored in History. When she began her college search, she was delighted to discover the Grady School at UGA. Who knew you could actually have a major in magazines? She certainly didn't, but she really enjoyed her time there and felt that Grady was a good school and the university was a perfect fit for her. Her one big complaint was that you could not always get the class you wanted, but she was able to graduate on time. She currently works for a small magazine publisher in the Atlanta area. She had the same dream I think most journalism majors have; to go to New York and be hired immediately by a major magazine, but she feels the experience she is gaining from this small company has definitely been a good experience. I say "had the same dream" because she is beginning to look at grad programs now and she is thinking about pursuing another course of study. She did work at two internships while she was in school, so those opportunities are available, as well.</p>

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<p>NSM--I really want to correct what you are saying about magazines. I consider myself an expert, having worked since 1980 on the staffs of national magazines in New York City --including Time Inc., which you cite. I started low all those years ago, and worked my way up --all the way up to editor in chief of a national magazine. I don't know how one could know this field more intimately than me --I have spent my entire adult life navigating it and negotiating it.</p>

<p>I actually DID start on a newspaper. But that is not what most people do --and it really is not the best way to get in. It is not what I advise. IF you want a career in magazine journalism, the surest route is to follow the editorial track that has been created for advancement in that world. Young people get jobs as editorial assistants --most such people are given a chance to show their ability, and to learn. Those who have talent and stick with it eventually DO get promoted --the path is editorial assistant, assistant editor, associate editor and senior editor. Many of the major mags have staff writers as well --usually people culled from the track. </p>

<p>Those of us with very long experience frequently are able to make our way as freelancers, but at a high level, ie with monthly contracts and stipends, etc.</p>

<p>This is just the way it is --unless I have been inhabiting an alternate universe for near 30 years. If you want to be a magazine editor, do NOT become a copy editor, do NOT become a designer, and do NOT spend years working on newspapers. Come to New York City and get a starter job and work your way up. That is the way it is done 99 percent of the time --and it is the fastest surest route to success. It is the path that has been established by the magazines themselves to pass the legacy and life of the publication from one generation to the next.</p>

<p>Yes there are plenty of young people who do freelance writing --the better route to enduring connections and professional longevity and sustainable income is spending at least some time on the path I have outlined above.</p>

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<p>"This is just the way it is --unless I have been inhabiting an alternate universe for near 30 years. If you want to be a magazine editor, do NOT become a copy editor, do NOT become a designer, and do NOT spend years working on newspapers. "</p>

<p>Please read what I said more carefully. I have never said that being a copy editor or a designer on a magazine is how to move up to a writing position. I have said that if one simply wants to work on magazines, it's easier to get jobs as designers or copy editors.</p>

<p>Based on what the OP has said so far -- considering engineering, writes for a college newspaper where stories are no longer than 12 inches (which indicates that the newspaper isn't that strong and if there's a J school there, that school doesn't sound that strong. Not a lot of complex reporting that one can do in 12 inches on a student paper. ), doesn't know basics about entering the journalism field , describes himself/herself as not very outgoing--s/he isn't sounding like someone who'd probably go to NYC and get an entry level editorial assistant job at a place like Time or Newsweek.</p>

<p>I'd still like to hear from the OP about why s/he is attracted to magazines. When I taught journalism, sometimes students who wanted to be magazine writers were attracted to that because they had great difficulty with newspaper's deadlines. If that's the OP's reason, then I doubt that magazines will be a good fit. The top magazines that do have in-house writers have some of the best writers and reporters in the country, and those people still have to make tough deadlines.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, the students whom I know who have gone into magazines have had newspaper internships first. Some of the people whom I know who have been writers for major publications like Time and Newsweek also started on newspapers. Since I was in newspapers for years, most of the people whom I know in magazines also started on newspapers.</p>

<p>The OP may wish to look at NYU's Science, Health and Environmental reporting program as something to consider in the future: <a href="http://journalism.nyu.edu/prospectivestudents/coursesofstudy/serp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://journalism.nyu.edu/prospectivestudents/coursesofstudy/serp/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Kaiser Family Foundation also offers health reporting media internships: The Kaiser Media Internships Program, established in 1994, is an intensive 12-week summer internship for young minority journalists interested in specializing in health reporting.</p>

<p>"The Media Internship Program provides an initial week-long briefing on health issues and health reporting in Washington, D.C. Interns are then based for ten weeks at their newspaper/TV station, typically under the direction of the Health or Metro Editor/News Director, where they report on health issues. The program ends with a 3-day meeting and site visits in Boston. The aim is to provide journalists or journalism college graduates with an in-depth introduction to and practical experience on the specialist health beat."</p>

<p>Here is a link to an old list of science-oriented magazine internships. I'm posting a couple as examples. The OP could probably get good career advice by calling some of the internship coordinators for these programs.</p>

<p>Discover Magazine Internship
Interviewer: Joe Treen, Editor at Large
Intern duties: Discover offers an approximately four-month, full-time, paid ($10/hour) internship. We hire only one intern for each four-month period. Candidates must be college graduates with a strong grounding in science. We particularly seek candidates who are enrolled in or who have completed an advanced degree science-writing program. Duties include researching and fact checking features and departments; tracking down story ideas for our news section; reporting and writing short news items for the magazine and the Web site. Deadline for the next (May 2004) term is March 15.
Rough Internship Schedule: Actual dates vary according to the schedules of outgoing and incoming interns. Summer internship: May 15, 2004 through September 1, 2004 deadline: March 15; decision: March 31)l Fall internship: September 1, 2004 through January 1, 2005 (deadline: July 15; decision: July 31)</p>

<p>Science Magazine
Interviewer: Eliot Marshall, senior correspondent
Intern duties: Interns work as regular reporters on Science's news staff for 6 months; their work is published by the daily news web page, ScienceNow, and in the news section of the weekly magazine.
Minimum qualifications: College graduate, writing experience
Salary: Full-time temporary position, competitive pay but no health benefits
Dates: January - June or July - December
Details:Science is published weekly; ScienceNow is published 5 days a week."
<a href="http://esys.ucsd.edu/courses/syllabus/mcdonald/science_writing_internships.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://esys.ucsd.edu/courses/syllabus/mcdonald/science_writing_internships.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>While my own experience is very limited (did spend three years at a community newspaper - lots of fun and great experience but very limited career and financial potential there), I do have an encouraging story to tell - that of my brother.</p>

<p>He got a B.A. in a liberal arts field from a state school where he was editor of his strong college newspaper (not in the league of the Crimson but still a very good college paper).</p>

<p>After graduation, he got a summer job with a community paper and then went with a wire service, as a stringer and eventually regional bureau chief. </p>

<p>After several years of work in the (relative) boonies, he got the opportunity for a "try out" period at the New York Times. He started doing copy editing, with occasional bylined stories. He was offered a permanent job and attended grad school at night for a master's degree in political science. </p>

<p>He worked really hard and eventually became deputy editor and now is an editor with a significant staff in NYC and two other cities. The Times has been very good to him for the roughly two decades he has been with the paper. He has always worked very hard but the paper has given him wonderful opportunities and also allowed him some choices in his career path. </p>

<p>He has told me he is a much better editor than he was a reporter. He earns a nice salary plus bonus that allows him to live well in NYC. Most important, he LOVES his work, stressful as it often is. </p>

<p>In his case, he never took a journalism class in his life.
Not saying that this is the only way to do it, but it is an example of one way that worked for one individual.</p>

<p>P.S. On the other hand, I recommend that the OP follow what is happening these days at the LA Times and * Philly Inquirer* -- very sobering.</p>

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<p>It's happening at all the majors including the Washington Post, which ran an article regarding their "buyouts" to reporters a while back...</p>

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<p>tripleplay, thanks for posting this! I'm an aspiring journalist myself, and all of this is definitely very informative, in addition to being a huge wake-up call. Is it wrong that all of this gloom and doom is actually making me even more excited to try and make it? </p>

<p>I consider myself an introvert, as well. I always thought so much of being a good journalist was being the kind of person that was outgoing and really able to make "insta-friends" out of anyone they were talking to (ex. see Capote). It's the one thing that ever got me down about the profession...It's nice to hear a counter-argument to that! And a word in for us introverts: even though I consider myself anti-social and quiet (and as a result, I'm not the best conversationalist...), taking life risks like moving to New York all by myself sounds more exciting than daunting. So, introvert doesn't always equal safe or scared!</p>

<p>I actually feel more drawn to magazine journalism, too, and not because of the deadlines (in fact, the deadline for a school assignment has to be only a few days - or hours - away for me to start writing anything, anyway). If you're a writer, sometimes a newspaper article doesn't feel like the most amazing excercise of your talents. I wrote some articles for the local paper, and the editors really dumbed down my first few until I got the hang of that concise, ugly style.</p>

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<p>groovinhard, yeah, many of the best reporters I've known are actually quiet, introverted, quirky people. I thought the norm might change in the upper echelons of the field, but evidently not.</p>

<p>Northstarmom: Thanks for the list of internships/programs. groovinhard pretty much articulated why I lean toward magazines. You get to write more sophisticated, thorough articles, and the writing as you said is usually more challenging. That's the main appeal. As for deadlines, I haven't had a problem making them in the past, and I don't mind working under them. But I do prefer having 2-3 days for a longer piece vs. 4 hours for a shorter one. </p>

<p>Anyway I just want to say thanks again for the feedback! It is always nice to hear directly from/about people in the field.</p>