Who is still in the biz: Your college newspaper staff

30k circ. independent for-profit campus paper (since bought by a "beloved" media chain) at school without a journalism program.

Very transient (and low paid) staff, yet had several people go into the business--mostly from the sports department--with our creative writing or communications degrees.

I left the paper after my soph year as sports editor to string for some metros in the state, so my list will include some who predate and post date me but part of the same generation. (9-13 years ago)

4 to large papers in state (3 out as full timers now; 1 now an editor at a prominent paper in another, smaller, state).

A couple worked for various smaller papers and Rivals team sites.

Former EIC spent several years as a sportscaster. In PR now.

One in sports information.

Photog is a weatherman. Some news siders write for various pubs.

At least two who were students but never wrote for paper also found journalism careers.

 

The paper at my college -- a D-II commuter school -- is something of a pipeline to the big local paper. Between reporters, photogs and social media types, I'd say there's at least a half-dozen people from our paper there. Can't say I know of any former colleagues who are still in the business but not at said big local paper. The few with whom I've kept in touch are working in PR, insurance or social work.

 

Let's see, from four years ago, spring semester at San Jose State:

I was executive editor, and I'm an SE in South Texas.
Managing editor is a sports reporter in the Bay Area.
Both sports editors are in the sports business, one as a one-man band in the CA Foothills, the other as a sports reporter in Illinois.
Op-Ed page editor is managing editor for a small paper in Hawaii.
Web editor is web editor in the Silicon Valley.
Photo editor takes pictures of fashion models in San Diego.
One feature editor works for some publication in the Philippines.
A&E editors, the other features editor and design editor aren't in the business.

So, 7-ish are still in it from a large editorial staff (overall staff size for the semester was 35.)

 

From our school paper sports staff at the University of Alabama at the Crimson White

• Our SE from my junior year is a SEC beat writer.
• Our SE from my senior year is a Presbyterian minister
• The ASE is working for AL.com as their colleges reporter
• One of our senior sports reporters from my jr. year is a copy editor in Hawaii
• I'm an SE in Mississippi.
• Two other regular writers are practicing attorneys who never got into the business

Not bad, if you ask me.

 

Our editor is a cops/courts reporter at a metro.
Another old editor is a sports reporter at a small weekly chain.
Others include an asst. sports editor at a mid-size triple crown winning daily, a teacher, two wedding photographers, a couple who work in university relations type jobs and recently a lot that have gone like me into a content strategy type position where basically we do a lot of the webmaster stuff while writing the occasional story but not programming hardly anything.
There's at least two lawyers mixed in as well along with a lot of people who quickly realized they should go back to school for something else.

 

I was thinking about this one...

The sports staffs while I was in college...

1. Announcer for one of the networks, also covered the White House
2. Features writer, won Pulitzer...
3. Major political writer, national magazine...
4. Columnist, major paper
5. Major-market MLB writer
6. MLB writer major website
7. NFL writer (no longer in business)
8. Investigative reporter, national paper
9. Features writer, major paper
10. Career freelancer
11. Worked at MTV (no longer in business)
12. College writer at major paper.
12. Attorney (never worked full-time at paper)
13. PR specialist for a network
14. PR for a NFL team.

 

Of the big three on the staff when I was editor, I've been an SE for seven years in my current gig and the sports editor from those days is a daily writer and columnist. The guy who ran the feature section was in the biz for years before getting riffed in Nashville.

Our lead copy editor is the editorial director at The Tennessean.

My best reporter from those days lives with me now. She's "retired" from the full-time biz and primarily does marketing these days but still writes for area papers and magazines.

 

This is a terrific thread. If you graduated from Mizzou in 2001, please respond. I'd love to know where everyone is at. I went through school with several incredibly talented writers -- Wright, Seth, Heckert -- but don't know of many editors still playing in our game.

 

There was a guy in the same class as Seth and Wright, both have said he was the best of the group. He went to work for some magazine in Atlanta or something... I can't remember his name...

 

Of the people I worked with over four years (ballpark it at 30, not counting multiple-year entries), maybe a dozen are still in the business in some form or fashion

 

Wow. I'm surprised you folks remember all of the people you went to school with, much less what they're doing now.

I got out of Mizzou in December 1990, and other than two friends, I can't even remember the names of the folks who worked sports when I did. One of the friends is an SE and another edits autocad books in Chicago.

Our columnist when I was in school worked for a while as a columnist at a major North Carolina (maybe?) paper, but I haven't seen his name in years.

The rest? I wouldn't recognize them on the street.

I'm a freelance writer for a magazine and some attorney publications. And that's after being an editor/designer for all but 2.5 years of my career out of college.

 

Gotta love Facebook.