Who is still in the biz: Your college newspaper staff

From my college paper's staff in the late '90s, we have a few assigning editors at large metros/nationals, columnist at a large news website, a cable TV host, section editor at a small daily, and several copy editors and reporters at media outlets of all sizes.

 

Hell, forget my old college newspaper staff (which was considerable, as you can tell by my handle), I think about my last newspaper staff. From a newsroom of about 10 (10K paper): 2 still there; 1 at a better paper, 6 of us in marketing/PR, 1 looking for work (and preferring PR).

 

Several from the college paper I worked at in the mid-1990s are still in the business ... I want to say at least half of the editorial board from the time I worked there. A couple are at top-5 metros, including one who is in a sports management position. Another has a national sports beat for a major paper in the Southeast. At least three more are still in the business, with at least one making the leap into being a social media director. And I'm still in ... wearing 15 different hats at a mid-sized daily, but still in

A few have moved on to PR, including one who now works for a BCS conference. And at least one is now a lawyer.

 

Of the eight core guys on my college newpaper staff my senior year (1995-96), here's the breakdown:

Four (including me) are still in the newspaper business, three in sports and one in features.

Two are college sports information directors, one at an SEC school.

One is a lawyer. He went to law school directly out of college.

One died while still in college, but after I graduated, due to a congenital medical condition.

 

i know one won a pulitzer at the Times Pic. another is in Japan. couple became SIDs at various levels...one covers the porn industry. that's pretty nice. rest, i don't know. it's been 15 years...

 

I believe I am the only one still in newspapers (graduated 2000).
And that is funny...because I was the guy that was just there to do something for fun since I was a broadcasting major and only cared about landing a TV gig.
My buddy was SE and we lived together so he told me to cover the women's basketball team since he needed someone to do it. I covered them for 2 years and helped out on hockey.
He was SE at one paper in the midwest, then covered hockey for a bigger paper up the road before going into a different field but still related to sports.
I think out ME is now a English teacher in high school and a track coach.
Our EIC lives in Turkey.
Our AME did stay in town and run the monthly newspaper for a while, not sure if she's still doing that or not.
One of the reporters that came in works for a major sports blog now and does a guest column in a major metro...
That's all I can remember off the top of my head.
So yeah, the guy that did it for fun (and actually got fired from it (long story)) is the only one working at a newspaper full time.

 

Graduated in 2005. About half of the group I worked with is still in the field. Some folks have done quite well for themselves, at major metros, mags, etc. We're the exception rather than the rule, I'd say.

Some of the people outside the field:

-- A university adjunct

-- A government flak

-- An EMT -- he didn't actually work at the school paper. Had been a volunteer firefighter/EMT ... still not sure why he even thought of getting a journalism job right out of school.

-- A cop

-- College admissions

-- Lawyer

 

I honestly couldn't name a single person I worked with at the Daily Mississippian. May say a lot about me. Then again, it was more than a decade ago and I spent zero time in the office.

 

Graduated in 2007----state school with a twice weekly paper, regular staff of about 10 and contributors of about 30-40 or so.

I'm in the business.....the guy who was our Editor-in-Chief is an agate/preps writer at a metro...One of our news editors works for a wire service...the guy who took over for him works for a smaller metro...two of our style editors also work for the same paper, as does one of my sports writers, though he is not in sports. One of the guys who ran our op-ed page is in news at a mid-size daily in a smaller state. Another of our news guys is also a copy editor in a different state.

Of the people that wrote for me regularly in sports....I think around 5 of the 9 I can remember are still in the business, one is a radio producer and three of us are in newspaper sports.

 

Yeah, that's about where we were, too. It's easy to have a shitload of people on staff when you don't pay any of them.

 

I graduated in 1999 from the University of Oklahoma. I'll forget some people, but here goes what I can think of:

Editor-in-chief is now in D.C. working for a major wire service's Washington bureau.
Another editor is now SE at a major metro daily.
One is an education reporter at a large-medium newspaper.
One is in counseling (like, she's a counselor, not as in she is undergoing it).
One is a publications specialist at a university.
One is a designer at a major metro.
One is a writer for an Internet company and has worked for the Hollywood Reporter as an editor.
One is a mom and blogger.
One is a reporter at a major metro.
One is a realtor.
Another is a business reporter at a major metro.
One is founder of an app developer.
A few others are scattered at medium-to-large metros.
One (some dumbass who posts on here under his real name) is chief designer at a decent sized daily.
Lots are out of journalism or never got into it professionally.

 

Trying to remember from the time I was EIC of the college daily seven years ago:

Me: 99% out, occasional freelance preps work for fun
Managing editor: No clue, not in touch
News editor: No clue, not in touch
Online editor: Works as one-person news staff for small daily
Sports editor: Sportswriter for medium-sized daily
Associate sports editor: Technology reporter for medium-sized daily
Senior sports reporter: Sportswriter for small daily
Administration/Student Gov't editor: No clue, not in touch
Campus editor: No clue, not in touch
Weekly entertainment insert editor: No clue, not in touch
WEI associate editor: Small-town news reporter

That's actually better than I would have guessed before writing it all out.