“There are currently good opportunities for broadcast journalism grads, at least in medium and small markets.”
Talk about great news for thousands of students sporting brand new degrees and hunting for work. According to TVNewsCheck, the newly graduated may not have much journalism experience, but many do have highly desired new media skills and a new attitude.
That difference in mindset is why Brandon Gobel, news director at WTOV, Cox Media’s NBC affiliate in Steubenville, Ohio (DMA 159), actively pursues graduating seniors.
Gobel says he hires rookies to do a range of jobs — videography, shooting and editing, producing weekday newscasts and even, occasionally, for on-air slots. Gobel says he’s a big fan of digital journalism programs at schools.
“It’s a benefit for us,” Gobel says. “As a smaller station hiring these people, they come with training they have gotten in college in all these areas and they are learning it from the beginning.”
Al Tompkins, the Poynter Institute’s senior faculty for broadcasting and online, says the journalism students who graduate with multimedia skills are indeed the ones most likely to land jobs at TV stations and newspapers. “There’s a lot of hiring going on for video journalist and multimedia journalist jobs.”
The article goes on to say that these stations want reporters who are Web savvy and can write for both TV and the website.
They also admit they hire the newly graduated because they will work cheap. News director Mark Rosen at WAGT in Augusta says he pays in the mid-$20,000s and that tracks with the annual salary survey from the University of Georgia, which will be released for this year in August.
2 comments for “Multimedia skills mean jobs for TV news grads”