A journalist’s business to know
Posted by Mediascaper on March 25, 2009
More doom and gloom in the newspaper industry, with reports coming today that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is eliminating 30 percent of its news staff and the Houston Chronicle is cutting 12 percent of its staff. But there is a bright side amidst the bad news.
A couple of institutions of higher education are putting together programs that should give both new students and unemployed journalists the skills and knowledge to attain greater self-sufficiency as entrepreneurs:
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is expanding its curriculum to include the business of journalism:
[Columbia School of Journalism Dean of Academic Affairs Bill] Grueskin advocates adding to the law, history and ethics courses one in business — which would be a first for the school’s traditional curriculum. Though he acknowledged that the course would bridge the longstanding gap between the business and editorial sides of the journalism world, he did not think this would present an ethical problem for students. If anything, he said, it might help them in a market where some journalists have had to become entrepreneurs to find an audience for their work online.
Meanwhile, Paul Bradshaw will oversee an ambitious master’s program in online journalism at Birmingham City University:
In the Online Journalism MA’s first stage (Diploma) students will study Journalism Enterprise. This will look at business models for online journalism, from freemium to mobile, public funding to ad networks, alongside legal and ethical considerations. I’m thinking at the moment that each student will have to research a different area and present a business case for a startup.
Kudos to both schools for their forward-thinking curricula.
