The Marquette Tribune

The death of freelance journalism?

So here’s a tidbit I came across in the New York Times… At first I thought, “Oh, how interesting! I bet after covering a presidential election, these journalists can get a job anywhere!” As it turns out, a lot of campaign trail correspondents will soon be on the market for a job — just like me.

There are two things about this that scare me:

1) Nothing guarantees young journalists a job — not even happily trekking the political trail for two years like a campaign-sanctioned stalker, documenting the candidate’s every $400 haircut, every shoddy bowling score, every mildly offensive “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” song, every attempt at an Everyman-like whiskey shot.

2) Come May, I’ll be competing for jobs with people who spent two years happily trekking the political trail like a campaign-sanctioned stalker, documenting the candidate’s every $400 haircut, every shoddy bowling score, every mildly offensive “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” song, every attempt at an Everyman-like whiskey shot.

Maybe it’s only journalism majors who care, but simply not being able to hire experienced reporters (after they’ve done months of freelance work) spells out my chosen field’s kamikaze dive more clearly than any staff cuts or buyouts have.

Perhaps I should pursue a more secure profession like banking. Oh wait…

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