Young Journalists Share Best Practices

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“Arm yourself with knowledge,” Steve Jagler, executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee magazine, said to his journalism class at UW-Milwaukee last week. This is a saying that Jagler tells all of his new reporters as well.
 
Molly Dill, Erica Breunlin and Hilary Dickinson, new reporters with BizTimes, all agreed that Jagler’s advice is some of the best they have received in their young journalism careers. The three reporters, each of whom recently graduated from college, said you have to be assertive and know your audience when applying for any new media job out of college.

Photo by Tiffany Crouse.
Molly Dill, Erica Breunlin and Hilary Dickinson, new reporters with BizTimes. Photo by Tiffany Crouse.
 
“You’re going to feel lost and like you’re in the deep end, but you can’t feel afraid to ask the tough questions,” Dill said to the class.
Times are tough for any graduating college student.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. only 27 percent of graduating college students are going to get jobs in their field of study. Students pay thousands of dollars every year for a degree that they may not even use.
 
“About one third of jobs were in occupations that typically require post-secondary education” said a study done by the BLS.
 
The job world is changing. and certain job markets will be more affected then others. With smartphones becoming more advanced and people becoming more tech savvy, journalism will never be the same as it was for college grads just 10 years ago.
 
Be open to considering any entry level positions in journalism after graduation, Breunlin said.  You may have a job in mind, but you never know what you might like, she said. “Ten years ago, if you asked me what I wanted to do. I would say I wanted a job with Good Morning America. That’s not the case anymore,” said Breunlin.
 
If a job is not fulfilling what you hoped it would, students can model what Dickinson did with her job and seek outside work to fill that void. Dickinson did not find her first reporting job to be filling a void after graduation and wrote “Wisconsin 5-0,” a non-fiction book that is a collection of police stories.  When asked how she had the time to do her job and write her book, Dickinson said, “When you love something, it’s not really work.”
 
The BizTimes reporters also advised young journalists to learn from mistakes and don’t be afraid to ask questions. For Dill, every day is a new day and a new opportunity to learn.