New York, N.Y. — Eleven Syracuse University seniors traveled to New York City on April 17 to meet with SU alumni who now work at The Associated Press, SI.com and Newsday on Long Island. The students are newspaper journalism majors at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and will graduate this May.
“I really wanted the students to get a sense of what their business looks like and what it’s like to work in a newsroom,” said Robert Lloyd, a professor of practice in the Newhouse newspaper department who helped organize the trip and accompanied students to New York City.

“I wanted the students to see that previous graduates from the Newhouse School are making it, are employed and are very successful,” Lloyd said.

The students met with David Bauder of The Associated Press, Mallory Rubin of SI.com and Kathy Drouin-Keith of Newsday. The alumni took questions about the current state of journalism and gave the students tips on how to land their first job, which will prove especially difficult this year given the nation’s struggling economy.
The emergence of digital media and the current economic crisis have hit newspapers hard. Fifteen percent of the nation’s newspaper newsroom jobs were cut in 2008, according to an estimate by The American Journalism Review published in a New York Times article this month. This statistic, along with a national unemployment rate that’s higher than it’s been in 25 years, makes finding a job a daunting task for 2009 college graduates.
The job search has been frustrating for senior Kristen Putch, one of the 11 students who visited New York City last week. Putch said the advice the alumni gave was encouraging.
“They really stressed the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity to make yourself as marketable as possible,” she said.

David Bauder, a TV writer for The Associated Press and 1981 Newhouse alumnus, said the majority of the AP’s wire stories used to appear in newspapers, now the organization’s biggest customers are Web sites. Bauder said this switch illustrates the upheaval of traditional print news, but does not eliminate the need for writers skilled in newspaper journalism.

“Good skills in writing and editing will be of use somewhere down the road,” Bauder said.”
B.J. Schecter, the assistant managing editor of integration at SI.com and a colleague of 2008 Newhouse alumna Mallory Rubin, said he won’t hire anyone without newspaper experience.
“That’s where you learn to work,” he said.

Schecter and Rubin both said print journalism’s shift to digital has been a learning experience for everyone in the industry. News outlets are still trying to find a way to give readers news online while making a profit.

Yet regardless of the platform, the public still needs writers and reporters to tell them the news, Schecter said.

“A good story’s a good story,” he said, no matter how it’s told.

CONNECT studio wide shot

To help provide some more content, and also (maybe) to be interesting to current CONNECTors, here are some old photos from some time in 2008 (I think).

Two anchors prepare

Two anchors are ready to broadcast