News-Ed... "print journalism"

By the time I entered my first year at Ohio University, I'd known for half a decade that I wanted a full-time, long-term career in journalism, probably in print. I harbored an unfortunately optimistic outlook on the future of the industry because I knew little about its true state, but I knew that I wanted to dive in headfirst.

So I did. I joined – or some might say I sold my soul to -- The Post, the independent, student-run daily newspaper on campus. There are a handful of us still around the newsroom that have lasted all four years, and that number is small because the time commitment can be incredibly demanding if you let it. If you do, you can become blissfully submerged in small-town politics and city coverage, collegiate athletics or the culture and operation of the university. If you don't, then you're one of those folks who understand that a higher being invented the concept of "stringing" for a reason. That said, putting your soul and your time into something can yield great rewards. I probably haven't slept more than five or six hours a weeknight for three years, but I'm happy to say that the road from The Post has led to three internships, the most recent of which was across the country with a major newspaper.

As a news-editorial student, I can speak to the benefits of starting out at The Post because it's what I know, but to be fair, there are other print publications in Athens that are happy to have extra student hands on deck. The most widely circulated are the daily Athens Messenger and the twice-weekly Athens News.

The Messenger draws interns through classes at Scripps, but the editors sometimes use students as volunteer writers or paid stringers, too, Managing Editor Steve Robb tells me. "Basically we just see what they can do,” he said. “If they can demonstrate to us that they can write, we'll use them." The down side: To get to the office, you probably need a car.

News Campus Editor Bryant Greening said that although his staff is pretty full right now, the paper always has an eye out for up-and-coming writers with a flair for feature writing and delving into issues. Staffers there cover both the city and campus aspects of stories and are paid per article, he said.

The staffing, style, content and scheduling varies among each of the aforementioned papers, and different aspects appeal to different students. The common thread is that they provide news-editorial students with a venue to start getting clips and building experience, and that, in my opinion, is definitely worth losing a few hours of sleep. Kantele Franko