The Newsman Shortage

"A journalism graduate," according to an old newspaperman's quip, "is only one degree removed from a good reporter." Today, instead of turning away the diploma bearer, U.S. newspapers are bidding eagerly for journalism school graduates--and finding that there are not nearly enough to go around. From Tulane University's 30-student department to Northwestern's famed Medill School of Journalism (enrollment: 482), journalism deans report that they receive up to ten job offers for every graduate. Said a Journalism Quarterly survey of 76 schools last week: "For the second year in a row, not a single institution reported a surplus of graduates."

The major reason for the shortage is that public relations firms, advertising agencies, trade publications, house organs, radio and TV stations are all offering graduates higher salaries than newspapers. Of 53 students who will graduate next year from the State University of Iowa's journalism school, only 16 plan to work for daily or weekly newspapers; less than one-third of the school's students are majoring in editorial work, v. 42% in 1951.

Though major dailies usually have more job applications than jobs, newspapers in most areas are not only crying for new blood but have steadily increased wage scales. Nevertheless, the average starting pay for a newspaperman at graduation last June was $316 monthly, v. an average $366 for other professions. By contrast, General Electric Co., which regularly shops journalism schools for public relations staffers, offered them starting salaries of $385 a month with guaranteed 10% raises after six months.

One result is that journalism has little appeal for students. In a 1956 survey of 5,280 high-school boys in the top 5% of their classes, only 1.5% planned careers in the entire communications field; eleven times as many students were interested in science research and 22 times as many planned to become engineers.

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