I hope it’s not a surprise to anyone reading that the economy is suffering some setbacks. This realization is something many people grapple with, especially those graduating from college this year. For many recent and soon to be graduates, job prospects are rather grim, with fewer companies hiring fewer employees straight out of college. It’s a rather vicious cycle; many companies are choosing to fill the few jobs available with more experienced and older people that lost their jobs recently rather than someone new to the job market. There are many new graduates capable of filling these positions, but if businesses are only hiring experienced individuals, how are people supposed to gain experience to get a job? As eventual graduates, most of the people reading will face the same predicament unless the economy turns around quickly. I came to the University as a journalism major and decided to pursue a minor in Popular Culture.’ This way I would have the writing skills necessary to pursue a career which allowed for me to write for a living, and find a job where I could use my (likely unhealthy amount of) popular culture knowledge to my benefit and write about subjects in that discipline. However, as many in the journalism field know, the job prospects are slim at best, nonexistent at worst. It’s an interesting time for print media, because news outlets are being forced to drastically change the ways in which they deliver news to their customers. No longer content with printed content, subscribers and newsstand buyers of publications are utilizing the Internet to find their news. After the Internet boom, publishers decided to publish most, if not all of their content on their Web sites free of charge. This move is now backfiring on these companies, because in these tough times consumers are abandoning paid physical news forms. It makes sense: why would someone spend precious money on something that can be found for free? As a result, publications are suffering. Major newspapers are shutting their doors completely (such as the ‘Rocky Mountain News’ out of Denver) or closing their print publication to focus solely on a cheaper online publication (the ‘Seattle Post-Intelligencer’ and Michigan papers such as the ‘Ann Arbor News’). While publications such as the P-I will still deliver the news, it will not be in printed form, and it is not yet known if a publication will be able to sustain itself solely on online advertising revenue. The Internet will allow journalists to continue writing, albeit in a new format.’ However, numerous problems still arise. Take the P-I as an example. A staff of 181 that worked on the newspaper when it was still publishing is down to 40 people. Moves such as this will only hurt the communities these news outlets are serving because they will not be able to assign as many reporters to cover as many stories as before. Investigative reports often require money and time from journalists and media outlets, two resources that are of a smaller supply when publications are suffering. The Internet may make jobs, but they are smaller in scale and fewer in number than in previous generations, and only focus on bare bones reporting duties. Magazines are facing the same types of issues. Since magazines are usually bought with disposable income, people will abandon them in tough times. Major magazines such as the music magazine ‘Blender’ are folding due to decreased reader and advertiser revenue. Niche and superfluous magazines are not hiring people with little experience since there are so many people with years of experience under their belts who are in the same predicament. For aspiring journalists, finding a steady job and career in the field is not easy.’ The few jobs that are around leave the newly minted graduate forced to take unpaid or poorly paid internships or work as freelance reporters without a steady paycheck. Publications cannot afford to hire a large amount of reporters. I’ve accepted that unless I change my major to something that will guarantee me a career, constant unemployment or underemployment is in my future, as well as the future of others following this career path. The economy is affecting everyone and every career. However, during this awkward time of adjustment, the world of printed word is taking an exceptionally large hit. So, thank you for reading the ‘BG News’ and supporting the effort the staff puts into their work. Hopefully, the economy will pick up and the reporters whose stories you are reading now will find jobs in the future.