"These aren't traditional journalism jobs," Kaphle said, "but you're still telling a story."
Leslie Walker, a Maryland digital journalism professor, said she is "completely confident" that there would be more online journalism jobs in 15 or 20 years than there are newspaper jobs today.
Kevin Klose, who starts as dean of the Maryland journalism school next month, has seen how changes in audience habits affect news organizations. His grandfather was editor of the St. Louis Star-Times, an afternoon paper that no longer exists. Klose spent 25 years at The Washington Post and 10 years at National Public Radio.
"There's going to be great intellectual and creative experiments coming," he predicted. "And that makes the study and preparation of students of the next generation even more important than when everything was simple and straightforward."
Students long for those days. Adi Joseph, 21, sports editor of The Diamondback, said he has wanted to work for a newspaper since he was 10. He interned at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., where his editor said he'd love to hire Joseph but didn't have the money.
"I can't decide whether it's stubbornness or cockiness that has led me to not think about what happens if I can't get a job," said Joseph. "A lot of my friends have decided they're going to leave journalism. ... A lot of people are panicked. And a lot of people are just at peace that they'll never do what they went to school with the intention of doing."
NEWS GOES DIGITAL
Makeovers at four major daily newspapers went into effect Monday.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News offered free copies of slimmed-down editions. They will deliver to homes just three days a week - Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, the most popular days for advertisers. Both papers will be kept shorter than usual - about 32 pages - on the four days they don't deliver.
The Washington Post folded its business news into the front section. The print edition of the newspaper's Style section lost some of its comic strips, which will still run online.
The International Herald Tribune introduced a redesigned print edition and merged online with the Web site of The New York Times, which is published by the same company.
Associated Press
