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Topic: grad school for magazine journalism?
| Author | Message |
| julestei | Posted – 2/28/2006 5:55:00 PM | show profile i am currently a junior in college who is trying to figure out what to do after graduation. i would like to go to graduate school, possibly for journalism, but it seems to me that all the major programs (NYU, northwestern, columbia) are all geared towards newspaper writing and not magazine. don't get me wrong, i know those programs are fantastics, but i really don't want to work in the realm of newspapers at all. so bascially my question is, what is the best route to take for grad school if i want to go into editing/writing for magazines? j-school or something else? thanks! |
| crackersncheese | Posted – 2/28/2006 6:33:23 PM | show profile You might want to check out the magazine publishing masters program at Medill (Northwestern University, in Chicago). It's fantastic - I'm considering it for next year. |
| random | Posted – 2/28/2006 9:07:14 PM | show profile | email poster I went to UNC-Chapel Hill in the Journalism School. I know everyone talks about Northwestern, Mizzou, and Columbia, but if you look at the last rankings, CHapel Hill is up in the top 5 and we are still considered one of the strongest programs in the nation. It's hard to get into UNC from out of state though as its 82% in-state. I guess I was a lucky yankee. :) |
| Yam | Posted – 2/28/2006 9:28:29 PM | show profile Berkeley's j-school offers some incredible long-form journalism courses with some amazing writers. Often they're not offered under the title ''magazine writing,'' but rather as ''editing workshop'' or ''narrative writing,'' etc. |
| fake.it.til.you.make.it | Posted – 2/28/2006 10:24:42 PM | show profile I'd suggest to save yourself the 20K/year+ tuition and take on some internships. What are you currently majoring in? Are there internship-type programs you can work out through school right now and earn credit? There have been plenty of threads like this on the board asking whether grad school is a good decision if you haven't checked that out yet. But from what I've seen and heard, when it comes down to someone hiring their next Editorial Assistant, they'd rather have someone with some internships under their belt (even if their degree isn't in Journalism or English) than someone with a master's in publishing. If you get into a good program, it might help you make some contacts, but really, in this industry all you have to do is get your foot in the door as an EA or intern, be willing to learn, kick ass at whatever tasks they give you (no matter how menial), and move your way up the masthead. No master's degree required. I promise you that. Have you checked out ed2010.com yet? ------ http://writerwannabehack.blogspot.com |
| crackersncheese | Posted – 3/1/2006 9:12:57 AM | show profile I'm not so sure how true that is, though. I'm an intern at a consumer mag in Chicago and the Research Editor position has opened up - parallel to an Assistant Editor, I've been told - and while all the interns have essentially been doing the job for minimum wage the past few months, the last person who held the job had an MSJ and they've implied that's the type of person they're looking to hire. I've been getting some nibbles from trade publications but I think an MSJ might be - if not essential - extremely useful in getting me up the masthead more quickly. |
| julestei | Posted – 3/1/2006 1:01:13 PM | show profile hey guys, thanks for all the advice. to clarify, i definitely want to go to graduate school regardless, it's just a matter of what i decide to get my degree in. also, someone mentioned ''long-form'' journalism. i'm not too familiar with that. is it basically just writing longer, magazine-type articles? and in terms of magazine publishing degrees, does that still apply if i don't want to go into sales/publishing, but just be a writer or editor? |
| Yam | Posted – 3/1/2006 1:07:56 PM | show profile Long-form is pretty much what it sounds like, though the term isn't limited to magazines. Most newspapers run long-form pieces, too, usually as features, and the style is often slightly different--more formal. An internship may help get you hired, but in my experience it doesn't teach you how to write/edit. An internship might give you the chance to write short front-of-book pieces, but it's rare for an editor to sit down with you and explain why s/he made certain edits. Thus, it's hard to get enough guidance to improve. There's nothing like semester-long classes devoted entirely to outlining and writing long pieces and then ripping them apart to help with that. |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/1/2006 3:18:52 PM | show profile | email poster I did Medill's Master's program in Magazine Publishing and can say the following things about it: - You learn all aspects of the magazine business and how they work together, not just how to write. If you want to be a writer, they have a separate program (called Reporting & Writing) that focuses on just that and leaves out all the business aspects such as circulation, ad sales, market research, design theory, budgeting, etc... Do that if you want to be a freelancer. Most people leave the magazine publishing program to become an editor (although we all know that editors also write in addition to all their other duties), but I suppose you could embark on other career paths based on what you learn. It certainly wouldn't hurt you if you wanted to be a publisher, but I'm guessing that publishers usually come from more of a business background. They typically work their way to the top through ad sales and you can learn more about selling in a different type of program. - The capstone of the program is when you and your 15-20 other classmates actually form a magazine staff and ''launch'' a magazine. You come up with the concept, research if there's a market for your idea, fine tune the concept after doing research, talk to actual people at various companies and try to ''sell'' ads (really you're just going to give them away for free in the prototype issue, but you need to do this to judge interest for an accurate 5-year business plan), develop said 5-year business plan, and then research, write and design the actual 48-page prototype issue. Then you spend the last week making 4-6 presentations in an effort to sell the concept and your research to various investors and publishing houses. If you sell the concept (4 or so over the program's history have been sold) the school keeps the money to fund the program and put toward scholarships, etc... -You walk away from the program with an impressive knowledge base about the magazine industry that is nearly impossible to learn by osmosis while interning of working as an EA or researcher. You are also prepared to do almost any magazine job you can get someone to hire you for. I was immediately hired by a new trade launch with a staff of 6. I write and edit my own pieces, serve as the assigning editor, liase with the Web programmer to post content, do more than half the design work and represent the magazine at industry events. Other graduates of the program went the more glamorous route and became EAs or researchers at big name consumer pubs. They do less initially, but I expect them to move up the ranks very quickly because of their knowledge base. Paying dues is a much biger deal in the consumer magazine world than it is in the less glamorous trades. Anyway, feel free to e-mail me off the board if you want. ------ Never settle! |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/1/2006 3:21:45 PM | show profile Sorry for the typos... ------ Never settle! |
| pentup | Posted – 3/1/2006 4:05:24 PM | show profile Emerson I went to Columbia, and they have a magazine concentration -- the big difference was that second semester you took a magazine seminar rather than a newspaper one. Frankly, I think Northwestern's model is a lot more helpful in terms of learning the nuts and bolts of publishing a magazine. I've also heard good things about Emerson's publishing and writing program -- if I had known about it, that's where I would have applied. In the publishing and writing program, you concentrate in books, magazine, or electric media. Also, I think it has an internship component, which really is _extremely_ helpful if you're interested in magazine editing as a career. Last, even if you know you want to go to grad school, an internship (like through ASME) might help you to see if magazine editing is really for you before you blow all the bucks on grad school. |
| teresastory | Posted – 3/2/2006 2:06:47 PM | show profile Don't overlook Mizzou You should also be aware of MU's graduate program. I am currently at Mizzou under the magazine design sequence, and love it. Missouri combines the grad school learning classes with actual experience. The magazine students have their own classes apart from the rest of the students, and the professors are excellent. 'Lab' classes involve students, both graduate and undergraduate, working on the city newspaper and magazine. Vox Magazine has a 15,000 circulation, and is run by the Magazine Staff class. I should stress this is NOT a college newspaper/magazine opperation...both the Columbia Missourian and Vox Magazine try to stay away from covering the campus because their audience is the entire area, not just the students. There is also the Magazine Publishing class, where you work with a group to develop a business plan for a magazine. This is only a two-year program, and masters students spend their last semester at an Internship, completing a masters project or thesis, so here you get the classroom, as well as the real-world experience. |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/2/2006 4:03:47 PM | show profile Yes, Mizzou has a very good program. I looked into it since I would have been paying in-state tuition. Many factors play into why I didn't end up there, but the two things I considered that are also relevant to the OP is that Mizzou is a 2-year program and graduate students are mixed in with undergrads. Medill is 9 months (longer if you take on an additional specialzation such as business or international reporting) and would get you out into the workforce sooner. Since you would be attending straight out of undergrad, you might not mind being mixed in with younger students since they really won't be that much younger than yourself. But the one vs two-year program length is a very significant factor. And try to seperate out tuition differences when you make that decision. Those are really two seperate items in a long list of factors to consider. ------ Never settle! |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/2/2006 4:11:08 PM | show profile wow... This is off topic, but I find it amazing how I can unconsciously type ''seperately'' TWICE and then see my posting 2 second later and immediately KNOW they are wrong... Not sure what that means, but I'm sure some neurologist would find that disconnect interesting. Hell, I find it interesting... ------ Never settle! |
| JerzyGirl | Posted – 3/2/2006 4:14:12 PM | show profile Syracuse Syracuse has a magazine program and it's very well respected. On the other hand, it might be really wise to spend at least one year working as an editorial assistant or doing some quality internships to clarify your focus and get some great all-around experience. good luck. ------ http://www.AskAnyMom.blogspot.com |
| crackersncheese | Posted – 3/2/2006 5:37:11 PM | show profile Upward Bound, I'm almost positive the Medill program is 12 months. Maybe you skipped the foundation quarter, which few people are able to do. |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/2/2006 8:42:08 PM | show profile crackers... you're right, my bad. I did skip that quarter because I went into the program straight from Medill's undergrad program, which is probably the biggest reason I didn't go to Mizzou, by the way... (I already knew the faculty very well and was looking forward to the publishing project, which is one of a kind.) But still, one year vs. two... It's still a significant difference and I haven't heard a single Medill grad complain that the program was too short. Maybe they wished they were still there, but by no means did they feel like the time was inadequate to cover the necessary skills. ------ Never settle! |
| crackersncheese | Posted – 3/2/2006 9:27:44 PM | show profile Upward, do yo mind if I ask when you were in the program and what you're doing now? A few of the editors at the magazine I work for went to Medill for grad school and have horror stories of only 12/70 graduates staying in journalism - but then again, they're success stories in that they're both at Chicago mag. I'm pretty set on attending next January and your earlier post was a strong boost of motivation. |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/2/2006 10:23:02 PM | show profile | email poster crackers, I was just recently in the program and was hired within weeks of graduating (very, very lucky!) as one of a staff of six at a monthly trade launch. We've been publishing for a year now and are doing very well by launch standards. I think my ''launch'' experience at Medill greatly contributed to my landing the job and then proving to be successful in that position. Anyway, e-mail me off the board if you want to get into more detail. ------ Never settle! |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/2/2006 10:35:47 PM | show profile crackers, I just reread your post and had another thought. Maybe the people you spoke to graduated a while ago. It's been talked abotu ad naseum on this board how many people further into their careers have a difficult time finding work at an acceptable salary. It's poeple like me who contribute to that. The J-schools are putting out graduates that are very competent. Sure they can be a bit green, but overall they can do a more than adequate job and for less pay than someone with years of experience under their belts. I'm not at all saying that's right, but it's a pattern: recent grads do decent work for low salaries and some (not all) companies have been filling more jobs with ''newbies'' in the recent years of declining ad revenue. But all in all, I think it's also a cultural thing that Americans have been changing careers more often than previous generations. (Three times on average, I think...) Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I wouldn't necessarily let a statistic like ''on12/70 are still in journalism'' scare you off. Chances are, in 10, 20, 30 years, you'll want to try your hand at a new career too. That's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a lot of BS to deal with in publishing and people just get sick of playing the games. Especially in NYC... ------ Never settle! |
| hillyblake | Posted – 3/3/2006 11:03:09 PM | show profile I had a great experience at the Medill magazine program... ...but that was then (in the 80s, when electric typewriters were still the norm) and this is now. I just don't see the traditional publishing market recovering enough to make an expensive MSJ worth pursuing. No bitterness here; I learned a lot and had some fascinating job and life experiences courtesy of my training till it all went south about five years ago, and no degree is going to save you from a flattening job market. MSJs just seem irrelevant in this field. |
| hiospace | Posted – 3/6/2006 8:46:36 PM | show profile As a grad of the Medill magazine publishing project, I'd recommend getting as much real world experience as possible without having to pay the hefty price tag and avoiding a grad school education if possible. The publishing program is good for many graduates, and many of the people who were in it with me really benefitted from it. For me, it taught me was that that last environment I wanted to work in was the editorial side of magazines. It did, however, give me skills that I was able to put into a career in non-magazines. But it was a learning experience that will take until my kids go to college to pay off, and at the end of the month, I really kick myself for digging myself such a huge financial hole. If I could have done it differently, I would have better focused my undergraduate studies on my career goals, pounded the pavement for internships and gathered more real world experience than I did. Start pitching now to various publications. Even if they're small, it's a start, and don't underestimate the local newspapers. I had a lot of luck during grad school pitching feature pieces to the local papers who paid decently for fresh ideas and fresh talent. Those pitches led to a steady full-time job after graduation that I was able to work until what I really wanted came along. Just consider that a graduate degree will cost you big bucks at a school like Medill and you won't be making enough money as a result to really justify the cost. |
