Journalism students and print (not a romance)

I have read this Tweet from Spanish journalist @JaimeGMora with interest:

The historic press kiosk at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), School of Science of Communications, closed its doors this past weekend, after 30 years of service, as most journalism students there are not buying a newspaper, reading it, instead, via digital platforms.

I am not surprised. I teach journalism at Columbia University and I rarely, if ever, see a copy of a printed newspaper or magazine on the desk of my students. It simply does not happen. Mind you, these students are well informed, savvy and know what is happening in the world and in the media. They simply don’t get their information from a printed publication, for the most.

Last semester I counted that I devoted about 37 minutes of a 14-week course to pint and that was in my lecture titled Doing Print Happily, one in which I highlight the new role of print (not as the protagonist, but with a more feature/magazine, long narrative approach. There are occasional references to the role that print plays in the overall media quintet, but I did not require any assignments involving print per se.

Do I require students to read stories in print? Of course not. I emphasize that our romance should not be with print, but with storytelling.

Sign of the times!

….when printing problems delay delivery

Nothing new in the world of printed newspapers: delivery delays as a result of printing trouble. We experienced that with delivery of the Sunday New York Times in New York City this past Sunday, but soon got the note from the Times: