Job Fair Booths Downsizing

Thursday, 06 August 2009 16:24

By Wesley Lowery
nabjconvention.org

A focal point of every annual National Association of Black Journalists convention is the job fair. It places the organization's best in the same room as recruiters from the nation’s top media outlets

But with the news industry facing downsizing, furloughs and layoffs, many media outlets are confronted with a tough question: Is it worth the money to rent convention booths when they know they have no current job openings?

“The number of booths has declined from previous years and the make-up of recruiters purchasing booths at the NABJ job fair has also changed,” said Karen Wynn Freeman, NABJ executive director and chief operating officer.

According to the convention Web site, 95 of the 173 job fair booths remain unclaimed as of July 27.

“This year, although we are still seeing the perennial big players in the newspaper business, they have selected smaller booths,” Wynn Freeman said. “We are also seeing more Web sites making a presence at the convention through booth space and special workshops to help journalists learn new digital tools."

Media outlets that have purchased booths so far include USA Today, CNN and Politico, as well as local outlets including the St. Petersburg Times.

Despite a general lack of jobs within the industry, some recruiters say efforts at this year's conference will be just as comprehensive as during previous years.

“You’ve still got to approach (recruiting) the same way because you never know when a position will come up,” said Don Hudson, the managing editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

Hudson, who has been recruiting for Gannett newspapers for 13 years, said the company hasn’t scaled back its recruitment efforts compared to past conferences.

“We had all of our recruiters at UNITY last year, and we will have the same base of recruiters (we’ve used in the past) at NABJ this year,” Hudson said. “You can never stop recruiting.”

Also present at this year’s convention job fair will be the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a non-profit organization that places qualified journalism students into paid newspaper internships.

The Fund’s Deputy Director, Linda Shockley, said that while the organization has faced cutbacks and staff reduction, it won’t let the economy stifle recruitment efforts.

“We’ve gone to conferences. We were at NAHJ in June, AAJA in July and we will be at NABJ in August,” Shockley said. “We’ve been going, and we haven’t pulled back.”

Shockley, who has been with the Fund since 1988, attended her first NABJ conference in 1977 when she was working as a reporter with Gannett. She added that the Fund only places students in paid internships, which has led fewer news outlets to participate in recent years.

“We’ve had news organizations that have pulled out because they’re not offering internships at all,” Shockley said, adding that the total number of Dow Jones interns this summer is 78 – down from 102 last year.

Even so, said Wynn Freeman: “The NABJ job fair will continue to be that place where talented journalists meet recruiters and learn more about the places they might like to work."

Despite a bleak economy that’s affecting news outlets, Hudson said job-seekers shouldn’t be deterred.

“You’ve got to come and show your face,” he said. You have to sell yourself, and that opportunity you’ve been looking for could come.”

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