I’ve found your staff for you. They’re graduating from college, and they’re ready to go. You only need to reach out and you’ll have a bunch of talented multi-media journalists who will blow you away.

I mean it. This is not a group that is going to go the usual “start at market 200 and work your way up” route. You may want them to – because that’s the way it’s always been done – but if you’re smart, you’ll look more at what they can do, rather than where they’ve done it.

I spoke with a number of graduating students at the RTNDA@NAB conference this past week, and I have to tell you – they’re good. Very good, in fact. So good, that one of them impressed a group president with her chops. So good, that if I were starting a local media outlet today, I’d hire the lot of them. They can shoot, edit, write, produce and direct. They are more media-savvy than any generation before them. They want – hell, expect – to produce stories for TV and the Web on the same day. You know how it used to be that we needed to teach newbies the system at our station? They will teach us. And man, do we need their knowledge.

And they’re also getting some pretty bad advice from their journalism professors, from what I could tell.

Their professors (not all of them – just a few) are still preparing them for a market that doesn’t exist anymore. The professors are there quoting chapter and verse from the RTNDA Ethics Guide instead of telling the kids what the rest of us were telling them. And that is this:

For the first time in memory, you are in the drivers’ seat.

If I were one of these seriously talented grads, I wouldn’t take the first station that offered me a job. I’d wait until I found one that met my needs. I’d wait until a News Director saw all my online work and said “Come. Teach us. We need you.” And if you’re a ND or GM you have to recognize the value in these remarkably well-trained young journalists.

Do I expect that a top-ten station would hire the entire bunch? No. (Although I would.) I do expect a smart station would start with one. First – what can it hurt? Worst case is that you have a reporter that needs a little seasoning, but has the skills to work and teach while he/she is learning from your team. (Welcome back, mentoring!)

As we have written in our book Live. Local. BROKEN News., the business of having “paid your dues” is now over. It’s still important to have dues-payers’ experience, mind you. But using “paid my dues” as an excuse not to do more than shoot or write? That entitlement program is over. It’s killing stations. As a manager, don’t accept one bit of it.
The kids are excited about news and information. Their professors are talking doom and gloom at them. What on Earth is that about? I wouldn’t pay a penny for advice like “Take a $14,000 job and hope you don’t get fired.” In what other industry would that advice be acceptable? I want my professor to tell the rising reporters this is their time. They are in the drivers’ seat. Not every news station will recognize the true value of hiring them. But some will – and the other stations will take notice. Yes, it doesn’t hurt that they will be affordable. But no, don’t hire them for that reason.

Hire them. Don’t put them on-air at first if you’re nervous about it. There will still be plenty for them to do. I’d hire one just to train everyone else on the staff for the first six months.

Hire them because they can do it all. They are leaders. They are the Tampa Bay Rays of 2008 and the Florida Marlins of this year. Just because they’re rookies doesn’t mean they can’t beat the pants off the veterans.

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