Once a burial ground for journalists, the trade press has opened new horizons for journalism students graduating this spring, according to the editor of a Chicago business weekly.
Dan Miller, editor of Crain`s Chicago Business, will speak on the trade press job outlook April 27 at a regional meeting of the Society of
Professional Journalists at Northwestern University in Evanston.
”Ten years ago, financial news sections were where you put the burned-out people, the village idiot and the relative of the publisher who couldn`t do anything else,” Miller said. ”In those days, the trade press rewrote press releases and went out to lunch a lot.
”Now, the trade press offers a little faster growth reach than mid-size to metro papers,” Miller said. ”You immediately start writing. You`re in the heat more; that helps you handle the pressure of the job.”
Miller believes that it was five years ago that the trade press seeds began to grow.
”The trade press really began to blossom regionally then,” he said.
”Magazines like Forbes and Fortune began to open up bureaus all over the country. And there was a move toward more analytical stories.”
As the trade press blossomed over the last 10 years, so did jobs in the trade press. ”Jobs have been forming in unprecedented numbers,” Miller said. ”More jobs are available even though the turnover isn`t high and the pay isn`t (initially) that good.”
What kind of reporter is Miller looking for?
”Someone with solid reporting skills, someone who knows how to take direction, someone who can cope with a high-pressure organization and a commitment to business journalism,” he said.
”A reporter should also have business experience,” Miller said. ”But I have hired people who have no business experience. They have to be committed and love a chase of a story as well as a commitment to business journalism.”
