I’d missed this last week when it was first posted, so thanks to Towson University’s Stacey Spaulding for pointing out a short but convincing essay on why it makes a lot of sense for a college student to work on the university newspaper, even if a career in journalism is the furthest thing from her mind.
No other extra-curricular activity on campus is better for your career — no matter what that is — than the newspaper.
That’s because nothing else … is as complex and deadline-driven.
A Homecoming Committee chairwoman once protested to me, “We host a whole week of awesome and fun activities!”
“Yeah, but you have a whole year to organize it,” I replied. “The newspaper staff publishes a paper every week and updates a website every day — which is much more impressive to a potential employer than taking 11 months to organize a parade and a dance.”
As long as we’re defining “newspapers” as the paper and its digital editions, I think this is good advice.