Amidst newspaper deaths, CU sees more aspiring print journalists

Just weeks after the Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition, the University of Colorado's journalism school is seeing a rise in applicants.

As Dean Paul Voakes writes in an e-mail this week to alumni and supporters, "Ironically, on the day of the Rocky's last edition, we got word that applications to the School numbered 305, a higher number than we've seen in several semesters. And the largest increase? Apps for News-Editorial - the sequence most closely associated with newspapers."

The irony, according to Voakes, can be explained by the fact that "students may be looking to a future for journalism that we old fogeys sometimes strain to discern: A media world in which creative, savvy entrepreneurs - using a rich and constantly refreshed set of tools - will be meeting the news and information needs of citizens here and around the world."

At a March 11 roundtable event, titled "The Future of Journalism," (also covered in Voakes' email), assistant professor Nabil Echchaibi, offered an optimistic view, telling the audience, "We tend to lose sight of the fact that there is more journalism happening right now in a greater diversity of forms and with a bigger audience than ever."

Other universities across the nation, including the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland, are also seeing an increase in applicants to their journalism schools.