It's been a while since I've written an article specifically on the journalism industry, or careers in journalism. Since then, the economy has taken a downturn, the internet is becoming even MORE crucial when it comes to how people get their news, and TV stations continue to hemmorage people. It's hard to tell what combination of these factors (and many more, no doubt) are contributing to the down turn of TV news as we know it. The viewer (those that are still viewing, anyway) may not have noticed it yet, but inside the industry people are panicking and trying to decide how to handle their careers.

I had a friend who - after trying for about a year and FINALLY landing the job she wanted at the city she wanted - came in one morning to find she'd been laid off only months after she started. Because she was recently hired, she was one of the first to go, eventhough her boss really liked her. Fortunatley, she had a contract that will enable her to stay on for a month while she looks for work. But she's trying to stay in the TV industry, and things just aren't looking good.

Another friend recently told me about mass lay-offs at his station, in a top-5 market, where a number of reporters and anchors were let go. In this case, it appears they're trimming from the top down - cutting the people who have been their the longest and have the most inflated salaries.

No matter who gets cut, or where, the facts remain: network news is tanking. Although I only graduated from college about five years ago, things are changing at a rapid clip. My graduating class was the first to be required to take writing for the internet - but I never thought about going into web producing. Or looking for work at a start up. Now, kids coming out of journalism school should at least have that as their back up plan if they want to pursue TV news.

Fortunately, I'm young enough, with enough web saavy that I have had no problem switching seamlessly back and forth between TV, web, film, networks, start-ups, etc. But for my friend who got laid off, network TV is all she's known for nearly 20 years. How is she supposed to switch to web at this point? Fortunately for her - and people like her - I don't think network TV will disappear. But I know I, for one, don't want to be panicking every time a network decides to "trim the fat." Because I think it's really only the beginning.

*alexis (www.10thfloorpr.com)