I think I've mentioned before that when I graduated college, it would never have crossed my mind to look for jobs anywhere else than a network affiliate - or cable station. Even if I hadn't had made a relatively easy transition from intern to employee at the station where I got my first job, I doubt I would have started looking under "rocks" like internet companies, online start-ups and the like in order to turn up my first job. Sure, mine was the first class in my journalism school to be required to take "Writing for the Web," and of course I was part of the internet generation - doing most of my research online, taking classes online when I could, and swearing by email as opposed to a phone call. But I was still a little too far removed to consider pursuing a career in internet journalism.

I had a great time in the years that I spent in a newsroom, and it strikes me as funny that the thing I didn't give much thought to in college (online media) is now my bread and butter. As a self-employed web writer, I wouldn't exist without the internet, and I didn't even know jobs like the ones I do now existed when I was still in school, trying to plan out a course for my life.

What I want to know is, do the kids who are in jouralism school now realize this? I have to admit, when I pick up the occasional shift at my local network affiliate and I see college interns cycling through, I can't help but feel somewhat sorry for them. If they're really trying to get into network news, they're coming in on the tail end of a downward spiral. Whenever I can, I caution journalism "newbies" to - if nothing else - become a web producer at their local station instead of a show producer. If you can, search for the jobs that thrive off of an online medium instead of the ones that either rebel against it or awkwardly try to fit inside it.

The good news is, there are plenty of these options out there. While network mediums are a bigger ship to turn around, and will likely take longer - if they ever make it - to get on the right path, there are plenty of smaller, web-driven companies that are taking TV and media production to the web, and are being quite successful at it. Sure, networks and cable stations won't go down over night and they may never go down. And of course some internet start-ups will lose funding and become defunct, but online media is the way of the future, and who doesn't want to be a part of the future?

*alexis (www.10thfloorpr.com)