Niemans Talk Shop in Last Career Forum

Five Nieman Fellows representing different branches of journalism agreed last night in the Lowell House Junior Common Room, at the last of the Career Conferences, that a job as a reporter is a necessary beginning for specialization in the newspaper field.

Alan Barth, editorial writer for the Washington Post, emphasized this point the most. He said, "An editorial writer is first a reporter who knows how to read as well as listen and second, one who wants to improve the community of which he is a part. Starting as a reporter will keep an editorial writer from living in an ivory tower."

All the speakers, including Louis Lyons, Curator of the Nieman Foundation, the moderator, pointed out that no matter what particular field a prospective writer is interested in, a long pull with low wages must elapse before the top is reached. Eight to 12 years of newspaper work is the average of the Nieman Fellows.

Lyons opened the conference by telling the 50-odd people in the room, "If you are all interested in newspaper writing, it is perhaps just as well there aren't more of you here. Because of the number of metropolitan dailies that have folded this year, jobs are extremely scarce," he claimed.

Both Lyons and Barth agreed that a job on a small town newspaper, if it can be obtained upon graduation from college, is preferable to a year at a graduate school of journalism.

Courses in economics, social sciences, and American history were recommended for the potential journalist by Robert R. Brunn, San Francisco correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. He said, "Newspapering is more than a craft or an ability to string words together."

Lyons added that most Nioman Fellows spend their year at Harvard concentrating in American history.

Robert de Roos, staff reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, covered the financial aspects for the group.