Fresh Out of School

There is no doubt that when it comes to hiring news talent, you no longer have to toil away in a tiny market after graduating school.

Scripps owned WKBW (Buffalo) has hired 3 new Reporters fresh out of school with no experience.

The Buffalo News writes that Rebecca Thornburg and Nikki DeMentri who who worked at the station while still in school will both remain at the station as full-time multimedia journalists (MMJs).

They were part of the Journalism Career Program between E.W. Scripps, Channel 7’s owner, and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in which Syracuse graduates work at a Scripps station for a year to get experience as broadcast journalists.

The hiring of Thornburg and DeMentri brings to three the number of Syracuse graduates in the JCP who remain at WKBW joining Jeff Slawson.

Another JCP graduate, Josh Bazan, stayed at WKBW before leaving for Scripps’ sister station in Cincinnati.

“We continue to be incredibly impressed by the quality of the graduates from The Newhouse School at Syracuse University,” said WKBW GM Michael Nurse “This Journalism Career Program (JCP) continues to be a tremendous asset for both WKBW and Scripps.”

Plus we get these kids for next to nothing, nurse could have added, but did not.

There was a day and time when you would have to work in Yuma or Ft. Smith before moving up to a mid-market station like Buffalo. Now, you take the express lane, but you still get paid like you are working in Yuma.

Is this a great business or what?

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