When students are looking for colleges where they can pursue journalism degrees, they may overlook the University of Pittsburgh, but that would be a mistake. Not only can students learn from faculty who have real-world experience in the field of journalism, but they can also get firsthand experience right on campus.
Enter: The Pitt News.
The Pitt News is Pitt’s independent, student-run newspaper. It has been circulating on Pitt’s Oakland Campus for more than 100 years. But in 1910, it wasn’t called The Pitt News. The Pitt community recognized it as The Pitt Weekly, which published its first edition September 26, 1910.
Since then, The Pitt News has become a daily newspaper, printing and delivering the news Monday through Friday during the academic school year. The paper has both a business staff that sells ads and an editorial staff that plans and writes stories. The students are assisted by faculty advisors, who offer insight and professional advice to both sides of the staff.
“The Pitt News trains you to step into an established profession,” Pitt Writing instructor Harry Kloman, the editorial advisor, said. “Other writing majors will certainly teach you how to write, but they won’t train you for a profession like working at The Pitt News does.”
Students receive a lot of professional guidance, but when the work day ends and the advisors leave, the students take the reins. They work on the fourth floor of the William Pitt Union Sunday through Thursday, writing, editing, and producing a daily newspaper. If you’re a night owl, you may see them trudging home around 1:30 a.m. after a long night of production. You might think they’re just tired college students returning to their apartments and dorms following a health—or unhealthy, depending on who you ask—dose of studying. But they’re hardworking journalists, mentally preparing themselves for another day of school, another day of production, and another long night.
I would know—I'm one of them.
I was hired as a sportswriter at the end of my first year of college, but I didn’t start writing for the paper until the fall semester of my sophomore year. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing on the sports desk, though. Sure, I had participated in several sports growing up, but I was never a star. I was never someone who was invested in the history or famous athletes of that sport. I liked what I was doing in that moment and didn’t feel as though I needed more. But being on the sports desk taught me to care a little bit more about the intricacies of athletics. Those people dedicating hours to their sport are more than athletes—they’re people with stories of struggle, triumph, loss, and quirky moments. Their lives are literally what many great movies are based on.
So, I started with a couple features about club sports teams. I had to work for my stripes before I could start writing about the "big leagues." In time, though, I earned the trust of my editors, and they asked me to be the women’s basketball beat reporter. Now, I hadn’t played basketball since ninth grade, so I was a little rusty with the jargon, but I wanted to be a beat reporter. I wanted that responsibility. I wanted to have something of my own.
Then, as the basketball season ended, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But my editors knew. Both of them pushed me to apply for one of the sports editor positions. I didn’t think I was capable of being the head sports editor, so I applied for the assistant position and got it. When the school year came around, though, I didn’t get to spend much time as the assistant sports editor because the head sports editor quit a couple weeks in. I thought my becoming the head sports editor was the worst thing that could happen to that desk. I wasn’t a die-hard Pitt fan. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the sports world. But I knew a decent amount of basic information—and I knew how to use Google.
Despite all my efforts to rise to my role, the desk wasn’t successful just because of me. I never would have survived a semester as the sports editor if I hadn’t had a strong assistant sports editor who, like me, also had to step into a position she hadn’t been trained for. She and I couldn’t have done it without the support of a hardworking editor in chief and managing editor. We also were lucky enough to have a staff of writers who understood the situation. It wasn’t, by any means, easy. There were several days—weeks—when I would just stare at my stories and wonder what sin I had committed to end up there.
Unsurprisingly, I learned so much on that job. And no, I’m not just talking about sports stuff— although there was a lot of that. I learned how to step up and be a leader. I also learned how to be humbled by my ignorance, which consequently meant learning that it’s okay to not know everything. As strange as it sounds, I learned to learn. I had to work with late stories on a deadline. I had to work with unresponsive writers, argumentative writers, and writers who were still learning to write news.
From the sports desk, I moved on to the news desk for the spring semester. News desk is an entirely different beast. It never sleeps. It’s another job that requires a team. You know that proverb, the one that goes, “It takes a whole village to raise a child”? Well, it takes a whole office to make a strong news desk. When you live on planet Earth, there is always something happening. But sometimes those things happen while you’re in class or taking an exam or taking a nap. Covering all of the breaking news while trying to cover a wide spread of events that represent as much of the student population as possible wouldn’t be possible without the community of writers, photographers, and editors I work with every single day.
As I finish up my second year at The Pitt News, I can look back and see just how far I’ve come. I’ve grown as a writer, as an editor, as a leader, and as a worker. I’ve also gained a plethora of knowledge and skills that will help me after college—you know, when I have to go find another job.
When I graduate, I will (hopefully) be leaving the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in nonfiction English writing. I get a lot of quizzical looks when I tell people what my major is, and often I am met with the question, “So, journalism?” I generally respond by telling them that, yes, I could go into journalism, but nonfiction writing also allows me to go down several different career paths. I could go into technical writing or PR or copywriting. There are just so many options available to me.
If Pitt did have the option of completing a degree in journalism, I’m sure that’s something I would have been interested in. But I’m glad that I’m learning about nonfiction writing in all of its forms. I’m also glad that I’m learning about journalism through a journalistic outlet. I feel like I am gaining priceless real-world experience. I’m not the only person at the paper who feels that way.
Brett Murphy is an alumnus of Pitt and The Pitt News. He graduated from the University in December 2013 with a degree in nonfiction English Writing, along with minors in Studio Arts and Political Science. He started at The Pitt News after taking courses with Kloman.
“He convinced me the only way to get better at writing was to write and publish,” Murphy said.
While at the paper, he wrote enterprise stories and film reviews, and by the time he graduated in 2013, he was a senior staff writer.
“I still think about a story I did on Adderall access and abuse on campus. I’m not sure how much has changed, but it seems to be a regulatory black hole with serious mental health implications,” Murphy said. “That was one of the first stories I did that made me think more seriously about a journalism career.”
Murphy is now a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist who works for the Naples Daily News and USA Today. He was one of two Pulitzer finalists for his four-part investigation into indentured work within Los Angeles port trucking companies, entitled "Rigged." Even though he is now being recognized on a larger scale for his journalism, he looks back at The Pitt News as helpful training for the professional field of journalism.
“I learned how to think about experiences as stories and the best ways to tell them. It's tough to naturally develop that mindset without working in a newsroom environment. And I think the earlier you can expose yourself to that way of thinking, the easier it is to structure your reporting and writing down the road,” he said.
Murphy said this is the kind of experience students shouldn’t pass up.
“I think any Pitt student who is considering a career in journalism should take advantage of the opportunity to write for the student paper,” he said. “It’s a super-important institution.”
A lot of the people I work with are also studying English Writing in some form. Some are majoring in one of the English Writing tracks; others have creative writing minors, or are studying public and professional writing. Working at an outlet like The Pitt News allows students to flex their creative muscles, learn how to problem solve, and also hone skills that they might not be able to get from coursework alone.
The Department of English offers courses specific to journalism within the Writing program. Students can take classes like Intro to Journalism, Media Literacy, Women in Journalism, and, of course, Journalism Bootcamp with Senior Lecturer Cindy Skrzycki. This bootcamp course is exactly what it sounds like—a lot of hard work. Throughout the course, students work with editors at The Pitt News to produce journalistic articles of all forms—columns, event coverage, feature stories, and more. It’s a course meant to teach students what it’s like to work at a daily newspaper.
And honestly, it really gets you into shape.
So, while Pitt may not have an "official" journalism school, professors in the English department are committed to getting students the experience they need. Students can even go one step further and work at The Pitt News—the unofficial school of journalism.
“Working at The Pitt News is a good complement to any major,” Kloman said.
—Mackenzie Rodrigues
Mackenzie Rodrigues is a junior majoring in English writing on the nonfiction track. She is also pursuing a minor is Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and a certificate in Public and Professional Writing. During the past spring semester, she was the news editor at The Pitt News. She has been T5F's associate editor since 2016.