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I am a recent graduate with internship experience. I just received a job at a small, family-owned newspaper. I really want to move up to a larger newspaper after I work here for a couple of years.

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Does the fact that the newspaper is family owned make a difference to recruiters at 100,000-circulation-size newspapers when considering candidates that they will hire? Would I have a better chance at getting a job if I worked for a smaller paper owned by, say, the McClatchy company?

Hilary

Ownership does not make the difference. Quality does.

There are some excellent newspapers owned by families and some excellent ones owned by large corporations. And, as we have seen lately with the breakup of Knight Ridder, the nature of ownership can change in a wink. Some of those newspapers are still part of McClatchy,

Joe Grimm

while about a dozen went off in different directions, to other companies or to private ownership. The ones that went private seem to have suffered most, but in the process, McClatchy sold its largest paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We don't yet know what changes that will bring.

Focus on doing the best work you can with the best people you find at the best paper that will hire you.

(Disclosure, though this is explained on Poynter Online, I work for the Detroit Free Press, which is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. The Poynter Institute owns the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.)

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