Times Continues To Change

By Michael L. Barrett

Job placement is a dilemma many recent journalism graduates face with various newspapers going under around the country. Trying to find a job has become more difficult for many of these graduates. These problems were the problems that Robert Rivard addressed at Texas State earlier today.

Rivard is currently an editor and executive vice president at the San Antonio Express-News. He grew up in time were gas was outrageously priced and the economy was poor, all while living in a dysfunctional family. Rivard said he had ambitions and dreams to be a writer ever since he was a newspaper boy at around 8 or 9 years old.

Rivard achieved his dreams when he answered a classified ad for a sports reporter for the Brownsville Herald. Rivard gave students some perspective about the newspaper industry when he said at the Brownsville Herald, his first news job; he was paid minimum wage, a meager $3 per hour at the time.

He said he didn’t graduate from college until he was 44, many years after becoming a reporter, which showed his tremendous determination and inspiration to be journalists starting out.

“[It] looks bleak out there and it certainly is,” said Rivard.

Uncertainty about the newspaper business is nothing new. Rivard said starting out some newspapers were going out of business and despite the economy and despite the circumstances he faced growing up he was able to overcome those obstacles to see his dreams become reality.

“We all have dreams, said Rivard, “but how badly do you work to achieve it is really what it comes down to.”