The Wall Street Journal held a webinar on April 24 for college students interested in journalism. The webinar was held by the new Wall Street Journal Noted team, which is a sub-group within the Journal that caters news toward younger readers. The members of the team represent a variety of diverse groups, and the team is meant to show an effort by the Journal to bring a younger demographic to the longstanding legacy paper.

Deborah Acosta is a reporter for the Journal, and she formerly worked for the New York Times for seven years. During the webinar, she went into her experiences as a journalist and gave advice to young journalists about how to get started. She recommends that students make use of their time and start building outside skills and experience.

Tyler Blint-Welsh, a reporter and photographer, sees Noted as a way to “bridge the gap between an older stodgy institution and a younger, more vibrant and flexible generation.” He advised young journalists to start building a database of their work now. He said that while you are in college and have time, you need to start building experience. He recommended starting a podcast or YouTube channel to start garnering an audience. 

Alvin Chang, a graphic reporter, perceives Noted as a step by the Journal to prepare for the future. He sees it as attending to a faster and more technologically-savvy readership. He then went on to urge younger journalists to not be scared when they graduate.

“You might graduate and think you are only okay at a lot of things. But really, you just need to find that sandbox to explore and try out your skills as well as learn new ones,” Chang said when recommending students try and find work at smaller papers.

This lively and young team (including a few more who were not on the call) is meant to show a shift at the Wall Street Journal towards better and fair coverage as well as delivering it in a modern fashion. The team has yet to roll out their section, but you can follow their Twitter @noted_wsj for updates.