Ask any college student how they get their news, and the answers will probably vary widely. One constant you’ll probably notice, however, is that the print newspaper won’t come up as a popular news source for the digital-happy Generation Y.

News outlets have been aware of this for some time, of course – that’s why newspapers are getting thicker. Not with news, sadly, but with advertisements. Advertising has always been the bedrock source of income for most publications, but with subscriptions on a kamikaze dive with no signs of pulling up, publishers are flailing about for a source of funding to keep themselves above water.

The basics of the problem are that while young people are still reading the news, they’re not keen on getting in the printed format. Just as snail mail was replaced by e-mail (which is now being replaced by Facebook, Twitter and text messaging), the printed page is giving way to the glowing screen.

Much of this has been driven by the staggeringly fast rise of social media. Twitter and Facebook are the main culprits, but LinkedIn, MySpace, blogging sites and Google News have played their part as well.

While many major publications are jumping onto the bandwagon trying to figure out how to use these new tools to reach their audiences and drive a profit, changing the way an industry has done business for over a hundred years is a slow process.

It’s ironic, perhaps, that some of the slowest to pick up and run with the changes are student publications. Intuition would dictate that the same college students who are the source of all this journalistic upheaval would also be on the cutting edge of new techniques and methods.

But it’s not typically the case. Perhaps it’s because student publications have something of a captive audience (students often receive their university’s paper whether they like it or not) and therefore aren’t experiencing the aforementioned kamikaze plunge. Perhaps it’s because careers aren’t typically on the line – most student journalists won’t lose their positions on their papers because no one’s reading them.

The truth is, though, that careers are on the line. While student journalism may be insulated from the harshest effects of the social media revolution, the real world is full of employers reeling from those effects and desperately searching for new blood to lead the charge.

A typical college newspaper has a print edition and a website. An award-winning publication has an excellent print edition and a website that churns with daily content. But while the best papers may have a Facebook page and Twitter feed, it’s rare to see them utilized for anything more than publishing headlines.

It shouldn’t be that way. College journalists must push themselves to be on the forefront of this revolution. Juggling classes and putting out a high quality publication is a lot to handle, and the idea of putting even more effort and thought into the process might be daunting. But think of it this way: If you aren’t able to get a job after graduation because you don’t have the experience in using new media the way employers are looking for, all the effort you’re putting in now won’t be worth much.

So read a book. Do some research. Find a college paper that’s doing this well and get in touch with the editor. Set some aggressive goals for your college publication, and then put the work in to meet them.

If you’re not directly involved in college media, this may seem irrelevant to you. But you should still be excited. These new trends are occurring as part of a massive effort to meet your needs as a consumer (and thus suck the dollars from your pockets, but that’s just how things work). It won’t be long before news completely customized to your life tracks you down and reports for duty.

It’s an exciting time on both sides of the fence. It’s up the young journalists new to the field, or about to enter it, to make the rules and push the lines and move the industry forward into a new era.

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