The booths are buzzing at Unity

The Unity convention in Chicago is the perfect place to recharge your batteries if you're a veteran journalist like me worried about the state of the news industry. It's hard to feel down when you're among the 5,000 mostly bright-faced attendees of the minority journalism conference which is running this week at the McCormick Place convention center.

Many in attendance are young and looking for their first or second jobs, which I take as a very positive sign. They filled the job fair Thursday afternoon and made the CNN and USA today booths buzz with activity. And even the one or two chairs in front of many of the metro newspaper recruiting booths were occupied with eager candidates.

I talked to one young woman who was graduated a year ago from Santa Clara University who has been freelancing as a writer for an NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She was a very poised, web-savvy print major who has learned to write broadcast copy. She would welcome a fulltime job in any good news organization, print, web and/or broadcast and from what I saw of her resume, which she shared with me, she'd be catch.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed she gets a job soon so "we" don't lose her. She's exactly what mainstream journalism organizations need in this multi platform era.