When Fairfax advertised for 20 trainee journalists this week, a chorus of indignation erupted from those who had most recently been shown the door.

Sure, most newsrooms across Australia (and in the western world) have been decimated as publishers battle to to fix a business model that linked public interest journalism and advertising.

But frankly, just because a lot of mostly mature journalists have been told their skill set doesn’t fit the new way of delivering news, does not mean we should be discouraging young people from joining the ranks.

I, for one, am delighted Fairfax is looking to pay young people to train to be journalists, particularly at a time when many outlets prey on the desire of young people to make a difference by getting them to work for free.