Community college journalism programs have a long-standing tradition of being transfer programs, which, in contrast to career programs, often take longer, are more expensive, and offer no guarantee of a job after graduation. If community colleges offered intensive 2-year technical journalism programs that mixed basic skills such a composition, algebra, speech, and computers with a wide variety of journalism courses, more students could finish the program faster and be qualified for professional media positions upon completion. A survey of 348 Midwest media professionals was conducted to determine if they would hire graduates from a 2-year program. A total of 104 responses were received from 35 publishers, 29 managing editors, 29 radio station managers, 7 advertising executives, and 4 public relations specialists. Study findings included the following: (1) the skills most important to employers were writing, language, listening, and social skills; (2) the skills representing the greatest deficits among recent journalism graduates were in the areas of time management, writing, and language; and (3) 82 of 96 media professionals agreed there might be an occasion where they would hire graduates from a two-year technical program; however, 49 out of 102 respondents would prefer four-year college graduates. Journalism programs tend to have fewer students enrolled than other programs. However, if a two-year technical program were offered, addressing such issues as reporting, writing, editing, photography, ethics, advertising, broadcasting, public relations, and media law, enrollments would increase. (KP)