WASHINGTON -- Tina Brown today told a crass joke at the expense of a female journalism student seeking career advice from the famed magazine editor, who is about to launch an online news aggregation site. The student asked Brown after her keynote address at the Online News Association conference what guidance she could offer to young people seeking work in an industry "increasingly difficult to get into." The student said she is a print journalist but is eager to get a job in "print, online, anything -- just any advice you can give." "Well, you're an easy lay, aren't you?" Brown said. "I think there must be a job for you somewhere." (Watch the video.) After the laughter subsided, Brown answered the question by urging budding journalists to avoid jobs in big companies like Time Inc., where "you're going to be making some fat, mainstream media slug's coffee all day long." Instead, she recommended getting work in companies that are "small and struggling and preferably about to close" because "then you're right in the thick of it" and having to do every task for the publication. "I do think it's a good idea to get into something small and do everything you can and have the stomach ache." Brown may have a stomach ache on her hands as she transitions into the online world. Her forthcoming site, The Daily Beast, will be going against powerhouses like The Drudge Report. But Brown doesn't appear concerned. She praised The Drudge Report as a site that "never loses its flair for homing in on must-read headlines" and The Huffington Post for "collecting an array of liberal voices and aggressively promoting citizen journalists who show up with the goods." But she added that there is room for more "meta-aggregation sites with a distinctive voice, just as there's always been room for a new magazine that has a distinctive point of view." Brown didn't win many fans in the audience when she refused to answer questions about The Daily Beast -- presumably the impetus for inviting her to the online journalism conference in the first place. She actually cut off Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine mid-question. "As I sit down [after the question]," Jarvis recounted, "the friend next to me says, 'She's a tough lay.'"
