From the NYT:

Journalism fellowship programs are feeling the fallout of the media industry’s turmoil.

Some prominent universities have noticed a drop in applications from American journalists. Stanford, M.I.T. and Harvard report a decline in journalists seeking to specialize in business, science or other disciplines. But foreign applications are pouring in at a record pace.

The decline comes as many newsrooms are scaling back through buyouts and job cuts in response to declines in revenue as many readers turn to the Internet. Some in academia wonder if journalists are staying put to avoid losing their jobs.

This year, 83 Americans applied to the John S. Knight Fellowships Program at Stanford, down from 101 in 2006. ...

Stanford did not receive any applications from employees at The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and some other large newspapers.

“Journalists are afraid for their jobs,” said Alex S. Jones, the director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. “They are afraid that if the newspaper can go on without them for a year, their job might be in jeopardy.”