Time was, you wrote a scathing op-ed, you won awards. The chilling effect here is not a one-time thing; it's going to discourage an entire generation from entering journalism, cutting their teeth at college outlets and getting the major fuckups out of their systems before finally getting serious.
The corporate model at this point would make Goebbels proud, but that's not the only path. Thing is, every journey starts with a first step, and if you remove that, there's no destination. The media will start looking like Congress, with very few young people involved.
Ironically, this is not going to make Gannett, Sinclair or any other dysfunctional corporate "journalism" conglomerate happy. They rely on a meat grinder of recent college grads who are still idealistic and ready to work for insulting pay. The knock-on effects here are rather self-evident but will take a few years to become fully apparent. This is a step toward making sure corporate media can't function in the future, which should be alarming to shareholders of those companies.
You think growth looks bad now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
Over on r/journalism, a frequently asked question is what grad school to go to, as though a master's in journalism gets you any net benefits. The currency in the industry is clips, not degrees. The whole system breaks down if people don't feel safe learning by doing.