Melinda Henneberger recalls recently visiting old friends at The Dallas Morning News, where she had worked from 1984 to 1989, and being startled to see a large section of the newsroom unoccupied. “It was just so quiet,” she says. Henneberger, of course, knew why: Newspaper readership, and newspaper revenue, had been declining everywhere. The Morning News, which had already seen its rival the Dallas Times-Herald cease publication as readers spurned afternoon papers a generation ago, was responding like the others, with layoffs and downsizing.

Having a drink with a friend one warm evening after work in Philadelphia, Michelle Wisnieski, 28, rolls her eyes when asked about the stereotypes surrounding her generation.