Inside Report (2)

Writing a Page 1 story is nice, but I'd rather make some money.

That seems to be the new line taken by today's journalism students. Time was when the glory of uncovering another Watergate and of getting one's name in print - at lower-than-average salaries - brought students flocking to the news-editorial departments of the nation's J-schools.

Today, J-schools report a sharp rise in interest in the more lucrative areas of public relations and advertising. At the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism, for instance, only 6.3 percent of its students chose advertising in 1976. Now advertising students outnumber their news-editorial counterparts.

Says one J-school official: ''I see very few incoming students whose reason for coming is to improve the world. Students are much more interested now . . . in what kind of a job they'll have and their pay and responsibilities.''