I run into people in technology who were on their high school (and college) newspapers in various capacities all the time, and it amuses me greatly. (I was EIC.)

If anything correlates, it was that the newspaper kept me chained to the computer lab for hours and hours — far more than all my friends and probably than any other elective would have provided for. Just like Hunter mentions, it also got me experimenting with PageMaker and, later, InDesign.

Do you think your newspaper got you into tech?

Interesting! Never thought about my trajectory into tech as starting there, but did spend a lot of time in the "What's What" office in High School (News Editor!). There's something about the desire to produce valuable, well designed content and deliver it quickly thats common between journalism and tech. Newspapers and websites are almost always teams too -- you collaborate or you disappear.

From my experience, the people I met at my college newspaper (I'm still in college) are among the most curious and innovative people I've met. It might stem from the fact that everyone is lamenting the end of journalism and our passion for journalism makes us think harder about how to make it work. They know how to use social media to their advantage, share entrepreneurial journalism ideas, dabble with coding, etc. to fit the "times."