This. Absolutely this. The industry is irrelevant, everybody's gotta grind.
There's a whole separate (yet completely worthwhile) conversation about whether the OP should abort attempts to get into the journalism industry at all, but it appears that he's made up his mind on that topic already.
Some money is better than no money. Some, any, relevant paid experience is better than stacking freaking boxes overnight at Walmart for a few dollars more an hour. Hell, if you need to make ends meet work at Walmart too. You've got nothing else to do, grind it out.