To change the question, "When did 'lawyers and such' start being taught in school?"And the answer to that will, IMHO, turn out to be in the late 1800s and early, yea unto mid, 1900s. Certainly the framers of the Constitution who were lawyers became lawyers by reading the library of law book which a practicing lawyer had. John Adams loved his tutor in the law, who charged Adams a fee for teaching him - but the agreement Adams signed made that fee payable at Adams' convenience.
Benjamin Franklin apprenticed to his older brother in a print shop (and ran away before his apprenticeship was completed), started his own print shop in Philadelphia, prospered, set up franchise operations in other colonies, and retired rich in his forties.
In my own field of engineering, Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel U.) and MIT and probably many other similar institutions were founded in the 1890s - yet apprenticeship was considered the normal means of attaining professional status as late as WWII. WWII produced a crisis in the engineering profession because the behaviors of things like radar microwaves were incomprehensible without the kind of mathematical background that scientists - but not apprenticeship-trained engineers - had.
So it was only after WWII that earning an engineering degree from an accredited college became the normal, accepted method of entering the profession. But with or without such degree, to be a licensed professional engineer still requires a resume signed by someone who already has that license. So apprenticeship or at least mentorship is still an issue today.
But there cannot be an issue of licensing in journalism; the First Amendment is your license to practice that profession.
Thank you. I asked the question because I remember reading Drudge wanted to work at the ComPost but was basically snubbed because he did not come from a journalistic school or have that background. Instead, he did what you stated in your post - he started his own "newspaper." I see and hear the disdain from the journalists when they discuss the blogs and internet sites. It seems these people are quite upset someone is horning in on their action.