It is a truth almost universally acknowledged in the world of magazine production that InDesign is preferable over Quark. Even with the new Quark Xpress 8 attempting to close the gap by playing catch up, InDesign CS4 ensures that Adobe manage to stay one step ahead. A quick survey of my coursemates revealed that no more than 2 or 3 out of over 40 had done work experience somewhere that still used Quark, and yet there is insistence on teaching it. IPC, Emap, BBC Worldwide, NatMags, Future Publishing, Haymarket, Conde Nast, Dennis Publishing, Bauer, John Brown Publishing, Hachette Filipacchi, and IDG are all on InDesign.
The most irritating factor is that the main apparent reason for using Quark in the first place was the building of the new journalism department not being complete. Now that it is open, it is suggested that switching dtp programmes would cause mass confusion, despite many requests. InDesign is more widely used, more compatible with photoshop and illustrator (obviously, being part of the Adobe package), and, I would say, more intuitive, why prevent students from using it?
Student Journalist, Magazine Fancier 