For the Record
Dean Wright on Ethics, Innovation and Values
Surviving the shakeup: Young journos and a revolution in news
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards.
Finally. The U.S. newspaper industry has come up with a brilliant solution to its profitability problem and will embark on a new wave of hiring journalists to staff its newsrooms and… Darn, I always wake up at that point, then turn to Romenesko to confirm that, yes, I was dreaming.
For those of us who have two or three decades behind us in our careers, the outlook is daunting. But what about journalists who have three and more decades of work ahead of them? How do they get out of bed in the morning and face the day?
I asked my assistant, Ben Frumin, that question and suggested he write about it. As you’ll see, Ben, a product of Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism, faces the future with “a strange combination of short-term skepticism and long-term optimism.” It’s gratifying that the talented new generation of journalists still has faith in the future of our profession, even while much of the news industry struggles to reinvent itself. (Of course, his opinions are his own, as are mine.)
Let’s hear from Ben.
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It’s only April, and already 2009 has been the worst year in my lifetime (and in the lifetimes of journalists three times my age) for the U.S. newspaper industry. And judging from the frequent “Woes-R-Us” conversations I have with other 20-something reporters and writers, an entire generation of journalists is close to losing hope.
Hi
hi there, good article. my media, water.ca breaks even right now and we have high hopes for the next three years. the trick if there is one is to stop being a journalist for a minute and start being a business person. if your in school find an mba or economics major to talk to. not one that says media and rolls their eyes, one that says cool! a challenge.your question premise is this, how if i am a subcontracting journalist do i do this. the gig analogy is on the money. there are hundreds and hundreds of web sites now looking for content,not one does it all. get real good at one overall topic, sell different stories across the board about it. the web site will tell you what they’ll pay and what they want. like the old timer editors. as content providers ap,reuters start
to clamp down on folks that essentially pirate their stuff, the empty space needs to be filled….by you. make sure you know how to do a ten second video clip, audio clip, and text for any story. they’ll tell you the mix they want. the newspapers going broke is a natural happening, old dogs die off right? your the new dogs, its a new way, stop thinking newspaper,start thinking gigs!
dont give up and dont give in.
bob brouse
water.ca