Journalism is a wonderful hobby, but I don’t understand why anyone would study it while the industry devours its young and abandons its old.
As a Gamecock alumnus and editor with five years’ experience, I’m telling you: Don’t do it! The industry is hemorrhaging its best employees, and there’s no indication that the downward trend in job quality, pay and benefits will turn around.
My former supervisor Charles Pannunzio, a California-based freelancer with 25 years’ experience, has been seeking full-time work for the past 18 months. “Unless and until something so dramatic happens that people clamor for an independent and unbiased press, it will be harder and harder to be gainfully employed,” he told me.
“While nobody went into this for the money, you do need wages that will allow you to feed your family and live out your years. With that as a backdrop, right now, I would not encourage anyone to major in journalism.”
In my first five years as a professional, I rose from copy editor at a tiny paper to news editor at a larger one. After five years, I found myself sitting in a room full of empty desks, getting paid less than when I’d started. I quit to teach English as a second language.
My friend Rebecca Pinch told me she’d never felt particularly valued as a news photographer. “Employment is hard to come by, and no matter how good you are, you are always seen as replaceable,” she said. What’s more, “news outlets will always choose someone who will provide content for free over a really good journalist.”
Up at corporate, a popular nickname for the newsroom is the “overhead department.” Haha — not funny. For me, the breaking point came when I realized that if I worked twice as hard, doing the work of two people, I’d just be putting one of my more-experienced colleagues out of a job.
That’s not to say there are no jobs to be found. A.J. Bridges, a Virginia-based reporter with 15 years of experience, pointed out that there are always openings for fresh blood. “The papers are not going to hire another veteran reporter,” he said. “They’ll pick someone greener for less money.” So, be careful not to get too skilled and experienced, or you might be shown the door.
Phillip Blanchard, founder of the Testy Copy Editors forum and a freelance editor with 35 years of experience, left his last employer amid a flurry of buyouts. “I would advise a college student to major in pretty much anything other than journalism,” he told me.
Blanchard and others I spoke with suggested that students interested in journalism should specialize or double-major in fields such as history, economics, statistics and the sciences, while acquiring practical knowledge by working on community publications.
My cynical friend Bridges noted: “Even though I think college is a scam, a degree that requires and shows a person has writing skills can prove useful.
When I spoke with current journalists, several expressed nervousness about having their names attached to negative statements about the media, but being afraid to go on the record and say what you think about the industry at large is a pretty sad state of affairs for a professional reporter.
The last thing I’d like to say is, remember where the money comes from. The media is not “in transition” any more than the horse industry was “in transition” after the introduction of the automobile. Newspapers don’t sell stories, they sell eyeballs. Today’s media competes with every company that sells eyeballs: Facebook Google and Yahoo. And there’s just no way that a business model which demands fresh, professionally produced content is ever going to sell cheaper eyeballs than one that employs static, algorithmic or user-generated content.
Your professors should have told you: Whenever you’re confused, follow the money. Well, there it goes. “Whoosh.”
So, what’s my interest in writing this letter? I love USC, and Doug Fisher’s copy-editing class was the best I took in my four years there. But I’m doing what anyone passionate about journalism feels compelled to do: talk to people, publish what I know, and hope I can help someone.”
— Jon Turner, USC alumnus