Good journalism takes time, stupid – yet today’s young hacks are feeding off scraps
In the wake of a report about Australia’s most prolific byline collectors, Mumbrella’s Adam Thorn assesses the current state of the journalism industry. Or should that be ‘churnalism’?
Last year, I wrote a story for Mumbrella that was a bit of a passion project of mine, arguing journalism had become a profession for the rich. The gist of it was today more young people are looking for jobs in the industry than there are positions available. This means those entry-level roles that do exist tend to go to those with the most experience, something that almost entirely happens through expensive degrees and unpaid internships.
Yet what I also tried to investigate, too, was the trouble plucky journalists from ordinary backgrounds faced if they beat the odds to land their first job. Smashing through the glass ceiling, I discovered, was just the start of their problems.
To do this, I interviewed Garry Linnell, the former Daily Telegraph editor. A postman’s son from Geelong, Victoria, he began his career as a cadet for The Age and rose up to run Fairfax’s metro newspapers. A poisoned chalice position which saw him make the impossible decisions as to who got fired as the publisher’s revenue model was left decapitated by the internet. From 2011 until 2014, he let 150 full-time jobs go.
I applaud this, as I applauded your series last year. Thankyou Adam for putting into words what so many of us are thinking.
What a horrible way to describe senior journalists. What are they supposed to do? Just go away and die? This isn’t Logan’s Run. They have families and mortgages as well. And the Government has made it clear most Australians will now have to work until they are 70. Most of those seniors would have come up the hard way, working as copy kids and being treated like crap for years. Instead of blaming those ‘squatted in place’ just trying to earn a bloody living, blame the bean counters who think employing more managers and executives is more important than employing journalists.
Yes Sue, it’s not the most sympathetic of descriptions but I think Adam makes valuable points.
As a journalism student, the climate is challenging, but what a wonderful world it could be if our emerging writers were mentored and coached by those “squatted in place”, who’ve undoubtedly put in the hard yards to earn their stripes.
Yup! Well said Sue!
Hi Sue,
I didn’t blame the senior journalists, I did blame the system. I specifically mentioned the root cause of the problem was the number of journalists who have been made redundant in total.
My argument is that the senior journalists don’t want to move on because, firstly, there is no where else for them to go and, secondly, there is still an awful lot of people waiting for redundancy payouts. Garry hit the nail on the head and he was in the position to know.
I have the deepest sympathy for older journos, but in truth I have more sympathy for those that never got their chance in the first place. Those are the ones often forgotten by he industry’s problems.
Thanks,
Adam