Generation Intransigent? No
In almost every newspaper I've worked in, the most close-minded person I've ever come across is the 23-year-old recent grad, Rob Curley said at the National College Media Convention.
I met a lot of students at the convention. And I'm afraid I must say the next crop of entry-level journalists is about as close-minded as the present set, wrote Paul Conley, who was at the same convention.
The kids right out of college, they're the ones most likely to cling to a romanticism about being the crusading print reporter. When I talk about web-first publishing, they're the ones most likely to say, "but won't we scoop ourselves?" Or when handed a video camera, they say, "but I got in this business to be a writer," wrote Howard Owens.
I have watched commentary ricochet across the blogosphere for a week now about young journalists and their desire and ability to operate in the digital world. The above is just a sampling.
As much as I admire the writers, our experience doesn't fit the bleak picture some of them paint.
While we don't hire often journalists directly out of college, those we do have been eager to leap into the "new" world of digital media. They are smart -- smarter than my generation when we started out -- and net savvy. They aren't afraid and they aren't close-minded. If they don't know about "scooping themselves," that's OK. That's an old media norm that they learned somewhere. It's not a fundamental principle. You fix it at the same time you teach them what the deadlines are, who to pay attention to and where the bathroom is.
If someone has accepted a job as a reporter without understanding that journalism is defined by the work that is done and not whether it goes on paper first, it's not their fault. It's ours. We hired them without determining if they would fit into a culture of innovation.
Howard takes it a step further: I've heard from more than one fellow executive the tale of promising young reporters taking jobs in PR because that somehow seemed more palatable doing this online stuff.
Our own reporter Joe Killian says he is feeling lonely, what with all the reporters checking out of the business.
In the past two months, four reporters have left us for other jobs. Three to PR in one form or another, and one as a reporter with a larger newspaper. They have all been young -- for two, the News & Record was their first job out of college. For the other two, we were their second or third, I think.
Speaking as someone who left the newsroom and later returned, I understand. I am not worried about any larger meaning attached to their departures. (And they aren't similar to Howard's executive's tale.)
There are two issues here. First, we've lost some good reporters -- that always hurts -- and second, some of them are leaving the business.
A few years ago, I did a little research on our staff churn and discovered that about a dozen journalists resigned each year, their destinations pretty equally divided among other newspapers, grad school and non-journalism jobs. So what we've faced in the past two months isn't historically out of the norm.
In fact, given that most of those who leave us are young -- in their 20's and early 30's -- the idea of becoming disillusioned about the "real" world, questioning occupational choices and trying other fields are hardly unexpected. Heck, I worked in three other jobs between college and my first job at a newspaper.
If we do our job right, we will replace those who left with people who are just as good and, preferably, better. That's not a slap at those who've left; it's a goal to raise the bar, no matter how high it gets.
One of the reporters who resigned for a PR job was refreshingly candid when I asked why he was leaving. The pay is much better and the hours are regular, he said. As I have said before, journalism is a tough line of work, and you have to love it to survive for long. Will any of those who left us for PR return? I wouldn't be surprised. They are good journalists and this stuff gets in your blood. When I was out of the newsroom, I enjoyed better hours, but I desperately missed the press of deadlines, the deliberation over what tens of thousands of people would read in the morning, the camaraderie that is a valued part of a news operation, and the sense of doing something civically important.
That's hard to replicate in PR or grad school.
Comments (2)
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I took this debate to my alma mater when I spoke with the current staff of the student paper over the weekend. They seemed willing to learn what they needed to learn.
Here's the funny thing: One person had interned at a prominent site that isn't affiliated with a print product. Guess what she did? Writing. Nothing else.
Mixed message, isn't it?
Posted on November 12, 2007 4:24 PM
Some good points, especially about historical churn.
I left newspapering for political work in 1992, because I didn't like the publisher I was working for and couldn't get another newspaper job. Obviously, I came back. Glad I did. I wouldn't want to do anything else.
I recently visited some of our small papers in Kansas -- lots of enthusiasm from the web from those young reporters, especially two who basically are ready to jump into web-exclusive journalism.
See my post on fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. That's the real issue, I think.
Posted on November 20, 2007 11:22 AM