Will everyone not leaving my profession please raise a hand?
N&R Business reporter Michelle Jarboe is leaving us to go to the Cleveland Plain Dealer — which is a move to another newspaper rather than into PR. But a lot of people I know at a lot of papers are just getting out of the business.
If it was just my paper it would be one thing — but it seems to be just a whole generation of reporters opting out early. Not that I blame them — things in the journalism biz look pretty bleak, the entire profession is changing, there wasn’t a lot of money or security in it to begin with, etc. I’m happy for people who find good, stable, high-paying jobs in other fields — particularly when they go to work for schools, as all of the N&R reporters who have recently left have done.
But still…it’s looking awfully lonely out here.
4 Comments
November 8, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Still here, bro.
November 10, 2007 at 8:18 pm
I think the mass exodus of journalists in their mid- to late-20s to other industries is a huge problem. Of course, all my evidence is anecdotal, but like you mention Joe, I’ve seen an alarming number of extremely talented journalists bail on the biz. And here I am, back in school instead of out there reporting.
There’s always been a burn-out factor in newspapers, but I wonder if industry problems haven’t caused a pushdown effect where its happening much earlier in people’s careers.
November 11, 2007 at 3:15 am
I think that is the largest part of it.
The way media is fundamentally changing plays a part too — I know a journalist my age who told me they don’t want to work for a website, they want to work for a newspaper. Since that’s becoming increasingly hard to do — journalism as it was practiced say 15 years ago — I think a lot of people get into the business expecting one thing and get another.
The layoffs, the shrinking number of good newspapers where you can make enough money to live (and pay off college loans) — that doesn’t help. The burnout comes a lot quicker when you feel insecure in your job and unsure of what it will be tomorrow rather than satisfied, even if you’re not making a lot of money.
November 19, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Journalism has always had a high burn through rate. During my 20 years in the business (which shows how stupid I am!), I’ve seen countless young reporters abandon the profession within a few years. It’s not for everyone, after all, because the hours suck, the pay is minimal, the benefits are generally poor, and newsrooms are not exactly hotbeds of support. I could go on, of course, about the positives, but why bother?
I doubt that burnout rates are really much higher than they ever were. What’s most alarming is that newspapers simply don’t employ anywhere near as many reporters anymore — and it shows. We seem to be in this endless spiral into oblivion.
Until the news business figures out a way to make serious money online, it’s going to continue to be in a hell of a mess.