With many predictions swirling around for what 2008 will hold, allow me to continue the gimmick.
I believe that 2008 will be the beginning of a movement in journalism where graduates will opt to carve their own path rather than be another layoff at a slow adopting newspaper or magazine.
What do I mean by “carve their own path”? In short, the Internet and the entrepreneurial spirit.
I think some young journalists are growing increasingly frustrated with playing by someone else’s rules. Rules that require innovation to shoot up the corporate hierarchy and back down again. Thus making someone’s bright idea in January old news by February. These rules still play by the old concepts of distribution. And these rules have journalism students busting their asses for an internship that pays nothing, when a well-written blog can pull in enough to at least pay for
One, “Generation-Y” (I absolutely hate that term, but thats most likely another blog post) features a large number of entrepreneurs. Enough that Inc magazine declares “may well be on its way to becoming the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation’s history”. The article rightly states that we saw many of our parents that were laid off or outsourced, and we want avoid that fate.
And two, our generation is increasingly becoming disgruntled with larger national trends such as paying into Social Security that we will never see, the decrease of medical benefits, and the loss of pensions from the job market. To me, this takes nearly every advantage away from being part of a large corporation. I’m aware that the increase in individual student loan debt might counteract this, but I feel that we more than any other generation literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Perhaps I am being short sighted, and I know that nearly every writer would like to start their own magazine someday but never before that the resources been so cheap and so readily available. And never before has the “traditional path” looked less appealing.
11 Comments to “Our disgruntled young journalists”
Posted: Jan 17th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hey Sean, I guess I am a disgruntled young journalist of sorts. So I set up my own online magazine focussing on opinion pieces which are contrarian to the mainstream.
Posted: Jan 17th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Hey John, Do you know any body else who has done the same, and did you go to school for journalism?
Posted: Jan 19th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I was talking with the Kernel’s newspaper adviser yesterday about a news piece he watched on the 11 o’clock news. It was about monks who grow out their hair and sell it for thousands of dollars to be turned into wigs. The value of the hair is ridiculous, just because of whose it was. He said it was an amazing piece of work, one of time and effort.
At the end of the piece, the byline played. One woman’s name. One woman did all of the video with one camera. She wrote the story board. She edited the material. And then she sold it to this station.
I would say we’re well on our way my friend.
Posted: Jan 20th, 2008 at 9:54 am
My grad class at Ohio University is embarking on just that this quarter. We wear the hats the publisher, the editor, the journalist, and producer. We just finished up writing our mission statements for our publications and in less than two weeks will be out in the field for 10 days shooting and reporting on our piece. My publication will be an online magazine as are most of the products my classmates are producing. It’ll be interesting to see what comes it.
Posted: Jan 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Best of luck, but just a thought: You might need a day job. Yeah, a few will make this happen, but for most the economic math will be daunting.
Posted: Jan 20th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
[…] Blanda’s post about disgruntled young journalists inspired this post. It’s worth reading, and I encourage him and others to forgo the […]
Posted: Jan 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
The great joke of the Internet is the idea it would lead to a fundamental shift in how money is distributed across the media landscape. All it’s done is to get thousand (millions?) to work for free or $25 a blog post.
Being an entrepreneur is not a new concept. Most people call it “freelancing.” And like everything else, for every 100 people who bust their tails and spend a lot of their own money to make it big maybe two or three score a regular Vanity Fair gig.
Not saying your wrong, just that what your proposing has never happened in the history of anything and there’s no reason to believe it will now.
People make a lot of money online when they’re able to convince someone who already has a lot of money that an idea will make them more. Nobody is willing to pay for journalism, on the investment or consumption end.
It breaks my heart, but it’s reality.
Posted: Jan 21st, 2008 at 1:56 am
@matt “Nobody is willing to pay for journalism” Nobody ever did pay for journalism. Newspapers were always sold at a loss, with ads being the primary way to pay the bills. On the Web, the costs are drastically lower with an ever increasing amount of ad revenue.
I can understand what I have written being cast off as youthful idealism about technology and journalism, and I hope I don’t come off as some punk running his mouth. I am just calling it like I see it.
Also by being an entrepreneur, I was more referring to magazines, blogs, and Web sites rather than freelancing, but yes freelancing is entrepreneurship.
“what your proposing has never happened in the history of anything and there’s no reason to believe it will now.”
Of course my kneejerk reaction to this is to say, “if we all had that attitude, nothing new would ever happen”. But that mind set is really indicative of how many of my peers see journalism: unwilling to do anything new just because “that’s the way it has always been”.
Posted: Jan 21st, 2008 at 7:11 am
Blanda - No I didn’t go to journalism school, my training has very much been on the job. Plus I grew up around journalists so I had the influence when growing up. I studies Politics. The people involved in Journalism that I know are not really tuned into the online space, they are more old school magazine/print journalism types.
Posted: Jan 21st, 2008 at 8:10 am
I started a small and community site focused on Dalian, China, a few months back, mostly because I lived there and wanted local news. The barriers to entry really are low enough that a lot of experimentation is possible without much risk. The thing hasn’t made a dime, but the learning experience has been priceless.
The site lives at http://www.daliandalian.com, for anyone interested.
Posted: Jan 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 am
[…] Our disgruntled young journalists. Sean Blanda: “I believe that 2008 will be the beginning of a movement in journalism where graduates will opt to carve their own path rather than be another layoff at a slow adopting newspaper or magazine.” Interesting post; interesting comments. […]
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