This interview brings up a number of points about the gulf between how a newsroom works and how bean-counters would like a newsroom to work. Unfortunately, it also shows that the latter has been working well enough for 17 months to keep getting the paper out.
I don’t envy younger journalists for whom this is the introduction to the industry, but the time to get out of corporate journalism is now. Yes, it’s a career that is an identity, and it’s fucking crushing to have it in the rear view, but today’s job market favours those just out of college across industries, so clinging on without adequate pay only makes getting out of the field worse when you’ve crossed the Rubicon and have extensive experience doing things no other industry wants.
Obviously, this is ultimately a story about the lack of labour protections from the government. Crucially, though, individual strikes are not moving the needle on that front. Some publishers have negotiated new contracts, but the ones that haven’t – and this is an excellent example – are not going to change what they’re doing: delay after delay until someone tells them they can’t.
That day coming is an “if,” not a “when.”
Most journalists want to do the right thing and see the work as crucial to societal function. However, losing years that one can never get back, either from an income standpoint or just health and energy is the wrong call.
This interview brings up a number of points about the gulf between how a newsroom works and how bean-counters would like a newsroom to work. Unfortunately, it also shows that the latter has been working well enough for 17 months to keep getting the paper out.
I don’t envy younger journalists for whom this is the introduction to the industry, but the time to get out of corporate journalism is now. Yes, it’s a career that is an identity, and it’s fucking crushing to have it in the rear view, but today’s job market favours those just out of college across industries, so clinging on without adequate pay only makes getting out of the field worse when you’ve crossed the Rubicon and have extensive experience doing things no other industry wants.
Obviously, this is ultimately a story about the lack of labour protections from the government. Crucially, though, individual strikes are not moving the needle on that front. Some publishers have negotiated new contracts, but the ones that haven’t – and this is an excellent example – are not going to change what they’re doing: delay after delay until someone tells them they can’t.
That day coming is an “if,” not a “when.”
Most journalists want to do the right thing and see the work as crucial to societal function. However, losing years that one can never get back, either from an income standpoint or just health and energy is the wrong call.