General state of the industry thread.

I'm a little skeptical they even care. The readers will get used to it. Surely that paper has been shrinking to nothing like all papers. After a few more weeks they'll get used to having no high school coverage and that will be that. There will not be complete coverage online, either. Newspapers are dropping preps fast and furious. Allegedly the pageviews reek and there's nobody around to take the scores and summaries like the old days. Newsside certainly isn't going to assist. The suits don't care. And no way that 9 p.m. deadline will change. Too bad boomers. No soup, I mean no preps for you.

 

Really no point to publish on Saturday now.

 

Truly. Unless, of course, there is major breaking news. But that can be online only.

 

It's unfortunate where the industry has gone. Very few papers will even have a print edition in 10 years. There also will be very few jobs. It's a sad state for the industry but just means people have to go the PR route.

 

People, mainly companies, will pay greatly to keep their image intact.

 

I'm 24 and working at a small town paper. Been fun for a little while, but everything seems to be going to shit now. I've applied to pretty much every journalism job that I'd consider "higher" than my current one and heard nothing back. I know I'm a good sports writer and I planned on paying my dues here for a year or two, which I was fine with. Apartment lease ends in six months and I'm trying to figure out what to do. Is it as easy to get a PR/marketing job as some people say it is? I'd like to pretend my skills would translate, but I don't see who in their right mind would hire me for a job I have no experience at. Sigh

 

If you stay at your current job will you be the next person fired from sports when the next round of layoffs occur? If this is the case given the state of the industry I would get the hell out if you can not find a better paper.

 

You're still a cub. Unless you're writing scoops that capture the national attention, you'll be there for a while.

PR/marketing are no where near the same as journalism. You'll write, but it'll be carefully worded press releases that doesn't cast the organization you're working for in any kind of bad light. Your writing will likely go through a rigorous approval process and will likely be invisible to the public.

Don't jump into PR/marketing just because there are jobs. I've met plenty of former journalists who got swept up by the golden handcuffs and can't pursue something they enjoy because they're too reliant on the money.

 

Unmentioned by the others - What's your money situation? It shouldn't be the end all, be all of the decision you make, but in my 20s, I racked up some credit card debt and could barely make ends meet, and it's still kind of haunting me to this day. If with the lease, you're still banking some money, kicking into a 401k or retirement fund, then it might be worth sticking around. If you're barely making ends meet, I'd start looking for something non-reporting to do.

The other thing about those "higher" journalism jobs is that many of them don't exist anymore, unfortunately. My most recent full-time journalism employment was at a Gatehouse paper, and they eliminated the sports editor position - it fell to a freelancer to provide an article or two every couple of days, otherwise, it was just wire. The last open sports job at a metro paper in the area was taken by someone who was already freelancing there - Nice guy and definitely qualified, but I imagine it's incredibly hard to get hired on as an outside candidate in most places now.

 

I am in the exact same situation and had the same hopes and dreams. Recently I started applying to PR/communication/marketing jobs and have a lot of success getting interviews. They are all looking for strong writers. It might be different type of content but it's still writing. Plus, you're making at least double the pay. My thinking is, I can always freelance or join some sports website and writing something here and there.

 

Networking is a big deal. Not just privately, but publicly too. Don’t belittle the importance of social media. I personally follow most of the sportswriters at dailies not only in my region, but most of them across my entire state. While I might not care about everything that they post, you never know when a connection you make on social media can lead to something further down the road. A news article from across the state can lead to a feature or column of your own down the road. It can also help you keep tabs on former players or coaches from your area who moved across the state and are having success. The familiarity goes both ways too. If you’re applying for a job at a paper and they’ve already developed a connection through social media with you or at least know of you, that familiarity and name recognition can give you a bit of a leg up early in the application process.

Finally, don’t just look at “higher” jobs. If it’s considered a lateral move professionally but can be a better situation for you personally, don’t be afraid to make the move. Do your research on these jobs as much as you can. If it’s somewhere that likes to promote from within, a lateral move right away might be the right thing to do in the long run. Heck, sometimes even a “step down” can be the right career move to make if it’s a situation where you fit in well or could even work your way up faster.