Is it just me or are today's younger journalists lazy?

Is that how I come off, TP? I was going for delightfully priggish. I'll work on it. Thanks for lighting the fire.

 

Honestly, this whole thread illustrates so many problems in this industry right now. Buck brings up a good point about how terrible the treatment from companies has become (or maybe has been for a while, depending on who you work for). Are younger journalists lazy? That's a generalization, but my guess is that most of the hardest working ones, the intelligent ones and the talented ones, like Crimson Tide perhaps, have given up hope and moved on to much more lucrative jobs in PR, etc. More money, better treatment, better living conditions, brighter futures.

So what you are left with is people who are satisfied with what they're doing. That doesn't mean lazy, but hey, why work 60 hour weeks for next to nothing if you really don't think you're getting anywhere. I'm not saying that's a mind-set you should have, but hell, even people in this business 30 years have been frustrated, laid off or downright fucked in the ass.

There are a lot of problems in the newspaper business right now and it's causing many of the best and brightest of the NEXT generation to follow other avenues. When you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, when promotions seem to be based more on nepotism than ability, when half the people you come across are looking to stab you in the back and hold you down rather than help you move up, eventually it gets the best of you.

I hope that's not true for a lot of people -- particularly some of the younger writers posting on this thread -- because I do love newspapers and I truly want to think there is a possibility of a bright future, but man, it looks worse and worse every day.

 

Well said. 8)

 

Floyd is right.

I could have a more lucrative living if I work for my father-in-law. He's looking to build a bigger store before he retires, and would selling groceries in a small town be that bad? The work is steady, the land is cheap, it's secluded and only one hour from the big city. I could even write about the high school teams for the free weekly in town if I wanted to keep writing.

So, I figure why bullshit these interviews with managers who have obviously never worked after 6 p.m. a day in their careers? Maybe I'll get hired, maybe I won't. If I don't present who I am to them and not some kiss-ass version, then there would be tension down the road anyway.

But, in my defense, that broad was out of her mind.

 

Or you could do what my sports editor does and say, "Hey, instead of spending time covering the nationally-ranked JUCO basketball program we're paying you to cover, why don't you cover a nonconference small-school basketball game betwen a couple 2-5 teams tonight and then work on your college stuff on your day off without pay."

If I deny such request or take it begrudgingly, does that pigeon-hole me into the category of "lazy, young journalist?"

I'd kill for extra work if it was seen as a step up that I could use (NFL sidebars, stuff like that is a great example), but all my extra work comes doing the prep work I did for about two years to get to cover JUCO sports, or it comes as sharing design, editing or photo responsibilities that an understaffed sports department needs filled. So it gets hard to be motivated to do all that extra work when I know it'll come at the expense of quality coverage of my beat and the amount of time I'll have to work on the things that will help me move upward in this business.

The Beastie Boys were right. Upper management just don't understand. '-)

 

So ... at what age again have you paid all your dues? 28? 30?

 

I don't think anyone here is complaining about paying their dues. I think they all WANT to work. But we're not slaves either. We're not working an extra desk shift on a Saturday night because it's fun or covering a dixie league baseball game because we just love the action. It's to get ahead. And yet, I can see how people might feel like that extra work they are doing is totally taken for granted because, let's face it, it probably is. I know very few journalists who aren't passionate about what they do. But take away hope for their future and that passion can't help but be overcome by long hours, shitty pay and bad working conditions.

We pay our dues in hopes of getting something better, whether it's at 28, 38 or 108. Everyone will have a different idea of what their standard for success is, and maybe sometimes it's unreasonable. But regardless, I don't know anyone who doesn't at least want to feel like they are making progress, and too many people, due to the current climate of the industry, don't feel that way.

I know it's an easy thing for the older guys on here to sit back and say that the younger guys need to pay their dues. But I don't many people who aren't willing to do that. They just want to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I can see why they might not see that.

 

Floyd, I think the light you want to see at the end of the tunnel is not necessarily there. And yes, that is why people get a little bitter down the line.

Simply put, the "shit" jobs involved in producing a newspaper are never going to go away. It doesn't MATTER whether you've paid dues or not. There's still going to be that extra agate slot to fill, and there's still going to be those Fridays when the D-I football beat writer has to take some high school basketball call-ins.

 

What exactly are my dues in this business? At the age of 26 I can tell you that I've not yet begun to pay my dues. With only three seasons of sports under my belt, I'm still very much in the phase of proving to everyone else that I can do this and more importantly, proving to myself that this is what I want to do.

So I don't know what dues we're talking about. Are we talking hours, "bad" stories, slogging through the menial tasks? Is it a matter of working 60 hours and writing down 40, or is it acceptable to expect to be compensated for the work we do? Is it churning out gamer after gamer when more ambitious, impactful stories are out there, waiting to be told? At what age/experience level does anyone deserve to be considered a pro and write those stories? I don't know. What makes any of us think that we deserve to tell other people's stories?

Part of me is simply playing devil's advocate here and part of me is serious. My guess is we all will pay our dues throughout the span of our careers as we prove that we can find new ways of telling very familiar stories. Unless any of us can ultimately claim that we're the best at this in the industry (which we can't), it's our responsibility to improve our craft. Thoughts?

 

That it won't be improved. That's the first thing that comes to mind.

The second thing is there are people out there who have figured out ways to do things that don't include 60-hour weeks, churning out the same lame gamers again and again. A few of them might even post here.

 

I don't get it dyepack, what are you trying to say here? It sounds to me like RFB has a pretty good attitude about things.

 

That if he wants to write those stories, then he should write those stories, damn the torpedoes.

Then, if/when he fails, he can sing "My Way" on the way out the door.