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Interested in a Career in Journalism? Start Small

journalismBy Carol Froisy
Program Director, English at American Public University

This article is based on a conversation with veteran journalist, chief copy editor: Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, Northwestern journalism professor, now freelance writer/editor, and Chicago native Tom Carkeek.

Lately, it’s hard to be optimistic about the newspaper industry, primarily for two reasons: digital competition and media bias.

The costs to produce a newspaper are enormous, from newsprint and printing presses to delivery trucks and salaries. For decades, these costs could be absorbed because papers were the only game in town. If you wanted any in-depth coverage beyond short television or radio news clips, you had only one option: buy a paper.

As a result, subscription numbers (and revenue) boomed, so advertisers understood they would have to pay premium rates to reach a mass audience. Today? Not so much.

The advent of the Internet permitted news to be disseminated basically free and literally worldwide, so readers could keep up with headlines without buying a paper. Suddenly, large media companies faced heretofore non-existent competition that wrecked their business model, i.e, with so many sources now providing almost all the news for free, how can we get customers to pay for our product, either online or in print?

If newspapers instituted subscription paywalls, their readership would surely drop, so advertisers would find them less attractive. But, if they didn’t use paywalls or other types of premium subscriptions, they’d be giving away their product. Not many businesses can produce something, and give it away for nothing.

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Today, newspapers are still wrestling with this conundrum. And the results have been predictable — huge drops in readership and massive newsroom layoffs. To their credit, many news outlets have publicly acknowledged the problem.But, more retain a blind spot, namely that they don’t realize or admit to having political and/or cultural biases or leanings, so the news coverage is slanted.

When newspapers began endorsing presidential candidates, the paper became known as a “newspaper of the party.” Research compiled a decade ago by economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro at the University of Chicago found, “The data suggests that newspapers are targeting their political slant to their customers’ demand and choosing the amount of slant that will maximize their sales” (Shapiro, 2005). Chicago divided its readership between the liberal readers of the Chicago Sun-Times readers and conservative Chicago Tribune. However, not all cities adjusted to both subscription bases. Boston’s Globe and Herald are well-known liberal papers. The Gentzkow & Shapiro (2005) identified over 70% of the country’s newspapers practiced reporting with bias.

As talk radio mushroomed in the late 1980s, political and cultural conservatives began to understand that the mainstream media were not providing the whole story. Then, as digital journalism took root and right-wing readers had blogs and websites from which to draw a conservative perspective on the news, the mainstream media began hemorrhaging readers.

This trend has shown few signs of abating, and it’s difficult to see what will change it. Basically, it’s harder and harder to make money in journalism, whether you’re a newspaper owner or a rookie reporter. Low salaries, bad hours, and stiff competition make journalism a much less enticing career than it once was.

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Nonetheless, hope remains. Newspapers still thrive in many medium-sized and smaller markets. Many people, even younger folks, enjoy the feel and smell of newsprint with their morning coffee. Many smaller newspapers, much more intimately connected to their local markets, appreciate and respect the values of their readers. So, rather than assault their sensibilities on a daily basis, smaller-market newspapers are much more likely to reflect local thought and morality. If you want to go into journalism, that would be a good place to start.

Goolsbee, A. (2006, December 7). Lean Left? Lean Right? News Media May Take Their Cues From Customers. The New York Times.

About the Author: Carol Froisy is the Program Director for the English, Communication, Literature, Art History and Music departments. She has been teaching with APUS since 2007 staring as an adjunct faculty member. Carol is currently a doctoral candidate at Northcentral University. She has four children ages 40-12 and grandchildren. Her husband is retiring in July, 2015 from the United States Marine Corps after 31 years of service to our country.

 

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