The start of the new year hasn’t been so great for us 20-somethings in the newspaper business. After hearing about another classmate from Missouri who was laid off today in Casper, Wyo., a few friends and a former professor tweeted about our frustrations with this practice. Although it’s not true of every newspaper employee in the 20-30 age group, most of us are passionate, hard workers. And getting laid off or not even being able to find work after applying to every known possibility, doesn’t really reward that drive.
And now, some of the most talented people I know are looking outside of journalism. Has anyone thought about the future?
As newspapers try to adapt to how to work with the internet and with more and more readers that don’t turn to the print product, why get rid of the employees that often fall into that category themselves? They are usually the most eager and have the most insight into what works for this changing world. I’m not saying we have all the answers, but we are open to change and embrace learning new techniques.
Although some have dismissed the idea of getting rid of a daily print product to only weekends or another variation, this is not a crazy idea. In fact, it seems quite sound to me, especially after listening to this NPR interview with John Yemma, the editor of the Christian Science Monitor, and reading this SND article about the Detroit papers changing their model.
And maybe that isn’t the answer, but at least it is moving toward thinking Web-first, which is something that all newspapers know has been an inevitable future.
I don’t like seeing anyone lose their job, and not that other options like the one Gannett seems to be taking is the answer, but it sure is getting hard for us “young people” who really want to work in newspapers and make a difference to not feel bitter and leave it all behind.
5 Comments
15 January, 2009 at 7:31 pm
It’s hard to feel sorry for you so0called young-uns, especially when the mentors and the ones who fight for you to be able to “make your mark” in this business are getting laid off, too.
Some of the people who have set the highest set of standards for accuracy, ethics and integrity are also losing their jobs.
This economic crisis hurts each of us. Sorely. We ALL are losing our jobs, and we MUST work together for this industry to survive.
15 January, 2009 at 11:20 pm
“What I Think” is making a very predictable response, and that’s a shame. This important conversation about an industry purging its talent — young and old — won’t work if old-guard types have reactionary grumpiness. Bottom line: waves of old journalists get cynical, jaded or shown the door, and they retire on a sour note; waves of young journalists get cynical, jaded or shown the door, and they all end up retiring from different professions. The first scenario is unfortunate for journalism. The latter may be a crisis.
26 January, 2009 at 5:44 pm
They’re both crisis-inducing, Spencer. Without the old to train and mentor, there is no young. Maybe we’re agreeing, Spencer.
The young have “reactionary snottiness,” if we’re going to get into “reactionary grumpiness.”
I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: This economic crisis hurts each of us. Sorely. (Especially readership and the industry overall.) We ALL are losing our jobs, and we MUST work together for this industry to survive.
That’s young AND old, Spencer. We’re a team. And there’s a TON of in-between in this profession, too.
29 January, 2009 at 5:40 am
Spencer:
Your response is predictable, too. It’s exactly what we can expect from young journos who need remedial training.
Help a young journo near you. Recommend remedial training.
29 January, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Thinker’s making good points, and I agree, we’re probably on the same page about the issue at hand. It’s simply that you don’t know the blogger here and had no cause to come on and tell a recent-college grad it was “hard to fell sorry” for her plight. And while I too embrace a respect for the past — I’m really a young history person — we do need to consider that the purging of older journos with the majority of their working years behind them, while shitty, won’t be the institutional earthquake that is the purging of all those who just started yesterday. If in ten years all us young folk are fired and the lucky few elders are retired, what then? Anyhow, anyone who knows me knows I’m militant about layoffs, and if my paper had a union, I’d be fighting over every last one.
Except for you, Heinrich. I hope someone lays you off tomorrow.