Want to be a journalist? Here’s some good news about the news
By: Inês Messias
Tags: Journalism, Business, Media Criticism

A career as a journalist isn’t, usually, well regarded by families and friends. They might tell you the employment rate is low, that newspapers are closing, remind you that some people don’t even trust the news, and that entire governments attack reporters.

Unfortunately, on that matter, they are (partly) right; at least the data available says so.

According to a paper published by Pew Research Center, the number of newspaper newsroom employees has, actually, dropped by 51% between 2008 and 2019, from about 71,000 workers to 35,000.

Moreover, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the “overall employment of reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts is projected to decline 11 percent from 2019 to 2029. Declining advertising revenue in radio, newspapers, and television will harm employment growth for these occupations”.

The level of trust in news isn’t the best either. A study developed by the Reuters Institute for Journalism shows that only 38% of the population believes in what the media tells them.

And then there’s violence: physical and emotional. This year, the Comité to Protect Journalists registered a record number of journalists jailed worldwide as well as a high number of killing impunity.

This alone, might not be encouraging. I am aware of that. But I wanted to share the bad news, before providing the happy, exciting, ones.

The good news

The duopoly might end

For the last few years, publishers have complained about Facebook and Google not paying their fair share for news content that they benefit from.

This might be about to change.

During the UBS Global TMT Virtual Conference, the News Corp CEO, Robert Thomson, stated that the negotiations with Facebook and Google are in an “advanced stage”, as reported by the “Press Gazette”

Furthermore, Thomson believes that the new adtech that will be introduced is going to provide a better level of transparency for news organizations and higher revenues.

Also, governments — both in the EU and the US — are pushing these companies to end anti-competitive behaviors.

This means more profits for digital media and more opportunities for small businesses.

2. New business models

Editors are finally realizing that they should charge people for quality journalism. And people seem, actually, willing to pay for it.

The most popular business model is the paywall.

There are several types of the paywall. Some block the user’s access. Others allow the reading of some articles per month. Others restrict only some selected articles.

Some journalists consider that this strategy will not save journalism. However, in some newspapers, the new model is working.

The “New York Times”, for example, exceeded the 7 million subscribers mark in November.

This might happen because the “Times” is a well-established newspaper, with enough money available to invest in a marketing strategy. But it also means that, when the product is good, people will buy it.

3. People still want to be informed, but in different formats

If you don’t live under a rock, you have probably realized that podcasts and newsletters are a great new thing.

A study by Reuters Institute, which analyzed the popularity of podcasts in six countries — USA, UK, France, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark — have demonstrated that despite the news podcasts compose, only 1% of the whole audio universe, they are heard by around 10% of the assiduous consumers of these products.

Some of these podcasts even attract more audiences than the printed editions of the newspapers. For instance “The Daily”, from “New York Times”, is heard, daily, by four million citizens.

The same is happening for newsletters. An article published by Carlos Castilho in the Brazilian site “Observatório da Imprensa” shows that most American sports journalists (80%) are already editing their own newsletter.

And there is financial logic behind it: the low cost of Internet distribution and the possibility of “micropayments” for many subscribers.

Furthermore, people seem to especially like these emails because they can select the kind of content they like to read, since there are a lot of offers available: from politics to music, from technology to crime.

4. The robots aren’t taking over. At least for now

Artificial Intelligence has been around for some time now. Machines started writing simple texts about the weather or a football match result. But now, they can publish full essays and present the news.

However, there are things exclusive to human journalists, like emotions and empathy. Humans still have the advantage of sensibility, insight, and of following ethics and deontology.

And, for now, audiences still prefer that.