Is the Future of Journalism Independent?
By: Michael Furnari
Tags: Future Of Work, Journalism, Media Criticism

What would a landscape look like where more journalists splintered away from the biggest news organizations? Publications already rely heavily on the ability of their journalists to build their own brands, self-promote, and drive clicks back to their websites. Journalists who have developed a following have the opportunity to strike out on their own, monetize their content in ways that institutional media companies have not, and work on their own budget.

In this paradigm, journalists would have to put in a substantial amount of legwork to essentially do the work of a small media company. If pure subscription numbers were not enough to raise satisfactory revenue, creators would likely have to incorporate merchandise sales and individual sponsorship promotions much like those that radio stations and podcasters can make money from. The diverse revenue streams many popular Youtube creators use could be a blueprint for how the same business model can be translated to more serious content.

One issue with a potential reality where less journalistic content is available for free and media consumption becomes increasingly niche is that information on the internet would end up becoming more expensive, not more available. There is a fine line between paying to support quality journalism and turning information into a luxury commodity and not a public service. If only those who are willing to pay and are already highly interested are consuming journalism, there could be huge socioeconomic gaps between who consumes informative content and who consumes almost entirely entertainment.

One positive of this reality is that small groups of people with intense interest would be able to get information on a subject that may not be marketable to the general public. For example, a narrative that has emerged in recent years as local newspapers have gone out of business is that smaller communities know less and less about their local politicians. If the local paper is not there to cover local politics, politicians can fly under the radar and become less accountable.

However, in a paradigm where journalists are independently dispersed and catering to emerging audiences, a local political reporter could do in-depth reporting on local politics for a subscriber base of a few thousand interested citizens. A few thousand people may not be enough to keep a newspaper afloat, but a few thousand paying subscribers could absolutely support an independent journalist. This is the kind of reporting that, in the current reality, would not meet the profitability standard for most media companies.

The pitfall of this future that journalists sympathetic to traditional media structures would point to is the lack of editorial oversight and potential for abuse in a free-for-all system of independent journalists. Without institutional oversight, it is easy to force a scenario where journalists compromise their integrity for greater access to sources or under-the-table compensation.

If media companies no longer were the dominant forces in journalism, content driven by brands and non-media companies would also help fill the void. Brands could end up contracting these independent journalists to fund certain content, this is another area where there may be confusion as to what content is sponsored or paid for under the table, and what is truly independent.

In this reality, the need for journalists to be credentialed with college degrees or experience would completely evaporate. This generation of independent, potentially unorthodox journalists, may even form new norms for ethics and practices different from those that have traditionally defined journalism in recent decades.

The benefit of this paradigm would be that individual journalists would not be cogs in a larger business. Time and time again, good journalists have been layoff casualties of downturns in business at media companies. In some circumstances, no matter how well journalists perform, the larger economics of their media companies make it difficult to find stable job security.

Freelancing is by its nature precarious, but the potential for audience connection and feedback would dramatically change the relationship between journalists and their audiences.

This change is certainly not inevitable, major media companies could diversify their content and distribution to branch out into spaces that are mostly dominated by independent creators. This move has already happened to some companies. As media companies from newspapers to Spotify branch out into podcasting, the opportunity for diversifying revenue and attracting more independent audiences is in front of them. There could also be a reality where media companies use their greater financial advantage to invest in more compelling content for social media and YouTube.

Freelancing is already a reality in media, so the thought of fewer journalists being full-time employees of media companies is not far-fetched in principle. The difference is that in the current situation freelancers do the same basic journalistic jobs that employees do. If media companies broke from their formats and had their top talent doing more independent style content through podcasting, short-form video, and content designed for social media, media companies could replicate some of the success that independent creators have had and generate opportunities that could discourage top talent from going independent.

In the long-term, one of the biggest issues for big media companies and news organizations is that consumers of traditional media, both digital and on television, are aging and those consumers are not being replaced. Whether journalists like it or not, many young people are looking to influencers like Joe Rogan and Phillip DeFranco for news before they’re looking to people with traditional journalism backgrounds.

Going forward, journalists will have to compete in these independent spaces, and if traditional media companies are not going to develop working strategies for these platforms, the continued rise of independent journalists seems likely.