AboutJay Magoo (a pseudonym) Expertise I can answer questions about how newspapers determine what is news and what isn`t, about protocol in dealing with editors and other reporters, about the best way to use news sources and public records, and about how to survive in the ultra-competitive world that newspapers exist in today.
Experience I worked for 28 years as a reporter and an editor. Most of my career was with two major metropolitan newspapers in the Northeastern United States. Now retired.
Organizations Sigma Delta Chi
Education/Credentials University of Pennsylvania, Bachelor of Arts in English
Question My daughter was interested in journalism until the last year when it seemed the entire industry was going to go belly up! I've worked for newspapers since 1979 starting as a receptionist for a weekly art newspaper to my present career as a graphic designer in the advertising department of a company that owns several newspapers.
My daughter loved being around the newspaper business and wrote for her high school paper her junior and senior year. She also had a few articles in the local community paper. She's a good writer. She is now attending a great college. In her top list of career ideas she has moved journalism to number 4 or 5.
She was really excited about becoming an investigative reporter but now has put that idea on the back burner because she thinks a career as a journalist will no longer exist in 4 or 5 years and if it does they will be very difficult to get. Do you think she's made the right choice by possibly giving up on that career or is there hope for the future of journalism? Is there another way to do what she sees as interesting and important writing in the media?
Answer Dear Ms. Morkin,
My assessment isn't nearly as glum as yours. While it is true that the 20th Century brand of journalism that I spend my career in between 1968 and 1998 is changing, I don't believe journalism as an institution is in danger of extinction. The Internet is changing the way we deliver news, but it is not changing the need for news, and especially the need for honest and accurate news. We have abominations like "Fox News" who distort and dishonor the truth daily, but we have always had dishonest and lying news outlets. Consider that the Chicago Tribune started the Spanish American war one hundred years ago. People everywhere will always thirst for news. That's part of being civilized. The newspaper as we know it may go into eclipse, and nobody will be sadder to see that happen than me. And that is largely because the business model of the newspaper is built on advertising and the advertising dollars are going to television and to the Internet. I know, I worked for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin from 1968 until it went out of business in 1982, and the culprit was declining ad revenues. Nothing else.
But the delivery of news will change because people still want news. There will always be a need for journalists to interview newsmakers, to research laws and documents, and to write and make sense of the news. They may work in an old-fashioned newsroom like I did, or they might sit in front of a laptop, or some other contraption that hasn't yet been invented. We will always need those with the brains and the drive, and the honesty, to gather and write the news. I advise your daughter to subscribe to a newsletter called MediaBistro.com to get up to date information on the news business from a working journalist's point of view. Media Bistro concentrates on the New York area, but in the world of publishing and journalism, the heartbeat and brains reside in New York. In Media Bistro she will undoubtedly see leads and tips on other sources of information. Tell he to stay flexible and to keep looking. That's what an investigative reporter does.
I could go on and on. There will be jobs for dedicated people like your daughter. I am encouraged by reading your letter, and if she is as sharp as you think she is, she will find a way to exercise her talents. I don't know what those ways will be because things are still changing, but I am confident that there will always be a need for tough, honest, hard-working journalists. People want to know what's happening, and the clever people among us will devise profitable ways to tell them.
If she were my daughter, I would encourage her to do some thorough research into the field of journalism. I would have her read the Columbia Journalism Review, published by the Columbia University School of Journalism, news magazines like The Nation, and as many business magazine articles on journalism as she can find. And of course read the New York Times daily, if she doesn't already. She can also search the Internet for scholarly articles on the future of Journalism. I'm sure there are some that will give her a perspective. A sharp, young investigative reporter should be able to determine for herself whether or not journalism is a viable field for her to be in. I'd love to be 22 or 23 today and have the challenge of determining for myself what I wanted to do with my life. I strongly suspect I would choose journalism again.
