the future of journalism

about me:
reporter & newsreader for Viking FM
multimedia journalist
Blogger! www.adamwestbrook.co.uk
Twitterererer! @AdamWestbrook

The decline of journalism: in numbers
Decline of journalism:
The average fleet street hack supplies 300% more content than they did in 19
July 2008-January 2009: 4,000 job losses in media; 1,000 of them journalists
54% of content in newspapers is from PR companies
60 local papers have closed in the last few months
Source: The Investigations Fund
www.investigationsfund.org

The decline of journalism: in its own headlines

why are newspapers, tv and radio struggling?
TV satellite, youtube
Radio iPods, spotify, podcasts
Newspapers the internet
loss of classifieds
free news content The internet has had a massive impact on
loss of advertisers traditional media.
For newspapers the real killer hasn't been the
loss of advertisers so much as the rise of
Craigslist, Gumtree and the free classifieds.

But still, there is a clear shift from paper to
online ad spend

Robert G Picard's argument in “Why journalists deserve low pay” in Christian
Science Monitor
Has journalism lost its value?
In the past journalism had three economic values:
Journalists were experts in things the public were not
Journalists had access to people the public did not
Journalists had a monopoly over the distribution of news

Has journalism lost its value?
In the past journalism had three economic values:
Journalists were experts in things the public were not
Journalists had access to people the public did not
Journalists had a monopoly over the distribution of news
no long have exclusive access to people the public don't...and they definitely do not hav

My point here:
journalism is at a
crossroads.
The way behind us
is no longer viable.
But the road ahead
is uncertain too.
We're all clumped
in the middle
arguing about
where to go next.

What will the reporter of the future be like?

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Photographer

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Photographer
Film maker

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Photographer
Film maker
Web designer

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Photographer
Film maker
Independent/freelance
Web designer

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Photographer
More than a
journalist
Film maker
Independent/freelance
Web designer

What will the reporter of the future be like?
Blogger
Entrepreneur
Photographer
More than a
journalist
Film maker
Independent/freelance
Web designer

Video Journalism
Explosion in online video
Training newspaper journalists to be video journalists
TV stations run like newspapers
More journalists
More stories
Less money!
Introducing the Michael Rosenblum model for running TV newsrooms like
newspapers.

Video Journalism
No cameramen
No sound crews
No editors
No producers
No office
No rent
No PA
No managers
No senior managers
No assistant producers
Introducing the Michael Rosenblum model for running TV newsrooms like
newspapers.

Hyper-local journalism
Perceived demand for ultra local news: what's going on on
your street.
Run by amateurs, bloggers on free software
Success stories:
Kings Cross Local Environment
Digbeth Is Good
And now professional newspapers getting in on the action.

The big question....
How the hell are we supposed to make any money?

We won't.

We won't.
(OK, well...we might)

n't profitable; it's subsidised by other Murdoch enterprises.
an isn't profitable; it's funded by a trust.
sn't profitable.”
Emily Bell, The Guardian
Source: Paul Bradshaw Online Journalism Blog

The three types of journalism
we’ll always pay for
Business
Sport
Showbiz

An example of recent online scoops over traditional media...
But TMZ uses old hack tricks (paying for info) and is owned by ...Time Warner!

Letter from a scared journalist
Dear Cary,
I spent the last four and a half years studying print journalism in college and watching vacantly as the
newspaper industry crumbled before my eyes. The decline never bothered me. I always figured I had
what it takes to get a job even in an extremely competitive market: Before I ever graduated, I had
completed four internships at newspapers, magazines and a Web site, published almost a hundred clips
(including longer, high-quality pieces), and left a good impression with everyone I worked with. I knew I
wanted to be a journalist, and I knew that I wanted to write for a living.
Now, six months after graduating, my parents still pay my cellphone bill and I am working full-time
making ice cream. I make a couple hundred bucks here and there freelancing for a magazine I interned
at, but otherwise my “freelance” career, as well as my journalism career, is dead in the water.
What I see is that my passion for journalism and writing is waning.
I am looking into jobs in other fields that pay better. Is it healthier to stick it out working at an ice cream
store and desperately try to make it as a writer, or should I pursue a career where financial security is
more realistic?
Scared Journalist

Letter from a scared journalist
Dear Scared Journalist,
If you are a true journalist, the world is going to kick your ass. If you are a true journalist, you are
supposed to be having a hard time. This is how the world makes writers. It kicks their ass long enough
that they start finally telling the truth.
We have applied and applied and applied for jobs and gotten nothing, and then things have been
dropped at our feet that we were not sure we wanted but which we accepted because there was nothing
else available....
And then, with the irony that cloaks us against utter nihilism, we think, if only we were living in more
interesting times! And that is the confounding thing about it, isn’t it? That we stand on the nodal point of
a great, creaking, crunching change in historical direction, at the beginning of cataclysmic planetary
collapse, at the dying of civilization, at the rising of new empires, at our own meltdown, as a million
stories bloom out of the earth like wildflowers in the spring and we think, gee, uh, if only there were
some good stories to tell.
That’s the ultimate irony, no? That in the midst of remarkable and unprecedented change, in the midst of
the greatest stories to happen all century, we are paralyzed by some changes in the delivery system.
It’s a weird world but it’s interesting and fun. Fuck the little stuff. Don’t worry about your career. Find a
story and write about it, and stay off the streets if you’re drunk.