What the editor wants An international overview of the ‘journalism’ job market Martin Hirst AUT December 2010 journalism.co.uk 21 September 2010 A presentation of recent, but brief, research into the job market for journalists in USA, Canada, UK, NZ & Australia – Sept/Oct 2010
Overview of the journalism job market - where jobs are and what editors want to hire. Based on a sample of 257 journalism job ads from USA, Canada, UK, Australia & New Zealand in Sept-Oct 2010.
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Transcript
What the editor wants
An international overview of the
‘journalism’ job market
Martin HirstAUT
December 2010
journalism.co.uk 21 September 2010
A presentation of recent, but brief, research into the job market for journalists in USA, Canada, UK, NZ & Australia – Sept/Oct 2010
What the editors want
What types of jobs are out there?
Who’s hiring?
Who are they hiring?
Job description duties, type of organization, platform,
4TH Photography Web Skills Editorial Sub-editing Social Media
5TH News Judgment & Sub-editing
Reporting News Judgment
Photography News Judgment & Computer Literacy
ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE
INITIATIVE
QUALIFICATION
TIME MANAGEMENT
TEAMWORK
COMMUNICATION
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
LEADERSHIP
Key AttributesWe hired one individual who immediately began to give one of our veteran staff members a lecture about how he should be doing his job. GOODBYE!
Stan Stamper, publisherHugo Daily News, Oklahoma
Key attributes in journalism job ads ranked across all countries in the study
Where are the jobs going to be?
In terms of jobs, journalistic occupations are outperforming the overall economy.
However, many of the journalistic jobs are not being created in conventional journalism industries.
MIKE MANDEL – THE EVOLUTION OF THE JOURNALISM JOB MARKET
Online jobs per countryA relatively small number of jobs are identified as specifically ‘online’.Across all platforms, other job descriptions and identified duties can also include some form of ‘online’ component
USA CANADA NZUK AUSTRALIA
New
spap
er
Mag
azin
e
Onl
ine
TV
Con
tent
Far
m
Rad
io
Oth
er
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Jobs with online components(By media platform)
Media Platform
Jo
bs
(%
)
CONVERGENCE EMBODIED
o‘traditional news reporter role’o‘twice weekly publication and in-house radio station’o‘package information across a spectrum of mediumso‘meeting & event coverage’o‘assembling & producing daily newscasts and email blasts’o‘features & special section writing’
Top-notch multimedia
editor
strong working knowledge of Final Cut Pro and Photoshop
HTML, CSS, Javascript and basic PHP understanding
WordPress usage and Flash experience preferred
a superb journalist who has technical acumen and keen creativity
The Desert Sun and its award-winning Web site, mydesert.com, have an immediate opening for a digital content editor specializing in multimedia and social media content.
Digital News EditorThe individual hired o will have experience editing video on iMovie or
Final Cut Express,
o be familiar with Garage Band or a similar audio editing software, and
o be proficient making maps on Google maps
o experience promoting a newspaper or business on social networks is a plus.
So ten years into the Internet revolution, you are beginning a career in journalism.
Odds are that means you are looking for a job in either print or TV.
What's wrong with this picture?
Anthony Moor, Online Journalism Reviewhttp://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060316moor/
Moor’s advice in 2006 seems a little off the mark in 2010
Online has not overtaken print as the major employment platform
However… Web skills, including
multimedia and social media are becoming increasingly important across all hiring decisions
Journalism as small businessJournalism students need to be taught or encouraged to do entrepreneurship to make sure they take off in the new climate – rather than fall flat on their face because their traditional skill-set no longer stands up to what is required.
(Hannah Waldram, 2009)
I graduated from Cardiff School of Journalism in 2009, have worked as a freelance dance critic, social reporter for Podnosh and online editor of WestMidlandsDance.com for Meshed Media. I have blogged for Media Wales and the Birmingham Post and I am founder of the hyperlocal website BournvilleVillage.com. My particular interests are the arts, social media and technology.
Some [LIMITED] conclusionsNewspapers and magazines [INCL. TRADE & B2B] continue to
provide just over half journalism jobs
Journalism skills are well regarded in ‘other’ [RELATED JOBS]
The number of online-only positions is still relatively small, but growing [WEB, CMS, COPY-FLOW, BLOGGING OR SOCIAL MEDIA SKILLS]
Content farms and hyper-local sites are emerging new employers [DEMAND MEDIA, SUITE 101, COMCAST & PATCH.COM = LOW-PAY FREELANCERS]
Writing, editorial & news judgment continue to dominate required skills [IN TOP 3 ACROSS MOST PLATFORMS]
Nearly all journalism jobs now have at least some digital requirements [OVER 50% IN NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINE RADIO & OTHER]
Initiative and time management are the top personal attributes desired by editors [A QUALIFICATION STILL COUNTS]
ONE LAST THING…
Pre-employment drug screening is required for all employees
Was going to hire one person this week until I looked up his FaceBook page. His profile photo was drinking beer out of a huge silver trophy. Cost him a job.