It's not a career anymore

When I complain about my current state of underemployment I occasionally get the question, “Have you thought about going back to journalism?” and of course the answer is, “I’d love to… but there aren’t any jobs.”

I don’t know how often people believe that, but I did the research, and there hasn’t been a single mid-career position advertised in over the past three months. Every reporting position I’ve ever applied to, or been hired by, from has come from journalismjobs.com. It’s the premier job bank for newspapers, and from what I can tell every organization in the country uses it. I’ve been tracking it in detail since June, and have followed a number of state press associations for jobs as well. What I found is that 142 jobs were advertised in June and 109 in July. Of those jobs, the vast bulk these positions were in tiny markets looking for reporters who were a year or two out of college at the most.

The July number was pumped up a bit by a small town newspaper in Oregon that clearly had a staff exodus of some kind and on the same day posted four job openings within a matter of minutes. Of course, that would be a massive red flag, and I can’t imagine why anyone would take the job based on that alone.

Most of the jobs are in towns that you’ve never heard of in places like Brainerd, Minnesota, Maryville, Missouri, Gilford New Hampshire and Nampa Idaho. No disrespect to the 81,000 people who live in Nampa City Idaho, but I’d rather be a waiter in Atlanta than the night reporter in Nampa City Idaho.

Reading through the ads you get an idea just how bad the industry has gotten. One paper went as far as to write “The paper is a financially healthy” to their post.
Most of these papers are looking to hire on the cheap, and are pretty bold about it. One newspaper wrote, “Young reporters are encouraged to apply,” which yeah, is to someone like me, tantamount to saying don’t bother to apply. A self-described “Top Chicago weekly” offers a salary of $25,000 to $30,000; you can’t really live in Chicago on that. I’m making more than that as a waiter. Call me crazy, but I think a reporter should make at least as much, if not more, than a waiter, but that’s what being a reporter has turned into.

Years ago it used to be a career that could support a family. You weren’t going to get rich, but even into the 90s you could make a safe living. In this decade, being a print reporter has become a part-time job. Something you do to hone your skills, make some contacts, and move on to something more. I’m not applying to a lot of jobs because the salary range they offer, on the rare times the publish that, are $10,000 below what I’d consider working for.

That said, it’s not that bad for everyone. There are still a respectable amount of openings for reporters with training and experience covering the financial markets, which I don’t have. Spanish and English speaking/writing journalists have far better job opportunities because of their language skills, but overall print journalism has ceased to be a viable career path.
Of the jobs in the major cities, all request specific technical skills, a background that I don’t possess, and neither do most reporters. For example Reuters is looking for a reporter to cover the secondary market, and that’s the sort of thing you need to be an expert in before you get the initial interview. BNA is looking for a Chinese correspondent and of course you must be able to speak Chinese. One web outlet is specifically looking for a Spanish speaking financial reporter.

What’s the most telling about the last two months on journalism jobs are the newspapers who aren’t posting there. Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Savannah Morning News, The State, San Francisco Chronicle, The News and Observer, Detroit Free Press, Denver Post, Florida Today, Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, the large New York dailies, the six daily newspapers in Chicago, Houston Chronicle, are all good, solid big market papers and not a single one of them posted a job in May, June, July and haven’t in August as of this posting.

Those are the jobs that someone with my experience should be going to, but they aren’t hiring. If anything, those newspapers are vomiting money. Cox Communications, the AJC’s parent company has been running $10 million losses for years.

For all the jobs posted in June and July there were was one job I wanted, and another I’d be willing to accept, unfortunately both would require moving, not just to different states, but to entirely different parts of the country, and that’s just not something I’m willing to do right now.

Being a print reporter has become a field where there are no jobs for experienced reporters, it’s just college kids and old men and women, with no one in between.