From sea to shining sea.
From Seattle to Boston from Tampa To Detroit.
Poynter is trying to keep up with a list of bad news about the news right now, as they attempt to collect layoffs, furloughs & closures of newsrooms across the country. It’s a task that’s a laundry list long.
“Coronavirus has closed more than 50 local newsrooms across America. And counting.”
Long time employees, who’ve dedicated most of their lives to one newsroom are coming to work and finding their things packed for them—with no warning. I received a message the other day from a woman, who had put half her life into producing television, who was told on her 50th birthday: “We won’t be needing you anymore.”
Newsrooms that date back to the post-Civil War era. Gone. Newsrooms that survived a Depression, wars—but didn’t stand a chance against a pandemic, coupled with increasing technology.
Small weekly newspapers are taking a big hit. Those are the people that go to the school board, planning board and city council meetings. In losing them, communities lose transparency and accountability. No more reporting on the news that most affects you on a daily— the things happening at the local level.
It’s hitting local newsrooms hard, but no one is immune. Larger newsrooms have also been impacted at BuzzFeed, New York Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have cut back.
And, there’s uncertainty for the ones still with a job.
As with office workers across the country, journalists have been forced to work from home. But, now the very real possibility they make not ever work in a physical newsroom ever again has presented itself.
Tribune has informed journalists that the newsrooms of five newspapers will permanently close. Affected are the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, which was already still reeling from a mass shooting that took five of their colleagues only two years ago, and New York Daily News, The Carroll County Times of Westminster, Maryland, the Orlando Sentinel and the Aurora, Ill bureau of the Chicago Tribune.
A newspaper with no newsroom.
It’s like baseball with no dugout.
It’s like football, basketball & hockey with no locker room.
Newsrooms are where bonds are created, where chemistry and collaboration begin, where the day’s playbook is written.
As a former local morning television producer, I booked 75 segments a week for a live, 6-hour, Monday-Friday show. Our little morning show office was my happy place, filled with quirky, but brilliant people. I’d float an idea and the people in the room would take it to another level.
It’s where you found the missing piece of your puzzle.
It’s the magic movies are made of: All The President’s Men, Broadcast News, The Post, Spotlight, Network, Citizen Kane…
On television from the Mary Tyler Moore Show to The Newsroom to The Morning Show. By the way, Jennifer Aniston deserved every bit of that Golden Globe.
That kind of drama. It all happens in newsrooms.
Now it’s the newsroom itself that’s the center of drama.
I’m nostalgic over the loss of the newsrooms I see in the news.
Without a small weekly newspaper that gave me a job while I was in college, I don’t know that I would have spent more than 20 years in television after that. I googled the newspaper I used to work for today. I’d moved 1,000 miles away soon after I graduated from college, so I had no idea the paper folded just a few years after I left. That was more than 20 years ago.
It hurts my journalistic heart to the core.
But, for those of you looking for a job, contemplating a new job, there is hope. I own a social media content creation business now, and I know this to be true: Your skill set isn’t tired. It’s wired.
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity—not a threat.” -Steve Jobs
Small, medium and large businesses NEED journalists right now.
They need people who can write and communicate effectively. Media is no longer just relegated to a newsroom, if you’re still lucky enough to be in one. It’s EVERYWHERE.
That’s because the business of building brands is becoming more and more like a newsroom.
Companies need content in perpetuity. They need content produced en masse. It’s a fine art. And, you’re the artist.
Every company is a media company.
Even school districts are hiring storytellers and journalists.
Stories are the essence of communication.
It’s how we relate to one another. It’s how we make decisions.
Entrepreneur and best-selling author, Gary Vaynerchuk says this: He believes there’s a scenario where “Chief Marketing Officers” will be an old phenomenon. He wouldn’t be surprised if down the line, the major brands in the world will have, instead, an Editor-In-Chief.
So, maybe you’re not going to work for a newspaper, a TV station or your favorite magazine. But, what about your favorite brand?
Great storytelling never goes out of fashion regardless of the platform.
How do companies build credibility? They don’t sell. They tell.
Vaynerchuk goes on to say: It’s not hard for Nike not to mention their product in an ad. It wouldn’t be difficult for a coconut drink to talk about health and wellness without mentioning its drink, too.
But, they don’t…
“This is why I want them to hire journalists. You hire a marketer, they’re going to want to sell. You hire a journalist, they’re not going to want to sell out.” -Gary Vaynerchuk
Nothing will ever replace the collective power of a newsroom. No zoom call. No phone call. No text. No email. But, there is a way you can still do what you love & quite frankly—it’s at your fingertips. It’s called your phone.
Start telling.
Angel James is a former Supervising Producer of St. Louis’ #1 morning show, KTVI’s Fox 2 News in the Morning. In her 22 years at Fox 2, she helped grow the local television brand from a very distant third place to the city’s top brand. She’s originally from Virginia Beach, which is where her television producing career began at WTKR-TV News Channel 3 in Norfolk. She also spent time as a newspaper reporter for The Daily Press & The Denbigh Gazette. Angel now operates her own social media company helping small businesses. To learn more visit her website, https://www.angelmjames.com/.
