As a former journo, I was recently asked if I’d recommend journalism as a career to a young person. I had to say I can’t. Sure, if you have a passion to become a reporter, then follow your dreams. My principal reason for being less enthusiastic – certainly about newspapers as a career – than even a year or so ago is the viability of newsgathering. On a recent visit to Australia, I picked up a copy of The Sydney Morning Herald. Five or fewer years ago, this, the largest broadsheet in Australasia, was groaning with pages, ads, supplements and inserts.
On the day in question it consisted of 22 pages and a sports tabloid insert and bugger all ads. During the seven years I edited The Marlborough Express I cannot recall many days where we published fewer than 16 broadsheet pages. Marlborough’s population is less than 1% of that of Sydney.
Several years ago, Fairfax (owner of both the huge Herald and tiny Express) made a strategic decision to purchase TradeMe. The reason was that even then, the so-called ‘rivers of gold’ – the newspapers’ classified advertising – were drying up. We are now all advertising our personal wares on TradeMe or elsewhere. That loss of revenue is now being followed by some losses of display advertising. TradeMe now has jobs and more recently homes. Ok, so NZ papers are faring better than their Aussie counterparts for display advertising but for how long?
Of course newspapers have two revenue streams – ads and circulation. But note how the figures now quoted are for readership, not as it used to be for circulation. I still get The Press and Sunday Star Times home delivered but you can’t but observe that a lot of newspapers are being given away – at places like universities and airport terminals. This suggests a marketing strategy to raise readership (and hold some ad revenue even if it costs casual sales.)
When you combine this with a recession, the impacts on newspapers and therefore journalism are pronounced. And that’s a worry for everyone with an interest in democracy.
And that’s why we need a non-profit driven, state owned news media in NZ. So that we do get the journalism that we need to support our democracy. Capitalism cannot supply this.
I can’t wait for the top-down, undemocratic corporate media to die. The internet will fill some of this role, and where it doesn’t we need publicly funded media with independent journalism.
Agree, we need more than ever independent not-profit-driven media in NZ – have future blogs coming over next few days…
With all due respect to us all, don’t believe Internet commentators can replace independent journalism. Supplement yes. We still need a base source…
I saw somewher recently that the NZ herald in 1999 had 9 reporters in Hamilton plus a few others around the other regional towns.
Now they have one in Hamilton.
When I was at the The Age in Melbourne they had 250 journalists which also included the supplements but not a Sunday paper.
Would they have a third of that now for a circulation of 200,000 ? or so , similar to the NZ Herald, which the ABC gives as 174,000
Why young people join a declining profesion
As a former hack (all my full-time employment was in TV and radio news) I don’t share the doom and gloom of print-based hacks. Newspapers can’t die fast enough for me. I don’t want stale news that’s already 12 hours old before I read it. I like rolling updates, I like to compare publications’ treatment of a story, I like search and bookmarks. People decrying capitalists owning news organisations, at least in NZ, have no clues. We are a pale shadow of the English tabloids. Advocacy journalism, with the possible exception of some of Ian Wishart’s unusual opinions, has never seriously taken off here and we are much the better for it. The Internet won’t kill a desire for impartial news – it will just deliver more and better options as it evolves.
I wonder how much of the decline in readership in print media, is being offset by the newspaper’s respective websites.
I’ve never been a regular buyer of newspapers, but I now check at least two newspaper’s websites at least a few times a day.
There are obviously huge benefits over print media, and they do still require a lot of people to run (though at a technical level with a very different skill set).
The decline of print media is oddly off set by an increase in the numbers of active news seekers: people who keep themselves informed by finding news, many thanks to the internet.
You are right about ‘base source’ Brendon, if newspapers were serious about attracting people’s attention back, they would have more space for good journalism.
It has been bizarre to watch newspapers turn more to opinion columns as blogs and online news sites have gained strength. Seriously, without going on about individual commentators, in an online world, why would anyone feel the need to pay money to read opinion?
Yeah, I’d pay to read high quality journalism from a newspaper.
State owned news is never a good idea as it always carries the stereo type of being pro govt. What happened to invesigative jornalism? everyone seems to live of press releases and press confrences. If you have to look for it it’s not in the news!
Don’t worry news revenue it will sky rocket as soon as they introduce a Pay Per view system for news site. Hows does $2 a day sound?
Which is where the government comes in.
You may not have noticed but all of our privately owned media are presently pro-government. Of course, if it was a Labour government they wouldn’t be.
The private media owners don’t want to have to pay for it. They much prefer radical right opinion pieces.
The NZ Herald tried it a couple of years back – I was even a subscriber – then they changed to the advertisement driven web page that they have now.
And that’s why we need a non-profit driven, state owned news media in NZ. So that we do get the journalism that we need to support our democracy.
A fully state-owned media would be great. Look at China. The issues about censorship and brainwashing are overblown. We need the government to control what we read and write and to shape public opinion. It keeps everyone quiet and uncomplaining.
Four legs good, two legs bad.
TVNZ is already state owned and it has recently launched a Freeview channel that is dedicated to current affaris. The problem in NZ is that there just isn’t enough news. There are only so many murders and political dramas, what can you harp on about. The skill of our jounalists isn’t that great either. Having a state RUN news media would lead to a country like China. I think the way it is right now with TVNZ is ok… State owned but they have no say in the way it’s run or the stories it puts up… I reckon the standard of journalists needs to improve
Spav, I think new media is great but not all news has to be instaneous to be relevant or worthy! Some good investigative stories can take months to break. First up isn’t always best dressed.
“The issues about censorship and brainwashing are overblown. We need the government to control what we read and write and to shape public opinion. It keeps everyone quiet and uncomplaining. ” What? Maybe it’s the alcohol talking, but I don’t know if you’re joking or not. I agree with Brendon – some great stories take a while to put together.
Someone raised a good point that readership has to include circulation by coverage on websites. Audience fragmentation has led to most people getting news from several sources, we get it from TV, radio, News print, websites and a growing number of people who use pod casting as a legitimate means of obtaining indepth media coverage on particular issues while they’re on the move.
A drive for ratings and competition has caused people to break away from the traditional dinner time sit down to watch an hour of news. Monitored ratings show a decrease in viewership of the main news bulletins after the first segment of news, hence why advertising slots at the first and second break are easy sells.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but over-competition with a small market and limited news means that all froms of media are still competing with themselves and with each other. Farifax were somewhat smart with their purchase of TradeME but have not followed through with complementary services to balance out the fragmentation of the audience.
There is a market for print news but it has to be relevant and someone has to make a stand for quality investigative journalism rather than ratings based sensationalist rubbish at times.
Journalism is not about whatever some wet college professor’s concept of democracy might be, its about reporting events objectively.
Journalism is not about encouraging social change either. Its about reporting the news objectively.
Modern day so called “journalists” do not report objectively. They think they are agents for social change. Or they think they are responsible for promoting some desperately fashionable progressive concept of “democracy”.
Hence newspapers are dying. Their purpose has been perverted, and readers don’t want or need that perversion.
RB Hearst and Murdock would have disagreed with you, but who are they to say