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By
Regan Ray The global economy is in rough shape these days and while much of the focus is on Canada's manufacturing and banking sectors, the media business has also taken quite a hit. The laundry list of layoffs, cutbacks, hiring freezes and outright closures in here in Canada is long. Postponing holiday cheer, J-Source has put all the gloomy news about media jobs into one tidy package. Warning: it ain’t pretty.
A similar listing of cuts, cutbacks and closures in the U.S. would be far too long for our purposes here, but it is clear that the situation for journalists south of the border is dismal. A few of the big name outlets that have been cutting back most recently are the Associated Press, which cut 400 jobs, or about 10 per cent of its workforce; Tribune Co., which cut 500 jobs across the company, including 150 at the Los Angeles Times; Time Inc., owner of such mag titles as Fortune, Sports Illustrated and Time, which plans to lay off about 600 people, or 6% of its workforce (and has already started by axing 250 people and shutting down Cottage Life), and Gannett Co., owner of USA Today and 84 other daily papers, which plans to cut 10% of its workers, or potentially 3000 people by the end of this year. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, for a more comprehensive overview of layoffs and buyouts in the U.S., check out Paper Cuts, the ongoing mapping project of St. Louis, Miss.-based journalist and news designer Erica Smith or the Project for Excellence in Journalism July study, The Changing Newsroom.  Is it really all doom and gloom? What about the almighty Internet? Aren’t advertising dollars, and by extension, jobs, moving to growing online departments?
After all, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) estimates that online advertising revenue in Canada will be $1.5 billion for 2008, up 25% percent from 2007. Back in April, when Torstar announced its round of cuts, which included job losses in online divisions, the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) released statistics showing revenue was stable across the country’s newspaper business in 2007, with “robust growth in online ad sales (+29%) offsetting a mild decline in print advertising.” At that time CNA president and CEO Anne Kothawala said: "The narrative about newspapers in the U.S. has been consistently negative in recent years, and that negativity has unduly influenced perceptions of the health of the newspaper industry in Canada. Advertisers and their agencies, many of whom are global businesses, should ensure that their Canadian buying decisions are not tainted by the US data....The real story is how well we are holding our own in an age of global media disruption." Last summer, Mark Glaser at the PBS blog MediaShift argued that the job losses in traditional media areas are being countered by growing online departments in U.S. news outlets. He searched job boards and said “interactive” opportunities still exist, despite all the bad news. But Glaser took a hit from business tech guru Nicholas Carr, who criticized Glaser's stance: “When I saw Glaser's headline, I assumed that he had some new data that would provide a counterweight to the mountain of depressing stats showing a steady draining of reporters, editors, and photographers from newsrooms across the country. Alas, he doesn't. All he offers is a string of cheery anecdotes, mainly about job listings, that add up to little.” Glaser made the point that media companies continued to hire and pointed to the existence of job posting as proof. The same can be said here in Canada. A quick search for “journalism” on Canwest’s working.com shows 25 jobs up for grabs (reporters, editors, communications staff, analysts, web producers etc.). In addition, Canada's major industry job boards, Jeff Gaulin and Media Job Search Canada both have plenty of jobs posted. But a simple listing of available positions isn't sufficient evidence of a healthy job market. What are the types of jobs are out there? At what levels? Contract positions? Full-time staff jobs? etc. And Carr’s response to Glaser applies here as well: “I have no doubt that such listings exist, but in isolation they tell us little. Even when an industry goes through a general decline in employment, jobs are still routinely filled - people not only get laid off but they retire, go to other companies, or switch careers, and to continue operating companies have to fill some of the open slots. Unless you look at the broader dynamics of the job market, generally or within individual companies, seeing a few dozen job listings tells you little. Some media outlets, for example, may well be hiring software programmers as they fire reporters, but while that's good for coders, it's hardly a boon for journalists.” As the economy continues to crumble and business and government struggle to find solutions, what are journalists to do? Some are looking to bloggers as saviours. Other, young journalists, figure a "dramatic power shift" favouring new media needs to happen in order to "save" journalism. Perhaps some good advice from the magazine world can be applied to journalists in general. Don't panic and focus on storytelling. (Photo by adobemac, printed under Creative Commons license.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Though the pure numbers are small, it's probably worth noting that small-market papers are cutting too. The Kingston Whig-Standard (where I've been employed for 17 years) laid off 20 per cent of its newsroom staff two weeks ago, cutting four of 20 union members. There are also six newsroom managers.
Did I read the list wrong? What about the Halifax Daily News being closed down by Transcon in February?
Here's an innovative solution fresh out of San Francisco.
It's called SPOT.US
My friend David Cohn launched it less than a month ago . . .
David and I worked together with Jay Rosen on the WIRED co-sposnored NewAssignment social media project in 2007. http://tinyurl.com/ysqnsg
David is a bright young mind.
SPOT.US - coming soon to Canada?
Check it out ... http://www.spot.us/
Truly depressing Regan, and I feel for everyone impacted by the cuts.
It reminds me of the music industry R.I.P. list after MP3 caught on.
There was panic on Music Row until people finally admitted the industry was changing.
It took a few years of denial, but once everyone settled down they started to pursue realistic solutions.
A power shift is always painful.
Many big and small players lost substantially, but the more innovative bounced back relatively unscathed.
As Darwin said, "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one with the greatest capacity for change."
Your advice of "Don't panic and focus on storytelling" is a good start.
I'd also add, look closely at and compare what happened in parallel industries. Predict where your market is going in a worst case scenario and prepare yourself accordingly regarding mental attitude and technological skills.
If anyone thinks these jobs are coming back they are deluding themselves.
Been there. Done it.
Times change. Roll with it.