Joel Marino’s Post

I can change the following heading for healthcare companies and replace journalists by doctors "Media companies can't get their act together, and it's causing headaches for journalists trying to plan their lives" I see the same problems in healthcare as faced by the journalists community who just wants to do their jobs free of external pressures. Doctors and journalists come to their professions for the passion of telling the truth or caring for patients. #healthcare #medicine #journalism #media

"Many journalists would like to keep our heads down. Do good work. That’s not feasible if you want to be ready to pivot your career quickly. Instead, follow media and journalism news. Talk to other journalists about their workplaces. Notice which organizations seem stable, with thriving and happy employees. Pay attention to which companies are hiring, announcements of new funding initiatives, and shifts in how investors view the news business. Those who did that saw the beginning of the series of mass layoffs, starting with Gannett and CNN at the end of 2022 and then Vox in January. Journalists are experts in collecting information and data and drawing conclusions. We need to cover our own industry in the same way we cover our beats — so that we can anticipate turbulence and change. Building a career in a field as chaotic as journalism can be demoralizing, if you have no agency or sense of control. By proactively tackling the reality of our business and taking these steps to build our professional resilience, we can each be prepared for the inevitable change ahead — and take the next wave of so-called saviors with a grain of salt."

It's been a pretty brutal start to 2024 for journalism. You might have thought that an election year in some of the big markets would be safe from major reorganisation, but I suspect we're in for a period where news companies are still looking hard at costs, still scrutinising engagement numbers, and all in the glare of AI potential impact on the business model #journalism #AIinJournalism #journalism2024 #aiandbusiness https://lnkd.in/ef7wSXAS

I didn't need to see this data to know that journalism, my professional hometown, is in crisis. Many of my career coaching clients are journalists trying to figure out what's next for them as they recover from layoffs, absorb unsustainable workloads when they manage to dodge layoffs, and question whether this work – which is so often underpaid while simultaneously essential to a functioning society – is work they can continue to do. This stat from Revelio Labs is the crux of it: "Our workforce intelligence data shows that while the 25 largest print news companies employed just over 15% of the industry's journalists in 2008, this number has risen to a staggering 38% in recent years." https://lnkd.in/ertTpi4S

Not all social media intentions are a home run. Rather, this one tugged at the heartstrings of journalists- and industry seeing many layoffs, when the world actually needs their skills and thorough research to present the facts. I wanted to be a journalist. I went to a college known for its journalism but after graduating I realized the roles were tough to come by and fell into marketing communications for large corporates. And I’m lucky I did! I love my job. I love what I do and I’m thankful beyond measure that I learned how to ask questions, get the details and write. For my colleagues in the journalism field, reach out if you ever find your job eliminated! The world- especially corporate companies need talented writers! #journalism #writing #contentmarketing

Digital media failed its workers in 2023. Back in the late 2000s when print was "dying," digital offered hope to a generation of journalists worn down by salary freezes, furloughs, and constant cuts. Now digital newsrooms are facing the same downward spiral — but what do tired journalists have to hope for this time around? Answering that should be an industry priority in 2024 or we risk writing our own obit. From the Poynter article below: “All of these big digital enterprises that were supposed to represent the future of national digital journalism — they couldn’t make it work... We have hedge-fund-owned newspapers that have now outlasted places like BuzzFeed News. So that is indicative of how bad across the board things are for digital media.”

Every time another news outlet announces layoffs or shuts down, as is the case today with the Vice Media layoffs, I return to the same half-written op-ed that tries to express this opinion: In order for journalism to survive as a profit-making activity, journalistic ethics have to change in one particular way. Media outlets should be looking to monetize the journalistic process. By this, I mean that news publishers should be making money off of the potential impact their reporting has on the value of companies, up to and including companies that are the subjects of critical, investigative reporting. This could involve selling previews of reporting out to the highest bidders so that investors can front-run the news cycle. It could involve having a capital partner that funds trades based on upcoming reports. Or it could involve making transparent certain interactions between journalists and sources. For instance, if I knew which public company CEOs were being pitched to appear on CNBC next week, then I'd have a pretty good idea of which companies have good news coming out soon, and I could trade off of that information and profit. Or if I knew which public company CEO was ignoring interview requests and evading a journalist's questions, then I'd have a pretty good idea of which companies are trying to suppress negative information, and I could trade off of that information and profit. These are two basic, obvious observations about how the process of journalism can be exploited for profit. Now, imagine a market being built off of this information. Imagine that *anyone* can get that information by paying for it. I have no idea how to square this concept with insider trading regulations and various other securities laws, although I will point out that, in the examples above, you would not know specifically what the material nonpublic information is. All that I know is that journalism drives volatility in the markets. Information about the journalistic process would be enormously valuable to those with money, so media outlets should monetize it. I do not *like* that this is where my head goes when I think about ways to sustain journalism in today's digital economy, but this is the best idea I have. If anyone has a better one, I'm all ears. #media #journalism

The news business faces familiar currents this year. Layoffs continue as advertisers pull back, social media algorithms change, and demand declines. However, could the 2024 presidential election provide a “Trump bump” for the media? This edition of our newsletter dives into the current media landscape and goes deeper on: > “Coopetition” between journalists and AI platforms > New avenues for media engagement > Editor and reporter moves to watch Stay ahead of the curve. Read and subscribe to our newsletter for insights: https://lnkd.in/efGGAmk3  #MediaIndustry #Journalism #News #Election2024 #FutureOfWork

Money is at the core of the layoffs impacting media organizations, including some of the most storied and recognizable names in the business. The indirect price is in the impact to diversity efforts in journalism, which have been shamefully behind the changes to demographics — and audiences — in the United States. In my first column for Bloomberg Opinion, I write about the failure to build newsrooms that mirror the communities they cover and what's required to correct course. One is creating access to quality education for aspiring journalists from historically marginalized communities, who don't ordinarily have the means or luxury to embrace an uncertain career, which news has certainly become. We will continue to fail if we stop there, though. As I wrote, success in journalism "also requires open doors, welcoming spaces and clear paths so that diverse voices can find their way to top leadership positions. If not, we risk alienating the same people reshaping audiences in the United States, where Whites are projected to become the minority by 2045." The column is *not* behind the paywall. Consider giving it a read, then, and sharing your thoughts.

We all often operate in our own worlds within our own industries, and for all of you in journalism, it's no secret that this past week (and really over the course of the last few months) the news industry has been absolutely gutted in a lot of ways. Major papers have gone through gut-wrenching buyouts, horrible layoffs and have even shuttered altogether. My heart absolutely breaks for all the journalists who have been affected by these decisions that were all made way above their pay grades. (I saw one woman mention this was her second time being laid off over a single 12-month period. That shouldn't even be possible.) I cannot emphasize enough that no one who gets into this industry does so for the money. (As you can see, there's not a lot of it in most instances.) They really, really love the work. When you disrupt newsrooms in these ways, you really disrupt families of people who have all coalesced around this same idea that the news and truth-telling and shedding light on complicated but important topics and teaching people things really, really matters and is so essential to a functioning democracy. I've met my husband through journalism, my best friends, my mentors and more and I owe it so, so much. I've always struggled with it being such a big part of my identity (since it can be tough emotionally and mentally to have your self-worth so heavily associated with your job) but I also completely get how it happened. No one gets into this lightly. The people who do this day in and day out are so incredibly passionate and it's hard when you're one of them not to get wrapped up in that passion —otherwise you would've picked something else to spend your life doing. I talked with a college friend recently also, though, about people who leave journalism to go do something else. We laughed at how just a decade ago in college we'd judge these people. But now I've realized, most of those people didn't leave news because they didn't love it or think it wasn't important or anything of the sort. There were other factors at work like crappy bosses, tough work environments, pressures (and the subsequent fallout) from layoffs and the like. Those stories were always more complicated than we saw from the outset. I don't have a point in posting this aside from to say, I pray all of these great people who have been affected by this industry-wide earthquake land on their feet and stick with this work for the long haul if that's what they want to do. And I hope everyone in journalism school keeps at it and goes on to do awesome work in the industry. The world really, really needs amazing journalists and I couldn't have been raised as a person by a more incredible group of people. If there's anything anyone in the industry can do in support of anyone affected by these recent events, whether it's loan you their dog for comfort, buy you a beer or listen to you rant, I think I speak for everyone in the business when I say we're all here for that and more.