How do you get ahead in an industry that can’t see its own future?

Posted Sunday, April 19, 2009 - 10:25pm

Those days may be over—or at least on hold indefinitely.

"I think people are aware that the great pot of gold at the end of the rainbow might not be there anymore," says one television producer at a prestigious network news show. "You used to be told, ‘You will one day be the leaders of this organization.' Now, who knows if any of us are going to have jobs in five years?"

For many, goals are no longer defined in specific terms, such as "I'd like to be the Style section editor at the New York Times"; rather, journalists now describe their aspirations in broader strokes: "I'd just like to be a published writer," "I'd like to be paid to be a writer in some way," or "I want to be a journalist in whatever form that takes down the line."

Even more recently forged new-media career ladders appear shaky. For the last decade or so, many young journalists cut their teeth at online sites and then leapfrogged into prestigious positions at magazines and networks. One success story: Jake Tapper, who hailed from Salon and became ABC News' senior White House correspondent. Another example: columnist Jessica Coen, who skipped out on Gawker to a gig at New York magazine.

Yet what happens to this trajectory when the ABCs and New Yorks of the world simply aren't hiring fresh talent, no matter where it comes from?

And it's not as if the Internet itself is offering up obvious substitutes. Many business analysts are less convinced that such venues are viable in the long term.

Single Page

Lesley M. M. Blume is an author and journalist based in New York City.

(Photograph of a man climbing a ladder by John Foxx/Stockbyte/Getty Creative Images)

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Submitted by Indentured_Servant on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 11:53am.

The Media's Lost Generation

The traditional media model has not buckled! It has been corrupted like our Constitution! It's not going to take some college kid with a new model to "fix" the news media! Just get back to the original purpose of the media model..........honest, fair & unbiased presentation of facts!

When I was about 10 years old I read a copy of the National Enquirer my mom had lying around. (pun intended) Even at that young age I knew that most of what was written there could not be trusted. Back then, mainstream news media still had some semblance of honesty and integrity. That same mainstream news media today looks more like the National Enquirer did when I was 10 years old. It's disgusting and there are not enough minutes left in my life to waste one of them on the mainstream news media.

You need editors and producers that can suppress the idealism, extremism, activism and ego of their so called journalists. Only then will you attract enough viewers, subscribers and *advertisers* to allow someone to once again aspire to be the style editor for the NY Times! Give me the honest, unbiased facts and allow *me* to think rather than telling me *what* to think!

Your "business model" for success already exists in your own archives!

Submitted by Indentured_Servant on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 11:51am.

The Media's Lost Generation

Your "business model" for success already exists in your own archives!

Submitted by Fleurdamour on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 5:50pm.

Re: the headhunter who said,

Re: the headhunter who said, ‘The old media model is broken,' I'd tell the exec to get a new headhunter. Yeah, times are epically bad, but a good placement person should have been able to advise him what new digital skills to acquire at his level in order to make progress. It's true that nothing is guaranteed now, at any level, no matter how senior, but that doesn't mean there is no progress to be made. And if the exec wants to even keep the job he has, he'll need to keep learning. That's the reality for all of us.

Submitted by jimcat on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 9:02am.

The Wrong Priorities

"When I went to school, it was about, ‘afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,' " says Michael Caruso, a former editor at the Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Details, and many other magazines. "You wanted to keep the government honest. Today the goals are different. It's mostly about self-expression."

I think that the above, as much as the economy and the Internet, goes a long way to explain why people are losing interest in the old media. When you started reading the news to be informed, it's discouraging and frustrating to see the media dominated by people who went into reporting primarily to stroke their own egos.

Anyone aspiring to journalism should remember this: yes, it's about keeping the government honest, and it's also about keeping the public informed. It is NOT about seeing your name in print.

Submitted by mark456 on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 12:59am.