Why you should hire a journalist?
2009
My friend Charlotte sent me a note alerting me to a report that a Seattle newspaper is closing down its print version and publishing strictly online. It’s not the first to do this. I think the Christian Science Monitor also did the same as well as PC Magazine too.
Walter Issacson, some of you may remember him, a former editor at Time/Fortune, wrote in a recent Time article that while newspaper advertising revenues have dramatically dropped, readership has not suffered the same decline. The challenge for the newspapers is to find a way to charge for their online content. This argument has come full circle. Do newspapers charge or not charge for the online newspapers? Are publishers who dared charge subscriptions for digital versions and received scorn from netizens now right in their decision?
There’s no clear cut answer to this. Netizens are adamant that whatever is found on the Web must be free. But Issacson’s argument is that people would pay for good journalism as in the case of the wsj.com. Business models are being challenged today because of the Web’s influence. Until publishers find a way out of the print advertising model, newspapers will continue to bleed.
As newspapers moved online, their staff have also shrunk. Where are the displaced journalists going? Some are becoming publishers of their own ie become bloggers and start news websites. Others are looking for jobs.
Early in my career as a journalist I thought that journalists were not trained for anything else than writing. Subsequently I added communication skills which gave journalists a chance to excel in public relations, advertising and marketing worlds. What if you don’t want to do any of this? What other skills would they have?
achievements, said the story quoting an expert (I can’t remember who it was), describe the skills you have.
I thought about it as I read the Sunday Times story on how to write a resume. Instead of stating the achievements, said the story quoting an expert (I can’t remember who it was), describe the skills you have. So what skills do journalists have? This is what I came up with.
1. Journalists are self-starters. Once they understand what the job is, they get on with it. They do what they’ve to do to get the job done.
2. They’re multi-taskers. They don’t have secretaries or clerical staff. They file their own stories, they read and respond to their email (unlike some managers whose secretaries still print them out), they photocopy and staple their own papers etc. These are administrative, but they are equally capable of keeping in mind 5 things they’ve to do at the same time. They’re used to this since they chase multiple stories simultaneously.
3. Journalists are good communicators. They can articulate clearly and they can talk to anyone from hawkers to the CEO. They’re also good listeners.
4. Journalists who’re supervisors have experience managing people (journalists generally tend to have big egos).
5. They’re usually more cosmopolitan and they understand the general economic, social and political landscape. They maybe sceptical but they have a good idea of what’s happening on the ground.
6. Journalists learn fast. They can be covering the flood in one story and unhappy tenants in another. Even if they were beat reporters, they would be learning new things happening in their industry all the time.
For all these reasons, they’re employable by any industry. Thing is, do headhunters in other industries see these skills as positive ones.
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