How Do We Train the Next Generation of Writers?
Whether he meant to or not, Clark Hoyt, the public editor of The New York Times, eviscerated freelancers over the weekend.
“These cases illustrate how hard it is for The Times to ensure that freelancers, who contribute a substantial portion of the paper’s content, abide by ethics guidelines that editors believe are self-evident and essential to the paper’s credibility but that writers sometimes don’t think about, or don’t think apply to their circumstances, or believe are unfair or unrealistic,” Hoyt wrote in explaining why The Times had recently severed relationships with three freelancers over accepting freebies, mostly outside their work for The Times.
Is it really so difficult to abide by ethics rules? We don’t think so, but together we have more than 30 years in the journalism business. We’re old school. We didn’t train on blogs, where writers routinely accept freebies that are verboten by The Times and many other news organizations.
To Hoyt’s credit, he understands that these two worlds are colliding. “These cases keep coming up with dismaying frequency. That could be because the system is so elaborate — written booklet, written contract, written questionnaire — that editors take false comfort and neglect the most important element: constant conversation with freelancers over every assignment about the paper’s expectations. Then, even when considering asking someone else for free air fare or taking a junket, a freelancer would know better, or stop and ask.”
We agree, but we also think this is more than a present-tense problem. Tomorrow’s journalists are training not just at J-schools, but on the Web, in blogs. They’re witnessing and often participating in stories that are opinionated and which may involve sponsorship — a very different idea from the detached journalism that The Times preaches and practices. So while we believe Hoyt is right to raise the issue, we also wonder if it’s naive to think better guidelines and open communication are enough when there are real questions as to whether journalism itself is changing.
What do you think? Join us tonight at 8:30 at Editorchat on FriendFeed.
As if this topic needed help, new stories are surfacing today that speak to the shifting sands of journalism.
According to a new study from CareerCast.com, whose results were published in The Wall Street Journal, newspaper reporter is ranked the 184th worst U.S. job of the 200 professions listed: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/st_BESTJOBS2010_20100105.html
Here in Colorado, reporter Bob Berwyn says he was fired from The Summit Daily News for criticizing a large advertiser, Vail Resorts: http://www.hcn.org/wotr/snow-job-leads-to-a-reporters-exit
These and other reports lead us to believe that the publishing crisis stretches well beyond profit. At stake is talent. Men and women of intelligence and skill will go where the money is, and avoid where the money isn’t, because we all have families to feed.
Your thoughts? Post ‘em here, and see you tonight on Editorchat.
The future will be a more diverse place. We’ll live with many different kinds of “reporters” — and that term’s definition will change. I don’t expect the same things from a blogger that I expect from a big newspaper.
I hope big newspapers realize that, to survive in that future, they’ll need to focus on what they do best. Every person working on that newspaper will need to be educated on its specific mindset and world.