Harsh realities of being a journalist

As a journalism student, it is far from comforting to be told that news organisations are massively culling the number of staff they employ in order to cut costs.

Just look at this article  posted on the Sydney Morning Herald website. In June 2012, Fairfax was to shed 1900 staff, generating savings of $235 million by June 2015.

John Grey, a recent victim of job cuts at The Courier Mail, told us about the harsh realities of being a journalist in this day and age. I have mentioned previously that print readership has decreased significantly in recent years, which of course can only lead to the need for large news outlets to reorganise their structures and look at different platforms to communicate with readers. 

However, it seems as though this has been taken a step to far, with outlets moving to centralise jobs and therefore, centralise news. Grey discussed how a parent company would now share most content and provide only a small amount of local news. 

Which seems odd, seeing as in his former newsroom he could see the top ten stories being read at any time, and, more often than not, people were looking at local news stories. 

As grim as the future of journalism sounds, there will always be a need to communicate the news. I can’t say that I am looking forward to practically fighting to the death for my first job, but I will get there, eventually.