Is journalism doomed?

Are we, in the words of Dad’s Army’s Private Frazer “all doomed”? I’m talking, of course, of the future of Scottish journalism.

Talking to ex-colleagues still working in journalism these days, the atmosphere is funereal. It is timely that this week a new online community, The Scottish Future of News Group, has been set up by the Daily Record’s Iain Hepburn, to ponder this prickly question.

At Craig McGill’s recent Scottish Social Media dinner in Glasgow, Iain launched an impassioned defence of the value of journalism. His argument was essentially that unlike the legions of bloggers in their pyjamas whose contributions are little more than opinions, journalists do the hard work of checking out facts to make sure that stories actually stand up.

He’s right, of course. Proper journalism – good old-fashioned digging around, finding out things the authorities don’t want you to know, verifying the facts and then publishing – is a noble calling and serves a very important purpose in public life.

At the same dinner, Stewart Kirkpatrick, editor of Scotland’s latest newspaper, the Caledonian Mercury, claimed there has never been a better time to be a journalist and that we are entering a new golden age for journalism in Scotland. I worked with Stewart at The Scotsman and I glory in his spirit. I wish him all the success in the world with his new venture, but I cannot share his sunny outlook for journalists.

Journalism will evolve into new forms as the contours of the digital revolution become more apparent. Paper may become a thing of the past, people may even, if Rupert Murdoch is correct, be prepared to pay for some of the online stuff they have been used to getting for free for the past few years.

But what journalism will not do, if current trends continue, is pay journalists – certainly new recruits – a decent living wage. Journalism must be one of the few occupations in the world where people entering the profession are paid less in actual terms now than they were 20 years ago. Journalism was once a reasonably well-paid profession. For the past two decades or so, greedy newspaper proprietors have squeezed more and more profits out of the business while wages for new recruits have gone down and down and down.

Newspaper owners have systematically destroyed newsrooms up and down the country. Experienced reporters – with contacts, a nose for a story and proper grammar – have been forced out the door and replaced by cheaper weans willing to work on a shoestring. Today, journalism is a low paid profession with no sign things will get better.

While in the past, the bosses bled the business dry, today, thanks to the advertising slump and declining circulations, they genuinely don’t have the money to pay good salaries. If one of my kids asked about getting into journalism I’d advise them they’d be better off stacking shelves in Tesco – at least there they might eventually earn a decent wage.

Unless media groups can find new and innovative ways of making money from the net, the outlook for journalists is looking grim on the financial side. Good quality journalism that holds a mirror to authority and entertains and informs us is worth paying for. I’d certainly fork out for high calibre information from the likes of the FT and The Economist, and my hunch is that amid the oceans of junk on the internet, there may be a flight towards quality paid-for journalism. That way lies hope. I haven’t worked out what Stewart’s model is for the Caledonian Mercury but I hope he’s cracked the conundrum of how to make money out of online news.

Most journalists are feeling unappreciated, under-paid and unloved – but they still have much to offer. I believe that in the near future, smart businesses and organisations that want to stand out from the rest of the digital dross will realise they need to produce high quality content.

Journalists are excellent communicators with much to offer. The challenge in the future is how to position themselves as providers of top quality content.

We’re not all doomed – we’re just not quite sure where we are going.

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