William Chambers' Blog

Parasitic web browsers, rampant social networking, tweeting tweeple, media oligopolies, protectionist education, no money and definitely no jobs – welcome to an average conversation about the future of journalism in the 21^st century, all of which sounds a bit insane and rather apocalyptic.

Last week in London, freelance entrepreneur, Adam Westbrook, slated a Sunday Times article by Ed Caesar for not mentioning entrepreneurial journalism, saying that this mentality was forcing prospective journalists such as myself to chooses either badly paid jobs and oversubscribed internships.

This prompted a similarly punchy reply from media commentator, Roy Greenslade, who said that Westbrook had his head in the clouds rather than in the reality of the business. Westbrook replied that is exactly where journalists’ heads should be – looking at the media as it could be rather than just the “cold hard reality”.

As a member of the community of young, aspiring and jobless journalists that was the subject of this article, I would argue that debate only gets us so far.

There are really two sides to the discussion of the future of journalism. Firstly the question of print verses online, and secondly the question of free verses paid-for content.

These two questions will shape the future of the industry as we know it, but how much freedom do those starting out in the industry have to be as idealistic as the distinguished commentators like Roy Greenslade or Jeff Jarvis, as grittily realistic as the established Ed Caesar, or as experimental as the multimedia freelancer, Adam Westbrook?

I recently spoke to a self-made journalist and editor of one of the few financially successful online hyperlocal news sites, James Hatts.

 He brought up the point that there is no business model for 21^st century journalism:

“There isn’t a clear model there are dozens of different models. I don’t see why their needs to be. People just need to do what works for them.”

This is a view that amidst all the hand wringing does not get aired very often. Despite being good listeners, journalists often error on the side of talking too much, which can be a terrible bore at dinner parties but quite handy when wanting to relate a story.

Whether Google and Facebook are good or bad for online newspapers is not an issue if there is no one out actually trying to run one. Some people trying to do it, but the number of serious operations can be counted on your fingers.

Equally there are still plenty of good opportunities writing news for young journalists. While it might not be on a national newspaper, there are hundreds of business to business or niche publications and online sites that need writers.

Today there are 69 jobs on journalism.co.uk, 25+ on Editorial Content, that many again on sites like Gumtree and that is just what everyone else is applying to.

 Use your contacts, network and talk to friends. Join up to groups such as The Future of News, pretty soon you will be hearing about offers, and getting ideas you might never have otherwise.

The issue is what Mr Hatts called the “hand wringers” who are too busy debating the future of journalism to actually take the leap and do something about it.

 “Whatever works for you” should be the conclusion of the debate between Westbrook and Greenslade.

Every established journalist I have spoken to, every work experience I have done, every job interview I have been to over the last three years has had a similar conclusion: if an aspiring journalist can doing the basics, e.g. finding good stories and telling them well, they will find work. The industry needs creative and intelligent journalism.

How a journalist chooses to tell the story will always be up for debate, but that should never stop them from focusing on telling the story.

This is not to argue that journalists such as Westbrook are not doing their job, but if people really want to be entrepreneurial, or even just get a job, they need to do first and talk later.

On that note of “hand wringing” I will take my own medicine as I am off to a job interview.