Doesn’t Make Sense to Me!

The voiceofsandiego.org is reporting an interesting “job opportunity” at the San Diego Union: “junior writers.” (With a “low level of complexity, analysis and narrative.”)

It seems that simultaneously the U-T is laying off 35 newsroom people.

That seems like turning professional staff into amateurs to me, and diluting the main advantage that newspapers have – being in the field.

The cost of printing and distributing physical newsprint is 70% of the cost – and the Wall Street Journal is the only newspaper (so far) with the brand clout to charge for on-line content in order to reduce the printing and distribution cost.

With the advent of iPADS and Windows 7 alternatives, which will quickly overtake and make Kindles obsolete. On-line readable content is the future and ALL newspapers are moving in that direction…

But…

The strength of the newspaper is their reportorial staff, and that is what the San Diego Union .is laying off! Laying off your advantage does not seem like a good move to me.

Now, admittedly, reporting is NOT rocket science. Reporters are simply scribes – their KNOWLEDGE of the subject matter they report upon is, shall we say, scant. They go to great “J” schools with high-falutin’ names and get great degrees printed on velum, but they are writers, and as a columnist I can tell you not very good writers at that.

All writers depend HUGELY on their EDITORS! 9And, no, I don’t use one for this blog – and it shows it, daily.

Now everyone thinks they can write, because they once wrote a letter to their Mother, but everyone can’t. Still, Reporters are poorly paid because the newspaper industry understands something that the reading public does not: Reporters are not very good.

Just as teachers should have knowledge, and degrees in the subject they are teaching, so too should Reporters have knowledge and degrees in the subject about which they write. The students are shot-changed by teachers with “Education: degrees, and the reading public is shortchanged by the reporter with a “Journalism” degree.

Firing Reporters and replacing them with  is not the answer. Professionalizing them and going digital is the answer, because being on-site in every community is the advantage that newspapers have.

Showing up is 90% of life – and Reporters are them what shows up!