An ode to journalism

“What are you? Are you a businessman, or are you a newsman?”

Photo via AbsolutVision on Unsplash

The quote in my subhead is from a journalism movie I mentioned in a previous post, “The Insider.” I rewatched it a few days ago, and one of the themes the film explores is the corporate influence over journalism. Though the movie is from 1999, that theme is so timely today. 

The last couple of weeks have been a rough one for the journalism industry. We’ve seen widespread layoffs across the media landscape. Some places eliminated a small number of jobs. Others shut down their entire news operations.  Colleagues I’ve worked with announced their layoffs on social media. It’s been horrible to watch. 

According to Politico, over 500 journalists were laid off in January 2024. The news industry has been struggling to sustain itself financially over the last decade or so. I’m not an expert¹. I hear about the struggle with ad revenue and how outlets aren’t making enough money. I can’t speak on the nuances of all that.

I talk a lot on this page about what I cover, but I haven’t spoken much about the news industry and my perspective on navigating it. In 2023, there were thousands of layoffs, which had many of us in the industry on edge. The truth is though, in media, you’re always on edge about layoffs. The last two weeks felt different because it felt like a domino effect of job slashings. At the same time, it’s been interesting to see some of the discourse around this.

In late January, one of my favorite authors and journalists, Jeff Pearlman, posted a couple of videos on Twitter giving advice to his young and old contemporaries. You should watch the videos, but he basically said that journalists should try to make themselves as indispensable as possible. 

Whether that’s starting a podcast, substack, doing TikTok videos, writing a book, etc. “The more stuff you have, the more you can offer,” he explained in one of the videos. 

I was fascinated by many of the responses. In my opinion, some people completely misinterpreted what he said. They took it as him saying, “If you’re indispensable, you won’t get laid off.” He responded to the criticism on his own Substack, which you can read here. 

I didn’t see his comments the way others did. I took them as, “If you do this stuff, you could make yourself a little more attractive for the next opportunity, or you could do enough ‘side’ work that you don’t need to rely on the industry anymore.” Maybe the reason I took his comments that way is because that’s exactly how I view this industry. My ultimate goal is to get to a place where I don’t need to rely on any one job to provide for myself and my family. Plus, I’m not naive. As a Black man in journalism², I’m as expendable as they come. I feel like I have no choice but to build something outside of my day-to-day job. 

It’s funny because I had a real come to Jesus moment with this a few years ago. When I first started at TIME Magazine, there was a company event I had to cover. I really didn’t want to, but I had no say in the matter. During a meeting with the supervisor who was overseeing the coverage, he made a comment to me and others working the event that I’ll never forget.

“Listen, the people who cut your checks are going to be watching this closely, so this event is more important than anything else you’re working on right now.” At that moment, I said to myself, “Nah, I can’t work for someone for the rest of my life.” 

I want to get to a place where I’m not relying on this industry. I love journalism, and I love writing. I was born to do it, but I can’t ignore what’s happening. That’s why Pearlman’s advice didn’t bother me. I agreed with it.

Is it fair that the news industry is set up that way? Of course not. You should be able to work in journalism and make a livable wage and not have to worry about some greedy CEOs and billionaires cutting your lifeline because you’re nothing more than a number on a spreadsheet to them. 

It’s wack that we’ve gotten to this place where media outlets don’t know how to sustain themselves and protect their workers. Again, I don’t know what the answer to that is. 

I just know we need journalists, and we need journalism, especially in today’s climate. So, at some point, this will have to be corrected. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and wait for that to happen.

Disclaimer: Any opinions shared are not the views of my employer.

1. I should probably educate myself a bit more on this.

2. Or any corporate job.