Not my job? Journalists adjust to new roles
February 16th, 2007 by BryanAgain proving the synchronicity that happens in the world of weblogs. Earlier this week I was talking to some college professors about an attitude that embraces new challenges, accepts new roles, and relishes the ability to expand talents. I basically said what I wrote when Gannett announced their “information center” initiative back in November:
This is a new world for journalism, and some are going to be uncomfortable with the new roles they’ll have to adopt (”Shoot video, you’ve got to be crazy!”). But adaptation is the key to survival in this universe. As one of my doctoral advisers used to say, the worst thing you can say as a staffer is “that’s not my job.”
So it’s affirming to me to see Matt Waite remark about his role in a recent breaking news event (not my job doesn’t exist anymore in newspapers), and Ryan Sholin respond.
Waite and Sholin are part of a new breed of journalists who are going to go far in this business because of their ability and willingness to adapt (I have quite a few of these folks in my RSS reader).
When I mentioned this attitude to these college professors, one brought up the excellent question of newspaper unions. I admit that up to this point in my life, I’ve never worked in a “union shop” newspaper. But my step-father is a union electrician, so I grew up around unions.
The union question is going to be an important one over the next few years. I hope union leaders and management don’t kill good newspaper operations over nitpicking job definitions (who writes headlines and who adjusts kerning).
February 16th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
The young reporter I mentioned in my blog post said he’s not allowed to shoot a photo due to union restrictions.
Note to unions: If you kill the newspapers, you won’t have jobs.
Caveat: I’ve been a film-business union member for years, and understand the logic behind dividing labor. But if there were no electricians around, and I needed an extension cord, I knew how to get it myself and where to plug it in.