And why there are so many of them willing to work for you
You’ve seen them. Holding a camera, talking in a mic, drinking a stale cup of coffee, and furiously typing on a keyboard. You’ve read, watched and listened to their work. You’ve relied on it, talked about it, and made informed decisions because of their work. Now, thousands of former reporters are wanting to work for you. Here’s why you should hire them.
2. They’re deadline driven
Former newsies, whether that’s print, radio, or television, are basically born on a deadline. My mom’s favorite story is that I was born in 15 minutes. A deadline is basically in my blood, along with other former journos. Listen, in an eight-hour day, they will have received more than 300 emails, read most of them, replied to a majority, interacted with the cute neighbor, interviewed the hard politician, put out small fires every two hours, maybe had a small sandwich while they wrote, and will have become an expert in whatever topic they’re covering that day before 5 p.m. To be a journalist is to be a juggler, including juggling time. Give them a deadline, and they’ll meet it.
2. They can multi-task
If it wasn’t clear from the paragraph above, journalists are used to tackling several tasks during the day, at the same time. If your project may pull someone in a few different directions, a former journalist will have no problem completing each task, and on a deadline.
3. They have more than one talent
Looking to hire a former TV reporter? Good for you, they know how to write, shoot video, edit video, produce an entire segment, interview and interact with the public and more. Looking to hire a former radio reporter? They can work any audio equipment you throw at them, probably always have some extra gaff tape lying around, write, and edit. Print journalists can dig deep into any topic, write on whim, work a camera, edit their pictures and more. Not to mention, all former journalists are now social media managers of their accounts, or their companies and web copy posters and writers.
4. They’re actually salespeople too
How else could they get that big source to go on record? Convince their producer or editor to let them cover a certain story? How do they find all the information they need every day? Basically, we had to sell that we could be trusted, know how to handle the information, could cover the big or small story, and can be honest, truthful, ethical and empathetic while doing it all.
5. You won’t find harder workers
Every single person I ever met in a newsroom, or at a news conference, was incredibly hard working. Journalism doesn’t pay, not much at least. They were willing to put in long hours to get the job done and do it correctly. Now, they’re probably switching careers to get a little more of a work-life balance, but that does not mean they won’t use each and every skill they have to do their best.
If you’re a hiring manager in any type of communications field, you’re probably seeing a lot of resumes coming across your desk with some reporter experience. There are several reasons these resumes may be appearing more often, but let’s look at some of the data first.
In less than 15 years, newsroom staff has dropped by 26 percent, according to Pew Research. Think about any industry cutting down more than a quarter of its personnel. As society starts to ingest news in different mediums and ways, big news corporations started to penny-pinch. Photographer positions in print and television slowly faded away, as reporters were then tasked with gathering their own content outside of facts and information. As staff dwindled, expectations and workloads did not.
In 2019, Indeed.com said job postings for journalists had dropped 30 percent in the last five years.
However, year-to-year (2020 versus 2021) there were almost 62 percent more job postings on Indeed, a result of more people quitting and more businesses, outside of news, needing those positions filled. More opportunity, with more money, actual holiday and healthcare, means more former newsies are applying.
The industry as a whole has changed drastically in the last decade, and much within even the last five years. The fast-paced, digital world has been hard for media companies to get ahead of, while still supplying their medium in the same fashion, to demographics young and old. Digital teams have grown in newsrooms, which is a great start.
Former journalists are eager to find jobs their lucrative skills can be put to good use. We’re writers and creators and always will be. If you’re business has the need for a creative, problem solving, eager individual, don’t be so quick to overlook a former journalist when one comes along.
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