Journalists switching to allied professions: A phenomenon

BY IMPACT Staff

Post the Lehman Brothers’ fall and in the midst of a downturn when the media in the West took a financial sock right in the belly, many entities – particularly those in Print – began to shut shop or downsize. The West, as we have seen, is not as opaque as us in Asia. The media and those who sympathized with journalists who’d lost their jobs came out in large numbers to condemn, and try and find solutions for careers which had been by this colossal, near-indestructible barricade called slowdown.

By the end of 2010, the Net – that promised to be the next big thing as a communications medium – began to receive entries in the form of blogs and sites. They ran headlines like these – ‘How to (Voluntarily) Become an Ex-Journalist’; ‘How Do Laid-Off Journalists Reinvent Their Careers’; ‘Journalism: a profession under pressure?’ ‘Alternative Jobs for Journalists’; so on and so forth.

It was heartening to see the ‘buckup’ factor in these entries but it also brought along a feeling of  alienation and abandonment among Indian journalists, who either did not have the time in the midst of the job cuts that hit the Indian media too or just did not have the environmental conditions to come out in the open strongly and say, “Hey, we are losing our jobs too. What about us?”

Indeed what about them?

But then we Indians are a breed of diehards. And of jugaadoos. And of innovators. Here’s what an acquaintance says, “For a journalist who realizes the power of his pen and knows how to wield it, it’s never too tough to search out alternatives. There are plenty. You’d be surprised how many even among the top names in the corporate and allied world don’t know how to turn in a good copy.”

And he should know. Summarily, dismissed from a national newspaper – because his bosses couldn’t gauge the gravity of the situation when militant Ajmal Kasab, along with other Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, struck in Mumbai in 2008, and carried a lead with a question headline, and the bosses had to zero in on a fall guy – our man found solace in public relations and communications.

Today, four years later, he commands a job heading strategy, media and research for a reputed multi-national public relations firm; since he is a consultant, he also moonlights for a dozen others, ghost writing for some well-known names in the corporate world, particularly in the IT, automobile, retail and FMCG sectors.

He’s had the last laugh. “Today, the same newspaper carries my write-ups under the bylines of corporate biggies,” he says with a wry grin. My friend’s story may be an exception, in so far as to what he claims he faced. But journalists are not averse to looking for greener pastures outside the profession, not anymore.

“Journalism has all of a sudden become quite stifling. They say the newspaper business will not die out in India as in the West. They said the same thing between 2008 and 2010. Yet journalists were made to leave media organizations which were either downsizing or shutting down. Interestingly, the downsizing was not because there was any real threat to the media house, it was done in anticipation of the threat coming home to strike. Plus, now, you can’t even tell anyone you are a journalist because of the number of scams in the industry,” says a senior journalist, according to whom, he is “too senior to try out any other profession”.

If the ability to survive is the issue, most journalists who either voluntarily left the profession or were ‘forced’ to leave it have not done a bad job for themselves. Look at companies’ corporate communications and public relations forces – according to a rough estimate, at least 15 per cent of these professionals have been a journalist sometime or the other before switching over to the corporate side.

An interesting observation by free writer Harvey McEwan: “The shrewd and adaptable journalist needn’t worry though, as their skills as writers, researchers and investigators can easily transfer to other sectors, especially those that have grown substantially over the past couple of years.

Take sales and marketing for example, this is one career path that is expected to boom across various sectors. Highly competitive and creative, the cut throat nature of the marketing world is not too dissimilar to that of journalism. The flair for writing is something that comes naturally to trained journalists and is a great advantage in marketing.”

The New Media or Social Media too has opened vistas of opportunity for journalists. Take for example, the SEO industry. Search engine optimization or SEO is still an area being explored in India, but this process of making improvements to a website in order to boost, among a plethora of other things, its ranking on Google, is fast catching up. With more and more companies recognizing the benefits of going online, SEO has become a way of servicing across sectors who want to make an impression or sell goods on the Web. On the other hand, there’s always a need for good writers by SEO firms as well as individuals – according to a blog post – “who are happy to spend their working day typing”.

The importance of a subbed work delivered to a tight deadline can never be undermined, particularly in these times when information is best disseminated ‘here and now’. Indeed, as all-things spatial.blogspot.in puts it, working as a web editor for an SEO firm is a great way for journalists to continue writing and developing their flare for news in a much more stable industry. Journalists must realize that their profession in the present times is no less than a commodity. As the advent and subsequent spread of the World Wide Web shows us, it is no longer just an occupation but an activity that anyone who has an opinion and is not necessarily seeking monetary returns, can indulge in, in his or her spare time.

“I am of the opinion that the present times are a wake-up call for individuals who have been in the industry for years on end. It’s time for them to recognize the fast-changing environment and learn how to adapt. They must understand that the business model their publishers run is heavily dependent of ROIs – one of the reasons that most media firms have also diversified in order to continue running their channels or print their newspapers and magazines. It’s a consumerist work we live in and there’s no point in feeling sad about the commoditization of the media,” says a journalist who has recently forayed into publishing. His daily is expected to hit the market sometime early next year.

Be that as it may, the journalism is not perishing in India, not even faced with the exodus to other industries, like communications, book publishing, online content writing, marketing and sales. Once when news channels mushroomed in the country, print media lost many a stalwart to the TV industry. But that did not kill the media, did it?

Feedback: abatra@exchange4media.com

Tags : Media Mantras