Pay-Per-View Journalism Is Burning Out Reporters Young 227
Hugh Pickens writes "Young journalists once dreamed of trotting the globe in pursuit of a story, but the NY Times now reports that instead many are working online shackled to their computers, where they try to eke out a fresh thought or be first to report even the smallest nugget of news — anything that will impress Google's algorithms and draw readers their way. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times all display a 'most viewed' list on their home pages; some media outlets, including Bloomberg News and Gawker Media, now pay writers based in part on how many readers click on their articles. 'At a [traditional] paper, your only real stress point is in the evening when you're actually sitting there on deadline, trying to file,' says Jim VandeHei, Politico's executive editor. 'Now at any point in the day starting at 5 in the morning, there can be that same level of intensity and pressure to get something out.' The pace has led to substantial turnover in staff at digital news organizations. At Politico, roughly a dozen reporters have left in the first half of the year — a big number for a newsroom that has only about 70 reporters and editors. 'When my students come back to visit, they carry the exhaustion of a person who's been working for a decade, not a couple of years,' says Duy Linh Tu of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 'I worry about burnout.'"
Re:Welcome to the Digital Age! (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure this "burnout" isn't confined to journalism. Virtually everybody I know who is shackled to a deskjob with an email account faces the same problem.
I tried to tell them that shackles and handcuffs have a direct correlation to carpel tunnel in our office, but some smart ass at the board meeting made note that correlation does not equal causation, making the argument that perhaps people prone to carpel tunnel are the ones who line up for jobs that require shackling.
I was, however able to convince them to take off the shackles by demonstrating an electric shock collar regularly used to keep dogs in the owners yard can be just as effective.
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:1, Funny)
you mean journalist will actually have to *gasp* WORK like the rest of us? No more 10 second story read from a teleprompter in an exotic paradise
WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TOO...
As far as im concerned you should put all the journalist on a big boat, float it into the middle of the atlantic... and torpedo it... but film it and put that on the news.... just loop it so we get to see what happens when terrible stupid stories make it too the air.
Stop the presses! - Work is hard! (Score:1, Funny)
Boo Hoo!
And not usually fun either.
Bout time they joined the rest of us.
Re:Here's a thought (Score:5, Funny)
And if anyone thinks google's decisions should be part of their compensation, they should know that google decided to return this as the first image when i searched for Radley Balko [google.com]:
http://www.pescare.com/siluro/images3/micione1.JPG [pescare.com]
The second was no more pertinent, but a whole lot less rude about it:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/249737018_3f387acbc5_o.jpg [flickr.com]