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Career Advice for Job Seekers

A View of the Future for Writing Career Aspirants

Yvonne LaRose AvatarYvonne LaRose
April 29, 2006


Last week gave me breathing time to actually read content instead of glossing over headlines and, if there was the luxury, teasers. Last week I actually found an article quite pertinent to some of our blogging candidates. It has to do with the state of newspapers, their possible direction in light of falling subscriptions, and a few suggestions on what steps to take to survive the industry evolution.


That was last week. I’ve spent the last half hour or so searching for that exact article. So far, it’s eluding me. But it isn’t alone in the news and forecast. For example, in 2004, Wired magazine saw the writing on the wall and predicted that in 30 years hard copy newspapers will be a thing of the past.
Journalism.org did its own study of declining hard copy subscriptions in 2004. Their study dissected readers by age, race, level of education. All of the brackets except for those over 65 and those holding post graduate degrees are in decline. Even NPR, as recently as May 2005, noted that paid subscriptions are still falling at a high rate.
Each reportage and study cites the fact that people simply don’t want newspapers lying around in their homes making clutter. The studies found that people are more digitally savvy and prefer their news online. What these trends spell, however, is future cuts in newspaper staffs as the number of print production personnel will decrease by necessity.
Another piece from NPR spells out the business side of newspapers, journalism and the survival that funding can spell for them. The profit margin for newspapers is stated and a distinguished editor declares the need to drop the margin. The sale of two distinguished papers, Knight Ridder and one of its properties, The Sun-Mercury News, is cited in the piece, which are the shockers that were mentioned in the “lost” article I’m still searching for as these words are crafted. The articles talks about the various sources of funding for newspapers. Funding, no matter what your industry, is a critical consideration. Without it, the business simply won’t float or won’t float very well.
Well, it’s time to give up on trying to find that elusive piece from last week. It’s out there. The significant thing about the article, in addition to telling the stories about the sale of Knight Ridder publications and that being precipitated by declining subscriptions is the additional impetus it took to point out what needs to be done in the future. Newspapers need to become creative about what is delivered and how it is delivered, the article advised.
Creativity is a critical element in anyone’s career. Without creativity, one soon discovers the dream career becomes the dull, boring, repetitive job, that life is one huge miasma of complacency. Creativity is the stuff of progress and change. Creativity is the success factor of moving into the the future and dealing with another significant thing in everyone’s career — change. And change is exactly what all of these news articles are talking about. A change in the way the writing, specifically news writing, career is heading.

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