Q. Besides the whole economic climate, with people going to the Internet, do you see any other reasons for the "unusual situation" of layoffs and buyouts in the journalism industry?
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Where is the journalism industry going during and after the layoffs and buyouts?
What's the employment situation of ethnic media, since the ethnic media market is growing?
Thanks very much for answering my questions!
All the best,
Jun Wang
Chinese Media Editor
New America MediaA. The cyclical recession we appear to be in, along with the vast migration of audiences to the Internet, is reason enough for layoffs and buyouts.
But there are many other reasons as well, including audience fragmentation and empowerment, advertiser migration, Wall Street and rising costs for health care, paper and gasoline. In sum, the traditional models for mainstream media no longer seem to work, and there is little reason to believe they will again. (If you missed the link that
Jim Romenesko posted Monday to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's State of the News Media 2008,
here it is again.) People everywhere are looking for ways to support news-gathering for audiences that are increasingly selective about content that they expect to be free.
Some media outlets are at greater risk than others. I think the ethnic press has a pretty good chance of survival, provided it continues to adapt.
Ethnic media provide unique content to growing, niche audiences that are typically under-served. They are closer to their investors, who typically care about more than sheer profitability. While they have fewer resources, they are less encumbered by legacy costs. This makes them more agile.
While ethnic media face some of the same challenges as all media, I like their chances.
(This question was submitted Friday during a national conference call organized by the Asian American Journalists Association as part of a new initiative to help members affected by newsroom layoffs. You can find the podcast of that one-hour call-in show, moderated by Joe Grimm, at
www.aaja.org.)
Coming Wednesday: This new media director feels trapped, serving under advertising and seeing colleagues get promotions.
