London: Longer hours, more pressure, decreasing quality and less enjoyable work. Old media is a dark, dark place for journalism at least that's the mood of many of the journalists that were interviewed for the annual Oriella digital journalism study.
There are some reasons to be cheerful, which include journalists not being quite as pessimistic as the previous year.
The Ugly
Oriella PR interviewed 770 journalists in 15 countries including the United States, Brazil and several in Europe. More than half the journalists working on traditional newspaper, TV and radio formats said they thought the channel would fold, and one in six say this has already happened. The trend is exaggerated in Sweden where a third of traditional channels have closed and one in six has completely transferred online.
Forty-four per cent said print media will shrink dramatically pessimistic, but down from 60 per cent in the 2009 survey. Around 43 per cent said lack of profitability online will impact resources and therefore the quality of journalism.
Advertising will fall a further 10 per cent this year, journalists expect, though they anticipate a smaller drop than 2009. Around 46 per cent of journalists said they were expected to produce more work, 30 per cent said they are working longer hours and 28 per cent have less time to research stories.
The Bad
Journalists are producing less video, largely due to cuts in budget and increased time pressures. Last year, the number of news sites offering video reached 50 per cent, but this fell to 39 per cent this year. Blogs and discussion boards were also less used.
Journalists are less interested in receiving multimedia content from PRs; 75 per cent want emailed releases and half want photographs. Does this mean less imaginative and experimental editorial?
The Good
Journalists are slightly more positive about the future; only 14 per cent think the total number of media outlets will shrink (by this, they mean established media rather than blog houses) and 40 per cent think the web provides new opportunities. The most optimistic webbists were in the United Kingdom, United States, Spain and Brazil where 50 per cent.
Twitter is even more widely used this year with 41 per cent of publications running a feed. But that only increased 6 per cent from the previous year —not much considering the rapid growth of Twitter. It was most popular in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.
Smartphones are increasingly important to publishers, particularly as they look to applications to provide a new income stream.
But despite the added workload and that extra pressure, 79 per cent of journalists think the quality of their work has remained high and 84 per cent still enjoy their jobs.
The most optimistic journalists regard technology as an aid, rather than a threat. Quite right too.
