High newsroom turnover hurts credibility
Commentary
By Charles L. Overby
Chairman and CEO, The Freedom Forum
09.15.98
There's a lot of talk these days about newsroom folks leaving the business and others wanting to leave.
This is not new. But it seems to be getting worse.
That's why I was struck by news last month involving two of my newspaper friends. One died. One retired. Both worked at their newspapers for 50 years or more. In the end, their longevity in the business was as notable as their contributions.
The friends:
n Edgar Allen Poe, Washington correspondent for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, had covered every president since Harry Truman. He died at 92.
n Lee Baker, sports editor of the defunct Jackson (Miss.) Daily News and sports writer of the surviving Clarion-Ledger, retired after 50 years. He gave me my first job.
So why are people leaving the news business? The top predictable reason, which has been around for generations: pay. It's better, still not enough. But it probably is not the most decisive factor.
Indiana University journalism professors Cleveland Wilhoit and David Weaver have been studying journalists for two decades and agree that the exodus involves more than pay.
Wilhoit cites journalists' uncertainties about the future and dissatisfaction with emerging values, particularly the stronger emphasis on profitability.
"There also is a growing perception by reporters that they don't have the kind of clout they used to have in journalism, that they don't have as much professional control of their work as they would like," Wilhoit said.
Reid McCluggage, publisher of The Day in New London, Conn., and president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, is not sure turnover is as serious as some people say. A survey by the Newspaper Association of America pegged the annual turnover rate for newspapers at 13%.
McCluggage said the average stay at his newspaper is 12-13 years. "We try to do many things, including the things that allow people to learn and advance without having to move," he said.
But the most recent survey of journalism graduates is not encouraging.
Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center for International Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, released his findings last month for 1997 graduates. Among them:
n Four in 10 graduates say their jobs fail to meet their expectations. That's 40% who are discontented in their first job.
n Only one in four want to remain with their employer permanently. That trend exists in other professions, but it indicates that 75% of last year's journalism graduates expect to be looking for another job.
n Worst of all, only three in 10 want to remain in journalism and mass communication occupations permanently.
The last finding shows how hard it will be to reverse the trend of news staffers leaving the business. Seventy percent start with the idea that the news business will be a temporary job.
At a forum a couple of years ago at our offices in Arlington, Va., a veteran journalist cited various problems in the business that would cause people to leave. A young graduate from the University of Alabama smiled and said, "Well, that just leaves more jobs for us."
That's the cycle and the problem.
Experienced journalists leave. Less experienced journalists take their place. The demand for bodies is filled. But the need for reporters and editors with knowledge of the community suffers.
At a forum on fairness earlier this year, a participant said, "When I leave here, I'll have to teach my third reporter in three years about the budget process."
The mounting problem of newsroom turnover needs more long-range attention from news executives. Solutions are crucial to the news media's most important asset: credibility.