Old story: Legacy media’s finances caught in vicious circle, “new media” trying to fill the gap, but revenues (so far) don’t support a robust newsgathering effort.
But this is just sad. From Paul Heintz’ Fair Game:
Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reporter Keith Vance quit his job last month, citing low wages and the rising cost of daycare. But barely a week later, he was back on the beat, reporting for a new media source: his own hyper-local, online news organization called Voice of Montpelier.
“Financially, it made more sense for me to not work for the Times Argus anymore, stay home, watch my daughter during the day, freelance write and work for myself,” he says.
If you follow the musical-chairs game that is Vermont journalism, you know that turnover is constant. Young reporters come in, work for a few months to a couple of years, and when they’ve just about learned their beats, they move on to PR jobs in government, nonprofits, or the private sector. That’s bad enough, but to see a good young reporter decide that he can’t make ends meet on a full-time newspaper job — and that he may be financially better off taking a flyer on a website — just shows you how bad things really are.
I don’t know Keith; I like his writing, and I certainly wish him well in his new venture. This may be a good step for him, but it’s a very bad sign for the health of the news business. There’s already a substantial vacuum in coverage, and it’s going to keep getting worse unless someone figures out a way to make journalism pay in this new media environment.
Postscript: For those who don’t normally read the Comments, I urge you to read wdh3’s comment under this diary. He notes a central element of Keith’s dilemma: the cost of child care. Excellent point, and I’m glad he took the time to make it.
I completely agree with your analysis- and plea for someone, somehow, to figure out how we can have a healthy and effective Forth Estate that doesn’t look like a NASCAR event. I would only add, however, that a secondary layer to Mr Vance’s story should not be overlooked: the cost of childcare.
I doubt the Times-Argus is paying minimum wage, though I also doubt they’re paying anything close to what we might call a “comfortable, middle-class” salary. But therein lies the rub: if he made something close to minimum wage he’d likely qualify for public assistance for childcare (though, admittedly, such assistance doesn’t pay the childcare provider much beyond minimum wages either, keeping the provider themselves on public assistance programs for their own needs- see how that cycle works?). Of course, if his wife/partner works, even for low wages, their combined income quite possibly disqualifies them for assistance anyway. But short of making something that at least approaches $40k a year I’d venture to say that childcare is, ultimately, just not affordable- and I haven’t even used the word quality to quantify the kind of childcare we’re talking about here!
So, yes, journalism- especially quality journalism- is an increasingly large black hole of untenable wages, both keeping the best journalists away from the field in search of wages which their education and smarts tell them they deserve and turning our news media in to corporate ad-laden vehicles moving past us at 200 MPH. Likewise, the cost of obtaining childcare- of the variety which not only gives our children the building blocks they need to grow into creative, able-minded contributors to society but also allows the childcare providers themselves to live an enjoyable, dignified life- continues to excerpt a tremendous downward pressure on the livelihoods and the (fiscal, emotional) security of a huge segment of our population.
Perhaps the new Voice of Montpelier can work on an investigative piece exposing this continued downward spiral- or better yet, wondering how the richest nation in the history of the planet finds itself in such dire straits.
My wife and I did the math. For both of us to work full time, almost all of the second income would go to child care.
That is because of the decades-old Republican class war against the American People.