Let's talk about how the roles in newsrooms are evolving
TL;DR I’m starting a newsletter focused on exploring all the new roles that have appeared in newsrooms as they evolved over the past decade or more. You can sign up here
It’s been almost a decade since I graduated from university without knowing more about my career direction than I wanted to work ‘in the media’. It was an industry undergoing severe disruption that seemed ripe for change.
A few months after graduating, I co-founded a blog called Wannabe Hacks, that was designed to tell the stories of five newbie graduates as they attempted to make their way in journalism. (You can find the very first version of the blog here – more recent versions of it are no longer online, unfortunately)
The story of ‘Hacks’ is for another day, but I am telling you this because I noticed that even three years after Hacks was no more, the email address still receives multiple requests a week for advice, CV guidance, help promoting new roles, students looking for work experience etc.
I can see there is still demand to understand this industry, how it is changing and how to get involved. What better way to do so than through the eyes and experience of those who have been ‘being the change’ whether for several years or a few months.
I’m aware it could seem odd to be talking about new roles when so many jobs in journalism are being lost at an accelerated rate due to the pandemic. But it seems more important than ever to look towards the future and what newsrooms need to become. I aim to do just that.
Introducing Evolving Newsroom – looking at the new roles in journalism
There’s such a huge variety of new roles, strategies, organisational structures and business models that it only felt right to be inspired by Hacks and to look to tell the stories of how newsrooms are evolving through the people doing it first hand.
The plan is simple, a weekly newsletter with a profile of someone in a non-traditional newsroom role + a link or two to relevant articles and discussions.
Here are the questions I plan to ask (if you have suggestions for new questions or feedback on these ones I’d love to hear it @evolvingnews)
If it’s popular, then perhaps more than one profile a week – I’ll wait and see
How can you get involved/help I hear you scream?
- Sign up for the newsletter – I even have a handy box above to make it easy
- Share the newsletter with your friends, the students you know, that colleague thinking about a career change and your networks, everyone really!
- Follow EN on Twitter and Instagram
- Suggest people you admire (profiles@evolvingnewsroom.co), tell me who you want profiled, who you want to learn about. Tell me about you, your role and why you think others would love to hear about you. I want to ensure EN covers as wide a range of people, roles, publications, strategies, countries, languages, markets and business models as possible
- Feedback on the newsletter, the questions and help me make Evolving Newsroom as strong as possible.
