Brady Media Group

‘Tis the best of times and the worst of times.

More outlets producing more media content than ever, right?
More websites, more blogs, more cable channels, more niche publications, more work for the scribes. If you send out more jump-drive resumes, you’ll find work…

And yet..
Getting paid is something else and getting paid a suitable income – one that would constitute a salary… well, that’s something else entirely.

I was on a media panel for Journalism seniors this week at SMU. They want to know where the jobs are, why the industry is in such disarray and if they should switch majors AGAIN! Well, no. But charting a career with legs is definately a challenge.

Why?
The media tribe is on the move. There are definately more of us under the ‘journalism’ tent. But the tent poles are pretty wobbly… fewer resources to support them…. a few poles have already fallen… and the whole shebang may just blow away with the wind sometime next year. But there will be a new tent by that time, and probably a whole village of them. Look around. Quite a few have already been pitched.

One of my fellow panelists at SMU this week was Brittany Edwards, the Dallas editor of Daily Candy. It’s a NYC-based daily newsletter and blog-style website that serves up the latest fashion, restaurant and entertainment news in bite-sized stories on a daily basis. Not hard-core journalism, but who cares? The owner sold it six years ago for $3million and just last year it sold again for $125million. So don’t tell me there’s no way to make money in the media anymore. It’s just that some of the big, established, institutional outlets (local TV stations) can’t make AS MUCH money as before. And the smaller, more nimble outlets are picking up the slack.

The Capital “J” House of Journalism – the one we have all known as establishment press – the NYC network studios and and the big print production houses – may be re-inventing themselves – but I’m convinced that the process – the concept – the practice – and even the philosophy of solid, objective journalism will survive. In fact, it might even prosper in the new generation.

I predict that the major media brands will soon become more akin to ‘media portals’ than actual creation centers. The major print and broadcast agencies will soon (heck, it’s already happening) be collection and dissemination centers. For north Texas, we will have a bureau in Plano operated by a retired SMU professor, a bureau in Austin run by several UT students and a retired State senator and a bureau in Euless that is run by a soccer mom and her best friend down the street. Part amateur / part professional. And each “home office” will collect news content and send it into the “mother ship” which will screen for accuracy, news-worthiness and appeal, then send it out under the established old media brand.

We already see it happening in weather and sports. People send in photos or short video clips of tornados and hail. Or some high school sports departments send in their own highlight reel of Friday night football or basketball, and it often makes it into the late newscast.

So, too, will news departments, I think, become “Pro-Am” partnerships.
Very few full-time employees and a roving army of freelancers who are paid by the amount of quality content they deliver. Whether blog entry, podcast, video clip or still shot. The best will be rewarded, and rise to the top.

Have you heard of Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink?
He wrote it eight years ago, in conjunction with a Fast Company article, and now it’s coming true. The premise is that old-school, organizational careers in which one company defines your working life for 30-40 years – is over. Big surprise, right? But few of us have developed intentional career patterns based on the new reality. And even fewer industries. But now is the time for it. Moreso, I would argue in the media than perhaps any other industry. The best and the brightest among us should become free agents. Observing and recording stories around for the platforms best-suited to carry them.
The premise worked out OK for Anderson Cooper and Sebastian Junger, yes?

Will this scenario provide a robust health benefit or a 401K? No.
Will the freelancer have a regular job-site or cubicle to call home? Unlikely.
Will the up-and-comer receive an etched-gass paper weight at year 5 or 10 or 15? No.

But neither will she be bound to antiquated dress codes or meetings or bland assignments.

Welcome to the future, kids! The next chapter of American journalism has arrived! It’s leaner, smarter, more independent, more diverse and sarcastic than the last. And opportunity is here. I suggest you launch your own website with your own stories, photos and video clips, and see who calls to buy your work. If it’s well-done, you will be found. Better yet, maybe several of us journalism nomads should ban together and create a vibrant, organic, authentic, new media website of our own – based on delivering top-grade diggital content to an underserved community. The Daily Candy model proved it works!

The jobs are out there, but the best and the brightest are creating their own.