A website called CareerCast, which appropriately enough is one of countless competitors with newspaper classified ads, has posted a list of the 10 worst jobs. Making the top or bottom 10, whichever way you wish to look at it, for the first time is: Newspaper reporter.
At No. 196 out of 200 jobs analyzed by CareerCast, the job of newspaper reporter was slightly worse than being a broadcaster, at No. 191. Photojournalist ranked No. 166.
“As the digital world continues to take over and provide on-demand information, the need for print newspapers and daily newscasts is diminishing,” CareerCast suggests. “To be sure, both jobs once seemed glamorous, but on-the-job stress, declining job opportunities and income levels are what landed them on our Worst Jobs list.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, addressing the American Society of News Editors, formerly the American Society of Newspaper Editors, in 2010.
The job of newspaper reporter earned a high stress level ranking, but less than that of enlisted soldier, at No. 198. The hiring outlook was in the negative range and the pay was averaged at $35,000, still better than the broadcaster at $27,000 with a similar stress level but a better chance of getting hired.
The job of publication editor came in at No. 119. The hiring outlook was near zero, but the stress level was considerably less than that of reporter. This is because, as I used to tell newspaper reporters, back when I was a publication editor: “Stress? I don’t get stress. But I am a West Coast distributor.”
An anonymous comment beneath the online article asked, “Without the newspaper reporter, who will write the news? Online news generates very little revenue; newspapers subsidizing online content.”
It reminds me of the time I questioned Google CEO Eric Schmidt about online news content. He had the staff and means to do the research, and had. He confirmed a statistic I’d long suspected.
Schmidt said that out on the vast Internet 80 percent of the so-called news stories contain no original content whatsoever, and, of the 20 percent that do, half of those are produced by newspapers.
It is a thankless job being performed for a thankless citizenry.
But what are you going to do when every twit can Twitter the breaking news by snatching it from the websites of every major newspaper in the country in seconds, post the plagiarized news story on Facebook, email it to friends, blog about it and comment on YouTube — all hours before the presses can roll?
As I have been telling people lately, it is difficult to be a high-dollar journalistic whore in the land of the promiscuous.
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4TH ST8 
Hard to disagree.
Thank you, Petey, I think.
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Like.
I have lots of friends and family in the dead tree journalism business. I don’t have a solution to offer, and I worry about the practical effect on democracy if no one is there to cover the school board meetings, interrogate the state officials or point out the “legal graft.” Google News and Huffington Post don’t make up the shortfall.
No blogger is going to spend a year and half researching police shootings.
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Right, far and away the majority of bloggersspend their time sniping and snarking. Most don’t even read the article and post with little more intent than to slam the author.
I still say the RJ was in better shape before.
Real news is dead!
I don’t entirely agree, the newspapers made themselves less consequential when their intent was to persuade opinions rather than report. Politics is a prime example, the same presses run the editions of the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Las Vegas Sun and few newspapers are more lame, the only thing of interest in the Sun is the Dilbert cartoon, the rest is liberal leftist propaganda and prattle, The LVRJ has more articles, a few are worth reading on Sundays but how many Steve Sebelius and John Smith articles do you have to read to realize they might as well be writing for the Sun and I stopped reading Jane Ann Morrison’s boring platitudes and gotchas a long time ago. The LVRJ has more comics and the sports page but both are available earlier on the Internet. I grant that many of us vent our rage at the evil we see in government and its leaders on the Internet but it’s about the only outlet to speak our mind, at one time letters to the editor were a means but only the mildest of rebukes get published now. And I don’t want to get started on television news which is flatulence with pictures.
Like I said Vernon, the RJ was better before.
Here’s something I found rather chilling. Any reaction from anyone else? Does anyone have the details?
http://www.lvrj.com/news/lawsuit-filed-against-anonymous-commenter-146777995.html
It is not as chilling as a federal subpoena, which the paper got a couple of years ago. Nothing came of it, though.
Fishing expedition Athos. Vermillion tried something like it recently. Deflect the attention away from ones self and make a case out of nothing against another, any other in fact.
It’s said that today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish wrap but that’s probably from merry old England’s heyday and here butcher paper is no longer seen, oldsters will remember the rolls of it next to the meat counter, likely gone because it horrified the food and drug administration. Back to my point, I don’t know if it’s an original thought but they could rename most newspapers as “Today’s Pablum” with any blame directed at the New York and Washington newspapers for anything dismaying to the gentle readers of the lesser cities who likely are more interested in the fillers applying to their own city. I imagine it’s difficult for the editors and staffs of the Las Vegas Review Journal and Las Vegas Sun to lay out the ever smaller pages, like fitting in a local event around the oh-so-very- important matters wired in from Washington and New York, all while pleasing the owners with the political spin they desire. An example, where to put the monumental story that Mr’s Romney has never worked in relation to the monumental frenzy of a shooting in a small town in Florida involving two jerks acting out while fitting in a nice story like the youth orchestra at the new Smith Center. The pressure must be horrendous, who to please, who to sunder, where to put a story about the endless war in Afghanistan? Pressure, pressure, and will the delivery people show up and get the paper to the readers on time?
Vernon, you make light of it, but you are absolutely right. There is pressure to satisfy the readers with the right blend and balance. You don’t want to be known as the editor who put the story about the first atomic bomb on an inside page. Besides, that was a really good concert.
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I wasn’t being light, Mr. Mitchell, okay, maybe a bit sardonic about the editors having to please the ownership first. I believe readership wants news without spin, e.g., that stupid issue from Sanford, Florida, should have been a one day feature like the other 40 or 50 killings across the nation but the story of two jerks acting out is still spinning and expanding, it’s like the universe as chances are none of us alive will actually see the end of it. Other acts of human stupidity will replace it, of course, but it’s now history. I didn’t go to the youth concert but it is an example of great young people with talent and aspirations that get little mention; for the news it wasn’t earth shaking like the Democrat spokesperson, seemingly a simpleton, pronouncing that Mrs. Romney is basically a stay at home mom, and if anyone believes that was a mere slip of the tongue on her part they may be a bit simple themselves. Speaking of the first atomic bomb, I was just into my teens but recall that it was front page war news, where does our war news appear now, wait, I know, after and taking up less space than the news from the Libyan civil war.
You know, one thing we can do in our country is trust that the media is telling us the truth as they know it to be.
Currently North Koreans think they actually have an active satelite from one of the previous failed rockets they launched.
In our country when a media outlet f’s up like NBC did with the Tampa incident editing the 911 recording of Zimmerman and Dateline using dynamite to prove Ford truck gas tanks explode, they get cought and its quite embarrasing.
Tom, you should be proud (I think you are) to come from that field, you hold it to high standards. I am proud to work in a field that supports it.
I was curious if you ever considered changing the page layout of
your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve
got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way
of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images.
Maybe you could space it out better?
I use an off-the-shelf layout from wordpress and i hate changing too often because people get accustomed … but if you have an example, I’d be glad to look at it, Venezula.
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