Mightier Than
After studying PR and journalism, I spent a few years writing for free weeklies and covering a beat here and there at a Knight Ridder Trib. But I traded in my dictaphone and dogeared copy of Strunk and White for new meeja, marketing money, and strategy. It was a highly considered move as I witnessed editorial departments shrinking, fact-checkers being eliminated from the payroll, and friend’s names erased from the masthead. I shifted my idols from the war reporters and anchors like Christiane Amanpour and Martha Raddatz to the agency execs and planning legends like Shelly Lazarus and Jane Newman. I admit it, I chased the ad dollars. But my heart still thumps a little harder for a reporter, a brave soul who roots around for something startling, and who can cut culture wide open with a single stroke of their pen.
After considering moving the press corps from the White House, 45 referring to the media as the enemy of the people, and then The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico being blocked from joining a White House presser this Friday, choosing to be a reporter — or member of the media — is seemingly defiant and devastatingly cool again.
I don’t mean to be crass about this. The press have always been a bunch of badasses but only a few had movies made about their rock ’n’ roll shenanigans or takedowns of religious institutions. I’ve never not instantly adored a man who wore his creds with a disheveled panache that can only come from the witty wreckage of a sinking newsroom. And while great journalism has been lauded, those who work in it have had to commit to teetering on poverty; hawking their words anywhere they can to get a byline or trickle of extra income.
The newsrooms that had been unable to fully figure out the pageview game or the ethical implications of sponsored content, have seen a surge in subscription dollars following the changing of the guard in the nation’s capital. The “failing Times” seems to be faring quite well, comScore has clocked a growth in uniques for the Washington Post, and ProPublica is enjoying a boost in donations. Beyond supplementing the hard costs of producing news, printing and distributing the ink, one has to question whether editors and boards are thinking through how they can boost the salaries of their workers: the wordsmiths.
Short of me banging on about the Constitution and nobility of the craft, I keep wondering whether my friends who long left their desks to go work in advertising or tech have been thinking about making the shift back.
According to Glassdoor, a reporter in NYC is making $47,437 (WSJ, Reuters, Dow Jones) compared to a copywriter who’s netting $65,195 (Grey, JWT, R/GA, BBH). At that current rate, how many of us ad folk — the creatives and strategists who are pretty good at helping companies make money from ideas, words, and messages — could stomach a career shift back into publishing?
Some of the publishers have been building agency-like studios, hiring creatives and planners who know how to build audiences, and integrated marketers who know how to monetize them. But could the recent rage directed at those on the frontlines of making headlines be enough to sustain the revere for reporters long-term — enough to get them compensated in a way that is comparable with other commercially creative pursuits?
As President Bannon appears to be deadly serious about deconstructing the administrative state, societal needs that were once the government’s remit are fast becoming the domain of private enterprise. Companies are having to look at policies and efforts to fund and support their staff, while local communities are forking out in order to thrive. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had conversations with clients and colleagues about the role of activist brands this month. Email clogging up with invites to letter-writing parties, town halls, and demonstrations? Yeah. Same. Local-level news and activism is dare I say so hot right now.
I love the idea that the kind of cool that has recently been reserved for open-office start-ups and agencies with their architectural nests and basketball courts as conference rooms, could be re-birthed at the Grey Lady. Or that with enough attention and willingness to pay for what is foundational to our culture, writers, journalists, and editors could make good money once again.
A few months prior to the U.S. election, someone asked me if I left the agency, where would I go. I remember telling her, “It probably sounds like career suicide but I’d give a lot of thought to going back into publishing.” The person on the other end of the phone, an advertising executive who enjoys an incredible reputation as a powerhouse in the global creative community said, “Yeah, me too. Me too.”
