Sorry, I’ll Never Produce “Content”
The Undermining of Craft and Mission
Language shapes reality, the words we choose to describe our work are important. It constantly changes; but I’ll never call what I write “content.”
I’m not alone, Christian Wihtol, a working journalist, recently posted an article on the Nieman Storyboard blog that issues a call to journalists and others in creative fields. In an article titled: When journalism is emptied of journalism, he says he won’t give into the trend to call writing “content”. He says it’s eroding the foundations of journalism.
Wihtol tells how, eight years ago, his Oregon newspaper brought in a new publisher who immediately began referring to their articles as “content.” He tells how this is part of a broader trend that has been sweeping newsrooms. The term signaled a cynical view that reduced journalism to just another consumer product — a commodity.
This was an unwelcome and seismic shift for Wihtol’s newsroom, which had long prided itself on its independence from corporate chains and the corrosion that accompanies it.
The author says the contagion didn’t stop in the newsroom. It has seeped into other creative fields, including film and TV, where screenwriting and scripts are now also being labeled as “content.” Even the Wall Street Journal’s new editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, has adopted this term.
For Wihtol, who has spent four decades in newsrooms, the term is an insult to the very essence of journalism. Journalists are not “content producers”; they are individuals striving to report and write accurate and fair articles. They aim to help readers understand their local, national, and global worlds through in-depth work. The culture of “content production” is antithetical to this mission, focusing more on quantity than quality.
So, has this new terminology brought any tangible benefits? Has it persuaded readers and advertisers to pay more for what they now know is “content”? Wihtol asked, if it has drawn more young people to consider journalism as a career? He suggests that the answer to these questions is a resounding no. Instead, the term serves as a warning signal — a sign that the industry’s leaders do not value the work they are producing.
Last year the CEO for Condé Nast, Roger Lynch, which publishes such magazines as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Bon Appétit, said he sees a “difficult future” for print and is trying to pivot Condé Nast publications toward creating more digital “content” (quotes mine) — saying that Condé Nast is “no longer a magazine company.”
There is no doubt that publishing is going through a paradigm shift. I rarely hold an actual, physical newspaper or magazine in my hands. But that shouldn’t make the value of the words and ideas it contains any less important. Commodifying writing and reporting seems to do exactly that, So no, I’ll never produce “content.”
