Overview of the journalism job market - where jobs are and what editors want to hire. Based on a sample of 257 journalism job ads from USA, Canada, UK, Australia & New Zealand in Sept-Oct 2010.

1. What the editor wants An international overview of the ‘journalism’ job market Martin Hirst AUT December 2010 A presentation of recent, but brief, research into the job market for journalists in USA, Canada, UK, NZ & Australia – Sept/Oct 2010 journalism.co.uk 21 September 2010

2. What the editors want Purpose of study What types of jobs are out there? Who’s hiring? Who are they hiring? Job description duties, type of organization, platform, Required & desirable skill-set writing, reporting, editorial, web-related, video, audio, Person statement attributes, qualities of applicants © AndreyTsidvintsev | Dreamstime.com

3. Global data* Platform + # of jobs Countries + # of Jobs * See appendix-slides for Country-by-country analysis

4. [limited] data suggests print is still the dominant jobs platform (newspapers & magazines, including trade + B2B) PR, Wires, Private firms, Content makers, Media monitors, Freelancers and NGOs

7. Australia New Zealand UK Canada Preliminary analysis shows strong resilience in print-oriented jobs. This chart includes ‘newspaper’ and ‘magazine’ jobs. It does not include any print jobs in the ‘other’ category.

8. Print still strong? Magazines Newspapers USA – newspaper job ads still 47.6% of total jobs New Zealand – newspaper jobs 28.6% Australia – newspapers 22.2% Canada – 13.9% UK – newspapers 9.5% UK – magazine jobs 41.3% of total ads [46% B2B titles] Australia – magazines 33.3% [60% B2B titles] New Zealand – magazines 23.8% [20% B2B titles] Canada – magazine 18.6% [44% B2B titles] USA – magazines 4.8%

9. American newspapers Newspapers, contrary to what is frequently alleged, are not dying in droves. Only half a dozen of any size went out of business, and most of those were second papers in their market. More papers, nearly 100, cut back at least one day a week, but most of those were very small. Pew Center State of the media 2010 newsrooms have shrunk by 25% in three years, and just under 27% since the beginning of the decade http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/newspapers_summary_essay.php

10. Canada is the real outlier here. One conjecture on this is the vast scale of the country and the need to reach/cover remote places. Canada NZ Australia USA UK

11. What we have is a wipeout in newspapers, plus what looks like a combination of secular and cyclical declines in other “journalistic” industries. Important caveats: We are working with blunt tools here. Mike Mandel, September 2010 http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/09/the_journalism.html

12. What the editors want #2 Help wanted: work skills and attributes in journalism job advertisements

14. Bring your enterprise and your energy to this highly competitive situation.

15. Photo skills a plus.assume that everyone's got basic reporting, text writing and copy editing, so those aren't listed as options (Niles 2010)

17. Key skills Writing highly regarded across all platforms, except radio Newspapers, magazines, TV, online and ‘other’ required writing in over 60% of ads Editorial & reporting skills 2nd rank News judgment 3rd rank

18. ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE Key Attributes Initiative Qualification Time management Teamwork Communication Attention to detail Leadership We hired one individual who immediately began to give one of our veteran staff members a lecture about how he should be doing his job. GOODBYE! Stan Stamper, publisherHugo Daily News, Oklahoma Key attributes in journalism job ads ranked across all countries in the study

19. Where are the jobs going to be? In terms of jobs, journalistic occupations are outperforming the overall economy. However, many of the journalistic jobs are not being created in conventional journalism industries. Mike Mandel – The evolution of the journalism job market http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/the-evolution-of-the-journalism-job-market/

20. Online jobs per country A relatively small number of jobs are identified as specifically ‘online’. Across all platforms, other job descriptions and identified duties can also include some form of ‘online’ component USA Canada NZ UK Australia

23. ‘twice weekly publication and in-house radio station’

24. ‘package information across a spectrum of mediums

25. ‘meeting & event coverage’

26. ‘assembling & producing daily newscasts and email blasts’

29. be familiar with Garage Band or a similar audio editing software, and

30. be proficient making maps on Google maps

32. Journalism as small business Journalism students need to be taught or encouraged to do entrepreneurship to make sure they take off in the new climate – rather than fall flat on their face because their traditional skill-set no longer stands up to what is required. (Hannah Waldram, 2009) I graduated from Cardiff School of Journalism in 2009, have worked as a freelance dance critic, social reporter for Podnosh and online editor of WestMidlandsDance.com for Meshed Media. I have blogged for Media Wales and the Birmingham Post and I am founder of the hyperlocal website BournvilleVillage.com. My particular interests are the arts, social media and technology.

33. Some [Limited] conclusions Newspapers and magazines [incl. trade & B2B] continue to provide just over half journalism jobs Journalism skills are well regarded in ‘other’ [related jobs] The number of online-only positions is still relatively small, but growing [web, CMS, copy-flow, blogging or social media skills] Content farms and hyper-local sites are emerging new employers [Demand Media, Suite 101, Comcast & Patch.com = Low-Pay Freelancers] Writing, editorial & news judgment continue to dominate required skills [in top 3 across most platforms] Nearly all journalism jobs now have at least some digital requirements [Over 50% in Newspaper, Magazine Radio & Other] Initiative and time management are the top personal attributes desired by editors [a qualification still counts]

34. ONE LAST THING… Was going to hire one person this week until I looked up his FaceBook page. His profile photo was drinking beer out of a huge silver trophy. Cost him a job. Pre-employment drug screening is required for all employees