Courtesy, The Australian War Memorial
You're going to use Artificial Intelligence instead of hiring a journalist/content producer? Think it will save you money? Here. Let me talk you off that ledge, with these eight reasons you need to hire a real-life journalist (AKA journo) for your organization.
The Traditional News Media Are Broken I’ve said it before: I didn’t leave Journalism. It left me when it was replaced by Quota Journalism. What’s a poor reporter/content producer to do when their boss has a loaded quota pointed at their head? Let’s run through the scenario: BOSS: Cratchit! Where’s that seventh story I asked for 23 seconds ago! BOB CRATCHIT: Boss … I don’t have … (hesitates, looks down at a clean press release) wait. I’ll send it over in two minutes! Does that kind of thing happen in real life? Have I been the one to write such a release? Yes and yes. Could AI do that? Right now, no. So, the reporter you hired has just become a producer for a TV news spot, newspaper article or the next viral TikTok video.
Money Can’t Buy You Love, But it Can Buy Obsession Many journos are obsessive. So were Napoleon and Steve Jobs. Aside from invading Russia and upsetting Middle Management (respectively), Mr. Bonepart and Mr. Jobs scored very well in their employee evaluations. If you can find a true-blue journo and win them over to your cause, you will be pleased by the creativity, dedication and bare-knuckled fight you’ll get out of them. These are the intangibles that you can’t find on a resume. NOTE: Please don’t piss these people off.
Journos/Content Producers Have Fresh Eyes Good journalists/content producers are innately drawn to telling good stories, in layman’s terms. Your organization/business/cause no doubt has a compelling story to tell. Especially if your cause aims to improve the world. This is the grist that a natural storyteller lives for – hire them, pay them, and you and your people will suddenly feel more bounce in your steps (unless someone is dead inside). Your story is finally being told. Outsiders will notice and good things will come to you. The scales are falling away from your organization’s eyes.
Behold the Power of the Nerd Aside from being obsessive, journos are often nerds. As such, they can learn about a host of things and reframe them for common understanding. So, they can take bizarre corporate rituals – such as walking on hot coals at a team retreat - and relate them to outsiders as if they were normal things. BONUS: Many can write in both Klingon and a second language.
The “Why” Word Can Be Healthy I’ve been at some organizations that didn’t appreciate it when employees asked “why?” Obviously, I didn’t last long there, or I wouldn’t be writing this blog post right now. The need to ask the “why” question can be healthy. It’s often the biggest question and it’s worth exploring. I’m not saying all elements of newsroom culture are good. Journos can be jaded ingrates. So, pick your journo carefully.
Journalists are the Swiss Army Knives of the Workforce You’ve got a grant application to edit? You want someone to write about your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives? All on the same day? Old Guard journos – who have covered house fires in the morning and pie-eating contests after lunch – will view this workload as a perfectly normal day. In fact, they thrive on that kind of variety.
Words and Ethics Mean Something Many journos worth their salt lug around a stylebook like country preachers tote a Bible. They know about ethics and some even practice both style and ethics. If you and your organization don’t know of the importance of words, what are you reading this blog for? Is it possible to have too many ethics? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
It's a Buyer's Market Tens of thousands of journalists have lost their jobs over the past decades. The Vice website shut down earlier this year. The Center for Public Integrity has shed most of its union journalists this year. While it’s a bad time to be a journalist at a traditional news outlet, you might be able to hire one to do the stuff I mentioned above for your organization. There you have it. Agree? Disagree? Did I miss something? Lemme know.
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