Newbury Weekly News multimedia reporter Liam Sloan says prospect of low pay is making new reporters consider alternative careers
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Liam Sloan, a recent graduate working as a multimedia reporter, told a conference of editors today that a substantial number of his peers have no plans to stay in the industry.
Speaking on a panel looking at journalism training at the Society of Editors conference in Manchester, the Newbury Weekly News reporter told delegates that financial pressures of working in a low-pay industry had convinced many contemporaries to see journalism as only a short-term career.
"The one thing that is quite depressing and that can't be healthy for the industry is that a lot of the people I studied with last year, who have mostly gone into jobs on local papers, lots of them are saying they would love to stay as journalists, they enjoy their jobs, but realistically it's difficult to see how we can all be reporters for the entirety of our careers," he said.
"We may have to leave it sooner or later if we have got a hope of getting on the housing ladder.
"Most of us are graduates that have got a debt burden of varying sizes… I don't think it's sustainable for the industry for journalists to be as relatively poorly paid if you as editors want hard-working, motivated, good-quality staff.
"There may be more people going into the industry but the best people need to be rewarded, particularly if the are going to be multi-skilled, yet still be good at the basics."
Sloan said has been in the industry just three months after graduating from the post-graduate print journalism course at Sheffield.
He told delegates about his role at the Weekly News, where he files multimedia as well as traditional print stories, but doubted this digital-heavy role was representative of the types of jobs his generation were currently in.
"While it's exciting for me to play around and work with this technology, when I have done work experience at other papers, it's clear they are thinking with a different mentality," he said.
"I think there are two possible risks… the first danger, and it's not something I really see at Newbury, but the way we decide how to run the news undermines our ability to get the story… where are the young journalists that are building up the relationships?
"Well if we are expected to get video footage, get stuff up online and do more and more in terms of the technological side, perhaps we are not committing as much as in a previous generation to following up the story.
"The second worry is that if papers go down this route it will mean staffing changes, that usually means fewer journalists rather than more. Fewer journalists doing more technological experimentation rather than going out with notebooks and pens and getting the story."
