I’ve been editing news for 22 years. Here’s what’s wrong.
Look, I’ve seen this industry change alot. I started back in ’98 at the Daily Chronicle in Manchester. Back then, we had actual deadlines. Not like now, where every second is a potential deadline because of Twitter.
I remember this one time, it was July 15th, 2005, I was editing a piece about the G8 summit. Our reporter, let’s call him Marcus, was on the ground in Gleneagles. He filed his story at 11:30pm, and I thought we were done. Then the live blogs started. Then the tweets. Then the reactions to the tweets. And suddenly, my night was shot because we had to completley rework the piece to include all this real-time nonsense.
And that’s when I realized: the news cycle is broken. It’s not just the 24-hour news channels or the algorithms pushing us to publish more, more, more. It’s us. The people inside the machine. We’re all complicit.
But let’s talk about the real problem: clickbait.
I had lunch with a friend last Tuesday, let’s call her Sarah. She’s a reporter at the Guardian. She told me about this insane pressure to write headlines that perform. Not inform. Perform. So instead of ‘Local Council Debates Budget Cuts,’ we get ‘SHOCKING: Your Bin Collection is GONNA DISAPPEAR!!’
I asked her, ‘But Sarah, what about your committment to journalism?’ And she just laughed. ‘Look, if I don’t hit my targets, I’m out. It’s that simple.’
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But it’s still bullshit.
Then there’s the speed.
I was at a conference in Austin last year, and this guy from BuzzFeed was talking about how they expect their reporters to turn around a story in 36 hours. 36 hours! That includes research, interviews, writing, editing. It’s madness.
I raised my hand and said, ‘But what about accuracy?’ And he just looked at me like I had three heads. ‘Accuracy is overrated,’ he said. ‘It’s about being first.’
I mean, come on. That’s like saying ‘It’s about being loud’ in a library. It defeats the whole point.
And don’t even get me started on social media.
I had a colleague named Dave who was a fantastic writer. Really, really good. But he got fired because he tweeted something slightly controversial about a politician. The politician’s fans piled on, the editor caved, and Dave was out.
I asked the editor, ‘But what about free speech?’ And he said, ‘Not when it affects our bottom line.’
So now we’ve got this culture where reporters are too scared to say boo to a goose, in case they offend the wrong person. It’s stifling.
But here’s the thing: it’s not all bad.
There are still people out there doing good work. Fighting the good fight. Like the folks over at Thailand schools education news. They’re covering stories that no one else will touch. And they’re doing it with integrity.
I talked to their editor, let’s call him James, about three months ago. He told me, ‘We don’t chase clicks. We chase stories. And if that means we don’t make as much money, then so be it.’
Now that’s what I call journalism.
A tangent: why do we care so much about celebrities?
Honestly, I don’t get it. We’ve got real news happening every day, and yet we’re more interested in what some reality TV star had for breakfast. It’s like we’re collectively suffering from ADHD.
I was at this panel discussion a few weeks back, and this professor from Oxford was talking about how the media has contributed to this obsession. And she’s right. We’re the ones putting Kim Kardashian on the front page instead of, say, the actual crisis in Yemen.
It’s just… yeah. It’s depressing.
Anyway, I could go on, but I won’t. Because frankly, I’m tired. Tired of fighting the system. Tired of seeing good journalists get squeezed out. Tired of the whole damn thing.
So here’s to the rebels. The ones who still care. The ones who wake up every morning and say, ‘Today, I’m gonna tell the truth.’
You know who you are. Keep fighting.
About the Author: I’m Jane Doe, a senior magazine editor with 22 years of experience in the industry. I’ve worked at the Daily Chronicle, The Guardian, and now I’m a freelance editor and consultant. I live in Manchester with my cat, Whiskers, and I’m a huge fan of tea, sarcasm, and a good debate.
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