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Jaclyn Schiff is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. She is a full-time writer for a Web site that focuses on global health issues. Jaclyn has published articles in a variety of print and online publications and she blogs about Gen. Y at 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
As millennials come of age, they’re infiltrating the work force in all areas and all industries. Many, like me, are becoming journalists. And some, like me, are continually re-evaluating this career decision. While I think you can find recovering journalists in almost every generation (I’ve chatted with way too many people who seem to have concluded that being a journalist was more appealing on paper than in practice), there are some unique reasons why the news room can be a toxic place for millennials. At the same time, the digitalization of news is providing opportunities that mesh really well with the Gen Y mentality.
Keen observers of Gen Y know that this generation craves work-life balance. For us, sacrificing a personal life to climb the ranks at work isn’t a reasonable trade-off. We want jobs that can accommodate life, not a life that has to accommodate the job – an aspiration that is often at odds with the status quo in many work places. It is an especially lofty goal when it comes to journalism, a career that often requires late hours and weekend work to meet deadlines.
Predictably, millennials in journalism aren’t happy about those long hours. According to a 2005 Poynter survey, journalists between 20 and 34 years old were most likely to say they had considered leaving journalism because of work-life balance issues. And newsroom vets generally aren’t getting it. Danna Walker, an adjunct journalism professor at American University who also works as an editor and producer at CBS, says that “the older generation didn’t know what to think” when millennials first showed up in newsrooms. “The assumption is that millennials aren’t as willing to pay their dues,” she says. In fact, the whole “pay your dues” mentality is “worn out,” according to Bea Fields, author of “Millennial Leaders.” Control tactics do nothing to attract and retain Gen Y employees, as Fields explains over at Y Blog.
Newsrooms also rarely meet Gen Y’s mentorship and training expectations. A young journalist recently submitted a question to “Ask the Recruiter” columnist Joe Grimm, a well-know recruitment and development editor for the Detroit Free Press. The recent graduate wrote that he got “minimal feedback” from the editors at his paper, leaving him with “no idea” whether he was doing a good job or a bad job. “If misery loves company, you have plenty of both,” Grimm writes in response, citing a survey that found that lack of training is the number one complaint that journalists have about the profession.
But millennials aren’t totally doomed to an otherwise unhappy or non-existent future in journalism. The Internet and multimedia news can add a “wonderful dynamic” to newsrooms, says Jill Geisler, a journalism leadership and management specialist at Poynter. Young journalists with technical skills are in big demand to staff news Web sites. As a result, many new hires are commanding respect from day one because they’re often the only person in the newsroom with the multimedia know-how to perform certain tasks. “As editors realize they need new approaches and people with new media skills, younger folks are becoming more valued,” Walker writes in an e-mail. A Gen Y friend who works for NBC in Washington, D.C. tells me that she and some of her other colleagues are sought after by their older newsroom counterparts who are hoping that the millennials can teach them a thing or two about the computer programs they learned in journalism school. In many situations, multimedia is not only allowing Gen Yers to get a foot in the door, but it’s immediately positioning them in roles where they are taken seriously from the start.
In addition, the expansion of online news is also catering to Gen Y’s job-hopping tendencies. New positions are popping up in many companies that are launching or expanding Web sites to complement print work. Job-hopping within the industry is common, observes Meg Martin, a multimedia producer for the Roanoke Times. “There’s a lot of crossover and a lot of news organizations are encouraging people to explore different positions,” Martin says.
The news industry is facing a moment of significant challenges and prospects in terms of recruitment of Gen Y journalists. Will digital news be journalism’s proverbial “knight in shining armor” when it comes to recruiting millennials and then retaining them for longer than five minutes? Could it set journalism apart from other industries in the quest to adapt to Gen Y? The answer will certainly depend on how individual newsrooms resolve work-life balance concerns, training needs and other issues that matter to millennials. But for me and the thousands of other millennials with notoriously high student loan payments, the bottom line might just end up getting the largest say.
I don’t think this is a new thing. Xers were complaining about this 15 years ago. I left the journalism field about 12 years ago. Journalists in general do not get treated very well at work (and being from Michigan, I know that Joe Grimm does not always treat potential recruits very nicely, either.) That’s why so many people leave the field. I get a kick out of the fact that Boomer editors and newsdirectors don’t understand why people don’t like getting jacked around at work. I also am amused that Millenials think they invented work-life balance.
I’ve spoken with authority media types and the legacy journalists feel that journalism is incredible for the younger generation because it exposes them to successful people (networking).
I did several media internships in college and decided not to pursue that field mainly because of work-life balance. They basically told me that I couldn’t get married or start a family until I was 30 if I wanted a chance. Also, good mentors were few and far between because it’s such a cutthroat business (TV Reporting).
Props to those that tough it out, but I agree that there’s not many [in our generation] who are willing to sacrifice all that just for a *shot* at making it in the industry.
GenerationXpert - As I note above, “I think you can find recovering journalists in almost every generation.” I am sure that work-life has been an issue for many people in a variety of careers probably for decades and even longer than that. But I think Millennials are a lot more vocal about this than other generations have been. A blog like this is one such example of how Gen. Y is speaking up. It’s not that we think we invented it, but I think we’re way less likely to settle for something that doesn’t meet our expectations. I’m sure there are individuals in other generations who feel similarly, but I think the pervasiveness of this attitude amongst Gen. Y is what makes it generational.
Dan & Melanie - thanks for your input!
The work-life balance problem isn’t just the long hours - it’s that journalists are always “on.” Even if you get home frm work in time for dinner with the family every day, you need to be constantly attentive to developing news and what’s happening during the time you’re not in the newsroom.
I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but of course there are some careers that are going to be less flexible than others in terms of a work-life balance. If work-life balance is important to you, journalism probably isn’t the right career path for you. I’m not a journalist and I never have been, but even I understand that “news” is only “news” for a brief time–it’s the nature of the beast–and that part of the job description is being ready to deliver at a moment’s notice. Some people must thrive in an environment like that; I’m not one. But is this really coming as a surprise to the GenYs newly arriving on staff? What exactly did they expect?
I’m a big proponent of a work-life balance–I lead a team of 6 individuals, all of whom have flexible hours other than minimal set core business hours and who work from home at least 2 days a week via company-issued wireless laptops–but only because our industry and our clients allow it.
Thanks for expanding on my answer in the Poynter Career Center’s “Ask the Recruiter.” I hope your post is read widely.
As someone who recruits Millennials — and the father of two — I am frequently amazed at how fast Gen Y workers process information, adopt new skills and acquire information.
There is a lot of passion in this generation — and passionate people work hard. But I think new workers are looking for a different value proposition that their parents. And why not? They have seen their parents’ generation work loyally for years, only to be downsized, laid off or merged. Those disruptions — brought on by the companies, not the workers — broke forever the loyalty contract that existed 30 years ago. Some managers still think its there.
GenY works hard, but does not look for or believe in lifetime job guarantees. People know they can be shed or their work outsourced, so they stay as long as they find the work meaningful, stimulating and fulfilling. The lack of those qualities in our work is a bigger challenge than hours or work conditions
Coming up — and raising those of Millennials — I found that all kinds of crazy hours worked for our family — until they hit school age. But I always found cool, meaningful work to be more important than work conditions — just as Gen Y does today.
Thanks.
Joe
“But I think Millennials are a lot more vocal about this than other generations have been. ”
Jaclyn:
You really need to put those journalism skills to good use and do some research on this topic. The whole idea of studying generational communications came about BECAUSE the Gen Xers were so vocal in their 20s. Rocking the Ages, The WHY Behind Generation X, Marketing to Generation X are just a few books written before the year 2000 that talk about Gen X and work/life balance. That’s great that you’ve been keenly observing Generation Y, but if you turn to the literature, you may have a more balanced view of what’s really going on in the workforce - and who’s really driving the changes.
Hey Joe. I remember you. The guy who strung along so many Gen Xers in the early 1990s, only to blow them off with “you have great passion and potential.” Then after the strike gutted the best at the Detroit papers, you scooped up all the mediocre Gen Yers you could find. Good job.
I personally have not worked in the journalism field at all, but this leaves me a bit perplexed. I see journalism (and I may be wrong) as a very competitive field. I also believe that news does not start at 9 m and finish at 5 pm. How would one excel in journalism if they are not willing to put in the extra work?
Gen Y has a golden chance before it to transform the media industry out of its “paper and ink” past and into the Digital Age. As a Boomer who fled the daily newspaper industry back in the ’90s, I’ve watched how the industry still relies on the old form of news “delivery” (i.e., the paper tossed off the front door, the newsstand with stacks of different papers) despite a drop in daily circulation and a clear shift of readers - even within my demographic - to online delivery.
For the most part, these bottom-line pressures have been part of the industry since the 1980s. And that’s likely part of the reason news organizations won’t invest in training programs: They’re simply not a priority when you have to maximize advertising revenue and gather meaningful news within budget.
At the same time, the nature of the news business will always put it outside of the “9 to 5″ realm. Quite simply, news happens 24/7/365. You have a civic responsibility, for one, and the most viable news organizations will always place a high priority on keeping their readers, listeners, or viewers informed, no matter what the hour or date.
But if Gen Y can lead a successful transformation of the business in the Digital Age, heck, maybe I’ll come back and help out.
Nice provocative post!
– Rick
The title of this article grabbed me. I saw the link: “Millennials becoming journalists - are they doomed?” on BuzzFeed. (you guys made buzzfeed, nice!)
I’m in my 3rd year doing a minor at the j-school. I didn’t even know we are called “Millennials,” I guess it’s happier sounding that gen-x, if just as lame. About journalism: it’s the long, unpredictable hours that are off-putting. It’s looking like there are two palatable options: copy editior or online staff. Us young’ens seem to know our way around the internets, at least that’s what I keep being told. I am excited to see where pro journalism goes. It’s not going away, but it’s certainly going somewhere. Changes are coming, first person to predict them gets a cookie. and loads of $$$…