Image generated by ChatGPT. And yes, JMM does see the irony in that.
Think of this not as an extinction-level event, but more as a culling. While the recent turmoil in media, from the closing of newspapers to the non-stop layoffs, has been touted by some as a sign that the metaphorical meteor has entered the atmosphere and is about to end legacy media as we know it, things are a little more complicated than that. Yes, it looks bad. And yes, there will likely be more troubles on the horizon thanks to AI. And yes, something you love will likely die. But media will survive. There will just be a lot less of it. Here's why.
The first reason is no secret. Like JMM touched on a couple weeks ago, platforms are the middle school bullies that ate everyone’s lunch. Google, Meta, and TikTok have hovered up all the eyeballs and all the ad dollars, leaving publishers to argue over breadcrumbs. It started with Craig’s List gobbling up the lucrative classified ads from the daily newspapers back in the early days of the internet, and it’s wrapped up nicely here with tech giants sucking up every buck possible while delivering a quantifiably worse product.
Of course that’s been the case for over a decade, so why has it gotten so bad recently? That’s Jay Powell’s fault. The head of the Federal Reserve Bank, Powell and the rest of the board were forced to raise interest rates to combat inflation—a totally necessary evil. In doing so, though, the Fed cut many midsized media companies’ umbilical cord of cheap money. Venture capital had dumped cash into Vice, Buzzfeed, and others, propping them up in hopes that large audiences would translate into large ad revenue. That never materialized (see the previous paragraph). And when borrowing became more expensive, the marginal gains the sites had been sustaining themselves on could no longer cover the vig. So, layoffs and closures.
Which brings us to No. 3: Journalism is expensive. It takes money to send someone to cover a war, or to hunt down stories in Washington, D.C., or follow a campaign on the road, or drop into a small town to investigate a murder. That all takes dollars, which used to flow freely back before the internet. Newspapers and magazines were cash cows, so much so that the Chicago Sun-Times once bought a bar—an actual bar—to investigate corruption in the city.
All that money was because media did one thing very well: deliver targeted audiences to advertisers. If you were a business that wanted to reach someone in Des Moines you had a few options: the newspaper, the weekly, the TV stations, the radio stations, and maybe some billboards. Each had their own audience. You bought an ad targeted at one. Job done.
With the internet, though, media companies in Des Moines are now competing with the New York Times, Fox News, Google search results, influencers, Amazon, sponsored posts, YouTube commercials, and every other spot on the web that depends on ads. That’s if the ads haven’t been replaced by something free, of course. Ads for movie times have disappeared, now offered gratis by IMDB.com. Ads for concerts are now Events on Facebook. Ads for local businesses are Instagram posts.
The inevitable result is that there’s little money left to actually do the hard work of journalism. Localized advertising used to subsidize the kind of journalism that allowed newspapers to buy bars to fight corruption. What those ads didn’t cover, rich subscription bases did the rest. Both have since withered.
To make up that revenue, media companies are now doing crazy things. Example: The Associated Press is getting into e-commerce. The organization we as a country rely on for non-biased coverage and to call elections is now going to help you purchase a toaster oven, all so it can get a few pennies from that sale. And this is on top of the AP agreeing to sell its content to OpenAI to train ChatGPT, the very thing that will likely undermine journalism in the near future. And AP isn’ the only one. The French newspaper Le Monde, German media company Axel Springer, and the Spanish media company Prisa Media have all inked deals with OpenAI to license their content. But because journalism is expensive and there are no ad dollars left, this is what it takes to keep the lights on, though who knows for how long.
On a recent episode of the podcast “Search Engine,” host PJ Vogt talked with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein about all of this. As one of the founders of Vox Media, Klein has a unique perspective. He saw the cracks in the business model that led to this current and seemingly insurmountable chasm—and he sees a way out, though it’s not an easy one. It’s not as simple as government subsidies for local news or non-profit models for investigative work, though those are in the mix.
Instead, according to Klein, it’s about personal responsibility. He talked about how it’s time for us to begin using the internet ethically. We can no longer think of ourselves as passive consumers. We need to be active participants.
“We are generators of the internet,” he says. “We are generators of the media. What we give our time, attention, and money to is what thrives, and what doesn’t get it is what dies. … If you don’t want there to be more Twitter or Elon Musk’s X, but you are sitting there all day reading and then adding value to Elon Musk’s X, then actually what you want is for there to be more of Elon Musk’s X. You are voting for it with your attention.”
Same goes for Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Google, ChatGPT—all of them. When you engage, you endorse. Everything we click on results in us getting more of that thing we clicked on. Sure, we all understand that as the algorithm working. But Klein wants you to think about how that click is also not funding something, how your lack of attention results in less of a thing.
So, if you want more local news, click on local news. If you love magazines, buy, carry, and read magazines. If you obsess over movies, then go to the movie theater rather than wait for it to show up on some streamer. And if you want a world full of journalists, support journalists. Only by voting with our time and our wallets will we avoid this potential extinction-level event. Instead, we’ll be culling our world of the things we don’t like, that we don’t want, and that, honestly, probably isn’t that good for us anyway, leaving only the things we love.
More Summer Internships
· The St. Louis-based River City Journalism Fund is looking for a summer writing fellow. You’ll be embedded in a St. Louis newsroom, work 30 hours a week covering social justice and underrepresented communities, and be paid $700 a week. Get more info here.
· American Public Media Group, home of Minnesota Public Radio, has multiple internships for the summer including audio, video, production, and reporting. All of the gigs are based in St. Paul, Minnesota. You might even end up working with former Iowa Public Radio host and reporter Clay Masters and recent SJMC grad CJ Younger (MMJ), both of whom now call MPR home. Check out all the gigs here.
· SourceBooks book publisher is looking for nine summer interns for its Naperville, Illinois, office, including in marketing, editorial, content delivery, and sales. Pay is $15 an hour for 24 hours a week. You must be on site. The 10-week gig runs from June 4 to August 9. Apply here.
· HerCampus has been one of the leading voices for college women for years. A group of websites including HerCampus, Spoon University, and College Fashionista, the company hires remote interns to help create content, design graphics, and run social media for its various websites. They have rolling internship sessions, with the summer one starting May 8. Get more info here.
· Truth & Documentary is looking for a part-time (25 hours) documentary intern to work from June 10 to August 9 in its Chicago office. Pay is $16 an hour. Applications are due April 1. Get more info here.
· The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting is looking for a full-time year-long intern. You’ll work with the center’s journalists to cover global stories, post stories to its website, and help create multimedia content. The position can be remote and it pays $37,440 with benefits and starts June 1. Apply here.
Getting that Gig
Applying for all those internships, part-time gigs, and full-time dream jobs means you’re going to be writing a lot of cover letters. And JMM gets it: They suck. Dracula levels of suck. Especially since, to do it right, you need a letter crafted specifically for each position. That’s damn near torture.
A good bit of advice resurfaced recently on X (Twitter). Longtime Los Angeles Times writer and soon-to-be editor at the Seattle Times Jeong Park recently posted that he had been hit up for advice on what makes a good cover letter. He posted a link to this great guide from NPR from 2021. It touches on more than a few things JMM has been telling people for years, but like when you’re reporting, it’s always good to get that same info from a second source. Particularly pay attention to how the guide tells you to start your letter. Because remember, a journalism cover letter isn’t just an introduction, it’s a writing sample. Make it count.
While you’re at it, check out this old but still relevant guide on how to network on LinkedIn. While it won’t make it any less awkward, it will make you sound less desperate.
Another Red-Carpet Moment
The results for the American Advertising Federation Awards are in. While JMM already noted that senior Paige Minor (GD ) and Princess Hart (GD, ’23) pulled in awards, that was far from the complete list—and the exact awards. Minor, the art director for Drake Political Review, and the magazine’s editor-in-chief, senior Madeline Crawford (SPC), were named Student Best In Show for the Fall ’23 issue of the magazine. The pair also took Gold in the Publication Cover Design category and Magazine Design categories.
Four projects also pulled in Silver Awards. Hart got one in the Illustration category for her Drake Mag “State of Hate” piece. That same piece nabbed Silver in the Editorial Spread contest. Hart and then editor-in-chief Grace Long (SPC, ’23) also grabbed Silver in the Magazine Design category for the Spring ’23 issue of DPR. Finally, Kalin Valster (MGMT, ’23), Kristen Arias (Ads, ’23), Miles Fritz (Thea, ’23), Gracie Geist (Ads, PR, ’23), Paul Linville (Ads, ’23), and Ryle Sims (Ads, ’23) scored Silver in the Consumer campaign category for their Varsity Cinema Advertising Campaign.
Pumpkin Spice Already?
Well, sorta. Fall registration is (gulp) right around the corner. The mad sprint to get into that class that you absolutely need to graduate but filled up three seconds ago begins on April 8. That means between here and the beginning of Relays pre-gaming you need to meet with Pilcher to get your life squared away—and pick some classes. Email him at timm.pilcher@drake.edu to get that appointment on the books.
Want to Spread the Word with JMM?
Do you have some essential info or did you have to taste test all the fast food fish sandwiches across the metro like Tori Soliz (Sen, MBM, DMP) as a part of their apprentice at DotDash Meredith? If you do, send them on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat it like this promotion announcement from the newly minted Commerce Editorial Director at DotDash Meredith Laura Miller and tell everyone about it.
Finally, a new true crime podcast JMM would absolutely listen to.