Who do journalists work for?

Who do journalists work for? October 11, 2013

Times are changing… • Corporate incentives mark a major shift in thinking at newsrooms • Journalism is a business and managers have business responsibilities for keeping budgets and attracting customers • Journalisitic leaders now spending at least a third of their time on business matters • One of the key reasons citizens have lost confidence in the press… • As seen in this satirical piece

The second principle • The second principle of journalism is loyalty • Allegiance to citizens is what we have come to call journalistic independence • Evident in the slogans of television stations • But does this still exist?

Editor or businessman? • Historically… • Decisions of the editorial dept. and corporate parent frequently not connected • Editorial side retains freedom to decide what is covered • Biases arise when it comes to deciding stories and what will or will not be covered… • As newspaper staff shrink, these boundaries are blurred. • Increasingly, editorial management is also overseeing, if not involved in, the business side of the paper. • How does this influence their way of thinking? Does separation allow for less or more bias?

Advertising bias • Readership effect • Media’s incentive to increase readership • Larger readership = greater advertiser fee • Greater incentive to reduce bias and appeal to the moderate • Less political bias

Advertising bias • Incremental pricing effect • Incentive to alleviate competition for subscribers and advertisers • When advertising is a source of revenue, choice of bias has strong effect on on the intensity of price competition • Incentive to polarize to alleviate competition • Can demand higher price for one audience as opposed to hit and miss strategy • Multi-homing vs. single homing

Government vs. corporate ownership • In some cases, the advertiser may even be the government. • In many countries the government is the biggest advertiser - with job advertisements, calls for tenders, public announcements and so on • Brings indirect pressure to bear upon commercial news media. • Is it better to be owned by government, or advertisers?

Catering to the elite… • In 70s and 80s, business strategy changed • Newspapers, and later TV stations, targeted the most affluent audience to enhance profits, rather than the largest • TV stations targeted women 18 to 49 with buying power • Newspapers only sent copies to wealthiest ZIP codes • How does this affect advertising bias? Consider the readership effect and incremental pricing effect • Consider The New York Times… • What audience does it cater to? • What is its readability? • What about paywalls? Is this loyal to citizens? Do they reduce ad bias?

Elite cntd. • Also meant newspapers could ignore certain parts of the community in their coverage • Store owner to Rupert Murdoch of The New York Post: “Your readers are our shoplifters” • Began to backfire in the late 80s, early 90s • But luxury magazines still employ this strategy… • Can often guess audience by advertising • Useful for freelancing and pitching – look at ads

Journalists vs. big business? • Elements provides several case studies of journalists rebelling against advertising bias in their newsrooms • The wall — newsroom often remains oblivious. Business side was selling the newsroom out and had enough power to circumscribe the newsroom without its knowing • LA Times: Revolt after the paper engaged in a secret deal with owners of new sports arena to share advertising revenue in the edition of the Sunday magazine dedicated entirely to its opening. • “There was a confrontation in the lunchroom with management that was so angry it verged on violence” • How has the leakage of corporate sentiment into newsrooms expanded upon the “watchdog” role of journalists?

The role of freebies • Tom touched on this in lecture… • What do we think of freebie culture among journalists? Is there any merit? Is it understandable? • How should newspapers address freebies in their code of ethics? • What about sports, lifestyle journalism. etc? • Who’s to blame for freebie culture in journalism? Consider journalist pay. • Consider these perspectives: • http://www.rrj.ca/m3606/ • http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2896

Who do journalists work for?