CorpComms Magazine

The remarkable rise of new media and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression have hit the journalistic trade hard exposing industry weaknesses and outdated business models, according to a survey of 115 leading international journalists from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa conducted by global communications firm Burson-Marsteller.

In the first months of the recession job losses were severe as media teams were forced to make drastic austerity cuts, downsize and move premises. But even now for those who retained their positions, the spectre of job uncertainty remains as challenges of rapid modernisation assail the industry.

Workloads have greatly intensified as smaller editorial teams with fewer experienced personnel attempt not only to match the team's previous print output but also to integrate and regularly update digital content platforms. Journalists appeared in agreement that these dramatically increased demands were causing a decline in editorial quality. Four out of ten respondents identified an increased reliance on less experienced, lower salaried journalists as the greatest threat to the standards of the industry whilst 34 per cent traced the blame one step further back to the internal cost cutting that led to the redundancy of more senior and highly-paid personnel.

In spite of some grim prognoses, senior journalists were divided in their evaluations of the digital revolution. Some lauded the exciting and unprecedented access to information at the touch of a button heralded by the advancement of the Internet, with four out of ten agreeing search technologies had improved journalism, whilst others highlighted the threat posed to the profession by the explosion of blogging and citizen journalism, with 27 per cent of respondents fearing these phenomena damaged their trade.

One French journalist noted: 'Internet makes it much more difficult to distinguish news from noise.'

With one in five journalists reporting less time for research and face-to-face meetings, reliance on PR agencies as leads for scoops and stories is greater than ever before. An overwhelming 83 per cent of senior journalists reported turning to PR professionals as sources of relevant information or as a conduit to other appropriate sources.

Journalists questioned advised the communications sector that by targeting relevant reporters more specifically and supplying a more regular stream of story proposals in digital and multi-media formats that can be readily transferred into blog posts, podcasts and video, it can make itself yet more indispensible to the troubled profession.

Dennis Landsbert-Noon, chairman of media practice for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Burson-Marsteller, said: 'As the media industry undergoes these tremendous changes, there is both an onus on us to ensure that our standards remain exemplary, as well as an opportunity for us to use new and exciting digital tools to communicate with traditional journalists as well as a whole new digital and social media landscape.'

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