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In a sobering op-ed, HBM Advisory’s Alan Hunter argues that legacy publishers are all too reluctant to appoint young people to senior roles, yet these are the very people whose skills are fit for the future rather than the past. With print readers ever decreasing (or as Alan puts it, “going to a place where they can no longer buy papers”) this needs to change, and fast…
Yes, yes, I know this would be illegal in many countries which have age discrimination laws relating to the workplace.
And no, I’m not ageist. I write this as someone who was horrified to realise that he is closer to 70 than 35 after a recent birthday.
I’m not denying there is great value in experience. A certain perspective on the world and one’s profession comes with age. In terms of journalism, there’s a benefit to accumulated knowledge and the “muscle memory” of how to deal with stories.
But I would argue that publishing now has a surfeit of experience in its ranks and it’s holding us back. Too many editors are of a print heritage; too many digital natives are finding that climbing the corporate ladder is taking too long and that their voices are not being heard. We need to embrace new ways of doing things now. There is not a moment to waste.
Younger journalists are sensing this. I have spoken to many over the past year or two and they are increasingly impatient. “I don’t know how long I put up with my bosses just giving lip service to digital ways of doing things,” one said to me last month.
Another, who by any standards has a great job but is also frustrated, said: “I keep getting the feeling that this is my last job in journalism.”
Why is this the case?
It may sound odd to say it, as multiple rounds of newsroom layoffs are announced around the world, but many publishers have been declining too successfully. Management has proved very adept at preserving print revenues when many predicted physical newspapers and magazines would have been long gone by now. It is remarkable how many are still being published in 2024.
For that they must thank the loyalty of a very long-living audience, and the unexpected resilience of what one now sees as a gold-plated business model. “Yes, you get money from your readers and from advertisers, both of whom often have no place else to go and, even if they do, are incredibly loyal.” Many markets were competitive at a surface level, but in truth almost everyone was a winner. It was not that long ago that a number of advertising departments took inbound calls only.
This has, however, allowed publishers to bump tough decisions to an eternal tomorrow. If they are honest, they haven’t thought too hard about what kind of leaders they need for digital newsrooms. In the UK, it has seemed in recent years that, despite the changes in the competitive landscape, the main qualification for editing a national newspaper was to have previously edited a national newspaper.
The ghosts of print past
Quite understandably, these people see digital through the prism of their print past, and have a tendency to promote people who have had similar experiences and doubt those who don’t. I remember an editor of my acquaintance dismissing a brilliant digital journalist as “not very experienced” and another as “not really a journalist” because a) they were young and b) they hadn’t come up through local papers the way he had.
While most aren’t as narrow minded as him, they are still reluctant to appoint people to senior roles whose skills are fit for the future rather than the past.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. I remember interviewing wannabe graduate trainees a few years ago whose main desire was to see their byline on page one of print; and there are plenty of more experienced hacks who have understood what it takes to succeed in a digital environment.
For those who haven’t yet, the experience can be liberating. When I took over as head of digital for The Times in 2013 I knew very little about digital. Initially I tried to import what I’d learnt from print to the digital side of the operation. Quickly I realised that this was both futile and wrong: to be successful, I had to just listen to my team (incidentally, all but two of whom were under 35) and learn. The eight years that followed were the most stimulating of my career in newspapers and we had a lot of successes along the way.
It’s time to properly listen to digital natives
It was often a struggle though to move people beyond thinking about the next day’s front page, even when the digital audience was much, much bigger and, latterly, just as profitable. It was perverse because the world’s newspapers and magazines know that they need to attract digital and younger audiences – they’ve known this for years, in fact, but done precious little about it other than pointing a team at Snapchat and latterly TikTok and letting them get on with it in some dark corner of the newsroom.
Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. Most newsrooms are digital-first in terms of production and they have audience and video and audio teams. But at a fundamental level, most are still organised in a print-leaning fashion and are staffed accordingly.
With print readers finally going to a place where they can no longer buy papers, this needs to change. And fast: it’s no coincidence that publisher layoffs are happening across the board right now. We urgently need to adopt new digital models as an industry.
What I really mean with my provocative headline is that it’s time to listen to your digital natives … actually, don’t just listen to them, put them in positions where they can do something about it.
They know how to reach audiences of their age and below; they know which channels are promising and which are duds; they can sniff out duff digital “ideas”; they instinctively understand that to succeed we need to do more than import print formats to digital; and, most of all, they are invested in the future rather than the past.
Alan Hunter
Co-Founder, HBM Advisory
Alan is a co-founder of HBM Advisory, which partners with clients to maximise the value of their content businesses. Among others it has worked with the Wall Street Journal, Future plc, Harvard Business Review, The Scotsman and the Indian Express.
You can meet Alan at Mx3 Barcelona 12-13th March 2024. The event is an off-the-record international summit focusing on innovation in and across media verticals (Consumer & B2B). The event also offers opportunities to meet 1-on-1 with industry experts, including Alan, as part of our Mx3 Huddles concept, as well as time for social interaction. Come and join us!
