In a world of Online News, burnout starts younger
In most newsrooms, the joke would have been obvious. It was April
Fools’ Day last year, and Politico’s top two editors sent an e-mail
message to their staff advising of a new 5am start time for all
reporters.
The notion of Politico as journalistic sweatshop is pure myth,
say John Harris, editor in chief, left, and Jim VandeHei,
executive editor. Picture: Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York
Times |
On Gawker’s “big board”, reporters can check the most-viewed
articles, a list updated hourly. Picture: Michael Appleton for
The New York Times |
“These pre-sunrise hours are often the best time to reach top
officials or their aides,” the editors wrote, adding that reporters
should try to carve out personal time “if you need it,” in the
midafternoon when Internet traffic slows down. But rather than laugh,
more than a few reporters stared at the e-mail message in a panicked
state of disbelief.
“There were several people who didn’t think it was a joke. One girl
actually cried,” said Anne Schroeder Mullins, who wrote for Politico
until May, when she left to start her own public relations firm. “I
definitely had people coming up to me asking me if it was true.”
Such is the state of the media business these days: frantic and
fatigued. Young journalists who once dreamed of trotting the globe in
pursuit of a story are instead shackled to their computers, where they
try to eke out a fresh thought or be first to report even the smallest
nugget of news - anything that will impress Google algorithms and draw
readers their way. Tracking how many people view articles, and then
rewarding - or shaming - writers based on those results has become
increasingly common in old and new media newsrooms. The Christian
Science Monitor now sends a daily e-mail message to its staff that lists
the number of page views for each article on the paper’s Web site that
day.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times all
display a “most viewed” list on their home pages. Some media outlets,
including Bloomberg News and Gawker Media, now pay writers based in part
on how many readers click on their articles.
Once only wire-service journalists had their output measured this
way. And in a media environment crowded with virtual content farms where
no detail is too small to report as long as it was reported there first,
Politico stands out for its frenetic pace or, in the euphemism preferred
by its editors, “high metabolism.” The top editors, who rise as early as
4:30am, expect such volume and speed from their reporters because they
believe Politico’s very existence depends, in large part, on how quickly
it can tell readers something, anything they did not know.
“At a paper, your only real stress point is in the evening when
you’re actually sitting there on deadline, trying to file,” said Jim
VandeHei, Politico’s executive editor, in an interview from the
publication’s offices just across the Potomac River from downtown
Washington.
“Now at any point in the day starting at 5 in the morning, there can
be that same level of intensity and pressure to get something out.” (Not
all reporters are expected to be on their game by dawn, VandeHei added,
noting that many work a traditional 10 am to 7pm newspaper day.)
At Gawker Media’s offices in Manhattan, a flat-screen television
mounted on the wall displays the 10 most-viewed articles across all
Gawker’s Web sites. The author’s last name, along with the number of
page views that hour and over all are prominently shown in real time on
the screen, which Gawker has named the “big board.”
“Sometimes one sees writers just standing before it, like early
hominids in front of a monolith,” said Nick Denton, Gawker Media’s
founder. Mr. Denton said not all writers have warmed to the concept.
The New York Times |