I’m An MMJ On The Brink Of Leaving TV News. This Is Why

Editor’s note: We have published this submission anonymously to protect the writer from possible recriminations in seeking future employment and to enable a more honest expression of their observations.

Cognitive dissonance can be a powerful force.

As news leaders are posting on LinkedIn, discussing in meetings or asking recruiters why hiring is so hard right now, the answer is right there on their own screens.

The same pains you are reporting on like inflation, mental health struggles and feeling overworked or burnt out are causing some people with a passion for journalism to leave or consider leaving the industry.

Allow me to explain.

I’m a reporter/MMJ with more than three years of experience and an additional three years of producing experience. I’m currently unemployed after I allowed my last contact to expire, and despite not having a job and shrinking savings, I’ve recently told four hiring managers after the first or second interview that I’m no longer interested in the positions for which I initially approached them.

I love journalism. I am one of the lucky people in life who found their passion and turned it into the beginning of a career. And due to a litany of privileges, I am able to be picky about my next job without feeling pressure to accept whatever offers I get both within the industry and outside of it. While I am frustrated, I know I will personally be OK, at least for a while. But in the bigger picture, I worry more about the choices facing recent journalism graduates and a bigger knock-on effect on the quality of the news we are providing to our audiences.

I’ve sacrificed a lot for my own passion, but recently I’ve come to the conclusion that it need not only come with sacrifices. Passion can still come with a decent paycheck.

TV news roles don’t pay well. It’s a dynamic most of us know coming into the industry, but some choose to ignore because of our drive. In the past, I have been willing to accept lower pay because of my convictions in journalism, but COVID and other world events have reminded me and many others that having a life outside of work is not only important but vital. So, too, is a living wage.

I recently turned down a job in a city I love because the salary offer was half what I made earlier in another market with about the same cost of living. I can’t sustain working eight hours a day on the clock, putting in an additional two to three hours before or after the workday to prep pitches or talk to sources and skip a lunch break that I am nevertheless still marking down on my timesheet. And after all of that, an after-work drink with colleagues is still, more often than not, a luxury.

The negatives keep adding up. Over the last three years, I’ve worked odd hours, followed unpredictable schedules, often come in on weekends and holidays and covered stressful and sometimes traumatizing stories. I often don’t get days off I’ve requested in perennially short-staffed newsrooms, where I seemed to forever be covering for ill colleagues. Taken together, all these dynamics make it hard to rationalize remaining in the profession.

I consider if I’d kept on the parallel track as a TV news producer. Most managers know that producers are often some of the hardest working people in the newsroom. This is ever truer as stations add hours of local programming to their daily schedule as they wean away from syndication.

While I’m not a producer candidate now, I see tons of openings for that position as I search for reporter roles. Many posts from hiring managers on LinkedIn and Twitter assert that producer candidates are their top priority. And yet, experienced producers are only facing more pressure and work with fewer resources, especially in small- and medium-size markets.

In my experience, producers make even less than reporters, and it goes against basic supply and demand to continue to that practice if supply is low and demand is high. Producers are critical to solving the industry’s content needs. Where are the salaries to reflect that?

Times are changing, and we have more avenues for our skilled labor than ever. Station group leaders need to grasp that TV news doesn’t have a monopoly on content creation anymore. If one is a talented storyteller — be they a reporter or producer – there are no barriers to production on digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok, podcasts, Substack or other appealing alternatives.

Content creators there can make a better living, work the hours they want, have creative freedom, build their own brands and audiences, even gain access to important people along the way (viral TikTok star-turned-pop-star Olivia Rodrigo was invited to the White House recently).

And storytellers aren’t just being sought by news organizations. Brands and marketing companies are just as attuned to the value of these skills as newsrooms. Working a corporate 9-5 job doesn’t mean you can’t be creative and have an impact on the community. And these companies have learned how to effectively recruit former reporters and offer them deals that are hard to refuse.

There is another dynamic that makes me and many others wary of the industry now: the growing instability spurred by mergers, the ensuing layoffs and frequently changing leadership that spares no station. We TV journalists read the trades and see it happening right in front of us.

I hear hiring managers talk about the “new direction,” “rapid growth” and “rebranding” of their stations, emphasizing that it’s an “exciting time” to join their team. But the subtext I hear in those terms is that this is a station in the grip of uncertainty. It’s on the brink of a culture change more than likely to prompt friction with some employees and vex others who have no idea what their job expectations or demands will be in the coming months.

I’m writing this from the throes of the Great Resignation, a phenomenon that most station leaders have come to understand is very real. Every part of me wants to stay in the TV news industry, but if the trend I’m seeing now continues, I’m considering other media to tell impactful stories and do the reporting I love.

My skill sets are viable. My passion is still burning. But industry leaders need to meet me and my colleagues closer than they have been willing to come so far. That starts with the existential issue of pay. So, are local TV’s leaders ready to talk about it?