The Endangered Newsroom

News, and Journalists, have been discussed significantly over the last few days with the removal of four journalists from DMG's newsrooms in Melbourne and Sydney (here). Chris Rieger gave his perspective on Sunday (here), and today Radio Today reader Rob McCasker gives a different perspective.

Journalists won’t like this post. Unless newsrooms reform the way they operate they won’t exist in 5 years.

Maybe less.

The signs are already there with fewer staff employed and redundancies almost weekly.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise because little has changed in radio news over the past 40 years. Yes 40 years, back to before Australia got colour TV. It’s still news on the hour with a lead story followed by something local then entertainment sport and weather. Like a time-warp suspended in the 70’s.

While newsrooms have been standing still the way listeners now source their intelligence is of course radically different.

From top to bottom the volume of information available, and just how quickly it’s shared, is breathtaking. So why are newsrooms stuck in the mire?

It’s not all the fault of journalists.

They report to program/content/product managers and or leadership teams who set a course and approve the air-time. The result, however, is smug confidence that listeners will set that regular appointment to hear a 3 minute monologue then wait through a 60 second ad-break plus promo to hear the weather.

Old thinking which is not sustainable.

Radio is a tough business and newsrooms are expensive. Not only in terms of costs to set up and run but there’s little return on that investment financially. Now as every dollar is scrutinised and justified like never before that too has to change.

Newsrooms of the future will need to become fully-funded just like most areas of a radio station. Innovation from bold thinking will need to offer premium ‘properties’ that clients want. Journalists need to think just as much now about adding value to the business as they do ethics and accuracy.

Are journalists up for it?

I hope so because they’re smart enough but the clocks ticking and the cage needs to be rattled. Newsrooms are plodders but need to become progressives to secure their place. Transformation is the only way through and if not then the last one out should turn off the lights.

Rob McCasker has 20 years experience in radio and now lives on The Great Ocean Rd working as a freelance writer. You can contact Rob This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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working journo (8:08am 02 May 2012)

Yes they're problems which we see everyday. What are the solutions? Management appear to be either asleep at the wheel or throw it into the too-hard basket.

Jacquii (8:50am 02 May 2012)

Commercial radio news has no vision, no money and sadly little interest.

Anonymous (8:51am 02 May 2012)

A journos job is to report and gather information. It shouldnt be up to them to monetise news bulletins, thats what sales managers, program directors and general managers are for. The problem these days is that many (and moreso in regional areas) are tied to the desk and rely on press releases and newspapers to construct bulletins instead of getting out and gathering info and voice drops themselves.

Anonymous (9:30am 02 May 2012)

From a PD's point of view I totally agree with this- Journo's get paid a fair bit of cash plus penalties to contribute a 3 minute bulliten, if they are like most bullitens they rotate 2-3 if at alland to be honest most of it could be networked without many listeners even noticing. If it comes to spending 60k on news for a new journo or 60k on pretty much anything else, its pretty easy choice. Sorry they are the budget facts moving forward.

Rob McLennan (10:27am 02 May 2012)

Some of what McCasker says is, unfortunately, accurate but he's also guilty of outdated thinking himself. Most newsrooms these days do generate revenue - listen to any major station's bulletins and you'll hear a swag of sponsor liners read by newsreaders or built in as sweepers.

At the same time, however, newsrooms that have not reinvented themselves as what you might call 'expanded content producers' do risk becoming obsolete. My team, for example, produces sell-able outside-of-news content and has the strongest online news presence in our market. We also work closely with our digital department to come up with new revenue-positive ideas that can be applied online, on air or even both.

Radio stations have an opportunity to engage with listeners in a whole new, multifaceted way by combining on-air with online, generating powerful audience loyalty and a very sale-able product. Journalists must embrace this new way of thinking or risk becoming irrelevant.

Similarly, PDs who fail to understand the importance of local news are doing their stations a dis-service. News plays a crucial role in most people's lives, regardless of demographic, and a failure to recognise that is a recipe for programming disaster. And local news must be produced locally. It is not possible to generate real, useful, compelling and attention-grabbing news without being in the market. Many networks have discovered this the hard way and so, I suspect, will DMG.

Anonymous (10:50am 02 May 2012)

LOL at newsrooms being expensive... I know of instances where Newsreaders have read news from nothing more than a broom closet!!! Agree with "working journo" and also "Anonymous" who wrote that journos need to be out gathering info.

Anonymous (11:58am 02 May 2012)

Turn it up Rob. You make it sound like the rest of radio has moved on to something new and different in 2012 and News has been left in the 70's. Truth is music radio is no different now. Content relies on music, jox, ads, news & info. PD's have this belief that listeners are hanging on every song they play. Listeners don't need a music director picking songs either, they can do it themselves. But it's an important part of radio...just as News is. Radio is all about entertainment and information in a personal, one-on-one medium that the Internet can never match. It's time for Radio's owners to invest in "what goes up the stick" every day instead of millions spent on corporate offices and upgrading the foyer. Let's face it, we need some "radio people" at the top who understand what their staff do, instead of businessmen and women who know how to read a spreadsheet, but rarely listen to their own stations. One thing has never changed - "employ great people to make great radio and you'll make great money".

Anonymous (12:04pm 02 May 2012)

Maybe SkyNews will take over the role of news delivery ? Perhaps do a recent trademark search ;)

Peter Holden (12:18pm 02 May 2012)

Why do we have to reinvent the wheel?

The question I ask myself whenever I see this whole debate around news.

In fact, I believe news at the top of the hour (and half hourly in Breakfast) is a great asset to any station's programming.

For example, I get up in the morning, jumper in the shower, then afterwards go fix something up in the kitchen. The radio is on in the background and I'm paying half-attention to it.

What does catch my ear is the news theme. Meaning it's news time, it's ether something o'clock or on the half hour. I just found out what time it is without needing to glance at the clock.
Also, the start of the bulletin is about to tell me what the weather will be like, without me needing to jump on the net.

That turns to another point. Sure, news on the internet is available 24/7, but you have to search for it, read it and absorb it. Do you think the average person could do that (with the same amount of stories) in under 4 minutes?

Plus, reading the above comments, some PDs think news is a waste of money, that it needs to 'pay for itself'. News in fact should be viewed as a 'value add'.

If PDs are looking to save costs, maybe they could get rid of some panel-ops and teach these so-called 'celebrities' in Breakfast and Drive how to operate the panel?
I remember one 'celebrity' who won a 'best new talent' award needed a panel op, when hosting a music shift!

Seth (2:00pm 02 May 2012)

Can we all wake up and smell the new force called Twitter?? It's all there, short sharp and punchy and always relevant because I choose which sources to follow. Radio news once had a place but it's new home is at www.usurped.com

News Director (cap city) (2:18pm 02 May 2012)

Interesting debate this, and good to have a forum. One of the comments raised the point regarding client credits. True they are everywhere and its accepted that's what happens. But here's the thing; as someone running a newsroom I don't see any of that money. Quite often I'm told the credit has been 'given away' to an advertiser who might have spent big across the station (or network)
It's all general revenue, none of it news-room specific. Frustrating as some of the credits are longer than the stories1 I would love to have money to allocate and try new things but I'm always told that I'm dreamin!

Anonymous (3:41pm 02 May 2012)

Great discussion.

I'm in charge of a newsroom in a news talk environment.

I wonder whether Rob's talking about music formats or all formats.

Our department plays a huge role in the content of the station 24 hours a day, not simply the 5 minutes at the top of the hour. I wish the rest of the industry would understand this sometimes.

Our staff feature on programs throughout the day, we provide on air news material as soon as it happens, good talk radio doesn't wait until the top of the hour and hasn't done for decades.

Taking away a newsroom from a talk radio station is like taking away music from an FM station.

Talk radio dominated by news and talk back has been doing what Twitter does, citizen journalism, for years and continues to, breaking news as it happens, be it from our own journalists or talk back callers on the scene of events or tipping us off.

Like most major newsrooms Twitter now plays a role in what we do. It is another source of news tips. But the rest of the world should remember journalists play a crucial role of being a filter. If we simply broadcast every interesting tweet, a huge amount of what would go to air would be factually incorrect. Journalists are still needed to ensure what goes to air is accurate.

A great example is the Qantas A380 engine explosion 18 months ago. If you believed Twitter, the plane crashed over Indonesia. Of course that didn't happen.

Yes we need to embrace new forms of communication and news generation, but it will be a dangerous day we as an industry decide we don't need newsrooms anymore.

And perhaps a warning to the FM side of the business. Give up on value adding content like news and more of us will switch to our ipods. FM radio has effectively lost me already and I'm only in my mid 30s. Take away more content and you'll lose more people who'll decide like me it's easier to just pick your own tunes.

Rob McCasker (7:25pm 02 May 2012)

I'm not sure it's not an argument of talk vs. music formats. Journalism is such a multi-skilled multi-platform monster now. More mobile and demanding than ever before. In my view radio's approach to journalism needs some (urgent) new thinking.

Peter (11:29pm 02 May 2012)

If I'm listening to the radio at work or in the car I don't have time to check thousands of Twitter feeds.
That's why I'm happy to hear the news on the radio.

It's like food - you can come up with fancy new dishes, but fish and chips and a good old meat pie will never go out of fashion!

Rob McLennan (3:41pm 03 May 2012)

Bringing Twitter into the discussion is a furphy. There are no limits or checks on Twitter (or Facebook for that matter). Anyone can post whatever wild claims they wish and there is no way their followers can know if it's accurate. That's why we will always need professional news.

Twitter's 140 character limit also makes it a headline only service. That's why the links our newsroom always add are overwhelmingly clicked. Having said that, stations that have devolved their news into a headline service have indeed made themselves vulnerable to Twitter.

Pat Hession (7:12pm 03 May 2012)

Not arguing the point, but it's pretty sad that in our industry earning 60k qualifies as "a fair bit of cash".