OPINION: “Going the way of the dinosaur,” writes Nikole Gunn

I’m annoyed but hardly surprised by the latest job ad from Southern Cross Austereo, seeking a journalist for the Melbourne newsroom.

But let me make it clear, it has nothing to do with the fact that I was recently ‘let go’ by SCA after four years. I’m not bitter and twisted about it. Shit happens in our industry, and we move on.

So, I’m not in anyway upset that they’re advertising a position after my own was made redundant (OK, maybe a little bit).

But I’m unimpressed with the way they’ve gone about it, and the language used. If you haven’t seen the ad, it makes an appeal for anyone ‘tired of working in a dinosaur newsroom’.

Maybe they were going for funny. Maybe they were going for quirky. Maybe the phrasing wasn’t meant to be taken so seriously. But it was, and it’s left many people offended by it’s perceived arrogance.

There are many wonderful and talented journalists doing some great stuff in newsrooms that SCA may consider ‘dinosaurs’.

The fact that they work in stations NOT in the SCA network doesn’t lessen their ability nor the product they’re producing. Does the ad suggest that they’re on the verge of extinction?

What this is really about is keeping costs down. This ad is targeted at younger journos, who feel they’re being overlooked or whose career isn’t moving as fast as they’d like.

And the thing is; they’re younger and cheaper. This is where experience is a liability.

The SCA ‘evolution’ is to find someone who can ‘do the news’ on radio, but also craft online content AND jump in front of a camera. Three jobs in one and what would they be paying?

Interesting question. Given that they’re making cuts elsewhere within the news operation (bye-bye AAP), it would not be a lot for what they’re expecting from the prospective candidate.

That’s evolution for you. But, it’s a job. And it’s a job at a metro station. You go into it with your eyes wide open.

But what’s ironic about the whole scenario is that Triple M Melbourne was once a winner of a Walkley Award for excellence in journalism – the highest accolade in Australian journalism.

The newsroom garnered other awards at the New York International Radio Festival.

And it’s just as ironic that that newsroom would be considered a ‘dinosaur’ by the modern SCA standards.


Comment Form

Your email address will not be published.

Recent comments (3)
Post new comment
Anon
29 May 2017 - 7:52 am

Hmmm – only a little disgruntled hey?? It seems like an article born out of ‘sour grapes’!! Lets move on people, nothing to see here.

grandfather time
29 May 2017 - 9:04 am

The ad is not for a Melbourne newsroom.
Your twisting of SCAs notion of dinosaur is also misguided.
Youth doesnt come cheap these days either.
Out.

Jobs
29 May 2017 - 10:49 am

@grandfather time. There was an SCA Melbourne Journo ad on here last week.

Jobs

See all