executive
Journalism is undoubtedly one of the most important elements of society. But when we look at the data over the past decade, we see that the public doesn't necessarily share this belief.
The data is a bit complicated because, when we ask the public whether they think journalism is important, people generally feel that it is. But when we then look at how people behave towards it, we see that they don't.
Think about things like news avoidance, how many people pay for news, the drop in people who say that news is important, how people generally don't want news to be a part of their social channels, and the list goes on and on.
So what is the problem? Why are we seeing this disconnect?
Fundamentally, it illustrates that we have a new type of crisis, a journalistic crisis. What we see very clearly in the data is that people want us to do journalism, but they don't think the kind of journalism we do today is up to the task.
In this 28-page article, we are going to explore why that is, and to do that we need to have a talk about what journalism really is, what problems we create for ourselves, and how getting rid of those things can help us turn this problem around.
Let's start by talking about what journalism is supposed to be.
I have told this story before, but my background in media is a strange one. I didn't go to journalism school. I didn't work at newspapers. Instead, I went to fashion design school, and then I spent more than a decade working in the fashion industry.
But while doing this, I started to develop an increasing admiration and passion for journalism, so much so that I gave up my career in the fashion industry (where I was actually making more money than what I earn today), to work in the media industry.
This Baekdal/Executive article can only accessed bysubscribing to Baekdal/Executive (which also gives you full access to our full archieve of executive reports)
Baekdal is a magazine for media professionals, focusing on media analysis, trends, patterns, strategy, journalistic focus, and newsroom optimization. Since 2010, it has helped publishers in more than 40 countries, including big and small publishers like Condé Nast, Bonnier, Schibsted, NRC, and others, as well as companies like Google and Microsoft.
Baekdal comes in three tiers:
Free weekly newsletters for media professionals, focusing on news, trends, and quick insights.
Weekly media insights and analysis for journalists, editors, and business managers, helping you focus and optimize your newsroom and audience engagement.
In-depth media reports for editors-in-chief, executives, and other decision makers, helping you understand the future of media, trends, patterns, monetization, data, and strategies.
Founder, media analyst, author, and publisher. Follow on Twitter
"Thomas Baekdal is one of Scandinavia's most sought-after experts in the digitization of media companies. He has made himself known for his analysis of how digitization has changed the way we consume media."
Swedish business magazine, Resumé
executive
plus
executive
executive
executive
executive
