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Thursday, April 26, 2018

From a Pulitzer Prize to a brewery

Por qubano22005

The discontent in the journalistic sector is growing in the United States. Not even winning a Pulitzer makes media workers stay in it. For many of them, the Pulitzer is a retirement award after years dedicated to journalism. The news makes headlines, Ryan Kelly, winner a few weeks ago of a Pulitzer, was the man who took the winning photo on his last day of work, when he covered the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

His story is similar to other journalists who have had to leave the profession not only because of the low income compared to other sectors, but also because of the crisis that media is experiencing with the arrival of new technologies.

Kelly was surprised by the news already working in a brewery. Press has become the media Cinderella in the United States. The fall in the sale of newspapers increases and, therefore, the advertising that supports these as well. Tech giants Facebook, Google and Amazon’s billions of dollars come from advertising revenue, leaving only crumbs to the media. In addition, with the increase of internet services and free media, the circulation of newspapers and magazines is becoming smaller. The blogs of several journalists also bid for ads from major companies. The Internet has practically buried down the once thriving sector of the press media that due to the crisis reduces jobs.

The emigration to other sectors is overwhelming; bad payments, but especially the exposure to big dangers, have forced many of the Pulitzer winners to leave their jobs. Kelly, 31, is another disappointed journalist. He confessed that he aspired to a better quality of life and better payments. Yet, he, like many others, has gone precisely to social networks and digital services to continue the profession as communicators. In his case, the company Ardent Craft chose him to serve as coordinator of social networks and digital services.

But Kelly's case is not isolated. The journalists who won the 2015 Pulitzer in the prestigious section of investigative journalism also left their jobs seeking better remuneration. Rebecca Kimitch, a reporter who won the award, now works as a public relations’ officer, a profession that has always been the great rival of journalists in the world of Social Communication, but which journalists are very good at, especially if they enjoy the endorsement of having obtained such an award.

According to Kimitch, she had run out of strength and disappointment knocked on hher door on more than one occasion during the 15 years she worked for a local newspaper. She also regretted that the support staff of journalists, usually editors, was getting smaller. According to Kimitch, this fact is also detrimental to the sector since traditional media is more exposed to errors of style and grammar because they do not have enough staff to correct and polish the texts.

Figures collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the number of press journalists fell by almost 60% between June 1990 and March 2016. While, at the same time, the people hired in digital and television media have flourished, approximately from 30,000 to almost 198,000. Although press journalism continues to produce revealing stories and has not ceased to be an important body of social complaints, it is not less true that the personal economy of many workers in the sector is depressing. Not a few have even, had to resort to social networks to earn an extra as Social Manager and thus maintain their beautiful profession along with a decent lifestyle.

It is not the first time that the press is threatened by other media. Radio and television also hit hard blows, however, the press survived and the ‘80s and ‘90s were great years of success.