By: Joe Strupp Editors Say They Just Can't Fill Positions
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - For George Cox, the biggest problem facing his newsroom isn't lost credibility or deciding which stories to put on his Web site. It's an old favorite - finding good people to do the job.
"I can't find any copy editors," said Cox, editor of The Brownsville (Texas) Herald, who spoke during a break at the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) conference here. "I can't find anyone. You get a good person in and you can't keep them for six months."
Cox echoed the views of nearly every editor at the annual APME event who spoke with E&P Online about the problems facing their publications in the new millennium. The major obstacle for a wide range of newsrooms, by far, is the growing difficulty in finding and keeping good reporters, copy editors, and photographers.
"The larger papers are hiring people out of j-school that we used to hire," said Cox, who added that he has had a turnover of six newsroom staffers at his 16,632-daily-circulation paper in just the past year. "It is a big change."
"Finding quality people is much more difficult than in the past," said John Rumbach, editor of The Herald, a 12,585-circulation daily in Jasper, Ind. "They are being pulled out by larger newspapers and right out of college."
Along with writers and editors, many papers also are finding a drop in the number of graphic artists and page designers who are available in the dot-com era. "A lot of them want to go and design Web pages," said Rick Everett, managing editor of The Star-Ledger, the 406,569-circulation paper in Newark, N.J. "It's just harder to find them."
Editors blamed the problem, in part, on the lure of Web sites that can offer more than just entry-level pay and on public-relations opportunities that promise regular hours and bonuses. "I had a job opening for a health reporter six years ago and had 70 applications come in," said Doug Mell, managing editor of the 28,869-circulation Leader-Telegram in Eau Claire, Wis. "The last time I advertised for a reporter a year ago, I got 12 applications. People who normally would have gone to newspapers are going to dot-coms and public relations."
Other editors say the excitement and lure of journalism in the post-Watergate era has waned for many college-age recruits who are looking more at the drawbacks of newspaper life - such as long hours and low pay - than the advantages. "Pay is always an issue, but has become more of one," said Patrick Rice, deputy managing editor of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times/Free Press, a 74,203-circulation daily.
News executives said the situation is forcing them to do more recruiting of college graduates with no daily experience rather than seeking people with a minimum of two or three years. Others are bringing in more interns from college with the idea that they can promise them employment at the end of the internship.
"It makes the future hiring pool a little larger," said Marie Grady, managing editor of the Union-News in Springfield, Mass., who recently established a year-round internship program aimed at creating future full-time applicants. "We are also training them to get out and be reporters. They're not just getting coffee."
Marilyn Mitchell, executive editor of The Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, said she knows her paper is seen as a steppingstone for young reporters and uses that to entice them. "We are very much a feeder paper, and I use that as a selling point," she said of her 22,574-daily-circulation product.
Still, editors remained optimistic as recent Internet stock losses have prompted a cutback in Web competition and driven some journalists back to print. "I think you will see the trend turn around," said Rick Rodriguez, executive editor of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, daily circulation 296,610. "We recently hired two good people who had worked at failed Internet sites."
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.
Copright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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