I’m a Journalist: Get Me Out of Here

Lunch with two PR chiefs last week, who said the same thing:

Their phone is ringing red hot with calls from senior hacks doing their very best Yosser Hughes impression. (For our younger readers: give us a job).

There’s always been a regular flow of hacks chucking it in to be flaks; some seeing it as natural evolution, some as a recognition that they need a career change.

Lately – this is anecdotal rather than precisely statistical – that flow is a flood.

What’s going on?

Well, there’s the general Covid re-evaluation of what folk want from life, the mooted Great Resignation.

Specifically, newspapers have been less and less fun places to work for years and it feels like a tipping point may have been reached.

The supposed prestige that comes from working for a famous newspaper only goes so far, the job is getting harder and the pay is staying the same.

I’ve always been slightly amused at the hack notion that flak land must be desperate to hire them. No one has ever asked me, for some reason.

It’s not clear to me that the skill set transfers. And, as the PR bosses confirm, the hacks tend to think they should start far higher up the chain than they really merit.

The hacks think they should be hired to offer high level strategic advice. The PR firm wants them to knock out some press releases and look smart in meetings while they learn the ropes.