Sack the messenger
Financial reporters covering the recession have themselves suffered redundancies, as JOE McGRATH reports. But there are signs of job growth in new areas
WHEN THOSE journalists working in the financial trade press began to write phrases such as “credit crunch” and “economic adversity”, few realised the scale of storm brewing in their own back garden.
Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG there have been 200 redundancies in sector. And this number looks set to grow steadily until the middle of 2009.
Journalists in the retail lending market were the first to be hit. In the summer of 2007 Centaur Media announced it would no longer publish Mortgage Distributor and Loan Distributor in print format, moving them online only. Next Charterhouse Communications closed Mortgage Introducer and a dozen were made redundant. At the same time Niche News & Publishing, publisher of Niche Personal Loans, Niche Mortgages and Sevendays, also closed with 20 jobs lost from its London office.
As the journalists themselves began using the word “recession” rather than “downturn”, publishers cut deeper. Incisive Media, the backers of Mortgage Solutions, Investment Week and Professional Adviser, have since made two rounds of redundancies. There have been 50 jobs lost and the remaining journalists are expected to take on greater workloads for no extra pay.
Working for larger companies does not necessarily provide shelter. The Financial Times announced 60 redundancies across the group and closed one title, Mortgage Adviser.
With so many journalists thrown into the job market, competition for jobs has never been so fierce. Journalists with ten years’ industry knowledge and contacts are struggling to find work.
There is, however, some good news for the future. A new breed of publisher is emerging in streamlined businesses that often have journalists in director positions, which have taken over titles once published by the larger houses.
A different style of management is proving that quality editorial, fair pay and commercial awareness can work side by side — and that the days of over-promoted sales executives running the show may well be numbered.
The true value of critical or exclusive editorial is becoming appreciated. Publishers who believe they can just turn out rejigged press releases and hope the advertising rolls in are in for a shock — particularly in the financial sector where readers are looking for an insight into the crisis.
Jobs are being created at publishing houses that have harnessed the credit crunch to their advantage. Athene Publishing recently printed a bumper issue of Credit Today, full to bursting with advertising from the debt purchase, collections and bankruptcy sector; and the magazine is advertising new jobs.
Citywire’s monthly New Model Adviser and Citywire Funds Insider is going weekly, while Metropolis Business Publishing has salvaged Mortgage Finance Gazette from the ruins of Charterhouse.
New launches are coming from FT Business and Incisive Media — giving hope to journalists on the hunt for work and acting as a reminder to publishers cutting staff that the talent of their journalists could be better deployed in new ways.