Why We're Losing Good Journalists

By Chris Roush
Dec. 28, 2007

I'm bothered by the resignation earlier this month of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution business reporter Patti Bond to go work for Home Depot, a retailer she has ably covered in the past years.

No, I'm not bothered by the fact that Bond is going to work for a company she once wrote about. Such moves happen all the time in business journalism. Witness, for example, the resignation of The Detroit News business editor Mark Truby in July to go work for Ford Motor Co., a company that The News obviously wrote a few stories about during his tenure.

What bothers me more is what moves like this imply for the future of business journalism.

I'm bothered by the public's perception of such moves. When a business journalist quits their job to instead work in communications for a company or an industry that they once covered, the public perceives, rightly or wrongly, that the reporter or editor was "soft" on that company or industry when they covered them as a journalist.

But I'd be willing to bet one of my Christmas presents that's not the case. Most business journalists I know value their reputations too much and would take great umbrage at such an accusation. We're not sellouts.

So, what bothers me more is this: What forces a business journalist to leave the profession for a job in public relations or another position in an industry?

Several factors appear to be at work. One is simply economics, a concept that most business journalists understand all too well. They can make more money by taking that communications job than they can by working for a newspaper, a magazine or a broadcast station. This will only change when media starts paying more for talent than industry does, which ain't going to happen in my lifetime.

The other factor, increasingly, appears to be job security. Let's face it, we live in a time in journalism where the job cuts once covered for the business section are now taking place in the newsroom.

I'm bullish about the future of business journalism. With the stock market and the economy affecting more and more people, there will continue to be a demand for information as readers try to understand what's going on.

However, newsroom managers don't see that - and if they do, their cutbacks on the business desk are being forced down their throats by the business side of the operation.

The problem is that those cutbacks are now forcing good people out of the industry because they see how business desks have been gutted in many newsrooms. Bond was a well-respected journalist. She's not the only one who decided to give up the fight.

Will the last good journalist to leave the business desk turn off the lights?