Working for less: the aftermath for journalists made redundant in Australia between 2012 and 2014

ABSTRACT

While media organisations continue to lay off journalists in Australia, the long-term outcomes of mass redundancies are just beginning to unravel. A key finding from a survey sample of 225 Australian journalists who exited their jobs between 2012 and 2014 is that while just over 60% of respondents continued to work wholly or partly in journalism roles, income loss was significant across the board. This is partly explained by the precarity of work experienced by many participants post-redundancy. But lower incomes were also noted amongst those who remained in full-time journalism positions: indeed, those who moved to full-time roles in other professions were likely to be earning more. Meanwhile, the finding that those aged over 50 faced the most significant drop in income points to particular problems faced by older workforce participants.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism jobs
• journalism layoffs
• journalism redundancies
• journalism work
• media work
• media jobs

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant Scheme under Grant number LP140100341.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant Scheme under Grant number [LP140100341].

Notes on contributors

Lawrie Zion

Lawrie Zion, PhD, is professor of Journalism and Head of Department, Communication and Media at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the co-editor, with David A. Craig, of Ethics for Digital Journalists: Emerging Best Practices (Routledge, 2014), and lead Chief Investigator of the New Beats project. He received his PhD in history from Monash University, and has worked as a broadcaster and journalist for more than 20 years with ABC Radio, The Age, The Australian, The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone (Australia). He wrote and co-produced the international award-winning 2007 documentary, The Sounds of Aus, which tells the story of the Australian accent.

Andrew Dodd

Andrew Dodd, PhD, is Program Director of Journalism at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of JJ Clark: Architect of the Australian Renaissance, and a Chief Investigator on the New Beats project. He obtained his PhD in history from the University of Melbourne. He has worked as a journalist and broadcaster for 25 years, including positions at ABC Radio National, ABC TV’s 7.30 program, The Australian, Radio Netherlands, and the online news site, Crikey. He is a Chief Investigator on the New Beats project.

Merryn Sherwood

Merryn Sherwood, PhD, lectures in Journalism in the Department of Communication and Media at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She is the co-author of the second edition of Sport and the Media: Managing the Nexus. She is a former newspaper journalist, a current PhD Candidate in the Centre for Sport and Social Impact at La Trobe University, and a research assistant on the New Beats project.

Penny O’Donnell

Penny O’Donnell, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is the co-editor, with David McKnight and Jonathon Este, of Journalism at the Speed of Bytes — Australian newspapers in the 21st century, and a Chief Investigator on the New Beats project. Her doctoral research examined journalism’s uneasy relationship with the Australian academy, and current research interests include journalism work, identity and reform after newspapers, and journalism and listening practices. Penny has worked as a broadcaster and journalist with ABC Radio National, Notimex (Mexico DF), and various community media.

Timothy Marjoribanks

Timothy Marjoribanks, PhD, is Professor of Management and Associate Head, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He holds PhD and MA degrees in Sociology from Harvard University. He is a co-editor, with Andrew Kenyon and Amanda Whiting, of Democracy, Media and Law in Malaysia and Singapore: A space for speech (Routledge 2014) and author of News Corporation, Technology and the Workplace: Global Strategies, Local Change (Cambridge 2000). He is a Chief Investigator on the New Beats project.

Matthew Ricketson

Matthew Ricketson, PhD is the inaugural Professor of Journalism at the University of Canberra. Before that he was Media and Communications editor for The Age newspaper. He is the editor of two books and author of three books, most recently Telling True Stories. In 2011–2012, he was appointed by the federal government to assist Ray Finkelstein QC in an independent inquiry into the media in Australia.