A parliamentary committee has called for higher pay for journalists as a leading regional publisher admitted it may not have invested enough in staff.

In a report published yesterday, the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee said journalists must be more fairly paid if the industry is to survive.

It followed a six-month inquiry into the state of the Scottish local press which took evidence from a number of regional publishing groups.

It emerged yesterday that Michael Johnston, Scotland divisional managing director at Johnston Press, told the committee “we did not possibly invest enough in journalism” and also admitted the group had made a number of “ill-advised acquisitions.”

The report highlighted the contrast between the pay packages of senior management and journalists’ salaries and called for sustained investment in journalism by publishers.

It said: “The committee believes that the long term health and sustainability of the local newspaper industry rests largely on it being able to recruit and retain well trained professional journalists who have the skills and expertise to investigate issues of local concern, scrutinise local government and other institutions and report local news.

“The committee believes, therefore, that it is essential that the management of newspaper companies take steps to make sustained investment in journalism.

“Such investment must ensure that journalists are supported, developed and fairly remunerated in order to play their vital role in the production of vibrant titles that will continue to find a market and – perhaps more importantly – carry out their important cultural, scrutiny and other functions in local communities across Scotland.”

Committee members also said it was ‘imperative’ for the newspaper industry to adapt to technological and cultural changes which had altered the media landscape.

They welcomed the decision by the Scottish Government to drop plans to allow councils to publish public notices only online – which would have led to a loss in advertising for newspapers.

The report added: “Although the committee acknowledges that the public sector faces difficult budgetary decisions and cost pressures, the appropriate balance needs to be struck between the need to make efficiency savings and the need to ensure that citizens are properly informed about proposals that may affect their lives or their community.”

Committee members said plans to create a Scottish Digital Network, which would include a digital TV channel especially for the country, should be assessed by the Scottish Government to see what impact it could have on newspapers.

Comments

outofit (06/07/2010 09:30:20)
A JP director with a conscience…now there’s a novelty!
Can we now expect to see the end of Atex, the threat of redundancy lifted from many JP journalists, the re-hiring of those already dumped and the controlled, sensible and properly rescourced marriage of print and on-line technology?
Oh, and can we expect to see the pay gap between directors and employees reduced as the committee suggests?
No, probably not.
What a shame. Pity this damning report only involves Scottish papers. Perhaps the English Parliament should follow suit. Or have the politicians left it too late?

regionalhack (06/07/2010 09:36:53)
Dear Michael Johnston,
Having claimed that your family firm does not even employ any journalists, to get around a strike threat, you now admit “we did not possibly invest enough in journalism”. What an understatement.
More than that, you chief exec, John Fry, has set upon a path of ripping apart your family newspapers, with the introduction of Atex and the redundancies of sub-editors.
Little wonder JP’s share price is tumbling away to mere pennies.
There is little time left to re-invest in journalism, and your newspapers.

Dave Barry (06/07/2010 09:54:13)
makes a change to hear this coming from management but will they do anything about it? We all know the answer.

Hack (06/07/2010 09:56:40)
So it takes a government report to tell JP what most of their staff (well, editorial staff) have been trying to tell them for ages?!
If we’re going to get paid more then I’ll believe it when I see it.
Still, nice to see they’re realising just how important journalists are in the process of filling their pockets, but as said above I fear Fry’s recent activities may have done some serious damage.

A. J. Ournalist (06/07/2010 10:22:42)
Moan, moan, moan. I’m sorry but everyone knows the score before they start their career in journalism – it’s badly paid. It’s no secret. Always has been, always will. The best journalists aren’t in it for the money. They are in it because they passionately believe in the importance of local journalism. They do it becasue they love the job. Because it’s their life.

I survived JP (06/07/2010 11:13:03)
A.J Ournalist – or shall I say A.M anagement Apologist – you’ve missed the point…

outofit (06/07/2010 11:31:01)
A J Ournalist usually does.

Ex sub (06/07/2010 12:01:40)
A J Ournalist is obviously not a journalist – or at least one with a private income. He doesn’t want better pay? He thinks it’s okay that journalists aren’t paid well?
Is he even sane?

FAST WOMAN (06/07/2010 12:08:41)
A.J.OURNALIST: Yes, good journalists do it well because they love their jobs and care about providing a credible local news service. That is no excuse for regional proprietors to undervalue them both in salary structure and importance to the business.
It’s not just the pay, though. Newsrooms have been slashed to the bone in the last three years, and this has had the most detrimental effect on the quality of both print and online products.
The pay was always rubbish, but in the past you could at least take pride in your newspaper and its standing in the community.

Rob (06/07/2010 12:40:49)
And it took a six month inquiry to discover that journalists aren’t paid well.
A J Ournalist – most journalists do go into it for the love of teh job, but when they get a family and mortgage most of them realise they need to be earning more. That’s why there’s a brain drain of the talented ones to PR.
And newspapers wonder why no one reads them anymore.

A Nusface (06/07/2010 12:52:50)
A newbie trainee journalist at our paper earns a hearty £14,500 salary. According to BBC the acceptable cost of living for a single person is now £14,400 a year.
So A. J. Ournalist has a good point, with £100 a year to spare the world really is your oyster…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10510360.stm

Ex hack (06/07/2010 12:58:59)
I left JP last year and it’s the best thing I ever did. I now work in sports PR, am respected and very well paid. I don’t miss newspapers one bit. I could not stand doing a great job for a paper, and then getting treated like dirt by management. Management at JP never seemed to understand that people buy newspapers for the news, features and sport. It seemed a hobby of theirs to make journalists feel like unwanted scum. Screw them!

hackette (07/07/2010 10:26:50)
FAST WOMAN is spot on.
It’s ceased to be about pay.
Staff levels are so critically low that they are becoming a health issue, as well as degrading the papers.
But JP management either don’t accept this or don’t care.
We must have more reporters- they are the ones doing all the work now the subs have disappeared.
JP management logic- to work load of reporters. Reduce number of reporters. Expect same quality. They are just nuts.