Ten reasons to hire a journalist – The Poynter Institute

  1. Journalists will improve the writing, photography or design in your organisation.Their writing is clear and succinct; their photography and design skills make whatever they’re working on look more polished and professional. They’re sticklers about copy editing and will raise the quality of even your internal memos.
  2. Journalists deliver on deadline.Their work lives have been defined by deadlines. Blowing a deadline is a cardinal sin in the newsroom culture. Tell them when something is due and you’ll get it unless of course illness is involved
  3. Journalists are multi-taskers.In recent years, journalists have been required to do more with less. Reporters and photographers took up videography, editing and blogging. They file stories for print, broadcast and online, as well as on social media channels.
  4. Journalists are quick at studies. Imagine a job in which you have to learn things every day, then turn around and teach those things to others. That skill set demands that journalists take in and process information with extraordinary efficiency and clarity, a benefit in any line of work.
  5. Journalists are critical thinkers. They’ve been trained that “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Journalists know that asking why and why not, looking at multiple perspectives, digging beneath the surface, challenging conventional wisdom, discerning patterns, finding context and thinking about “what’s next” improves any story.
  6. Journalists get answers faster than most. Even in social situations, you’ll find friends rely on their journalist buddies to gather information. Get the background on the car you’re thinking of buying. Vet the new school head. Help find the best doctor for your condition. Journalists know how to do research — fast.
  7. Journalists know how to use the Web.Your organisation may or may not have embraced all of its online opportunities, but journalists know firsthand why the Internet matters. They’ve been brought up to speed in the past several years as their newsrooms expanded their horizons.
  8. Journalists have a great work ethic.If you’ve ever complained that your team has a 9-to-5 approach to the job, hire a journalist. Some may think they’re crazy, but they’ve often followed stories, not schedules. They’ve dropped everything for breaking news. They’ve gotten up in the middle of the night to catch a perfect picture of the moon or listen to a source who could talk from the other side of the world at 5am.
  9. Journalists have a solid moral compass.Imagine signing on to a job where you promise not to accept gifts that others could, must take pains to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest, should keep your opinions to yourself, are expected to question authority while respecting the law and to recognise that your work carries the opportunity every day to do good or harm. Journalists didn’t just sign some statement saying they’ll comply with the organisation’s policies, file it and forget it; they chose a profession that embraces a code of ethics and wrestles with its obligations daily.
  10. Journalists are loyal. The journalists you may hire have been faithful to their vocation, even when the going got more than tough. They’ve adapted, learned new skills, added duties, taken pay cuts, mourned the loss of coverage, and kept on doing work that mattered. What does that mean to you? Hiring journalists presents you with a terrific opportunity. Give them a job they believe in and they’ll work like hell to help you succeed.
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