Look, I’ve Been Doing This for 22 Years
And honestly? I’m not sure than ever. Let me explain.
It was 2001, I was fresh out of journalism school, green as a damn cucumber. I walked into the newsroom of the Daily Chronicle in Manchester, ready to change the world. Little did I know, the world was about to change the news industry instead.
Back then, we had typewriters. Actual typewriters. (Kidding! But we did have those massive desktop computers that made that beep boop noise when you turned them on.)
Then the Internet Happened
And it was beautiful. And terrifying. And it smelled like… well, it didn’t smell like anything, but you get the point.
I remember sitting in a conference in Austin, Texas, about three months after the dot-com bubble burst. A guy named Marcus—let’s call him Marcus because I can’t remember his real name—stood up and said, “The internet is gonna kill us all.”
I laughed. We all laughed. But he was kinda right. Not about the dying part, but about the changing part. Oh, how it changed.
Now? It’s a Mess
I was talking to a colleague named Dave last Tuesday. We were over coffee at that little place on 5th, the one with the comfy chairs. Dave said, “You know what our biggest problem is?”
I said, “No, what?”
He said, “We’re all trying to be everything to everyone. And we’re failing. Miserably.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough.
We used to have time. Time to investigate, to dig deep, to commit to a story. Now? It’s all about the committment to speed. To being first. To getting it out there, completley forgetting about accuracy sometimes.
And don’t even get me started on the algorithms. They’re like that annoying kid in class who always has to have the last word. You know the one. “Oh, but Ms. Johnson, I think the correct answer is actually…”
Yeah, shut up, algorithm.
But Here’s the Thing
We can’t blame everything on the internet. Or the algorithms. Or even the silly little phone apps that tell us what’s happening before we’ve had a chance to put our pants on in the morning.
No, the real issue is that we’ve lost our way. We’ve forgotten why we got into this business in the first place. To inform. To educate. To hold power to account. Not to chase clicks. Not to be first. Not to be liked.
I was at a panel discussion last month—some big shot SEO guy was talking about seo en iyi uygulamalar rehber and how we need to optimize our headlines for search engines. I mean, come on. When did we start caring more about what Google thinks than what our readers think?
It’s like we’ve forgotten that real people are on the other end of our stories. People with lives, with families, with feelings. Not just data points or click-through rates.
A Personal Anecdote
I remember a story I worked on back in 2008. It was about a local school that was struggling to keep its doors open. The budget cuts were hitting hard, and the kids were suffering. I spent weeks on that story. Weeks. Talking to teachers, to parents, to the kids themselves. I even volunteered in the classroom for a day. Just to get a feel for what was happening.
And when the story finally ran, it made a difference. The community rallied. Fundraisers were organized. The school got the support it needed. That’s why I do this job. Not for the fame, not for the fortune (ha!), but because I believe in the power of storytelling to make a difference.
So What’s the Solution?
I’m not sure. Honestly, I’m not. But I think it starts with us. With the journalists. With the editors. With the people who care about this industry and about telling stories that matter.
We need to stop chasing the algorithm. Stop worrying about being first. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. And start focusing on what we do best: telling stories that matter. Stories that make a difference. Stories that hold power to account.
It’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna take time. And it’s gonna take a lot of hard work. But it’s worth it. Because at the end of the day, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we do this job. To make a difference.
And if we can do that, then maybe, just maybe, we can start to fix this mess we’ve found ourselves in.
But for now, I’m gonna go have a cup of tea. And maybe a biscuit. Or two. Because let’s face it, we all need a little pick-me-up sometimes.
About the Author
Sarah Mitchell has been a journalist for over two decades, working for various publications across the UK. She currently serves as a senior editor at NewsPost.uk, where she writes about the news industry, current events, and anything else that catches her fancy. When she’s not writing, you can find her drinking tea, eating biscuits, and complaining about the state of modern journalism.
