BY STUFF JOURNALISTS LIKE
Journalists work hard. They slave over their keyboards
and notepads. They work endlessly to report the news. And what do they have to
show for at the end of the day? Money? Power? Fame?
No. After all of it, journalists are left with only
their cherished bylines.
Every journalist likes to see their name in on
online cell phones print. Be it a tiny contribution line, or a front-page
byline, journalists like to get their name in the paper. Even if only a handful
of readers actually bother to read who wrote the story, that one line of ink
means the world to journalists.
This is because journalists are narcissists.
Journalists, no matter if it is their first article or the 100,000th article, never
get tired of seeing their name in print. It is not uncommon to hear a
journalist say something like, “I had 589 bylines last year” in an effort to
show what an intrepid journalist they are. No matter if 400 of those “bylines”
were for stories that were simple one source stories or press release rewrites.
In a journalist’s mind a byline is a byline is a byline and they like them all
equally.
Journalists also like bylines because in today’s news
business of cutbacks and hiring freezes, it is all about what journalists have
done lately. Who cares if a journalist won a Pulitzer in 2006 for an amazing
investigative piece about the inner workings of the Chinese Mafia where they
spent 16 months undercover as a drug mule? How many bylines have they had in
the past three days? That’s what editors care about, and if the answer isn’t 35
look out. Bylines equal job security for journalists.
Though after all the labor and sweat that journalists
pour into their bylines, at the end of the day bylines exist only for that day.
The next day journalists get up to do it all over again.
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Topics:
journalist at work, journalist work, bylines, contribution or byline journalism, journalism bylines, journalists work, see name byline
And the only person who will ever check for your byline, apart from your mother, is other journos… Spare a thought for us poor sub-editors (copy editors) who don´t have the impetus of bylines!
So true Trinny – I’ve been a reporter for three years now and my mum still clips the bulk of my stories. Bless her.
hmm
donno
Trinny, you get paid more than we do. The bylines are compensation for that!
I have to say bylines are one of the greatest parts of being a journalist. Seeing your name in print like that. ::sigh:: It’s nice.
Yes! I agree. Some might call it arrogance, egotism, narcissism, or whatever, but that byline creates that tiny rush of pleasure – “I created that!” – which (almost) makes it all worthwhile.
And, as Trinny pointed out, bylines also help my mom know which stories are mine.
I don’t agree that journalists like to see their bylines due to their own narcissism. For me it’s gratification for all the hard work I do on my articles, especially the long feature articles that take hours of research and much thought to put together. At the end of a long feature article with a musical artist, it makes me think, “wow, all that money I put down on college loans is all worth it!” Give us journalists some credit…lol!! (pun intended )