There's something fundamentally broken about the business of journalism around the world.
The figures on offer are just not commensurate to the utility journalists offer. We have an occupation that is this objectively important offering uniformly poor compensation across board.
The figures on offer are just not commensurate to the utility journalists offer. We have an occupation that is this objectively important offering uniformly poor compensation across board.
We are expected to be 1 part social conscience, 1 part historiographer, 1 part PhD researcher, and 1 part Wall Street analyst on the wages of a Wal-Mart greeter.
More importantly, journalism is one of the few "respected" professions where there is no career pipeline whatsoever.
More importantly, journalism is one of the few "respected" professions where there is no career pipeline whatsoever.
You can write the most important story ever written and win a Pullitzer and a Nobel Peace Prize for your efforts, but there is no guarantee whatsoever that this will help your journalism career.
The industry is governed not by metrics, but by who knows who and who was born where
The industry is governed not by metrics, but by who knows who and who was born where
Even if you know the right people and you have the right passport, a full time job offer at the New Yorker for example, starts at $40,000 per annum - $6,400 less than the estimated living wage for New York.
I won't even bother talking about what's obtainable in Nigeria.
I won't even bother talking about what's obtainable in Nigeria.
This absence of financial reward alongside the lack of any kind of career pathway or structure is what makes journalists become Tolu Ogunlesi.
Not everybody can deal with extended uncertainty and a global industry that internally resembles a university frat house.
Not everybody can deal with extended uncertainty and a global industry that internally resembles a university frat house.
Me I will not become Tolu Ogunlesi. At the same time, I have no intention of suffering. My reward is not in heaven because I'm atheist.
When I inevitably announce that I've accepted a private sector job offer later in the year, you know why.
When I inevitably announce that I've accepted a private sector job offer later in the year, you know why.
What I've achieved in this career is equivalent to a commercial pilot achieving his type rating and becoming a pilot on an A380, or a medical doctor becoming a specialist.
After getting that far, they don't have to do unsteady gig work to pay their bills and neither should I.
After getting that far, they don't have to do unsteady gig work to pay their bills and neither should I.
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