THERE WILL BE INK - Initiative for Policy Dialogue

training makes journalists more valuable employees, increasing the risk that they will take a job witha competitor, media houses are increasingly forced to offer competitive pay. In fact, one TVjournalist we met with was in the process of interviewing with other media outlets for betteropportunities, and one newspaper journalist had just accepted a higher position elsewhere.Impact on Career OpportunitiesPromotion and Opportunities Elsewhere in JournalismThe journalists we spoke with reported that trainings have definitely opened doors for promotionwithin their media houses. In our survey, we found that 31 percent of respondents reportedreceiving a promotion after training. For example, one journalist became the business desk editor athis newspaper, another was promoted to senior correspondent and a third was put in charge of theReal Estate beat. When asked if journalists go to trainings hoping to be promoted, one journalist atPunch said that “the expectation [for promotion from training] is certainly there…But it is gearedtowards equipping you in your industry capability, to be able to do your work effectively. You needto be able to stand out in your field.” 91Journalism trainings also opened doors for journalists in other media houses. Thirty-seven and a halfpercent of respondents in our survey reported taking a new job in another organization aftertraining. Of that 37.5 percent, 67 percent said they had taken that new job in another media house.Examples of new opportunities included, a promotion to a business editor position, freelance workfor major American newspapers like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and consultancies fortelevision stations.Improved skills from trainings have also led some journalists to receive accolades from outside theirworkplace. One journalist said, “I was at the Daily Independent in 2005 when I won an award on thebusiness and economics category from CNN Africa. After that award, I switched employers, got araise, got a better package. What brought that award was that I’d done a couple of trainings thatmade me write better. They gave me a better opportunity.” 92Trainings not only exposed journalists to new topics, but also to other journalists as well.Interviewees overwhelmingly mentioned the networking aspect of trainings as one of the mostpositive outcomes. In some cases, interviewees said that networking was the most valuable aspect ofa training. This was true for Moyela Muyiwa, a former journalist in Nigeria who now works for apublic relations firm called Quadrant. Muyiwa attended a Thomson Reuters training in South Africain 2002 at which all the participants were journalists from various parts of Africa. Moyela has kept intouch with many of them, and has since collaborated on stories with journalists from Ghana andSouth Africa who he met in the training.Journalists Leaving JournalismIn Nigeria, journalism has not historically been thought of as a career, but rather as an entry pointfor other opportunities. A popular path among journalists has been to work as a journalist, and thentake a corporate communications job, often at a bank, where journalists can earn exponentially more91 Nigerian Interviewee #4. 2009. Interview by Ben Colmery. Lagos, Nigeria, January 13.92 Nigerian Interviewee #20. 2009. Interview by Ben Colmery. Lagos, Nigeria, January 15.– 30 –