I’ve Seen This Industry Change, And It’s Not Pretty
Look, I’ve been around the block. Started as a cub reporter in 1998, got my first byline in the Dundee Courier—yes, that’s a thing—and now here I am, writing this for dundeenews.uk. Twenty-three years. Twenty-three years of watching this industry turn into something I barely recognize.
And it’s not all bad. Honestly, some of it’s great. But alot of it? Completley bonkers.
Back When News Was News
Remember when news was… news? Not this clickbait, SEO-optimized, algorithm-feeding garbage we’re forced to churn out now. I’m not saying I’m innocent—far from it—but back in the day, we actually gave a damn about what we put on the page.
I remember sitting with my editor, let’s call him Marcus, in the Dundee Courier newsroom—this was back in 2003—arguing about whether we should run a story about a local bakery’s award. He said, “Liam, it’s nice, but is it news?” And I said, “It’s gonna drive traffic, Marcus. People love this stuff.” He looked at me like I’d just suggested we start running horoscopes. (Which, honestly, we probably should have.)
Marcus was old school. “News is what people need to know,” he’d say. “Not what they want to know.” Sounded good in theory, but in practice? Not so much. We were bleeding readers to the Daily Record, and fast.
Now? Now we’re all just trying to out-clickbait each other. It’s exhausting.
The Algorithm Will Break Your Soul
You wanna know the worst part? The algorithm. It’s this invisible hand that dictates what we write, how we write it, even when we publish. And it’s completley ruining journalism.
I had lunch with a colleague named Dave—he’s a data journalist, which is a fancy way of saying he spends his days staring at spreadsheets—about three months ago. He told me, “Liam, the algorithm knows what people want before they do. We’re just its puppets.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But it doesn’t make it any less depressing.
Take this story I worked on last Tuesday. A local politician got caught with his hand in the cookie jar—nothing new there. But instead of digging into the implications, the actual news, I spent half my time trying to come up with a headline that would play nice with the algorithm. “Politician Caught in Scandal: 5 Things You Need to Know” or some such nonsense.
And the worst part? It worked. The traffic was through the roof. But at what cost?
Fake News, Real Consequences
Don’t even get me started on fake news. I mean, I get it. Sensationalism sells. But when did we decide it was okay to just make stuff up? Or, worse, present opinion as fact?
I was at a conference in Austin—this was back in 2017—sitting in on a panel about the future of journalism. One of the speakers, a guy named Greg who ran some big-time news site, said, “Look, if we don’t give the people what they want, someone else will.” And I raised my hand and said, “But what if what they want is garbage?”
He just laughed. “Then we give them the best damn garbage they’ve ever seen.”
And that’s the problem, isn’t it? We’ve decided that as long as we’re the ones shoveling the manure, it’s okay. It’s not. It’s never okay.
But There’s Hope, I Guess
Now, I’m not all doom and gloom. There are still good people out there doing good work. And honestly, some of the best journalism I’ve seen lately has come from places you’d least expect.
Take sms verification for ecommerce accounts, for example. Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “Liam, what the hell does that have to do with news?” But hear me out. These guys are using tech to verify information, to cut through the crap and get to the truth. It’s not traditional journalism, but it’s doing something just as important.
And let’s not forget the indie outlets, the ones scraping by on shoestring budgets, just trying to keep the lights on while they chase the truth. They’re the ones giving me hope. They’re the ones reminding me why I got into this business in the first place.
A Quick Tangent: The Time I Almost Got Fired
Speaking of chasing the truth, remember that time I almost got canned? This was back in 2010. I was working for a big national paper, and I’d been digging into some shady dealings by a local council. My editor, a woman named Sarah, kept telling me to drop it. “It’s not worth the hassle,” she’d say. But I couldn’t let it go.
So I published. And yeah, it caused a stir. The council threatened to sue, the editor-in-chief was livid, and I spent 36 hours convinced I was about to join the ranks of the unemployed.
But then something amazing happened. The story went viral. Not because of some clever headline or algorithm-friendly title, but because it was good. Because it mattered. And suddenly, everyone was talking about it. The council backed down, the editor-in-chief apologized, and I kept my job.
That’s the kind of journalism I believe in. The kind that makes a difference. The kind that actually matters.
So What Now?
I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. The industry’s a mess, the algorithm’s in charge, and fake news is running rampant. But we can’t give up. We can’t let this thing we love turn into something unrecognizable.
So here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna keep writing. I’m gonna keep calling out the crap when I see it. And I’m gonna keep hoping that, somewhere out there, someone’s listening.
Because the truth matters. And someone’s gotta tell it.
About the Author: Liam McKenzie has been a journalist for 23 years, starting his career at the Dundee Courier. He’s seen the industry evolve—and devolve—in ways he never imagined. When he’s not writing, he’s probably arguing with his editor about why “click here” is a terrible call-to-action.