(New York) Does a newspaper need reporters to exclusively follow Taylor Swift or Beyoncé? Yes, answers the Gannett group, owner of USA Today, whose recruitment announcement aroused curiosity and criticism, but also reveals the extent to which the two artists are cultural phenomena.
The press group, owner of more than 200 daily newspapers across the United States, has cut the number of editorial staff in recent years, and embodies the crisis facing the local press. Last December, it laid off another 6% of the 3,440 employees employed in its media division.
So when he discovered Gannett’s very serious ad for a “Taylor Swift Reporter” position, followed by another similar one for Beyoncé, journalist Brad Vidmar’s blood boiled.
“I guess this is a good time to remind Twitter that I’m the only full-time news reporter left at my paper, which was sold by Gannett in December,” he wrote on X.
His Burlington, Iowa, newspaper, The Hawk Eye, was purchased in 2016 by the GateHouse publishing group, which absorbed Gannett in 2019 and took its name to become the nation’s largest newspaper group. And in late 2022, Gannett resold The Hawk Eye.
“They kept downsizing and downsizing and downsizing again across the board,” says the 41-year-old journalist. “But, of course, now they need someone to cover for Taylor Swift,” he quips.
According to Gannett, the two journalists will be employed by USA Today and The Tennessean, the network’s newspaper in Nashville, the country music capital where Taylor Swift spent part of her life.
The future Taylor Swift specialist, whose position will be added to the Tennessean’s three music journalists, will have the mission of “capturing the excitement of her current tour”, which promises for the first time in the history of the music to surpass $1 billion in revenue, “while providing a thoughtful analysis of his music and career.”
Not enough to convince the New York branch of the NewsGuild press union, which summarized on local news 3. Hire a reporter Taylor Swift.”
“These positions are not created to the detriment of other jobs,” assures Gannett’s head of communications, Lark-Marie Anton, to AFP. She points out that since March, Gannett has recruited 225 other journalists and that more than a hundred positions are also open for applications.
“Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter are artists and businesswomen. Their work has a huge economic impact and societal importance that influences many sectors and our culture – they are shaping a generation,” she adds.
Founder and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, Robert Thompson also thought “(it was) a joke” when he saw the ad.
But after careful consideration, he thinks it would be “stupid to reject all of this out of hand.” According to him, it’s an opportunity to “tell the story of 21st century America through its most popular characters.”
Robert Thompson, however, understands the criticism in a context of budgetary restrictions for the local press.
He also predicts that these positions will not be the “dream” careers that some claim. On the one hand, because fans of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are known to defend their idol tooth and nail and the slightest negative comment can trigger avalanches of criticism, even death threats, on social networks. On the other hand, because the worlds of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are well guarded by those around them and difficult to penetrate.
Beyond the fans, “the eyes of the profession will be focused on these poor people when they are finally hired,” he emphasizes. “Their first paper, it better be really good.”
