400 media people lost their jobs in 2009 and the shrink in the media sector is expected to be more drammatic. Self-employed journalism is on the horizon, writes Norwegian daily. Klassekampen
The newspaper noted that the media industry is in crisis. More than 400 Norwegian journalists have lost their jobs in 2009, and further 1600 jobs are to be gone by the end of 2012. Jo Bech-Karlsen at the Norwegian School of Management (BI) ascribed this crisis to the tremendous changes that have occurred in the media industry over the past two to three years.
Bech-Karlsen added their university started to focus as much on self-employment and freelancing as the conducting of journalism. He also predicted that many journalists will have to be entrepreneurs and start their own workplaces.
-The new media reality means that our students need to be far more than mastering the craft of journalism, but also learn the business and acquire huge industry, “says Bech-Karlsen, who is head of Journalism at BI.
