The work of the Irish journalist may not be as appealing as it once was, according to veteran newspaperman and broadcaster Vincent Browne.
“Journalism used to be gregarious, generating great fun, fuelled by gallons of alcohol,” he says. “That’s no more.”
There is little doubt that the role of the reporter has changed significantly over the past two decades.
Online news has created continuous rolling deadlines while, at the same time, journalists are expected to devote much of their attention to the demands of social media and podcasting. Combine these pressures with long hours and relatively poor pay and the attractions of the job can quickly wane for many.
Increasingly, journalists are turning to roles in politics. Numerous well-established names in journalism have made the transition.
One of the most prominent in this new Government is its deputy press secretary Hugh O’Connell, a former political editor with the Sunday Times, who previously worked as a political journalist for the Mediahuis Group, the Business Post and the Journal.
He followed a path already taken by the likes of former broadcaster Chris Donoghue. The Newstalk presenter left journalism to work for Simon Coveney when he was minister for foreign affairs, later becoming government press secretary when Simon Harris was taoiseach.
They are among a growing group of advisers and spokespeople around Government Buildings and Leinster House who were themselves on the other side of the fence, holding the politicians and civil servants to account.
Former journalism lecturer Michael Foley says there is now a vast “ecosphere” between journalism, political communications and public affairs that didn’t exist before.
The number of political reporters has ballooned over the past 20 years, he says, fuelling a need for more advisers on the other side.
Does McGregor matter?
“The amount of journalists actually covering politics is now huge. In the late ’80s there were a handful of political correspondents – six or seven maybe. Then very quickly in the early ’90s the number jumped with the advent of commercial radio – the number of women too. It is now enormous.
“Getting to be a ‘Pol Corr’ in those days was a reward – something to aspire to – get midway through your career. Now you can become one quite early on. In a way, their career starts with becoming a political reporter.”
Foley believes that, having achieved these once lofty titles at an early stage, young journalists begin to look at political work as paving the way towards a longer, more secure career. The precarious nature of the news industry fuels their thinking.
“The thing a job in politics offers is a vague career structure – it appears vulnerable, but it is not really,” he says.
“When the Government falls these people can get a job in public affairs – and all those jobs pay more than journalism.”
Other prominent reporters to make the transition in recent years include former Irish Mirror and Irish Times political reporter Sarah Bardon who became press adviser to Harris in 2018 and is now his chief of staff, former Newstalk’s political correspondent Páraic Gallagher who has been in government advisory and press roles since 2021, and former Irish Examiner journalist Ciara Phelan who last year joined Harris’s back room team.
In 2020 Fiach Kelly left his job as Irish Times deputy political editor to work for then minister for justice Helen McEntee and is now head of policy and public affairs at Diageo, while Michael Brennan traded his job as former Business Post political editor to become special adviser to Norma Foley in 2023.
The issue of pay arises repeatedly when talking to those in the media. The growing difference between what media pays and what corporate public relations firms offer has long-term implications for the industry.
“Standards are falling across media as pay and conditions are driven down and this is leading to a growing exodus,” says one senior journalist who for a time worked in public relations.
“In many media companies, an entire middle tier of experience is either missing or leaving due to primarily pay and conditions. The idea of the media ‘lifer’ who stays in the business is being lost. This trend is already the case in the US and UK, and is accelerating here.”
The vast majority of journalists who end up working for the political parties and public relations firms live in and around Dublin. While the capital has always been the most expensive place to reside in the country, journalists have seen the cost of living rising while their wages have either stagnated or declined in real terms.
Younger journalists, particularly those with families and mortgages, are more prone to considering a career change than journalists were 20 or 30 years ago.
RTÉ broadcaster and presenter Sean O’Rourke has seen several colleagues transfer from journalism into the world of political communications and consultancy.
“There was a time when mainly the higher echelons of journalism were targeted for recruitment into government,” he says, citing former RTÉ broadcasters Sean Duignan, Shane Kenny and Muiris MacCongail who worked as government press secretaries.
O’Rourke says the financial circumstances of contemporary journalists, along with the high cost of housing, now make political advisory roles more attractive.
“I think it comes down to economics: pay and conditions are relatively poor now in journalism,” says O’Rourke. “The job security is simply not there – so a five-year stint as press officer can be quite appealing.
“And then when the government changes, the adviser will have acquired insights into how government works, and that is useful in getting work with public relations companies involved in lobbying activities.”
Duignan, one of O’Rourke’s former colleagues at RTÉ, made the switch to government press secretary under taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1992.
“My reasons were a mixture of curiosity, which almost did for this particular cat, but also – to use a fashionable word – ‘transactional,’” he says.
After three years in the job as press secretary, Duignan returned to RTÉ as part of a prior agreement with the broadcaster. He says it was under no obligation to return him to a political role, so he was surprised when, after a time, it was suggested he co-present The Week in Politics.
“As far as I was aware there was no party political reaction to that – as far as I know, the politicians shrugged. I don’t know what people thought privately though,” he says.
“In the United States, people can move back and forth between politics and journalism – without being regarded as compromised – but in a small society like ours it has been thought of as more questionable.”
Eyebrows have been raised at the large number of former journalists now working for politicians, raising legitimate questions about whether an unhealthy cosiness exists between the two groups. In many instances, says one former political communications adviser, a “natural rapport” develops – an unavoidable aspect of having people working side-by-side on a daily basis.
“You see criticism of people saying they are pulling their punches to get a gig and that’s just b****cks,” he says.
“Journalists I know write the best story they can without an eye on what might be further down the line. Ministers offer roles to political correspondents because they will have seen them in action – and understand that they can get on with them. They see that certain people clearly have a good work ethic – and are good at what they do. There is no conspiracy.”
The recent wave of journalists moving into political communications and public affairs has not been entirely restricted to Dublin.
The skills of the journalist are easily transferable to public affairs roles, says former subeditor with the Business Post Julian Fleming. He took voluntary redundancy in 2013, citing disillusionment with the pay rates within the industry. He now works as a consultant with PR and media relations firm Gordon MRM.
“It was a seamless transition for me,” he says.
“When you are working in a newspaper, it simply has to go out so you are working under pressure, making quick decisions to deadlines. Other people who didn’t have that sort of experience may have found the transition into public affairs more difficult.”
Work-life balance was a reason for his move, he says; the expectation that journalists should be “always on” is not conducive to balancing life with a young family, he says.
“Journalism now appears to be a young person’s game.”
Interest in journalism as a career has also gone through a transformation, says Michael Foley. Students in the 1990s mainly wanted to become reporters but gradually began to see themselves “in communications” more broadly and, more recently, as “influencers”.
Duignan believes current reporting standards and coverage are generally higher than when he was working.
“I am a huge admirer of the RTÉ newsroom – I might be expected to say that – but I think the standards they have reached are way ahead of my time,” he says.
“Most of us were ex-newspaper people and we found broadcasting quite difficult and were rather tentative about it.
“For the modern young journalists, it is as natural to them as breathing the air.”
