Why Big Media Is Hiring More Blockchain Journalists
2022.08.11 20:38
Why Big Media Is Hiring More Blockchain Journalists
- The American media is increasing the spaces dedicated to the crypto industry because they know what to improve.
- The investment in human talent that better explains how businesses operate in the crypto space has been increasing in the mainstream media.
- “When things are going down, it’s even more important to have good credible, rigorous, comprehensive coverage” of the news, says the editor of Bloomberg.
Until not long ago, the daily coverage of news related to the crypto industry was subject to a specialized website. However, this changed about two years ago, just after the boom of digital assets in the market, which occurred in the midst of a pandemic.
Little by little, the big media outlets opened entire sections dedicated to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. That was the case for prestigious US media such as Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Money, Gizmodo, and others.
Even some like The Wall Street Journal, which remained reluctant to touch on issues related to the cryptocurrency market, ended up accepting reality. An industry that had reached 2.37 billion dollars in December of last year, could not continue to be kept out of mainstream news.
Greater Investment in Journalistic Talent
This has forced big social media outlets around the world to invest more in hiring specialized cryptocurrency and blockchain journalists. In this way, they can offer their users more and better content with a professional approach.
In the midst of the cryptocurrency market crash in June, Fortune business magazine made a job offer to journalist Jeff John Roberts to take over the crypto section and lead a team of specialized journalists in the area, revealed Digiday.com.
The matter was previously discussed by Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell with the company’s CEO and CFO. In the middle of crypto winter, did it make sense to hire a specialized team of journalists to cover the subject?
Shontell wondered what the people at the magazine would think of launching the cryptocurrency project right then.
“But this was actually our dedication. We’re putting a flag in the ground. We think it’s a great time to launch an initiative that we think will be a long-term play,” Shontell said.
Fortune has been increasing crypto-related content. The four areas the magazine focuses on now are finance and investment, technology, leadership, and crypto. Lately, it has dedicated several covers to protagonists of the crypto industry such as Katie Haun, CEO of Haun Ventures, C.Z. Zhao, co-founder of Binance, and Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX.
Shontell thinks that investments in the industry have grown a lot. She claims that there is “a lot of action” being seen in the crypto asset market, generated by new entrants and other players, including big banks and venture capital funds. Hence, it would not make sense to stop covering this area.
Bad News Good News
Following the US journalistic maxim: “bad news good news,” the big media incorporated entire sections of cryptography and specialized teams in the midst of the storm caused by company bankruptcies and the collapses of crypto projects.
“When things are going down, it’s even more important to have good credible, rigorous, comprehensive coverage of those things,” said Stacy-Marie Ishmael, Bloomberg’s editor for crypto, who joined in September of last year.
The veteran reporter believes that “when markets are declining… that’s when people really need better information, better news, better data and better reporting.” In her opinion, bear markets represent “a great time to help people figure out what’s going on.”
Since her hire, Ishmael has brought a little more than a dozen blockchain and cryptocurrency journalists to Bloomberg’s cryptocurrency section. And she hopes to have two other reporters in September.
Ishmael affirms that what is happening in the crypto industry is very similar to the financial crisis of 2008. Bloomberg’s coverage in the cryptocurrency section is basically focused on the regulatory issue. It is about explaining how consumers, investors, and institutions are affected.
The Newsrooms Take Forecasts for the Future
At Forbes, the senior editor for the cryptocurrency section is Michael del Castillo. Now Forbes Digital Assets has two more recently hired reporters to feed this project launched earlier this year with original content. There are a total of six journalists and researchers, including the editor, dedicated to the subject.
Del Castillo said the company is looking to add more staff to the team. “I think for the first years of reporting on crypto, the trade publications were leading the way,” he stressed.
“Mainstream publications weren’t as focused on this,” he explained. “What’s happening now is big media players are realizing that crypto and digital assets are not going away, and they’re building newsrooms to last.”
“Crypto Is Here to Stay”
As for Money magazine, which has just celebrated 50 years of editorial activity in the financial world, it plans to hire a full-time editor soon for the cryptocurrency and fintech section. So far two journalists are in charge of covering this area to which more and more space is devoted.
According to Money Editorial Director Mike Ayers, the topic of digital assets has become one of the magazine’s “most read” areas of coverage in the past year. “What was considered by many as a fringe area of money years ago, it’s clear crypto is here to stay,” he stated.
He further indicated that “crypto adds another option for the average investor to diversify, and we want to provide that information daily.”
In Gizmodo, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNBC, Fox News, and others, content related to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain industry is becoming more and more frequent, and not exactly as marginal topics.
“We really think that blockchain technology will do a lot for all industries moving forward, so we want to be at the forefront of covering it,” concluded Alyson Shontell of Fortune.
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