Life as a journalist can be pretty tough. Thousands of wide-eyed journalism graduates stumble out of university every year with delusions of investigative assignments in some south-east Asian outpost - only to be faced with the grim reality of writing 500 car insurance stories a day for bloody comparethemarket.com.
As if this isn't bad enough, the pay is awful. Many local newspaper hounds could earn more from stacking shelves at Lidl and even national reporters' salaries are less than the average Carphone Warehouse salesman.
I know what you're thinking - not another London-based media type bleating on about how hard his sheltered little life is. Well no actually. Shut up and listen! This is merely a dramatic device to introduce the main theme of this blog - the dire straits that journalism, as an industry, is currently in.
With the advent of the internet and the decline in traditional media, many newspapers have struggled to adapt their business models. In the early days, as more and more readers flocked online, most publications rashly decided to put all of their content on the internet free-of-charge. At the time this seemed sensible as the revenue pulled in from advertisers balanced the books. However, the recession has drastically reduced the value of both print and online advertisements, while paid circulation is continuing its seemingly inevitable decline to nothing.
This is a particularly stark issue for the UK's quality press. Last month, GMG - owner of the Guardian and Observer newspapers - disclosed that the Guardian posted a loss of £36.8 million for the year to March 2009. This has led to feverish debate within journalism about how it can reform, as currently the industry resembles a dying man stumbling to his grave.
Earlier this week, Sir Martin Sorrel, chief executive of the marketing and communications firm WPP, offered his method of reviving the deceased sector. He suggested that if widespread consolidation and closures in the media reach a crisis point then governments may have to begin subsidising newspapers like the Guardian.
Previously, this would be treated as blasphemy by many hacks, who believe that a press - free of state influence - is a vital component of a fully-functioning democracy. But, in the current media landscape, any idea is welcome.
He told Arabian Business: "You could argue that newspapers provide a vital service [like banks]. It is the same issue, whether the state should intervene in certain issues to help preserve a service."
The problem is that good newspapers are the antithesis of business or government. The main goal for a select few publications is producing an informative, sometimes entertaining, paper that uncovers corruption, abuses of power and miscarriages of justice. Like premiership football chairman, investors chuck loads of money in and the only thing they receive back - apart from status - is massive debt.
But sometimes life - albeit rarely - is about more than money and influence. It's about an idea, a purpose. Birds don't sing to appeal to the teen consumer market, the sun doesn't shine to improve its revenues for the fourth quarter, babies don't smile in the hope of winning over an electorate. Some things are more important than that, including a free press.
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