Is an artist-focused reporter a good idea?

25:00Artist-specific reporters, the return of Diddy and the end of TIFF23

USA Today is hiring two new reporters — one focused on Taylor Swift, and one dedicated to Beyoncé. While at first glance these roles sound like dream jobs for Swifties and members of the Beyhive alike, these job postings also raise all sorts of questions about the state of pop culture journalism today.

For this week's wrap panel, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud chats with culture critics Eli Glasner, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Mastermind about what a role like this could mean for the music industry.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, where the panel discuss the return of P. Diddy and the end of TIFF23, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: So two dedicated reporters, each covering a pretty different artist. Kathleen, you cover pop culture. Does this make sense to you?

Kathleen: It does make sense. I just have questions. I think first and foremost, we have to say that these are two of the most famous, most successful artists in the world. One is the greatest living performer in the world, the most influential, culturally-important icon of our time — and the other is Taylor Swift.

Eli: Ka-pow!

Elamin: It's too early for this!

Kathleen: I think that you can't overstate their respective pop music importance, including Taylor Swift. And I think that in order to understand our current musical landscape, you have to understand Beyoncé. You have to understand Taylor Swift. And so if you are an entertainment reporter, this is a legitimate beat. I think that this makes complete sense to me. I think at first I was confused as to why they are two separate job postings. If you take what Eli and I do, we have to be experts in a lot of things if we're covering TV and music and film.

Eli: We don't have the luxury to go full-time on one thing.

Kathleen: Exactly. So I think I was a little confused as to why they were two separate ones. But if you look at the job posting, they do mention travel. They do mention potentially reporting in different languages. So if they are following the respective tours, that makes sense to me. That's a full-time thing. I'm kind of coming around on why this needed to be two separate jobs, especially because of how different these two artists are.

Elamin: I would say the way you cover Taylor Swift has almost nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the cultural impact — what happens when Taylor Swift comes to your city, how many people end up lining up and closing the streets because they're all waiting to buy merch.

Eli: Taylor Swift is a seismic event. Whatever she does — a new concert, a concert film — things change. There are ripple effects. But I think what is interesting is, for both Taylor and Beyoncé, it just shows how thirsty the media are for clicks. They know that Taylor and Beyoncé are SEO gold, right? And we are now in a world where, because we're all digital reporters, we know exactly what people are reading and when they are reading it. That is good, but that is also bad because now you're in this kind of vicious cycle. That, to me, is them going, "These are our biggest stories. This is what everyone wants. We are going to feed them as much as we can."

Kathleen: It's reactive.

Eli: I understand it, and I think there are worlds to explore in both. But I do wonder: now that you have those two reporters full-time on those artists, what are they not covering?

Elamin: It's newsroom resources.

Eli: Exactly. You made a choice to go after those clicks and to give us more on each of them — but that means less time for the next artist sitting in her bedroom trying to break in, because you're full-on following the latest Beyoncé clothing line or Taylor movie release.

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Elamin: Mastermind, to that point, if you see that this is what people are interested in and you say, "Hey, the news is partly what is happening in the world, but also partly what people are interested in reading about these days." — doesn't this make sense as a newsroom strategy to you?

Mastermind: To me, it does. At the end of the day, engagement is what it's all about. You're not going to report about stuff that people don't care about. So if it is Taylor and it is Beyoncé who are creating this enormous engagement then yeah, it makes sense. This is not something new. It's not like news hasn't gravitated towards the big stories, regardless if it's entertainment or other.

Elamin: But I will say, Kathleen, the job description in both of these jobs — this is not like, "Say nice things about Taylor Swift for clicks." The job description says, "We are looking for someone who has experience with this. A voice, but not a bias." What does that signal to you?

Kathleen: I think it signals that they don't want super stans like yourself, so you are disqualified. And so am I, because I am a card-carrying member of the Beyhive. But they also ask for someone with an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift, so that seems contradictory to me. I think that it is hard, especially in our current climate of stan-dom, to be a superfan of somebody and then to also be critical when needed. And I think that that also comes from the artists…. I think that now we are in this back-and-forth when it comes to musicians and journalists where if you are being critical, there is backlash from fans and there's backlash from the artists. So in this position, I think if they don't have access—

Elamin: Mmhmm. Very few reporters actually have access to them.

Kathleen: Taylor and Beyoncé are both elusive artists; they don't give access like they used to. If they're just reporting on the world around these two artists, that makes sense to me. But I do think it's contradictory to ask for someone who is like a Swiftie, but not really?

Elamin: I think you're asking for somebody who has experience with the thing and knowledge of the thing, which does not necessarily mean being a Swiftie. For example, Eli, you cover movies. You have deep experience in the world of movies. That doesn't mean that you are going to say nice things about every single movie in order to maintain your access. In fact, that's one of the toughest parts of the job, is being honest as a critic but also to have relationships with these places in order to continue to be able to watch these things. I think similarly with Taylor Swift, that reporter is going to have to say at some point, she's one of the biggest climate polluters as a celebrity. That is a criticism.

Kathleen: But is the USA Today going to let that person say that? I don't know. I hope so.

Elamin: Eli, what's your take on this?

Eli: I wonder if as you spend so much time focusing on one artist, are you able to keep that objective frame? Because yeah, I love movies, and when you watch so many movies, your opinion on movies changes because you live in there. Things don't feel the same as just someone who randomly happens upon a film. There is the joy of your favorite Taylor song coming on randomly, but if you live inside that playlist forever, your opinions may change. And so if this reporter is looking exclusively at Taylor, then I think that is going to, in the end, warp their relationship with the subject.

The other thing I wonder is, how is that affecting Beyoncé and Taylor? Part of Beyoncé's power is that she's enigmatic. We don't know that much. She picks her moments, right? So do you risk spoiling the magic by putting this laser focus on what they do? Because they now have to contend with that. They now know, on top of being one of the most watched people in the world, there is a journalist following them all the time — and yet you still want them to have that magic and put that stuff out in the world.

Elamin: Before I let this go, anybody here going to apply to any of these jobs?

Eli: Is there a posting for a Billy Joel reporter? Photos of his grandkids, all-time best versions of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant? Maybe.

Elamin: If that was the job, we would be in competition for that together.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show, where the panel discuss the return of P. Diddy and the end of TIFF23, on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jean Kim.