THE HARD TRUTH: Dear journalists, the newsroom is not a nursery.

Journalists have been crying again, and this time they have statistics to accompany the tears. A report released last Sunday by the Federation of African Journalists, with Unesco’s seal of approval, tells us that 61% of the 1 586 journalists surveyed across 45 African countries cannot meet their basic needs from their earnings. Nearly half (47%) have considered leaving the profession.

The findings are troubling, but before we organise a national day of mourning for the newsroom, perhaps we should ask an uncomfortable question: when did journalists become so good at investigating everybody else’s problems and so helpless at solving their own?

We investigate billion-dollar companies, interrogate ministers about economic policy and lecture entrepreneurs about innovation, yet some of us still believe our financial future depends entirely on a newsroom manager remembering that salaries are due.

Of course, journalists deserve decent salaries, contracts, safe working conditions and employers who understand that exposure does not pay rent.

Nobody should romanticise exploitation. But there is a difference between demanding fair treatment and waiting for an industry that has changed beyond recognition to return to the good old days.

Those days are gone, colleagues. They left without a farewell party.

The newspaper that once sold advertising by the page is now competing with Facebook, TikTok, influencers and a teenager producing videos from a bedroom. Audiences have moved, advertisers have followed, and some journalists are still standing beside the printing press demanding to know who switched off the lights.

The real tragedy is that journalists possess some of the most commercially valuable skills in the modern economy. We research, write, interview, investigate, produce videos, tell stories and understand audiences. Yet we sometimes behave as though these abilities have no value outside a monthly payslip.

A journalist can build a specialist newsletter, launch a podcast, produce documentaries, establish a niche publication, offer media training or develop a business around reliable information. Namibia has industries hungry for informed coverage, from mining and energy to agriculture, tourism and finance. Opportunities exist beyond the traditional newsroom, although turning them into sustainable businesses requires planning, discipline and an understanding of consumers.

Entrepreneurship is not an invitation to abandon journalism’s ethics or turn every story into an advertisement. Independence remains essential. Nor is every journalist obliged to become a business owner. But understanding how journalism earns its money should no longer be someone else’s responsibility.

There is also the uncomfortable truth of professional development. Some journalists have spent years demanding better pay while refusing to learn video editing, data journalism, audience analytics or the commercial realities of digital publishing.

Experience deserves respect, but experience without adaptation can become an expensive museum exhibit. Some still cling to the old ways long after the newsroom that sustained them has thinned out and changed irrevocably. That leaves us with one option: use every tool at our disposal to make sure our copy is factual, well written and as close to ready to publish as possible. We can no longer expect others to mop up behind us.

And newsroom owners should not celebrate too quickly. Innovation cannot excuse unpaid salaries, intimidation or miserable and ignorant management. Employers who demand multimedia excellence while providing prehistoric equipment deserve a few hard truths of their own.

Still, colleagues, the industry owes us fairness, not eternal comfort. The future belongs to journalists who combine strong reporting with curiosity, adaptability and initiative.

So complain when your rights are violated, organise when necessary and hold employers accountable. Then update your skills, understand the market and explore opportunities.

The profession needs fewer professional mourners and more people willing to reinvent it. Put away the tissues. Pick up the business plan.