Bernstein to reporters: Quit rushing

Surely you know I was joking, right?

I have a "time card."

Even when I get some overtime thrown in my check, I never get paid for the hours I work.

Football season? 50, minimum. Probably more like 60 ... or more.
Football and basketball overlap? You don't even want to know.

Good beat guys don't work 40 hour weeks unless they've been on the same beat for YEARS and have great sources everywhere. If you work just 40 hours in a week, and there are at least a few other papers on your beat, you are most likely getting your ass kicked.

 

No matter how many daily stories you have to write, or how many hours you have to work in a week, there's always time to work on a great story. Always.

Sleep less. Squeeze in interviews during lunch. Work on your days off. If you are passionate about a story, and if that story is compelling enough, you will find time for it.

And if you are complaining about not getting paid for that time, or not getting the comp time for every single minute you work, then you're in the wrong profession.

 

typewriter, I see your point. But if reporters have to fight editors for time to do good journalism or forced to do it on their own time, isn't that a pretty significant indictment of the profession, if the news biz even deserves to be called a profession anymore?

 

What about when the story's not great and your management is expecting the same thing?

 

That's part of the reason why the industry treats its people like crap, because the execs feel like they can take advantage of that attitude in journalists. Why pay them OT when you know they'd work on it for free? Why shell out money for a hotel room to an away game when you know that if you drag your feet a bit, the beat writer is passionate enough about his job to go find lodging with a friend who lives in the area? And so forth. I totally understand being passionate about what you do and going the extra mile out of dedication and not for money, but you have to keep in mind that you're still in an employer-employee relationship (it's certainly that way from management's point of view) and draw the line somewhere and say, "No, I'm not going to run myself into the ground so you can get something for nothing." Otherwise, you're just encouraging management to continue its ways because it knows it can get away with it.

 

I ain't workin' on Maggie's Farm, no more . . .

 

Keep thinking this way and you'll never get better. Is there some truth in what you believe? Maybe. But this is MY career and I, like you, have the power to make it better. Frankly, I don't give a shit what my editor thinks of me. I care what I do. I care what kind of stories I do. And if they mean something to me, as in one that took me eight months to finish but was well worth it, then I'll do whatever I have to do to make it a reality. I'm so sick of people constantly bitching about time needed. Very few, if any, have several weeks to work on one story. Only the best of the best get that luxury. And if you want to be the best of the best one day, get off your dumper and improve yourself regardless of what people think.

 

I'm a proofing, fact-checking, spellchecking, re-reading mother on the stuff I write. Copydesks LOVE me.

But you can see more and more major-metros simply not wanting to pony up to have the frontline jobs done right, by professionals -- while still making sure the annual operating margin stays chubby.

F that.

Only the stars have a shot to make a real score, here. We know that. But when big papers run experienced people off, then wonder why circulation continues to sag --
it speaks volumes.

 

Do you think when Carl Bernstein wakes up in the middle of the night after giving one of these sweeping statements about the state of journalism today, he ever thinks to himself, "Thank god Bob Woodward did all the heavy lifting, because otherwise I'd be an anonymous foreign editor at the Post who never got to bang Nora Ephron and Bianca Jagger."

I bet he does.

 

... or afford his coke habit ...

 

I think if you're editors expect you to work on a great story for free, then stay with friends during road games, it may be time to move on to another paper or media outlet. That said, you could use the clips you gathered while working on those great stories on your own time to get a better job. (And mention in the cover letter that you did most of that work on your own time.)

Sure, there's a line that should be drawn here. At times, you will work on stories for free if you are really passionate about them. But if your bosses are clueless and expect you to do that all the time, they should be working in another profession. They should realize that your good work, in the end, will make them look good.

The bottom line is this You need to work with people who have respect for you, your work and your personal time. I know it's hard to find editors like that, but that's what we all should be striving for. If they don't live up to those standards, you should go somewhere else. Great editors and managers are out there somewhere.

 

I agree with what you're saying, and there were plenty of times when I was in the biz that I did work off the clock because it took that much time to make the product as good as I wanted. But if you consistently work off the clock to produce good stories, it just allows management to believe that whatever they're doing is working. If the paper can consistently get those good stories at its current staff size, why would it hire more help? It certainly won't do so just to make your life easier. Or in the case of staying with friends during road games, if your paper isn't willing to shell out money to cover a road game, and you set up some lodging arrangement on your own to cover it because you feel like you should be there, the end result is that the paper gets a story about that game, no readers would know (and thus complain) about their decision to not cover an away game, and management doesn't suffer the consequences of its cheap-assitude. They won't know how much readers would object to not covering the game, so the next time the situation arises, they would follow the same logic that led them to decide to skip an away game the last time.

And yes, if you're at a place that expects such things regularly out of its employees, you should look to leave. But until you land that next job, making a habit out of the "working for free" thing will only reinforce the circumstances that made you have to work off the clock in the first place.