Getting back in the biz

The most salient point YF has hit on here -- and it looks like Rhody mentioned it in his first couple of posts -- is the idea of using this job as a springboard to the big paper that has always been the goal.

That's very unlikely to happen. The talent pool gets larger, the available jobs get fewer, AND it sounds like they have already said no at least once. I suppose you can take the "so you're saying there's a chance" route, but it is too small a chance to even factor into the decision.

 

I could fill the Grand Canyon with things that were "very unlikely to happen" that happened anyway.

 

I've been out of the newspaper business (but not the media business) for nearly 15 years now. Unless the offer was very, very, very good -- I mean, daily handjobs and steak dinners good -- there's no chance I'd get back into it today. The hours, the pay, the lack of resources, the commodity treatment from the bosses, the public's increasing disregard for what you do and why you do it and how you do it ... it's not worthwhile anymore. There are other ways to fulfill your writing jones without falling into the deceptively alluring embrace of an abusive former spouse.

You might love the newspaper business, but it will never love you back.

 

"Give up on your dream" is much better advice than "go for it and see what happens."

 

Hear that a lot, which makes me wonder . . .

What percentage of the work force is employed in a business that will love them back? Let alone a business that they love to begin with.

Is your Orkin man in a business he loves that will love him back? Your Bank of America teller? Your car mechanic?

 

No.

And that's why they get paid reasonable wages. Because they prefer financial rewards to emotional ones.

 

The first time I heard that line was back in the 1990s when it actually looked like going into journalism was a shrewd career choice.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

Yeah, right. Should have been an exterminator (average pay, $39,500). Or a bank teller (average pay, $10.42/hour).

Making "reasonable wages" and financial rewards the likes of which I surpassed sometime during the Iran-Contra scandal.

 

Long time ago.

These days $39,500 would beat the piss out of most newly posted journalism jobs (and being an exterminator would require no college degree). Bank teller is an entry-level job.

You seem to have this feeling that journalism is mostly the same as it was when you came through it, only a little different. That feeling is wrong.

 

There aren't that many jobs for college graduates where there is a crappy wage, crappy hours, and abysmal job security.

 

Only a blessed few of us are in careers we truly love. To be sure, even fewer of us are in industries that love us back.

At least the pest control guy, the bank teller and car mechanic can move across the street if it comes to that. Or they can develop their skills into something similar -- like landscaping, mortgages or machinery. But newspaper people? If they want to remain in the newspaper business, it's a hell of a lot harder to find a good situation -- and harder by the day. If they're lucky enough and good enough to move to a bigger paper, by and large they'll have the same headaches -- hours, days, pay, resources -- only with more pressure from more bosses, and more colleagues in similar circumstances.

If you get enough out of your writing or editing to put up with the frustrations and perils, God bless you. Honestly, I mean that. But I hope that's enough salve for when your friends have just purchased new cars, or when they're taking time off during the holidays, and you're working on Christmas Day, hoping your car's tires last long enough for you to get to the State U. bowl game and back, and that the publisher doesn't issue pink slips in the newsroom after the first of the year because the company was down 2.2% in advertising revenue this year.

It takes a strong spirit to want to work in the newspaper business these days. If you've got the resolve and the balls to do it, I want nothing but the best for you. I just think the newspaper business has too many outside forces working against those strong spirits to arouse anyone's deep passion for it anymore.

 

If the former is true, the latter may be secondary.