"Getting out of the business" success stories

Should young writers, say a year or two out of college, get out now? Should they start looking for a career in a related (PR, SID, communications director, etc.) or unrelated field? A lot of talk on here and just reading about the newspaper industry screams "YES! GET OUT NOW! THERE IS NO FUTURE!"

Or should these young writers try to stick it out and seek employment from a website to continue writing and maybe learn audio and video skills? The problem with trying the Web way is that advertising revenue on websites is still a work in progress. Plus, the .com sports websites aren't exactly liberally opening positions and hiring - especially for young writers with little experience.

 

Certinaly, NDub, you should learn all the Web skills you can. Learn to shoot and upload video, photos, audio and stories. Learn HTML. Then, when you get tired of your newspaper jobbing you on salary and benefits (and reminding you that if you're dissatisfied that there would be 10 or 15 other people who would gladly do the work at the proscribed wage), you can go anywhere else you want to do Web stuff.

 

The problem with where I'm at is our resources and, quite frankly, focus to the Web is limited. I don't have video equipment or software. We don't do podcasts. We don't have blogs. Our Web Editor is part-time. Writers have to go through copy editors and editors before their stories are posted online and only breaking news stories are posted. Even if I was trained in our posting system, I'd have to jump through loopholes of "why should this be posted?" and "we have to copy edit that" so by the time it's up, it's already hours old.

I can press for changes with this Web stuff, but I feel like this newspaper is moving at a snail's pace and it shouldn't be given this industry's condition.

And salary? Ugh.

I'm really starting to feel like I'm running as fast as I can but getting nowhere.

Is it like this everywhere? I fear that it is. And that's why I'm thinking about making the move out. Like I said, how much of a guarantee for the next 2-3-4 years is the Web given the problems with bringing in ad revenue?

 

NDub get out now. This business is no place for somebody with 30-40-50 years of work ahead of them. Get out. Go to law school or med school. Get out now.

 

What Fred said.

 

bookmark

 

Stay in the biz if you want it. Just remember that a newspaper's Web initiatives are as good as its Web site. If a site can't bother to post pictures or i looks like it was made using Front Page, start send out your resume.

 

Part of me is upset that I let myself get into this biz. I didn't know it was so bad until I actually got into it. Like I said it's been a year and I've really had some eye-opening experiences the past few weeks. It sucks. Part of me is also sad because I've wanted to be a sports writer since my freshman year in college and I now know that this likely isn't going to be my path in life.

But on the other hand I know that this profession's hours and salary isn't going to be conducive to living happily with family and maintaining financial security. So that gives me some inspiration to get looking for something else. And what? Well, I'm not too sure yet. I have some other interests in related fields but am trying to comb through careers in unrelated fields that might pique my interest.

Reading some of your posts has helped me kind of deal with all of this. Some of it, quite frankly, is inspiring.

 

I'm assuming you are 25 or under. If so, don't be upset you let yourself get into this business. You had no way of knowing what we know, unless one of your professors had a clue and was brutally honest with you. Hopefully you're not in your 30s already. At any rate, just get out now. Hopefully whatever field you go into, if it's not totally engrossing like law or medicine, you could freelance games in the future if you need to scratch the itch.
Unless newspapers become totally extinct, freelancers will be needed on all newspapers. Staffs will be so small they'll need freelancers who don't get benefits.
At least you've only wanted to be a sportswriter since freshman year in college. Some have wanted to do it since they were freshmen in high school. There are simply not enough jobs to go around for you to stay in the business. The people running the business now are wretched fools. They worked it out so nobody gets more than 1-3 percent raises anymore at any papers, there are no performance based raises so you are never going to make any real money. Get out young man. Get out.

 

Your 20s are the time you want to traipse around Europe or follow a girlfriend to a distant city with no job prospects or hire on as a Merchant Marine or try your hand at some crazed entrepreneurial idea with a buddy and every penny in your four-digit bank account. So devoting a part of it to scratching the sportswriting itch is no mistake. It's what you're supposed to do when you're young with few obligations.

But yes, when you want to marry and start a family and pay off a car and save for a kid's college education and tuck some leftover money into your mattress for your senior years, sportswriting isn't likely to be your answer and that's a lousy time to dabble and find out.

It's like that saying about the man who isn't a liberal at 20 having no heart and the man who isn't a conservative at 40 having no head. There's no better time than your 20s to pursue a sportswriting career. There is no worse time, these days, than your 40s (30s?) and beyond to keep pursuing said career.

 

Wasnt this thread supposed to be "success stories"? Lord knows we have another "this industry sucks" threads elsewhere.

 

Success is getting pretty hard to come by these days, apparently.