If go to the other side, is there no going back?

You can even dabble in the old business. I've known some SID types to string on a prep football Friday.

 

I talked to a guy one time who was in media relations with an NFL team. He left, came back and left again. There might have been a "came back and left a third time" in there. I remember there was at least one trip back to newspapers.

In this day, what are you coming back to?

 

I'll add one more thought to the pile: You probably won't want to come back.

I spent 14 years in newspapers, loving it for 13 as I worked my way up from small-town reporter to assistant sports editor at a major-market metro. I jumped to a communications director gig for a national corporate training and education company when it became obvious it would be a good move for my family -- better pay, fewer hours, holidays and weekends off, excellent benefits, etc. I enjoyed that job for a while, until the company decided it didn't need a marketing department anymore.

While looking for work, a newspaper in the same market (a 50,000 daily) happened to come calling, needing an executive sports editor, and I took the job. I knew within two months it was the biggest mistake of my career. Not because it was a small paper, but because I soon remembered why I left the newspaper business in the first place. It's easily the most dysfunctional, unappreciative, under-compensated industry in the universe. Shortly thereafter, I left for a job in custom publishing, where I can put my skill set to work every day, have enough money to put in the 401(k) and my kids' college funds, and I'm home by 5:30 every day.

What I'm saying is this: Once you understand things don't suck in the real world, any thoughts of returning to the news business -- at least as it is today -- probably will go away quickly.

For me, it took a brief re-entry to figure that out.

 

Inspirational story, RH. I'm serious.

The fear of the great unknown outside a dysfunctional but familiar newsroom renders a lot of us inert. Maybe it's a good thing we have higher-ups making so many of these exit decisions for us. :-\

 

At the risk of being seen as logrolling, JW, that's a damn insightful point. I am unofficially counseling a few friends at one of my former stops about getting out of the business, and that's the common thread. There's a lot of talk about "dealing with the devil you know" and being "too deep in this business to do anything about my circumstances" and "it sucks, but at least it's home."

Just like the frog in the pot of increasingly-hotter water. The pot has reached 211 degrees, folks. It's time to jump before you're consumed by the rapid boil.

 

Well, I was pushed out of newspapers (forever, I assume) but I haven't given up on journalism. Like I said, there are some writing jobs for companies that aren't dying (espn.com, etc.)