Life after journalism

I agree that good things happen to good people. ... but then how do you explain, Mariotti, Albom and Lupica?

 

On the money, I feel you can't do this job for a number on a paycheck. You will never be adequately compensated for all the time you put in. When I worked in the corporate world out of college, when we were out of town we were compensated for each hour. Travel time was technically work. If you worked past 8 you got a black car ride home. Meals were paid for and no one asked if you really needed to tip the cap driver $5. In contrast, at my paper anything you tip over 12-15 percent is your own money, and a day away is considered the same as an 8-hour workday at home.

So you do this job because you love it. And when the hassles outstrip the rewards you pack it in. There is no way the salary will ever reflect a writer's dedication to this job. I know there are big name exceptions to this, people who are paid like executives, but most of us will go nuts if we hold ourselves to that standard.

 

Nothing personal, Joe.

Just making the point that both stereotypes are true, sometimes, AND neither stereotype is true, sometimes. It's not "one had to be better or the latter had to be shitty." Could be both -- could be neither.

Some newspaper jobs pay more than we think, and people can do pretty well for themselves. They can buy a house, take real vacations, and do anything they want to do. Other jobs don't even allow you to afford to rent your own apartment in that city. ... There's no catch-all to what these jobs pay, because it depends on so many factors.

The same, obviously, is true of PR. Some jobs pay $20K, especially if you're young and inexperienced. ... Others allow you to live a pretty good life.

I think holding both industries to a stereotype is misleading. Your situation is what you make of it.

 

You're only stuck if you think you're stuck. Yes, sometimes a better/different job requires moving; sometimes it requires stepping out of your comfort zone; sometimes it requires thinking of your skills in a different light than the one to which you are accustomed.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I have thrived in my "post-journalism" job because the same skill set that allowed me to succeed in journalism -- research skills, accuracy, speed and a sense of urgency -- translates very nicely to many other careers, including the one I've chosen.

 

Don't ever rule out law or business school. Yes, it can be insanely expensive. But the LSAT is a great equalizer (the GMAT is not AS important to MBA programs, but a 700-plus can pretty much send you on your way), and conquerable. If you get into the right 15-20 schools, or the major player in your region, you can pretty much set yourself up for life, first financially and then by using your credential and contacts to move into the financial sector, start your own business, maybe teach, maybe even work your way back into journalism (Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker is a Harvard Law grad; so is the Memphis C-A's Geoff Calkins).

I think a lot of people eschew these paths because they don't want to take the time away from work, or can't afford it. But do the long-term math. If you're young enough, like 35 or younter, it's worth scratching by for three years.

PM me if you have any questions about the LSAT or are exploring the idea of law. I put an insane amount of research into my impending jump.

 

Pay Websites. And not those run by newspapers. There are some good ones in sports. After 40 years in the biz and going through layoffs and downsizing about four times, I bailed and I'm as happy as I have ever been. As a matter of fact, I've done some studying on the subject and I suspect most press boxes will be half full of Internet people in a couple of years -- including the big events where they are just realizing this is the future.

 

I think this might be the aspect of the business in which the next thinning of the herd takes place. Just as the dot-com bust of 2001-2002 eviscerated a number of dot-com start-ups, I'm beginning to be of the opinion that more than a few sites are overpaying a bit for content (i.e., writers).

To be sure, online ad growth is a real phenomenon and much welcomed, but the rate of expansion by a few of the bigger players doesn't seem sustainable. I can't back that with hard, cold numbers, but I think there's some connection to the newspaper industry's online challenges these days . . . some chains that two years ago were expecting 20 percent year-over-year web revenue growth to continue through 2010 and beyond have already seen that number fall back to the 12-15 percent range.

 

And bad things happen to good people. A car salesman told me that the other day. I believe him.

 

Perhaps it's different in America, but we can't find good help in the newspaper business up here.

Of course, many of the available jobs are in smaller markets, but that's about the only type of outfit you can work for these days and still be permitted any freedom of the press.

Move to Canada. I need another reporter, post haste.

 

Coming out of school, I wanted to work in Toronto or Vancouver in the worst way. But I kept hearing that I had to have a job if I wanted to move to Canada, and I had to live in Canada if I was going to get hired by a newspaper there. Had no chance of being classified as an indispensable talent or whatever it was that allowed a Canadian firm to reach to the States to hire a non-resident, where you packed unique skills, allegedly.

Besides, I'd have gotten fired for writing about centers instead of centres.

 

As to PR deadlines:

A friend had gotten out of sportswriting and started a job as a PR guy at a hospital. He starts on a Tuesday, and his boss assigns him to do a 20-inch profile of a cardiologist. He talks to the cardiologist, a colleague and a couple patients, and he turns the story in by the end of the day.

"Oh," his boss said. "We were just hoping you could do this by Friday."