Should working at a large daily still be a journalist's goal?

Agreed. If you work hard and happen upon a little luck, you can change the world and win a Pulitzer at the Podunk Weekly. Reporting puts us all on an equal ground.

 

The second-to-last thing would be to subscribe to the paper.

 

As long as you can round up enough change to pay your cable bill, why pay for the paper?

 

Working at a large daily never was my goal. Originally I wanted to cover auto racing for a national racing paper but that dream faded pretty quickly.
I've been at weeklies (twice, including now) and small dailies (twice). One thing I've enjoyed is kicking large daily's butt. At each stop, there has been a decent (or big) daily down the road I've competed against. When I started freelancing, I was hoping to get on with a decent sized daily. Then that paper got sold a couple of times and mass layoffs ensued, so it was a blessing in disguise to not get hired there.
Around here, the daily down the road from us pays well but they've also had either three or four rounds of layoffs in the nearly three years I've been here. They've been cutting newer people first so there would be no stability for anyone joining now.
I've been fortunate to have covered some of the events I never thought I'd have the chance to, even though I was never at a large daily. If my career ended tomorrow, I'd have zero regrets.

 

It is very satisfying to kick a large daily's butt, isn't it? I used to want to work at a large daily, too, but then I considered what it must be like to have so many other reporters out to scoop me when I know it's impossible to beat everyone on everything. It's more fun to be the underdog, I've found.

 

Small dailies/weeklies are less stressful, too. At least in my experience, the staff is looking out for each other, rather than looking to cut throats to step up the ladder as happens as the big dailies, or so I'm told.

 

You can make OK money at a weekly and not devote every waking hour to your job, but you will also cover church luncheons and write featurres on every yokel visiting the big city 200 miles down the road.

 

I'm at a twice-weekly paper that's family-owned. I used to want to work my way up the chain, but after marriage and three kids, it's nice to at least be able to sleep in my bed each night. Having said that, I'm working toward being off this dinosaur by this time next year.

 

I always wanted to be at The Plain Dealer when I started, but having some experience on the small scale has completely changed that around. With my wife working a solid 30-35 hours a week, I am set financially, and we are both HAPPY.

Being at a community newspaper has allowed me to find more compelling stories that I can devote as much or as little time as I need to devote to them. And I have little to no worries about losing my position.

 

Never give up your dream, dammit!

 

Haha. Once I grew up (i.e. got married), my dreams changed slightly...lol

 

Good for you.