When is it time to get out?

About noon EST.

 

I decided roughly 11 years ago it was time to move on. I can still remember sitting in my publisher's office with the editor and hearing about how a mistake on the page was my fault. Forget the fact that I'd written all but one story for the Monday section on Saturday evening so I could have a rare "day off" on Sunday. All the editor had to do was put the stuff on the page and drop in a stringer's story.

Instead, he dropped a local item to allow the stringer to write a column--something he'd never done for us before. It was a mess, filled with mistakes and I was later crucified by town folks for not getting in the story that got dropped. Basically the publisher told me it was my fault for taking the day off. I hadn't taken a day off in 3 months, and I was getting paid for 50 to 55 of the 70 hours I was working each week.

The worst part was my wife was news editor of the same paper, and living with the same crappy hours and pay. A week later I had an interview with a sports association. I've done some freelance work for newspapers since then, but never once considered going back full-time. At the moment I'm with a consumer magazine and for the moment feel somewhat safe from the perils facing the newspaper industry. But our company started as a newspaper chain, and has faced cutbacks of its own. There have been layoffs, but few that affected the editorial side and they were all with other magazines in the chain.

But in the back of my mind I keep thinking we're only a few years away from magazines going through many of the same issues the newspaper world is facing right now. We're seeing the same push to do more on the web, attract younger readers, etc. Maybe the good folks left in the newspaper world will figure out the answers for us.

 

Don't worry about it. Your company will make the decision for you.

 

Sure it will. And I hear that they'll even give me enough cash to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

First, I continue to be impressed by Moddy's decision to go rather than be the hatchet man for upper management. I wish more of our bosses were like that. I know it requires a huge sacrifice on their parts, removes them from the very places where they're needed most and, in many cases, doesn't even prevent the ax from falling. But to me, that is true leadership -- you would follow that sort of person into any battle and bust your ass round-the-clock for that kind of loyalty to the troops. If that quality permeated up the ladder, right through the publisher's suite, maybe a few places would pause to devise a better plan for going forward. Instead, we are being terrorized by the people we have made look good for so many years.

Second, any pep talk that "there always is going to be a place for good journalists" tends to ignore, and generally doesn't even have a clue, where that eventual place might be. [Hint: Check the bottom of your publisher's shoe.] It might be working for a Web site cranking out local stories, maybe even a few really valuable investigative pieces, but making $25K. There is no reason to believe that ad rates will ever be ramped up to fund the sort of livelihoods this industry once supported, even at their laughably meager levels in many places.

Third, in order to stay committed to this business and keep the weight of my money and shit buckets relatively balanced, I came upon what I thought was a clever idea: Have the bosses pay me in pennies, since they weigh more than dollar bills and would fare better against the increasing heft of shit.

Unfortunately, the bosses loved the idea. They took the pay-in-pennies part way too literally. :'(

I kick myself daily for not getting out 10 years ago.

 

I was thinking more like a month's severence pay.

 

Hey! That's how much they told us the bridge costs

 

Steve Ballmer gives the newspaper and magazine industries 10 years, give or take a few:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060403770_pf.html

 

When I stop having fun or when they tell me to go.

It's the same as every other job I've ever worked. Our right to report is protected by the Constitutions. Our jobs aren't. No matter how many degrees or prizes you might have, you are no different than a plumber.

You both practice a trade. Those who are really good elevate their trade to a craft. Trade or craft — plumber or reporter — can and are replaced or let go in a heart beat i the market ain't there.

(And don't bring up how much plumbers are paid. They aren't. That's like saying all "journalists" are overpaid because Luppy is.)

 

And you'll always be able to jump straight into PR with your skills.

 

10 years is ridiculous... He's way too optimistic.