Who Here Is Still Working in Journalism?

Blew up my career twice within a 120-day span for reasons out of my control.

Tried to get back in part-time to go with my other job. Out after 90 days because of the economy.

 

Out after 17-plus years of sports and two years of news. I miss -- sort of -- the deadline rush on football Friday nights and seeing my work in the next day's paper. I did some good work during my time, some that I'm still proud of. But I swung and missed a bunch of times, too, especially when I was still reporting. If I could go back and re-write some of my stories -- one in particular about a hometown boxer getting his shot during an ESPN fight in his home town -- and make them as good as I could now, I might still have the passion for the business. I haven't been a reporter since 1994, and my writing now is so much better that it's not even funny; it makes me sad sometimes to think about it.

But I don't miss it enough to ever get back in. I'm looking for a new set of skills, something that I can depend on to take care of my daughter until she's ready to sink or swim on her own, 18 years from now. I hope to instill in her a passion for reading, for writing, for literature low and high. Which means she'll reject that shit and wind up being an accountant. Fuck, I wish I was an accountant.

 

Was in at a very young age (22) doing it all in the sports section and left via layoff. Was told the sports section was going to be cut, but found out they replaced me with a city/county writer. Regardless, I miss it but I'm glad I'm out of it. Glad I got to collect unemployment for a few months tho.

 

Technically, I'm still in because I work occasionally as a freelance stringer and preps clerk, but it's really more a hobby now than a job. I know, heckuva hobby.

It'll soon be eight years since I've been out of the business on a full-time basis. Part of me wishes I never left, but I was in a market with scant few opportunities and didn't really want to leave. Back then there were no blogs and the Internet was just starting to catch up to print. Things probably would have been different if I left the print medium now.

 

In journalism. Love parts of it (getting to know a ton of people, writing, video/web), don't love parts of it (parents, $$, certain aspects of the "higher-ups"), may move on soon.

Ironically, and this may be a good thing to make myself marketable, but I've found that I most enjoy working on the side for a website as opposed to my main gig with a paper. A lot more freedom/less bullshit.

 

Still hangin' on, though who knows for how long. I've recently applied for jobs both in and out of traditional journalism, though they're all writing/editing-based.

I still have no clue what I want to be when I grow up.

 

In it, waist deep.

 

Still in newspapers, don't think I'd ever leave journalism.

 

fixed

 

Left a newspaper job in September for, um, health reasons. There is a link about it somewhere.

Have done a tiny bit of freelance work since then. Looking in and out of the business for work but still unemployed and watching the bank account plunge like the stock market in the fall. Crossing fingers, toes and giblets of death, hoping for a break.

 

All in for now but I am considering several options that would get me out of newspapers.


Spnited, I hope you make that 5 or 6 years to retirement of 40-plus years. If you do I will shoot my guns in the air in celebration just for you.

 

Going on five years for me. Don't really see myself leaving unless a really good job comes along.