Q: I wrote for a weekly for close to three years before finances forced me to take a different job. What do I need to do to get back in the biz at a daily?
Phil S., Ohio
A: This’ll be tough, Phil. You’ve got to clear two hurdles. The first is that you’re not now working in the newspaper business. That will make some people question your resolve. Yes, I know, living on macaroni-and-cheese wages can get pretty old after three years, but editors might question your loyalty to the craft. Work interviews around to the point where you can talk about why you want back in, not just why you left. You may show some passion, heightened during your absence from the business, that tells editors you’ll work hard.
The second hurdle is that you want to move from weeklies to dailies. Although the work at a weekly can darn near kill you (that is, if the wages don’t do it first), editors at dailies may wonder whether you can handle the deadlines and standards that exist at dailies. Weekly sounds somehow more leisurely than daily, but anyone who has worked around the clock and virtually alone to put a weekly to bed can disabuse them of that idea.
The trick is convincing daily editors that you’re prepared for daily deadlines. Seek out editors who have worked at weeklies, or who are close to the weekly’s circulation area, and value your knowledge of the local scene.
