I'm just five years into my life as a professional reporter and already feeling a little burned out. OK, a lot.
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It seems I get less and less satisfaction from my job these days. (And start thinking more and more about how much I really need to love such a job, considering the relatively low pay.) There are still some stories that do make me happy and remind me why I became a reporter in the first place, stories that I really enjoyed reporting and writing and that reached/helped readers. But they are very few these days.
Many of the ones I pitch about issues and topics I care about are not well received. I feel my motivation slipping away. So my question is: How do you know if you're burned out of the industry or if it's the specific position (and all that goes with it, i.e. newsroom politics, your boss, etc.)? Should you find a new job to test this theory or just move onto your other passions?
Texas
It is hard to distinguish being ground down by an individual newspaper or the overall industry without changing jobs. But that approach can take a toll on your time and your emotions. At the end of the day, you still have tried just a couple newspapers out of hundreds.
Do this: Analyze your situation and isolate the factors that are wearing you down. Try to change them, of course. But also ask friends at other newspapers about their experiences. Do some reporting to determine whether the situations that bother you most are widespread.
One of your big issues is that the editors are not receptive to your pitches. Work on the pitches. Even though I have been working at my paper for more than 20 years and helped bring many of the editors aboard, I feel very fortunate if half my pitches are over the plate. In some cases, I try second and third pitches on the stories I really care about. In one case, a feature story that was ho-hummed one year made a section front three years later -- with the same editor. It is not easy for any of us.
Several years ago, the executive editor -- the boss -- pitched a story to the metro desk, only to see it left out of the paper. He remarked, "You'd think the executive editor could get a story into the paper." Not really.
Enlist a more experienced reporter or an editor to help you practice those pitches. In many cases, a little more reporting, a different angle or an additional element will help you get your pitches across.
Coming Wednesday: The 30,000 paper that wants him seems to be a nicer place than the 60,000 paper that also does, but he wonders if that will hold him back.
