Q. Before I graduated from college, I got a full-time reporter position at a five-day-a-week newspaper in a small city, and I spent nearly two years there before leaving. I got to cover high profile trials including one that would have an influence on future cases and a death penalty trial. I won a state press association award in investigative reporting. Those were the fun things about the job.
I also dealt with three editors coming and leaving, various other staff issues and a publisher that has nearly crippled the newspaper financially and morally.
When I left I was broken and I came to an assignment editor/Web producer position at a television station in a larger metro area to try something new. Within a month of being hired, my already too-small news team was reduced by three, including taking away my sports reporter, my lead on-air reporter and a full-time videographer. I technically have only one reporter who is dedicated full-time to news stories to cover a large metro area in addition to 12 other counties. We have to compete with three other television stations, each of which has an arsenal of videographers, anchors and reporters.
We are just now getting a Web site designed by a local company and me in shape, but it is far from ideal and will not be for a long time. My employers also have very little interest and knowledge of the Web beyond hoping it will make money. My ideas are listened to, but shrugged off unless they think it will make a lot of money.
I thought morale was bad at my last job, but this takes the cake. If I were free to move anywhere, I would not be worried because I feel confident I could find a job at a newspaper out of town with my clips. But due to family issues, and my husband's work, I am stuck in this area. There is only one newspaper here and though it is a large metro paper and would technically be a step up, they just had a reduction in staff and I believe a hiring freeze is in order.
Now to my question. I feel as if I am being called to take a break from journalism and get a fresh perspective. There are plenty of other opportunities immediately that I can take that are not journalism and in them I know I will find some relief from either bad working conditions or bad choices. But I feel like I will return one day to the industry. I have the marketable multimedia skills and with a break I can study more. I also will be free to freelance for several publications, including the large newspaper in my town.
Would freelance work be enough to get me back in the business in the future should I find myself in a better place? I plan on focusing on charity work and online writing and I think I will find personal satisfaction in finding fulfillment outside of my career. This all sounds nice, but am I fooling myself to think I will return to journalism? Should I be miserable in order to say I am still in the industry? Or would there be a benefit to working in other fields and bringing back that experiences to the industry? Would taking a break from journalism for a mental break be a hard sell in the future?
At the Brink
A. Clearly, you need to find something new.
Finding a path that could keep you ready to jump back into journalism will take some planning. You are wise to steer clear of potential conflicts, such as working for government or for-profit companies.
Think hard about where you see journalism going. The early background in print, broadcast and digital media could be a tremendous advantage. But the type of company you go to work for might not be like any of the ones you have already tried. And that sounds like a good thing.
So, keep topping off your skills, especially in digital news gathering and delivery, but expand your definition of what journalism is and watch as new choices develop. Your career arc will take you someplace that is, so far, uninvented, and it is a little scary to begin a trajectory when the target has not yet been set up. But from what you're saying, the least satisfying career choice is to sit still.
A word for managers: We imperil our companies and our own careers when we do not listen closely to young people, whose experience with media is so different than our own and whose ideas may hold some of the solutions. Invite them into the strategy sessions, encourage them to really brainstorm and explain -- and then try some new ways.
Coming Wednesday: All around her are signs that her newspaper is cutting back, but the cutbacks have not hit her yet. She'd like to stay and move up with the company, but is it safer to take a job that's been dangled?
Kathleen, you make a good point. I was not precise....
