Friday, October 23, 2009
Media Who Wants to Be a Journalist?
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 9:44 AM
A working journalist, seeing the responses from Jamie and Clarissa, writes:
My friend who was laid off from her staff writer job at age 33 (she'd become too expensive), says that she thinks journalism is becoming like pro sports: You push hard when you're young and burn out/get laid off by the time you're 40. Only a handful of the most successful—not best, mind you, but most successful—will make it past that point and become wealthy.
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1
Nothing personal, Eli, but are you just noticing this? Journalism has been like this for at least the last decade--you work for newspapers when you are in your 20s and early 30s, your salary rises to the point where further raises won't happen or management thinks they find a cheaper 20-something to do the gig, and then you depart to PR or gummint work. That's the business.
2
Except pro athletes are often forced to retire because they can't perform at the level they did in their 20s. Journalists could theoretically improve their skills right up to the day they die.
4
I would guess that journalists have a smaller number of debilitating career-related injuries than pro athletes, but I think the comparison is fair.
5
Agree with 3 and 4: no wealth to retire at 35 on, but no debilitating post-NFL dementia, either. Plus a skill set and knowledge base that makes you pretty marketable in other fields. I think I'm a better lawyer because I spent time in journalism first.
6
One-one-millionth, eh? So you're saying that no journalist anywhere ever has earned more than $25 in a year? That seems a little hard to believe.
You know, for all the hand-wringing, I'm not seeing the problem. I'm seeing a reduction in newspaper journalists, but how often have newspaper journalists EVER moved on to do something interesting or valuable? And the number of solid journalists turning out good books, for instance, is as high as ever. George Packer is a journalist; so is Mark Kurlansky. So is John McPhee. I would guess that more good books of journalism have been produced in the past decade than in any other.
You know, for all the hand-wringing, I'm not seeing the problem. I'm seeing a reduction in newspaper journalists, but how often have newspaper journalists EVER moved on to do something interesting or valuable? And the number of solid journalists turning out good books, for instance, is as high as ever. George Packer is a journalist; so is Mark Kurlansky. So is John McPhee. I would guess that more good books of journalism have been produced in the past decade than in any other.
7
@1 is totally correct. Got my journalism degree in '84 (yeah, I'm old), first job was at a daily writing nothing but obits for three months ( to teach you "the basics" but basically it was their form of hazing the newbies). Went on to general and then beat reporting and then copy editor, Sunday editor, etc.
In five years, my shifts ranged from as early as 6am to 2pm to as late as 5pm to 2am (we actually had a morning and evening edition back then). Worked every-other holiday (hey, at least they didn't make us work all of them), and never had a full Sat/Sun off the entire time. I never broke the $20k/yr barrier. I did everything I could to move to a bigger paper, but couldn't get an offer despite winning numerous awards.
Finally I called bull shit on this whole thing. Who wants to be 30 and still sharing a house with two other underpaid guys. Made the move to tech writing/editing and have more than quadrupled my salary, have holidays and weekends off, etc. Yeah, I'm not defending the voiceless or undercovering atrocities in Darfur, but I can at least pay the rent, help my family out with their expenses, and not worry constantly about money. A few do break through, but most don't. That's the reality. I've also learned there are a lot more important things in life than your job.
In five years, my shifts ranged from as early as 6am to 2pm to as late as 5pm to 2am (we actually had a morning and evening edition back then). Worked every-other holiday (hey, at least they didn't make us work all of them), and never had a full Sat/Sun off the entire time. I never broke the $20k/yr barrier. I did everything I could to move to a bigger paper, but couldn't get an offer despite winning numerous awards.
Finally I called bull shit on this whole thing. Who wants to be 30 and still sharing a house with two other underpaid guys. Made the move to tech writing/editing and have more than quadrupled my salary, have holidays and weekends off, etc. Yeah, I'm not defending the voiceless or undercovering atrocities in Darfur, but I can at least pay the rent, help my family out with their expenses, and not worry constantly about money. A few do break through, but most don't. That's the reality. I've also learned there are a lot more important things in life than your job.
8
@5: You may be a better lawyer because you were a journalist, but you had to go through law school, didn't you, with attendant costs? Why on earth would that be a job progression to even mention? You'd probably be a better lawyer if you'd done just about anything for the 5-10 years before you went to law school, including working at a low-way service job.
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