Denver Post offers buyouts

Eh, I think you're underestimating that. I think newspaper people typically underestimate their skills in the marketplace.

How many of those senior Denver Post employees are still going to be employed at the Denver Post in two, three or four years?

 

It's one thing to be ABLE to transfer your skills to the world outside of the newsroom (which I think a great many people can do easily).

It's another to CONVINCE someone looking at your resume --- along with 4,327 other resumes in this tight job market --- that you are able to do so. If you are not given that chance, you're up shit creek.

I don't underestimate my skills. I just underestimate my ability to convince a recruiter or HR person that, "Even though I have zero tangible experience in the field for which I am applying, I'm quite sure the skills I have acquired in 32 years in newspapers will make me a great fit for this job."

 

You're not alone. This might help:
Ten Reasons You Should Hire a Journalist | Poynter.

 

That's half the battle. Try to apply for a sports information job or athletic communications job and half the time you're met with "Experience in a sports information office is REQUIRED!" Try to do PR or media relations and people look at you like you worked in the toy department for 20 years.

To which I say "Well, your job description sounds like everything a journalist does and then some. Not only that, I have two decades in the business. Would you rather hire someone with experience or someone with no idea what's going on?"

 

It's possible I actually might be better at something outside the newsroom than I am in my current job. Bosses and co-workers regard me as someone who has seen better days, and admittedly I'm probably not all I used to be (not understimating my skills, just being brutally honest and realistic). The only reason I have even average job security is that I've been willing to take on menial duties nobody else is willing to touch. But in the big picture, my skill set and wide range of experience and expertise would be a nice fit in editing and communications jobs of other types. So, given my standing at work and outlook for the industry as a whole, I'll apply if I see something promising in magazine editing, book publishing, corporate communications, etc. Trouble is, prospective employers have such a narrow focus on people who already have experience specific to the field that they'll rarely consider someone whose background is a bit different. So I may never find out whether I can thrive at something else.

 

I've applied for clerical hospital jobs that do not even require a college degree. They all, however, say "experience in a medical office preferred.'' And a small questionnaire before submitting the application asks, "Have you worked in a medical environment previously?" Boom. Automatically disqualified. A week later comes the form e-mail: "Thank you for applying . . . You were not selected for this position."

 

Since it's going around Twitter, I guess news is out. Tom Kensler of The Denver Post sent out an email to a bunch of us today saying he's taking the buyout after 20+ years at the paper. Great veteran who cared about the young journalists and never tried to paint journalism as a bad place for the upcoming generation. I always appreciated him giving me heads up about job openings at the Post and suggesting I apply for them, even though I never did. He just tried to look out for people that way. I'll miss seeing him around.

 

Having done such a job connotes an understanding for the culture...and the wages.

 

Yeah, I would guess that in a lot of instances the rejection comes from the fear that you will be overqualified. One of the frightening things about the current structure of the economy is that nobody seems to want to hire somebody who might expect to make more than $45,000 per year. And, frankly, unless a company needs a specialized skill, it's hard to argue that they are wrong, from a value perspective. I don't think the trends we are seeing are unique to the newspaper business. Unless you are the kind of person whose skills warrant the attention of a head-hunter, I'm not sure companies place much value on ANY type of experience accrued at a non-entry-level salary. Now, maybe writing/editing is a specialized skill to some organizations. But I'd be curious to know what kind of salary some folks in this thread are pulling down now. If you were making $30,000 at a mid-size daily newspaper and are now making $45,000 marketing content, that's clearly a huge step up. But what if somebody is making $55,000 right now at a 125k daily?

 

Does Kensler leaving signal that the Post will turn coverage of CU and CSU over to their sister papers in Boulder and Loveland?