HELP ME OUT GUYS

I'm new to this game in that I've been at it four years. I know that I do the job better than most. I have the cunning and verve to make it to a bigger gig one day, but I'm wondering if I'm chasing a rainbow down a manhole. What I need to know is are there any gigs out there that pay worth a damn, or do I need to change carreers if i ever plan on being anything more than a penniless rake?
Some of you fellas who have been at this a few years tell me what your experience has been.

 

Our best experience that this thread is best served on the journalism board. This is for job postings....
Thank you. Come again [/apu]

 

Before this gets moved: do you have the Verve or the Verve Pipe? There's a difference.

 

Exactly . . . the Verve coulda been one of the great bands of our time. The Verve Pipe was a one-hit wonder at best.

 

I've been at this off and on for 15 years. Worked for pennies and peanuts. Been fired. Quit. Always found my way back to the best job in the world. Now I make mid-30K, which ain't so bad for a weekly in Bumblefuck Falls. My expenses are few, so the money goes a long way.

You won't get rich doing this, unless maybe you get a few book deals.

For the love of the game.

 

My experience has been writers who misspell a simple word like 'careers' aren't quite as good as they think they are. [/smartassfont]

 

For some reason, my gut tells me to tell you to find another line of work.

If you have to ask ...

 

i would say, first, cut the kid some slack. answer his question, rip the regulars in here if you're pissed about something.

second, i would say: kid, don't waste your time in this business. it ain't journalism anymore. it's corporate bullshit, and if you've got any kind of talent, find a better industry. go to magazines. go to advertising. avoid public relations unless you wanna be someone's whore.

we all hope and dream that newspapers will get it right again, but it ain't happening. you might as well work at a bank if you want A) a toady manager who doesn't care shit about you, and B) a paycheck that is about half of what it would be if you really put your brain to work. and then there's C) a depressing newsroom culture based on fear and jealousy with the kind of people you would never even associate if it had not come to this............

hey, just keepin' it real.................

go into advertising, kid. bright, happy people in a better industry than this nowadays, and they're much more fun to hang out with. you can be as creative there as you could be in journalism, and you can make a lot more bucks while you're having fun in the office.

weekends and holidays off, too............

 

Hey wis,
Let's see if I spell this right 'douche', as in only a douche bag would worry about spelling on a freaking message board.
As for the rest of you, I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.
Bob

 

wow - an all-time low on this board. guy asks a serious question and the douchebags circle the wagons.

i guess bob, if your future is working alongside a bunch of fucktards such as this, maybe you should listen to heywood.

 

naw, the greater part of this whole thread was low buck, fucked up low. dude's hitting a crossroad in his career and asked for advice, instead receives this shit.

say what you want about my posts and where i go when i disagree with philosophy or believe someone's being an idiot, but i don't sink to this level.

 

We're going through a transitional period.

Daily newspapers are pretty much dead in the water as far as careers go, with huge layoffs, miserable salaries, fecal-sniffing asshats in key management positions, etc.

People still want information - in fact, information is a more valuable commodity than ever - but the delivery mechanism of a daily newspaper is rapidly becoming obsolete or at least irrelevant. Some of the flat-earthers here will disagree with that assessment and that's OK, but my $.02 is that daily newspapers are the last place you want to work right now.

But there are still plenty of opportunities for journalists. Go to Barnes & Noble and look at all the magazine titles on the shelves.? There are probably more magazines out there than ever before and the number seems to grow daily.

There's also this little thing called the Internet. Some believe it's just a fad, but it really is here to stay and there will be more jobs there in the coming years.

So, yeah, you can make a decent living in the business. But it takes a lot more hustle than it used to and it takes some out-of-the-box thinking.