For those who've left the biz

I lost my job a few weeks ago, and it's been pretty difficult to read the paper since. Not because of the quality of the content, but because of how much I miss it and the people there. It's hard not to read it and wonder what sort of headline I could have come up with for the main story, or imagining everyone scrambling to reconstruct the front page because of some late-breaking story. The last time I lost a newspaper job, the entire thing was shut down, so other than a few phantom boxes at shopping centers and in front of convenience stores, there wasn't a constant reminder. Now there is. The sadness will abate with time, and to some degree it already has, but it's still tough.

 

I'm still trying to stay in the biz -- I'm surprised by the amount of interest I've received but dismayed by the money. For one online management job in NYC, we were $40,000 apart and I don't consider myself especially greedy. I'm hoping for another offer this week from a newspaper, and I think the ME and I understand each other.

Yes, I do subscribe to my old paper. All things considered, there is no other way to be an informed resident of this state without it, flawed though it might be. My high school journalism teacher reads that paper every day, and when I was working there, I usually would hear from him when we fucked up. Last week he said he's been sending marked-up pages to the editor/publisher, who he knows but not as well as he knows me. I had to laugh about that. The top guy is one of my journalism heroes (despite losing my job), but he is gritty and profane. I keep picturing him opening an envelope from my old teacher and acting out that scene in "The Wire" when McNulty and Bunk just keep saying the word "fuck" over and over. Yep, people notice.

 

One in how many people notices? Not enough. If there were more people who read that closely, cared that much, knew grammar that well, etc., many would still be in the business. If someone important is happening in their community, hey, their circle on Facebook will tell them. And for important news, they've got more instant news sources.

There just aren't enough people out there who give that kind of shit, sadly. People notice? Yeah. Former newsroom staffers. Retired English teachers. A librarian.

One in about 20,000. I know. I looked at the metrics.

 

It's depressing and the truth. I've been told by me editors to not spend much time editing my copy after I've wrote (this is a shop where there is no copy editor on staff past 6ish). Why? Because they want me to focus on getting photo galleries and video highlights up and to engage with our facebook and twitter followers. I have to rush through writing because I have to work on all the multimedia stuff.

 

I'll never give another rusty nickel to any of the papers or other outlets I've worked for. They've made it abundantly clear that they don't give a shit if people buy their product or not, so I won't.

People who want to sell you something don't take very specific steps toward making their product worse every few months.

 

I check the Herald sports section sometimes, but only sometimes. Read the Times and Wall Street Journal hard copies, which we get delivered. We get the Globe, too, but I only scan the sports and read the funnies.

 

I visit my first paper's site (hometown paper) probably 4-5 mornings a week.
I visit my second paper's site probably 4-5 times a year.
I read the WaPo online basically every day.
I read the Roanoke Times sports section online a few times a week.

I pay for nothing.

 

When I say I won't give them a cent, I mean I won't even give CLICKS! to their shitty websites so I can read their shitty product for free.

Don't like it? Then have some standards. Otherwise, milk whatever's left from the cash cow and GTFO.

 

I would rather read pages of YouTube comments sections than my hometown paper online.

 

I left willingly so I don't have any bitter feelings about my former shops. I get their feeds on my facebook wall so I often click on stories that seem interesting.

 

Wow, this is a depressing thread. Mainly because what everyone is saying rings true.

The lack of any real proofreading anymore hits home after last night, when my copy desk colleague left five paragraphs on the end of a story that had been pasted in higher up. Only reason I caught it on the page proof is because I didn't remember if we had used a source's first name yet.

Bottom line is, when you're laying out 12-15 broadsheet pages a night for various sections and publications, no stories get a good read anymore. And that sucks. It absolutely sucks to find errors in your paper the next morning that you could have and should have caught the previous night, if not for the huge hill to climb before ever-earlier deadlines, with an army of half-broken, empty chairs and vacant cubicles surrounding you.

Mystery Meat and Frank, sorry to hear about your job situations. Best of luck finding new gigs.