Getting out ... just to get out

Appreciate the responses.

I likely won't do something rash such as putting in my notice without having something else lined up, but that route becomes more and more appealing with each passing day.

And yeah, I'm in the lower rung of newspapers. SE in a mid-sized town, in the business full-time for nine years ... and have a buddy who's a fast food manager and cleared $3K more than me on last year's W-2. Awesome.

 

From 1996 to 2006, working the hours that you do and the holidays and travel and stuff like that, it rarely bothered me... Sure, there would be the last days of the season where you would feel like you were going to collapse, but I can probably count on one hand how many times I was truly upset over something job-related... Whiny, tired? Sure, but truly upset? Very rarely...

The layoffs changed that almost overnight... I knew I wasn't a target early on, but when I saw people getting bounced when it was clear they weren't getting rid of people based on merit, that destroyed my morale. An editor I worked very closely with was let go after being there for 20+ years because he made more money than the kid who replaced him who couldn't do anything on his own.

Rock bottom for me came after a road trip. I covered a Sunday night game, got back to the hotel after 1, had a 4 a.m. wakeup call for a 6 a.m. flight that got us home with just enough time to race over to the coach's Monday press conference... Then, we got called into the office so we could sit there and wait to see who was going to be let go during that round. That round they got rid of our best online person because she made more money than the 24-year-old who they kept. I remember as she walked past us and gave us goodbye hugs, one of the other NFL writers said, "There's part of me that is jealous that she doesn't have to deal with this shit anymore..."

 

I miss my old job, but I also realize that that job and the newspaper business it was part of don't exist anymore and I wouldn't much care for the business as it is now.

 

Been out for just over two years and there has not been one single day I missed the newspaper business. Not one day. Get out while you still have your sanity, and find some semblance of a life.

Friday happy hours! Tailgating! Weekends at home! Weeknights at home! No idiotic coaching search stories! Watching my kid grow up! Who knew?

 

Diaz - any ideas what you'd like to do outside of newspapers?

 

I was ready to leave in early 2005, mainly because I had gone from a guy who would have dropped anything to get a story and beat the competition in 1994 to someone who had two young kids and felt like he was writing the same stories, different day. (I was covering a mix of news and sports throughout that time).

Instead ... I ended up switching from reporting/photography to the universal copy desk at a 40K daily in the Midwest. The late shift (and especially the steady schedule) worked well for my family situation, as my wife was able to return to teaching and I stayed with the kids during the day. We've never had to use day care for them, which is great.

Now I'm in a leadership position on the desk of a paper about half that circulation size in the Northwest, and although the pay still isn't very good, it allows our two-income household to live in an area we've always wanted to live.

Moving to the copy desk (and at my paper, that means copy editing and page layout) has prolonged my career and it turned out to be something I have enjoyed. Sure, there's a lot of crap filling those pages some days, but once or twice a month somebody busts out a strong investigative story or kick-ass feature, and it's nice to help the writers and photographers put that out there in print and online.

And I still scratch the writing itch once in a while with a prep/college gamer or feature story.

It sounds like you are stuck in a rut, Diaz, and need a new job, whether it's in newspapers or some other field. For me, I was able to change yet still stay in the journalism field.

Good luck discerning what you need to do.

 

This is where I'm at also. I would love to get back into the sports journalism business somehow, but there is no way I will ever work for a newspaper again -- and from what I've seen and heard lately, the web route isn't so stable, either, even among the big players. I realize from now on I'll probably have to be content getting my sportwriting fix from freelancing only.

Thing is, I'm making more money in my current (9-5) job than I ever made in my entire 25-plus-year newspaper career. And in the past six weeks I've received two things I hadn't seen in my last five or six years (maybe more) in newspapers -- a bonus and a raise.

 

Don't miss it at all. I like going to sleep at a normal time, and eating meals at a normal pace.

 

2004 or so was when this happened for me. I was really enjoying it, but knew that in five years or so I will have grown tired of it.

Best of luck to you.

 

I left a highly respected paper in 2009 when the first buyout it ever offered was extended to almost all employees with 10+ years of experience. I could see the proverbial handwriting on the wall.

I walked away with a lot of buyout money - as did a couple of others who post here - in late '09. Landed my current gig in 2011 and have never regretted the decision. I tell people all the time who ask me if I miss it: "I've done a lot of stupid things related to money in my adult life - leaving the newspaper business when I did wasn't one of them."

I still string high school football games on Fridays, but I choose the schools I cover. There's a powerhouse private school about a driver/4-iron from my house that I can walk to. I also have a part-time gig as "Strategic Communications Manager" (I do in-game social media) for a Division I football program on Saturdays. So I see all the football I want from August to November.

I do miss the people I worked with for more than a decade. But not the job itself.

 

Regardless of why it happened in June, I'm much better off almost 8 months later.

The first first days and weeks were difficult because I tried to continue being Mr. Reporter Dude, and the folks at 2.0 kind of kicked my ass into reality and told me to stop it for my own sanity. So I did. Soon after, with pretty much the clothes on my back and my car, I left Jersey and headed to New England again. A wonderful support system is in place, and I'm helping my friends make money by running their art gallery while they seek other opportunities. I eat well and see loved ones every day, and it's wonderful to be a part of the lives of three young girls as they grow up. In the gallery I engage customers and write stories full of photos and videos and links, so it's nice to be able to exercise my creative side every day. I've self-published a book, which is no world-beater, but I plan to publish more. It's nice to focus on little things I've ignored for so many years.

Now, do I know what's next? Not at all, and that becomes disconcerting at times because here I am at 41, after 23 years of hard marriage to various newsrooms across the country, trying to figure it all out. No "professional" job. No great journalism job in New York City. No wife. No house. No kids. Those are the things I wanted a long time ago but ignored out of stupidity.

And yet for all of that, I'm so much better off (mentally, physically, spiritually) without having to deal with that daily grind. It was fun while it lasted but man, the newspaper life is just so unforgiving even when you always thought you could handle it.

So yeah, if your heart of hearts is screaming for you to jump, save yourself the shphilkas and JUMP and embrace the first day of the rest of your life.

 

I got tossed to the curb for some majorly disruptive health problems. Now that I'm better, I'm happier than I've been in a long time. Sure, I fret about money, as I'm not sure I can find work in my physical condition. But it sure beats what I was dealing with a little more than a year ago.