"Getting out of the business" resource thread

I've been out a year and have no desire to look back, but yet everyone seems to think I want to be in journalism! Just today, I was talking to someone about my seasonal/game day position with an MiLB team (I also have a non-sports day job) and the person said to me, have you considered going into journalism? One of my friends got into that and gets paid to tweet and post GIFs; she loves it! Even just being ASKED if I want to do it makes me cringe. I was so burned out after my last media gig fired me (it was pretty much one year ago earlier this week) and I do not miss it at all. I don't miss my every edit being overly criticized, I don't miss competing with the "everybody thinks they're a writer" crowd and I don't miss being told I should write for free to pay my dues and get exposure. (And thanks, by the way for suggesting that sports media is just oodles of fun posting GIFs and tweeting.)

I'm now looking at doing the business side of sports or changing careers to HR management. The business side of sports has its own set of challenges, but hey, if you get good at sales there's more potential than journalism could ever hold!

 

Especially the ones actually making more than 30,000 bucks a year. Get rid of them. Save money.

 

I haven't posted too much since my full-time journalism career (15-plus years with a daily) ended abruptly on Sept. 1, 2015.

When my journalism career came to a halt, I didn't know what I was going to do. Journalism jobs in my area are extremely limited -- more so when the person directly involved in your termination controls the hiring of neighboring newspapers.

As such, I relied on some connections to make ends meet through freelancing. Got paid for some video and photo work for an online track/CC site, called soccer games for a local cable access TV station (which I worked for "free" when I was a writer as part of my job description) and was able to write for the state's largest paper (when I had been forbidden from doing so when I was with my old paper).

Thanks to having my resume online, I was contacted by some journalistic outlets, wanting to know if I was willing to move to stay in the game. But I'm NOT willing to move, at least not for the similar type of pay. My wife's parents are down the street. Mine are 5 miles away (right down the road from my wife's grandparents, coincidentally). Most of my extended family is in the county or at least the state. We have equity in our house (which would cost us far more for a similar size house in the areas I would have had to go to to continue my journalism career).

Made the decision to sell my Tundra truck, which was getting 15 miles to the gallon and got a newer Camry with fewer miles and far better gas mileage. Insurance on the car was actually cheaper and I came out $2,000 ahead (sold truck for $7,000; bought car for $4,500; father-in-law took $500 for finding a buyer for the truck and negotiating the Camry deal). I miss the Tundra when it snows, but fortunately in Kentucky, massive snows are few and far between. Plus, since my father-in-law flips vehicles and my wife's uncle runs one of the area's most popular oil-and-tire places, getting a truck wouldn't be hard if I had a necessary need).

Anyway, less than a week after I was terminated, my former employer sponsored a job fair where I found my new employer (granted a 25-mile drive compared to the 5-mile drive I was used to). I entered my contacts (phone, email) and was contacted less than two weeks later and hired the same month. Started the next month (in mid October) after passing a drug test I had to take in a neighboring county (because the drug test wasn't offered in my county).

The warehouse/fulfillment center where I worked turned into a sizable raise. Went from making $10.85 an hour (with only one raise in the previous six years) to $13.50. Would have been $14 had I chosen to work second shift, but my wife didn't want me doing that since she was on a first-shift schedule and we would barely see each other.

Check the price-of-living stats for Kentucky. $13.50 goes a long way compared to other states.

I get weekends off as well as most holidays (except for Thanksgiving and Christmas; but I'll have three-day weekends for Memorial Day and four-day weekends for Fourth of July and Labor Day due to a schedule restructuring). Every minute is accounted for and if you work OT, you get paid time-and-a-half. No dealing with work stuff off the clock at all. When I check out on the time clock, that's it. No texts, calls or emails to answer. Nothing to prepare for the next day. It was hard to get used to at first, but now I know if I don't get it done, it can wait until tomorrow.

You even try logging into the system from home, say to check your vacation hours or pay stub or insurance, and you'll be asked within the week why you didn't do it from the computer room during a break (which are paid for).

Not that I went into my new job fully expecting this, but I've lost more than 25 pounds since October (currently at 188 pounds). I'm in 34-waist jeans for the first time since high school (back in the mid 90s). My blood tests, which I routinely take since I'm type-1 diabetic, are about the best they've been in my 14 years since initial diagnosis in February 2012. A lot of this is because I have a set sleeping schedule, walk plenty in my job, I am eating at designated times and I have planned meals since I can't just go out and grab fast food during breaks.

Another bonus of my new job: Employee discount.

I do miss many things about my old job, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought. I'm in a better place financially (making more money at a place which doesn't take OT for granted and matches 401k), physically and emotionally. Even though I lost a ton of sick time and vacation time, I've still traveled MORE in the last six months than I did in a two-year average at my old job (because now my schedule and my wife's schedule coordinate being off on weekends). I've done three days in Chicago, three in Memphis, went to the Columbus Zoo, Indy Zoo and Nashville Zoo, doing three days in Gatlinburg or Branson for Memorial Day, have Florida during July 4th break and probably somewhere in late June for my birthday weekend (once the wife picks where we're going). Granted we don't have kids or any outstanding bills (no school loans for me, no car payments for either one, we have basic Dish plus Apple TV with Hulu/Netflix), so we can travel more and drive to several places.

To those of you still in journalism, you have my respect. It's not always easy or fun. I hope(d) I made more friends than enemies when I was a full-time writer.

To those who have made the transition (by your choice or somebody else's), good for you. My faith, stress and nerves were tested hard for the month and a half between my last day at my old job and first official day at my new job. I know I am lucky in that regard. I could have easily been jobless for weeks or months.

For what it's worth, I've learned that a job is what you do ... it's not who you are.

 

Great great post
Let's face facts. Unless you are a manager or mid manager, a do-nothing who runs the 10 a.m. meetings, you should not consider working for a newspaper. If you are single and never plan to marry it 'might' be an option. I mean if you want a family or have a family, being a reporter or copy editor is NOT for you. You'll miss all sorts of holidays and family time and you will work odd hours that intersect with family members who work regular hours. Now if you can somehow get a management job, go for it. It's amazing how newspapers either have people who do no work and get paid a ton (10 am meeting leaders; blowhards) or ones who get paid nothing and work a ton. Very strange.

 

Do you get paid for the '10 a.m. meetings' mentions?

 

Good for you, CKY Kid. Sounds like you're in a really good place. Congrats!

 

If you are in management at a newspaper these days, you probably have to bust your ass because you may be the only person in your department to read/edit the copy, plan the section, attend meetings, assign stories and photos, harp on reporters about metrics, order pizza, attend meetings, take calls from readers, answer email, budget for the year, find/hire freelancers and attend meetings.

Do you still work for a newspaper, Fred?

 

Yes. Unfortunately. I am a hypocrite cause I let them pay me when I consider newspapers the most poorly run businesses in the entire world. The higher ups are despicable individuals and the managers and middle managers who speak the gobblygook should be ashamed of themselves. Life is too short to run a department after being taught principles of management by Gannett. Gannett is a disgusting company and I am ashamed to say I've accepted checks from it.

 

I'm out of the business - 3-plus years - and I've never looked back.
I'm also looking forward, I want to move up and on. Not writing, maybe not even PR or Communications.
To others who are already employed but still keep their eyes open for other opportunities, do you still use resumes? Rely on LinkedIn or do you have a website?
Why?

I send out resumes. My resumes have hyperlinks in them, but honestly, where I am at, and who I am sending them to - groups of older white men - I think it's lost on them.
I like to think my LinkedIn page is solid and up to date, but I don't know if that's amount's to anything.

Thoughts, suggestions, 8x10 glossys?

 

The best use of your time is not posing for 8x10 glossys or tweaking LinkedIn. It's networking.

If you are known to the person hiring or can be vouched for, you are way ahead.

Even if the company doesn't have a job open, if you are at top of mind when one does come open, you are ahead of the game.

In my experience, the persistent people are the ones who often get hired.

 

I could tell you worked for Gannett just from your description of the middle managers. You are spot on. Since I left my former Gannett paper, I'd say about 10-15 more people have been laid off or bought out. Guess how many of those were managers? A big, fat ZERO. So there's a third less reporters, online people working there now, but just as many managers. The ratio is like 3-1. Don't know how they get away with keeping their jobs.

 

I mean ... SOMEBODY had to make this their signature.

Although I do have to admit I've been wrong, because I thought he had just been spending the last year or two talking down to people who didn't get out of the business like him. Turns out he was just a hypocrite.