Missing It

Geezus. The guy had the nerve to ask you if you would cover it for free. I finally am speechless. Can anybody explain why a person thinks a successful former employee would go cover a game for free? Even citizen journalism failed because after the initial thrill of "getting" a press pass the citizen journalist realized quickly it was work not play.

 

No offense, but you should resign immediately. Life is too short to deal with your schedule. You can't lead a normal life with your schedule. Your wife has normal hours and you get home at 12:30 a.m. and if you are asleep by 2 I presume that's about normal. Then you have to get up at 6 to help take the kids to school? Pick them up at 2:30 and get back to work by 3:30 and do it all over again?? Life's too short. Get out now. With your hours your kids will resent you when you miss their sports, their night-time plays, etc.

 

Exactly. You said it all.

 

Amen on half assing it. The bean counters think we do it anyway so if one can half ass it, by all means go for it.

 

It wasn't his fault. He was just in a rough spot. Corporate had clamped down so tight the publisher told the managing editor to quit spending money. As I alluded to, they quit stocking the supply cabinet. Reporters had to buy their own pens, notebooks, etc.

 

Things weren't as bad at my shop, but they were not good. We didn't have any layoffs (yet) but when someone jumped ship, they weren't replaced. But I see what you're getting at. I'm extremely lucky that I don't have to deal with the bullshit anymore.

But ... once the business gets in your blood, it's hard to get rid it out. I miss parts of it. I think I always will.

 

I miss parts of high school, college, grad school, bartending, my first real jobs after college and hanging out at the bar six nights a week. Doesn't mean I want to go back to that from the life I'm living now.

 

My last day in the business is less than a week away - I don't anticipate missing it at all!

 

The new SE who asked probably was a good guy but I think he showed lack of judgment/class in asking the guy to cover something for free. As much as I despise newspaper higher ups, I can't imagine what covering something for free really means: It means I'd be paying for my own transportation to the event, having to eat something at the event, actually working to get quotes maybe even keep stats if it was a high school game, and write it on deadline presumably, find a place to send the story off my own computer and for what?? So some fatcat publisher can continue to count his millions. Ugh the thought sickens me.

 

The day that happens at my shop is the day I start writing from memory. If that's not good enough, well then it's the day I walk.

 

Best of luck Justin.

 

Boy, does that hit home here. The past 15 years, at two major metros, no camaraderie at all.
Newsrooms used to be so much fun. Now everything just seems forced. And you can't fake the fun.