Is it worth it anymore?

[BitterYoungMatador2]

And whatever you do, do not, under any circumstance, listen to someone who calls you a "sellout" when you do get your open door out of the business. Show me a guy who's bitching about someone selling out and I'll show you someone that usually is envious of that person.

 

[shotglass]

It's still worth it to me, and for me.

I would agree with Waylon that it's quite preferable not to live your life for the job.

 

[playthrough]

Agree, BYM, though I would almost say that word is dead in our profession. Yesterday's "sellout" is now just a lucky biscuit who got out while the getting was good.

 

[Mark2010]

are they hiring? I have considered working for the census people. Make more money there than at some newspapers. Go around interviewing, collecting and sorting data. Isn't that what a lot of us do in journalism?

Certainly didn't think you meant the United States Census . . . decidedly part-time, intemittent (to say the least) work, with no bennies, and a position where outside workers might bring home
$18/hour tops, before taxes.

$18/hour? Wow. That's really, really good money for the work.

Actually, that's about equals the top I made in newspapers. As for what the actual work is like, I have no idea.

 

[Mark2010]

Yea, I grew up hoping to do five people's jobs and getting paid one person's shirtty salary.

The more maddening thing about this business is that most of us have bachelor's degrees, and the national average salary for someone with a bachelor's is close to $50K. Don't know too many sports writers, let alone editors making that.

True dat. And judging from other threads on these boards, the current trends are salaries going DOWN, not up.

 

[Hellboy]

And whatever you do, do not, under any circumstance, listen to someone who calls you a "sellout" when you do get your open door out of the business. Show me a guy who's bitching about someone selling out and I'll show you someone that usually is envious of that person.

Can a sports journalist actually sell out?

 

[zagoshe]

Doing this job is sort of like staying in a marriage that is drifting away "for the kid's sake."

You've accepted and understand there will be more misery than there used to be and it won't ever be like it was before but you hope that it produces enough happy moments throughout each month to remind you why you got into in the first place.

 

[Some Guy]

Doing this job is sort of like staying in a marriage that is drifting away "for the kid's sake."

In recent days I've begun to compare this job to like being in an abusive marriage. The business keeps going all Chris Brown on me, and I know it's better for my health if I leave ... but I've just got nowhere else to go.

 

[Joe Williams]

Doing this job is sort of like staying in a marriage that is drifting away "for the kid's sake."

You've accepted and understand there will be more misery than there used to be and it won't ever be like it was before but you hope that it produces enough happy moments throughout each month to remind you why you got into in the first place.

Problem is, those happy moments are just scarce enough to remind you that they're dwindling and that the rest of the time, this business bears little resemblance to what you got into in the first place.

It's like letting you eat one salted peanut, then taking the can away for a month or so, at which point you get to eat one more.

 

[Sneed]

Hey, guys, I'm serious when I say this. Get something in your lives other than the job. I can't be more adamant about this. You will destroy yourself if you wrap your entire identity into the occupation of being a daily newspaper (or Internet) sports writer. You will. I don't care how much you love it. Take up golf as a serious hobby. Take up running. Take up chess. Take up something you can take pride in other than banging out copy about State U vs. Eastern State U.

I love it, too. Trust me. I have a big thick book containing all the Pulitzer Prize feature winning stories that I have read multiple times. Some of the best times in my life were on the road with my friends on the beat. I devoured the top sports columnists for years. I still get excited when SI arrives every week.

I feel the pain.

I've been where you are.

But don't feel like you have to wrap your entire identity and happiness in this. Don't do it. You don't owe it that.

I'm a college baseball player, and the same way things are tanking in newspapers, my career tanked once I got into college. It was depressing, I still struggle more days than I'd like. But I had to learn just this -- get into something other than what you've lived for for so long.

Good thoughts, Waylon.

 

[podunk press]

I'm going to repeat what I've said a lot of times on this board.

There are many of us who desperately want out who are getting little to no joy out of what we are doing anymore.

Two problems:
1. Jobs aren't there in other industries.
2. Too many journalists believe "well, this is the only thing I know how to do."

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

It's often a pretty fierce struggle against loneliness in this job. The offices are emptier. The people you like have left. There are fewer comrades out on the road with you. Couple this with the fact that this job does severely hamper your social and personal life and it often feels like it's not worth it.

That's the part that really gets to me the most (well, that and the pay). I can deal with and adapt to all the other bullshirt.