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Hello everyone. I'm trying to figure out what is the best option for me at this point. I graduated back in 2009, with a bachelors in business marketing and a minor in mass communication. I had internships and an excellent GPA all throughout college. I also went to a top midwest university. Because of this I was able to land a good job right out of undergrad--to which I stayed at a year, before moving on to another one. The issue, is that I was very unhappy in the field I was in. I never liked marketing to begin with, or "business". I had started off undergrad as a journalism major, but switched my junior year when my dad explained to me that print journalism was a dying field. He told me that switching to business was the "smart" option. So that is what I did. And I did well, in both jobs, and in college. However my heart was not in it(and still isn't) and I've always--since I was in highschool--wanted to be a journalist.
I'm at a crossroads now, because I know that I no longer want to work in my field, but with the economy the way it is, and with many people willing to do internships that actually have journalism degrees, it's been extremely difficult trying to get my foot in the door, even trying to land unpaid internships. No one wants to give me a chance. So I don't know how I can get into this field, beyond going back to school. Which would mean taking out loans, etc--which I don't necessarily mind doing, but want to make sure I get a good ROI.
Any suggestions?
DON'T DO IT. I'm an award-winning print journalist with a B.S. in journalism. I've worked in my field for about seven years and did corporate communications before that.
Print journalism is dying. Layoffs are happening everywhere, from small dailies to the NYT to all of the Gannett-owned papers. The pay is awful. Most reporters I know haven't had a raise in years.
I love what I do, but I can't afford to stay in this career much longer. I'm going back to school for my RN. I've done a lot of medical reporting and I know that the medical field offers great pay and endless job opportunities, especially in my area where there's a nursing shortage.
A master's degree will get you nowhere. I work with a woman with a master's from Columbia and she makes the same pay as me.
Why not try freelance writing if you want to stretch your writing skills and write about non-marketing topics? You'll have fun and make some extra money. I do some freelancing work for a travel magazine and plan to continue when I go into nursing.
Just wanted to add that I only mentioned that fact that I've won awards to show that even an established award-winning journalist must struggle with low pay and job insecurity. Didn't mean to imply that I won the Pulitizer or anything. That MIGHT make a difference.
Truth on the state of job security and pay increases...I also was a winner of numerous state press association awards, and even at that rate, you might get recognition, but raises dried up a while ago. I left the field in 2007, and even then, we were about three years into a company-wide salary freeze. We evaded layoffs for a long time, being a company of small, niche papers (community weeklies), and how it eventually played out was that they didn't actively lay people off, but when somebody would leave/quit, they would just opt not to replace that person, instead shifting their duties on to other staffers. My brother works for a larger daily, and they do have regular rounds of layoffs, as well as furlough weeks. It's really only marginally more secure for him than when he was a freelancer; the only real difference is that he has benefits, now. Other than that, same stressfulness of not knowing how long you'll have your job. He's good, but it really doesn't matter if you paper can't sell enough advertising to keep it afloat.
LISAMC46... i just rep'ed your post. Great insite and info. Can you give some advise on how one can start a freelance writing side gig? Thank you.
If you're looking to freelance for a newspaper it's best to specialize. For instance, at our weekly newspaper we're all general assignment reporters, but the publisher does hire freelancers to cover winter sports (we cover a ski area) and school sports. We also pay columnists who write about the local music scene and arts.
I'd just call every paper in your area and make an appointment to talk to the managing editor about possible assignments. Try pitching some story ideas based on your area of expertise and interest.
It's a much bigger world if you branch into magazine writing, where you send a query letter to pitch a story. But, they'll probably want to see some clips before offering your an assignment.
Try to Internet, too. Just Google "freelance writing" and you'll find sites with advice and job opportunities. A reporter who used to work at our paper found a nice freelance job writing blogs for a financial services website.
Truth on the state of job security and pay increases...I also was a winner of numerous state press association awards, and even at that rate, you might get recognition, but raises dried up a while ago. I left the field in 2007, and even then, we were about three years into a company-wide salary freeze. We evaded layoffs for a long time, being a company of small, niche papers (community weeklies), and how it eventually played out was that they didn't actively lay people off, but when somebody would leave/quit, they would just opt not to replace that person, instead shifting their duties on to other staffers. My brother works for a larger daily, and they do have regular rounds of layoffs, as well as furlough weeks. It's really only marginally more secure for him than when he was a freelancer; the only real difference is that he has benefits, now. Other than that, same stressfulness of not knowing how long you'll have your job. He's good, but it really doesn't matter if you paper can't sell enough advertising to keep it afloat.
Agree with everything you wrote. Nothing has changed since you left in 2007. It might actually be worse. For some reason even as most papers have developed an online presence, it hasn't resulted in the advertising revenues needed to keep them profitable. Even the NYT lost millions last year.
Oh, I know it's definitely not gotten better. My younger brother was entering just as I was leaving. The biggest bummer of it all is that even when print goes completely by the wayside, in theory, skilled content writers and editors should be needed, even if the medium is the online format. But in reality, there's just little demand for thorough, in-depth writing in newspapers, online or otherwise, anymore, because consumers who care to read at all want it in small snippets they can scan in under three minutes on their phones. Magazines still seem to be able to sustain in-depth feature writing, but who knows for how long, as the average reader attention span continues to whittle itself down. One reason I got out is that I loved researching and writing, and hadn't any real interest in distilling interesting topics to miniscule info-nuggets that said nothing, and I wasn't interested in a market where the artistry of how one tells the story was as devalued as that was getting.
Oh, I know it's definitely not gotten better. My younger brother was entering just as I was leaving. The biggest bummer of it all is that even when print goes completely by the wayside, in theory, skilled content writers and editors should be needed, even if the medium is the online format. But in reality, there's just little demand for thorough, in-depth writing in newspapers, online or otherwise, anymore, because consumers who care to read at all want it in small snippets they can scan in under three minutes on their phones. Magazines still seem to be able to sustain in-depth feature writing, but who knows for how long, as the average reader attention span continues to whittle itself down. One reason I got out is that I loved researching and writing, and hadn't any real interest in distilling interesting topics to miniscule info-nuggets that said nothing, and I wasn't interested in a market where the artistry of how one tells the story was as devalued as that was getting.
What are you doing now? Did you go the corporate communications route, or did you start an entirely new career?
I actually went into print journalism after obtaining my degree in English with a secondary education certification. When I left journalism, I went into the education field I'd initially prepared for (much of my writing was youth and education beat stuff, also).
I am currently head a special education program for behaviorally disordered students. I'm most at home in a position where I'm advocating for people who don't always have a voice. I got to do that for a while when I was writing features that mattered to me. But eventually, we whittled down our staff so much that all my time was getting spent on other roles...editorial duties and copy editor tasks, and being shorted on the time needed to really dig into in-depth features that actually mattered.
LisaMc46 and TabulaRasa. i can't rep you again but I just wanted to say great posts and thanks for the info. xo
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