As regular visitors to the Fortress may or may not know, your humble host devoted a substantial portion of his adult life to print journalism. The hours were long and the pay was lousy, but the Keeper drew great satisfaction producing quality work under intense deadline pressure.
We also firmly believe an informed populace is crucial to a democracy’s survival. At its best, journalism is the public’s last safeguard against political and business interests that seek to warp government power for their own interests.
Sadly, such ideals availed us little in the long run. Even on a local level, the industry started leaning toward sensationalism rather than service and papers started laying off workers to meet the bottom line.
After seven award-winning years as managing editor of a local paper, we found ourselves out of a job with no warning and have spent the last year and a half re-evaluating career options and enjoying the perks of stay-at-home fatherhood.
It’s pretty much evident, however, that the industry we loved is forever dead and gone.
Still, as your ever optimistic host looks forward to future challenges, we would like to direct your attention over to a blog written by one of our former colleagues - a talented editor who has also found herself at a career crossroads.
She sums up our own feelings and experiences quite well … um, minus the whole pregnancy bit. 
Let it serve as a helpful guide to aspiring writers out there who dream of following in the footsteps of Woodward and Bernstein.
Your future probably lies elsewhere.
Say it ain’t so, Keeper.
Are you giving up on journalism for good? as a career? in general?
What would it take to get you to change your mind?
And yet here you are on line, writing to your heart’s content…ironic by my lights.
I’m so sorry to hear you’ve had to go through this. My wife and I are both former journalists (feature writing, and then copy editing with a local daily), and we had experiences that sound very similar to what you’re describing. Eventually the frustration and disillusionment, combined with a growing unwillingness for our jobs to define our lives, led to us getting out of the game. We still freelance here and there, but for the most part we’ve left it behind.
It’s tough, though, and I don’t think we ever stop thinking of ourselves as journalists (it’s like contracting malaria, that way). It’s just not something we do as a career anymore.
There are things out there for journalistic nomads, though, and I’m sure you guys will find something new and rewarding.
Jeromy - I’ve been out of the business for over a year now, and I have to say I do not miss the grind. I wasn’t too thrilled by the manner of my exit and I definitely miss the steady, full-time paycheck but I’ve found there’s more to life than sweating over a computer 5o hours a week meeting multiple deadlines. As far as changing my mind, well I’d rather move forward than take a few steps backward …
John - Never said I would give up writing in some way, shape or form. That would be like giving up breathing in my book.
Maxo - Yeah, I’ll always think of myself as a journalist and take an interest in the industry. In the meantime, as I said, I’m looking forward to new challenges! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hey listen, I know how you feel, I used to freelance for a major local daily til they implemented a sort of “Ministry of Love” style management plan.
Which is when I realized the hassle was NOT worth the money which vastly improved my peace of mind and upgraded my writing style as well.
I’m an arts and entertainment editor (I write the whole damn section myself) who, in order to save his job, is being shifted to online editor. The funny thing is that I live in small town that has two major New England art museums, but the corporation sees my position as expendable so they can get someone to do handle obituaries for all the papers in the chain. The reason? Well, obits bring in direct money!
Thankfully, as online editor, it means that i will just get to sit around in my house in my underwear and blog . . . until they decide it’s time to just lay me off. I’ll hang on until then.
But I sympathize with you and Jennifer immensely — the corporate owners have pared down the newspaper immensely to a bare bones staff who can just barely cover their territory and have 10 year old computers that can’t even handle current browsers to access sites they need. I’ve worked at home for the past year and a half just in order to get my job done.
The only way I’ve tolerated the experience is that I am part-time . . . by choice. Of course that makes the pathetic money worse, but at least I have my composure.
Sadly, you are correct about journalism. I have found that in a small city area like mine, the only reporters we get are desperate beginners who dart away as soon as they get enough experience to get a better job or locals who just float from one paper to the other with little enthusiasm or creativity. It’s a rip off to the locals who need their paper to investigate what’s going on in their local government. Doesn’t happen, unfortunately, and everyone pays.
Despite all that, I have been pretty happy in my job — I think largely because as the arts person, I get more freedom to do what I want — but when I’ve searched around for another job, I am alway discouraged. There just doesn’t seem much out there to make anyone happy — brutal hours, pathetic pay, super pressure. That’s a reporter’s lot in life, sadly.
Good luck to you though . . . and I always enjoy your blog.
It’s sad, but true. I’m one of those apparently rare people who get the newspaper every day, and read it cover to cover. I’ve noticed that my local paper, the Hartford Courant, has gotten mightly thin as of late, since they’ve changed ownership, and dumped all the columnists and such. I still read it, but it just isn’t the same, and there are a LOT of very talented people that are gone now.