Displaced Journalists

A Gold Mine of Talent

Journalists and the Art of Bouncing Gracefully

Posted on | September 6, 2010 | 2 Comments

By Fara Warner
Special for Displaced Journalists

A few months ago, I was interviewed by the director of a journalism program for a faculty position at one of the top communications schools in the country. To be honest, I was simply honored to even be in the room. At the very least, I thought, I’d learn the ins and outs of an academic search. If the stars aligned, well, maybe I’d get the job.

Fara Warner

Like most events in my life, I saw this experience through the lens of a journalist — I will learn something, I’ll figure out a new process, I’ll meet new people, I’ll learn a few new interview techniques. Maybe there’s a story in it.

After a few pleasantries, the director lobbed this question at me: “You seem to have bounced around a lot, can you explain that?”

Without thinking, I spoke the truth as I saw it: “Actually, I’ve been a journalist for the past 20 years — save for a six-month stint as a PR person, which simply taught me that I really was a journalist through and through. So I wouldn’t say I’ve bounced around. I’ve always been a journalist. In fact, I’ve been a freelance journalist working for myself for eight years — longer than I worked for The Wall Street Journal.”

Warner's book: "The Power of the Purse"

I didn’t get the job. I know it wasn’t my answer to this question, but it’s one that I have pondered a great deal since that interview. Did I seem flighty, incapable of holding down a job? I thought experiences made a good journalist. Should I have stayed at the Journal so I could end up working for Rupert Murdoch one day? Should I have stuck it out at Fast Company even though I really wanted to try my hand at writing a book? Should I have jumped back into a “real job” instead of building a freelance business that resulted in a book and a career speaking about how powerful women have become in the past 100 years?

Maybe. But the idea that you will stick in one job for years and years doesn’t seem relevant to me or even worth asking anymore. Whether we jump — as I did eight years ago in September 2002 — or we are shoved, as so many of my colleagues have been in the past five years, lifetime employment at one media company simply isn’t possible and probably not that fulfilling.

What is possible and fulfilling then? I wish I had that answer. In fact, I think I used to until that question a few months ago.

I’m realizing that the reason the director’s question bothered me so much is that I secretly have been asking myself this same question. Have I bounced too much as I worked to make ends meet instead of thinking about what I really wanted to do? And if I have bounced too much, then how do I stop, take a breath, and decide what really is important when it comes to my life as a journalist and educator? How can I be more effective as a journalist? How can I have a higher profile and impact as an author? Can I find the passion to write another book? How can I freelance and teach?

All these questions used to inspire me, but now they scare me. Most of the time in a good way, sometimes in a bad way when I wake up in the middle of the night wondering which path I should take and if I can take all of them at once in hopes that the best idea somehow floats to the top.

I feel overwhelmed by choice: I could write another book. I could begin a multimedia journalism start-up. I could get a Ph.D. I could blog more. I could freelance more. Then there are the four journalism classes I’m teaching at two different schools. I could just go get a “real job” and forget all this re-invention and “making ends meet.”

But I am determined to take the time to figure this out because I’ve also realized something else these past few months. If there is anything I miss about working for a big media company, it is the feeling (either real or imagined) of making an impact as a journalist, of being read, of making a difference. I’m afraid that blogging doesn’t do this for me, nor does “tweeting.” So what will?

I’m not certain yet. But this time, I’m determined to “bounce” with purpose instead of bouncing just to pay the bills.

Read more about Fara Warner here. Visit her blog, The Power of the Purse.

Category: Archives, Commentary, Displaced Journalists, Freelancing, Solutions
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The Life of a Freelance Biz Reporter, aka Getting Your Life Back

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

Talking Biz News exclusive

Heidi N. Moore has been a financial reporter for more than a decade, working in such newsrooms as Institutional Investor, The Deal and The Wall Street Journal.

Heidi Moore

But in May 2009, Moore struck out on her own and became a freelance business journalist. Since then, she has written and reported on investment banking, Wall Street and capital markets.

Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Slate’s “The Big Money,” and the Financial Times, among others. Her Washington Post article on “The Myth of the Sophisticated Investor” was quoted in a speech by SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar on May 24, 2010 to bolster argument for SEC oversight of institutional investors.

In an e-mail interview with Talking Biz News, Moore, a Columbia University graduate, discussed what it’s like to be a freelance business reporter. What follows is an edited transcript.

1. After working at The Wall Street Journal, why do you freelance now?

It was time for a new intellectual challenge and a definite change in pace, though I didn’t expect to freelance when I decided to leave. After racking up around 1,100 print and Web bylines between January 2008 and May 2009, I thought I’d take a month off and then accept one of the newsroom jobs that had come my way. My job writing Deal Journal online and for the daily newspaper during the financial crisis trained my news reflexes to be very fast; It became consistently the No. 1 most popular blog at the Journal when I was there and I – and the team I worked with- took pride in it. It was something special.
But ultimately to everything there is a season.

Read the entire story at Talking Biz News.

Category: Displaced Journalists

USA Today Shakes Up Staff in ‘Radical’ Overhaul

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments

By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
Friday, August 27, 2010; 9:46 AM

SAN FRANCISCO — USA Today, the nation’s second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.

The makeover outlined Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke told The Associated Press. That translates into a 9 percent reduction in USA Today’s work force of 1,500 employees. Hunke didn’t specify which departments would be hardest hit.

The management shake-up affects both the newspaper’s business operations and newsroom.

Like most newspapers, Gannett Co.’s USA Today has been cutting back in recent years to offset a steep drop in advertising that is depleting its main source of income. To compound the problem, fewer readers are paying for newspapers as free news proliferates on the Web.

Read the entire story here at WashingtonPost.com.

Category: Displaced Journalists

Corporate Social Responsibility’s New Advocate

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments

By Jessica Guberman
NY Nonprofit Business Examiner
Examiner.com

Although the term “CSR”— for Corporate Social Responsibility — started in the early 1970s, it is a term that is beginning to gain wider traction and broader, inherent meaning. Highly debated and criticized as a way to distract from the fundamental economic role of business, CSR is proving to achieve the opposite. The purpose of CSR is to help organizations achieve both their business missions and social missions.

When like-minded, highly well-intentioned and powerful people mobilize, the results can be fierce and, for the sake of CSR, this movement will never be the same. We can thank Donnetta Campbell for that.

Campbell has been in the communications business for more than 20 years and has always felt strongly that business should have a social purpose. With the launch of HUMMedia partnering with the engageSimply digital toolbox, Campbell harmoniously started the CSR Cooperative. The concept of the CSR Co-op grew so rapidly that a bigger platform was urgently needed.

The CSR Co-op will be fueled by the “revolutionary” digital toolbox from engageSimply. It is a proprietary platform to merge the power of social media, direct response, community and content into a scalable communications system. This platform, along with HUMNews global contacts and HUMMedia communications strategies, will provide the CSR Co-op with the technology platform to reach millions of people quickly and efficiently with information and education vital to the CSR Co-op organization.

“I’ve built strong wonderful like-minded networks of colleagues over the years. As I’m starting this journey to launch a new generation agency, HUMMedia makes total sense”, says Campbell. On Aug. 4, a Huffington Post article described HUMMedia as “an innovative, digital Media Agency led by Joy DiBenedetto and Donnetta Campbell that translates `word of net’ onto a truly global stage.”

Industry visionaries quickly involved themselves including Natalie Petouhoff (formerly of Forrester Research) Chief Strategist for Weber Shandwick Global Public Relations; Kristen Anderson from the Concept Farm; Meg Columbia Walsh of Fair Trade Digital; Robyn Streisand of The Mixx; Leslie Singer of HSDominion; Susan Older of Displaced Journalists, and Elaine M. Rogers, a partner and co-chair of the Entertainment and New Media Department of Meister Seelig & Fein, LLP.

HUM (Human Unlimited Media) is the parent company of HUMMedia and the CSR Co-op and from the beginning was a natural fit for this initiative. H/U/M is striving to be the next essential supply organization on the international information and communications scene by catering to the emerging global mobile generation and by nurturing realization of future prosperity, security and meaning directly tied to the total well-being of the entire world.

The HUM founders include Joy DiBenedetto, who has been VP of global booking at CNN and NGO CARE press officer, along with Michael Bociurkiw, the former global spokesperson and current worldwide liaison for UNICEF.

“Information, connection and community engagement matters more than ever for us to work and live in this ‘whole’ world. HUMNEWS is that source which will help us to understand this perspective and is a perfect content partner for HUMMedia and our clients,” says Campbell. HUMNews is the fast growing global news and information provider focused on emerging countries.

Read the entire story here.

Category: Displaced Journalists

Free Webinar: Mobile Reporting and Publishing

Posted on | August 23, 2010 | 1 Comment

Displaced Journalists’ partner Knowledgewebb is planning another free webinar. “Getting Started: Mobile Reporting and Publishing” is the topic, and it’s scheduled for this Wednesday, Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. EDT.

You don’t need to be a member of Knowledgewebb to participate in the webinar. However, if you haven’t considered joining, remember that our partnership with Knowledgewebb gives you a 30 percent discount on the yearly membership fee. Knowledgewebb helps you master the skills you need to succeed in today’s digital media environment. We partnered with Knowledgewebb because it is some of the best training around at an extremely fair price. To get the discount, join using our Displaced Journalists partner code: DISPLACED.

The webinar, which runs from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (EDT), will teach you how to produce and publish rich multimedia stories, interactive slideshows, even audio broadcasts in real time on your iPhone, Blackberry, Palm or Android.

If you participated in “10 Steps to a Tech-Savvy You,” an Aug. 5 webinar celebrating our partnership with Knowledgewebb, you already know how much you can learn in one hour. As always, attendees will receive notes, worksheets and a list of recommended tools.

This free webinar is sponsored by another Knowledgewebb media partner: Freelance Success.

You must have pre-registered and received a confirmation message from Knowledgewebb to participate in this session. Click here to register. There are only 500 virtual “seats” available and they fill up quickly, so go to Knowledgewebb.net and register soon. The webinar is just two days from today.

Category: Archives, Digital resources, Displaced Journalists, Freelancing, Multimedia, Training
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WRITERS LIFEGUARD: Mantrae of Our Times

Posted on | August 20, 2010 | No Comments

Way back when — in April, 2009 — I called Writers Lifeguard No. 16, “Mantrae for Our Times.”

Jules Older

It had but four markers of change:

  • Screen is the new Paper
  • Short is the new Deep
  • Pictures are the new Words
  • Free is the new Pay

Now, more than a year further into our climb — or plunge — from Gutenberg Era into the Digital Age, I’m ready to add six more

  • Canon is the new Nikon (which was once the new Leica)
  • Apps are the new Websites
  • YouTube is the new Home Movie
  • Video is the new Still Photography
  • Twitter is the new Pac-Man [Can you guess why?]
  • Blogs are the new Poetry. [This time I’ll tell you why. Both are written by many, read by few.]

And so the world turns.

If you have other new mantrae (mantrae being the plural of mantra) to add, shoot ‘em my way. And tell me — are we climbing into sunshine or plunging into darkness?

Jules

– 30 –

Jules Older (amazingly, no relation to Susan Older) is a freelance travel writer, the author of children’s books, the creator of the iPhone app San Francisco Restaurants, a speaker, a broadcaster and a consultant. Learn more about Jules here. To become a Lifeguard, just drop Jules a line at jules@julesolder.com, saying, “I’m a writer. Sign me up!”

Category: Archives, Blogs, Commentary, Digital Journalist, Displaced Journalists, Multimedia
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CJR: Yahoo’s New Digital Media Stylebook

Posted on | August 13, 2010 | No Comments

By Bill Grueskin
August 12, 2010 11:11 a.m.

The Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World | St. Martin’s Griffin | 528 pages, $21.99

If you strolled by a copy editor’s desk at any metro newsroom thirty years ago, you would have likely seen, sandwiched between the pica pole and the Carter’s Rubber Cement, a well-worn, dog-eared version of the Associated Press Stylebook. The glue pot and ruler are long gone. And now, in an age when anyone can publish instantaneously to any corner of the world, it’s worth asking whether the stylebook should be discarded as well.

One answer comes not from the AP or the descendants of Strunk and White, but from Yahoo Inc. The company recently published The Yahoo Style Guide, proclaiming it “the ultimate sourcebook for writing, editing and creating content for the digital world.” At more than five hundred pages, and with an accompanying robust Web site, it is remarkable both for what it addresses (everything from hyphenating compound modifiers to abbreviating state names) and for what it says about where journalism is headed in the twenty-first century.

Read the entire story at Columbia Journalism Review.

Category: Archives, Books, Digital Journalist, Writing
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WRITERS LIFEGUARD: Don’t Let the Bastards Rip You Off

Posted on | August 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

By Jules Older

I’m not one who regards editors as bastards. I yam an editor. I try not to be a bastard. Sometimes I even succeed.

Jules Older

Ditto publishers. They’re the ones who feed my family, and I don’t go around biting the hand that feeds.

But. But the ones who don’t pay… ah, now yer talkin’ bastards. And if there’s one thing I hate worse than bastards who rip off writers, it’s the impotent rage writers feel when we can’t get our money from said bastards.

OK, that’s the last time I’ll refer to illegitimate offspring today. From here on out, it’s about how to collect what’s owed.

My ski-writer friend Steve, who has four or five brothers, swears that his solution is to visit the editorial office with his brothers in tow. They conspicuously look around for a while; then the biggest brother quietly says, “You got a lot of expensive equipment here. We wouldn’t want to see any of it damaged, y’understand? Please pay my brother what you owe him. Now.” Read more

Category: Archives, Commentary, Freelancing, Money, Writers Lifeguard
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Fund Seeks Grant Proposals for Local and Ethnic Media Investigative Reporting

Posted on | August 12, 2010 | 1 Comment

If you’re a staff or freelance reporter investigating issues in your state or local community, or are working on investigative stories for ethnic media, you could be eligible for a boost from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

The fund is currently seeking grant proposals and is keen to support precisely those kinds of projects, thanks to a new $100,000 grant from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Grants range from $500 to $10,000, and the organization can also provide guidance on reporting and advice on placement, as well as mentoring with veteran journalists through a partnership with Investigative Reporters and Editors.

The fund has a Sept. 8 deadline for its next round of grant proposals. It’s accepting applications through its website at www.fij.org.

Category: Archives, Grants, Investigative Reporting, News
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Newsday to Hire 34 Journalists, Add News/Opinion Pages

Posted on | August 12, 2010 | No Comments

Memo from Newsday’s editor
From: ND-Communication Office
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 11:29 a.m.
To: ND-Communication Office
Subject: A message from Debby Krenek

Dear colleagues,

Newsday’s newsroom is hiring!

In a big step forward on boosting our local coverage, during the next six months we will hire 34 new journalists for our newsroom and digital teams, and add 2,600 pages of additional news and opinion to our newspaper annually. I’m very excited to announce that we are making this significant investment in people and pages to provide more and stronger coverage for Long Islanders.

Many initiatives will increase town and local coverage in print and provide our online audience with more updates and faster coverage of breaking news around the clock. They include:
* Adding to the number of town reporters

* Doubling the number of Long Island news pages in Newsday each day

* Upping the number of regional zoned editions of Sunday’s LI Life to provide more localized town news and information.

Read the entire post at Poynter Online.

Category: Archives, Displaced Journalists, Jobs, News
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  • Welcome to Displaced Journalists

     

    Susan Older
    Founder, DPJ

        Is there life – or work – after newspapers? A lot of us are in the process of finding out. Because it’s generally a somewhat lonely endeavor, it struck me, in January 2010, that it might be comforting – and possibly very productive – to go through it together.

        Displaced Journalists is a community – our community – where we find common ground, where we can begin to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get on with our lives and livelihoods. [more]

  • RSS Jim Romenesko, Poynter Institute