The Value of Real Journalism
Editor’s Note: Across the American political spectrum, there has grown a deep disdain for journalism, the serious business of digging out facts and presenting the information in an honest context. Too often, partisans of all persuasions simply want their own agit-prop. Obviously, what has passed for U.S. journalism in recent decades deserves a share of [...]
WRITERS LIFEGUARD: Mantrae of Our Times
Way back when — in April, 2009 — I called Writers Lifeguard No. 16, “Mantrae for Our Times.” 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 — [...]
WRITERS LIFEGUARD: Don’t Let the Bastards Rip You Off
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. 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 [...]
The Revolutionary Anti-Resume for Journalists
By Angela Lussier Special for Displaced Journalists For those journalists who have read the writing on the wall and are looking for ways to get out of traditional newspapers and into Web-based writing, now’s the best time in the history of the Web to do so. Journalists who follow market and business trends know that, [...]
Travelwritten: A Travel Writer’s Guide to Self-Publishing on the Web
Travelwritten is a how-to site and blog for travel writers who want to become writer-publishers on the Web. Author Durant Imboden has been co-owner, publisher and editor of Europe for Visitors for nine years. He was with MSN, About.com, and other online companies from 1995 until 2001. By Durant Imboden, Europe for Visitors The Timeses, [...]
Getting Rich Slowly, Living on the Line
By Jules Older As journos, writers, editors and authors, we’re living on a fault line. And journos, writers, editors and authors in San Francisco live on two fault lines. The famous one is the San Andreas Fault, which may bring the house down sometime soon. The lesser-known one has already brought down many colleagues and friends. [...]
Job Quest Advice: Take Your Skills with You
By Michael Gauger For nearly 20 years, I was a newspaper copy editor in Milwaukee, where I was born and grew up. But in the last few years, the Journal Sentinel had been cutting its staff through buyouts. In the summer of ’09, a round of buyouts didn’t yield enough cuts for the company, and in [...]
Which is Worse: The Waiting or the Fear?
By Holly Kerfoot “Dead man walking!” The feeling that this should be shouted in the newsroom when I pass by has faded, as have the murmurs of sympathy from those who – for now – will be keeping their jobs. What remains is the uncertainty. You see, I work on a copy desk that is [...]
From AJR: Capital Flight
Watchdog reporting is at an alarming low at many federal agencies and departments whose actions have a huge impact on the lives of American citizens. This article appears in the June/July issue of American Journalism Review. It was funded by the Open Society Institute. By Jodi Enda After an explosion killed 29 coal miners in [...]
Reflections of a Newsosaur: Journalists Running Start-Ups Face Tall Odds
By Alan D. Mutter Posted Monday, June 7, 2010, on Reflections of a Newsosaur Fed up with furloughs and down-sizing – or forced involuntarily out of their jobs – journalists across the land are taking matters into their own hands by starting their own news sites. While I applaud these brave and commendable efforts, I [...]
« go back — keep looking »Welcome to Our Community
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]