Journalists and the Art of Bouncing Gracefully

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

DPJ Member: I Walk on Quicksand All Day Long

Hi, everyone. I agreed to publish this first-person piece from a member of our community without a byline because sometimes finding catharsis is hard enough without having to put your name up there in bright lights. As much as I’d love to have Displaced Journalists write and sign their stories, it’s getting to the point [...]

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 [...]

Strange Bedfellows: What Journalism Can Learn From Adult Entertainment

Posted on Poynter.org by Andy Medici at 6:25 AM on Jun. 3, 2010 Let’s role-play for a second. Imagine you are working in an industry that has been battered by the recent recession and rapid advances in technology. Instead of paying for teams of professionals, people are going online to find new content like yours [...]