SuchASlot wrote:
I haven't lost interest in newspaper journalism at all, but lately it sure seems like almost everyone else in this industry has. I could take the above advice about the door, but it sort of stings when you feel like you've been giving it your everything for more than a decade only to be sitting in news meetings these days about how to "sell" the paper on the rack and about what "talkers" (never mind what news) we've got for 1A tomorrow. Not to mention the meetings about what benefits you'll be losing shortly, why wages are frozen, and which positions they won't be filling anytime soon or ever...
I really apologize for sounding so bitter; I'm honestly at a loss. Who are all of these people who are so happy to be working in this industry right now, and what is so different for them, I wonder?
I hear you, Slot.
I'm about to leave my place on grounds of irreconcilable differences. Everything's about business strategy, from buying out the 50+ folks (just what a paper of mostly inexperienced carpetbaggers needs) to cutting back on the days the cleaners come through the office (first mouse sighted yesterday).
But the J101 basics are just lost on everyone all the way to the top. There are almost no people here who think our day's about getting the news. The go-getters are all about filling the paper and Web site with content for people who don't read; everyone else behaves like office workers, worried about covering their asses, what they're having for lunch, and how many tasks they do or don't have to do in a day.
I swear to God, my portfolio is going to be a sheaf of bad-taste stories and heds that I had to defer to my bosses on.