A Working Journalist

Initially after getting laid off from The Free Lance, I shrugged off the idea of ever working for a newspaper again. 'It was never my dream to work for a daily,' I told myself, along with the reassurance that I would freelance. For sure. As much as this was really me just trying to assuage my devastation at being let go from my first "REAL JOB," it also was true: I never wanted to work for a daily. Long form, magazine pieces were both my forte and where my interest lied. But after moving on from the Free Lance and into a less-than-academic profession (ahem, job), I've realized how much I enjoyed the daily. For one thing, it's difficult to write a long-form piece without initially writing a short one - after all, how do you go in depth on a topic without becoming initially familiar, as naturally happens when you're following a beat.

At any rate, I have been missing the daily paper world, and in the past couple months I have again begun applying to newspapers. It's been rough for multiple reasons: no one's hiring, I'm hesitant to return after my first experience, and - well, did I mention newspapers are dying and no one is hiring?

On Tuesday journalismjobs.com posted two links for Queens newspapers looking for reporters. These were both weekly community papers, but a real chance for me to get myself writing again. I quickly brushed up my cover letter and resume and sent them out. Surprisingly quickly, I received a response from the editor of one of the papers. In, what I'll assume was a mass email, he requested that those still interested pitch three possible stories they would write while working at the paper. He also cautioned: "First, let's be clear about the position. It is full-time, absolutely requires that you have a car and pays in the low-20s based on numerous factors. This is an entry-level reporter position. Have no illusion of clocking out at 5 p.m. or having your weekends free."

While I appreciate the honesty of the response, it really got me thinking: who can afford to be a journalist anymore? This position would require me taking a pay-cut from my current job and adding the (significant) expense of a car in New York City. The cost of living here alone would not be covered by that salary, and the post makes it very clear that a second job to help cover expenses would be out of the question. So essentially, this newspaper job would require some kind of financial support - probably in the form of mommy and daddy bank. So often life's roadblocks based on socio-economic class are analyzed at a younger age: specifically, money preventing people from pursuing higher education. But what about after you get that degree? My parents are by no means poor, and have helped me pass many of these hurdles with their financial support (OK, and emotional, and every other kind...) They paid for my college and helped me out during my two unpaid internships, and would be there for me if I needed them even now. I am aware of how lucky I am to have that safety net. But they are in no position to be providing constant fiscal support to their almost-25-year-old daughter. Nor do I believe this would meld very well with their beliefs about parenting. So, children of middle class families can't afford to be journalists, clearly no one coming from less can afford it either...but who can? And is this really how newspapers will be saved, by selecting from an incredibly narrow pool of applicants?

Gawker had an article last week about youth paying for internships. As I have looked for jobs on journalismjobs.com and craigslist, I've noticed more and more companies are trying to get by using unpaid interns, banking on the desperation of those freshly out of college (am I still considered "freshly out of college?") trying to get experience. A girl I went to college with told me about a week ago she was forced to lay off her first employee - someone only slightly newer at the job than she. This person was replaced, you guessed it, with an unpaid intern. I'm certain the only reason that jobs are asking for money for internships is that people are willing to pay. Just as someone will not only take the position at the queens newspaper, they will be grateful to have a job as a working journalist.

An Interesting Idea

France's President, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced this week that he would not only increase the country's financial support of print media, but he would also give out free newspaper subscriptions to french youth on their 18th birthday.

Read the AP article on Sarkozy's announcement here.

The idea is very interesting - although I wonder with how much success it would be met here in the U.S. For one thing, while many other industries are believed to merit financial support from the government, I hardly think that the media fits into this category. Because writing is something most people can do, and no explicit degree is required to be a journalist the profession is often viewed as a joke. There's an ad for some show on IFC that I've seen repeatedly in the subway that says "Now it can be revealed: THE NEWS IS MAKING YOU DUMBER." I understand there are a lot of faults to the media, and - here's where my bias comes in - especially with television news. But every time I see that ad I just want to yell at it, 'Listen! We're already dying! Please don't kick us while we're down!'

Anyway, I think it will be interesting to see what happens with the additional support to the media in France - will the 18-year-olds start reading the paper, now that they have the option of receiving it for free? Will the papers use the additional funding to create innovative new ideas to make the media fresh and interesting? It should be interesting to see. As Sarkozy noted:

"None of the proposed measures ... will be useful in the end if the profession doesn't meet its challenges. The industry has a future to reinvent. ... Time is running out."

Dancing About Architecture

I just listened to an older This American Life on my subway ride home from drinks with Stephanie in Hell's Kitchen. The episode, Numbers, was about trying to quantify things that are truly unquantifiable. Things like love, relationships, emotions... I thought the whole concept of the story was interesting, primarily because of how much emphasis we do put on numbers. As journalists, any story is better if it's backed with a stat. Sure, I can say 'macs are the computer of choice in Williamsburg' (and feel pretty confident about my statement) but I would have little grounds for a story just based on an inane observation. However, the second I find out that 76% of the electronics delivered to a 11211 zip code were Apples - suddenly I have the fundamentals of an interesting, albeit obvious, story. (Um, by the way: I made that up. But trust me, the hipsters love their Macbooks and I'm uniformly scorned for bringing my Toshiba into my local coffee shop.) I digress.

The piece was really interesting, because it looked at different people who had tried - via various methods - to use numbers or statistics to explain things much too vague for something so concrete. One story looked at a group of scientists who had used polling to try to create the most palatable song and piece of artwork. Another was about a man who, since the 1950s, had written down everything he had done each day of his life: Grocery store x2, talked on phone, etc. He did all this without ever examining the emotion of the day; he never discussed how he felt and what his feelings were. I think there are definitely a lot of things that over over-discussed and hyper-analyzed. Knowing that people like blue in paintings and like to see faces does not mean that you can create a piece of artwork that would stir the same emotions that I felt when I first saw a Van Gogh. Some things are not meant to be quantified. Although, honestly, while I feel much more security behind words, the same can be said for them. This may be why I never felt drawn to criticism; be it film, TV, books or food. While I have no problem holding a discussion about why I liked a movie or hated it, when I truly love something, sometimes I don't want to analyze that. When I go to an art museum - knowing very little about art history or critique - I can only go off what I feel. When I saw La Nuit Etoilee I didn't need to discuss what I was feeling, nor could I really put what I felt into words. I could qualify it by saying, 'I love how vivid the colors are,' or quantify it by saying I rate impressionism as a 10, in terms of styles. But really, all I wanted to say was 'wow' and keep staring.

Some things are really better left unquantified and some feelings can never be fully expressed with words.

What's Black and White and Read All Over?

There are a few types of articles that I will always read - always flip to first in my magazines, always click on to 'read the full story,' always follow after the jump. Self-examining, naval-gazing "state of the media" articles definitely fall into that category. Sadly, with paper after paper filing for bankruptcy, folding or cutting - these stories now litter gawker.com, slate.com and most daily papers. Who better than the print media to cover its' own demise? (Don't answer that.)

When I opened my browser last week and the Seattle Times (my home page) loaded, I was drawn - not to the story about the mass flooding in Western Washington or the jarring photo of destruction that accompanied it - but to the news of the P-I's impending closure. "Seattle P-I up for sale, but almost certainly it will fold, industry observers say." The headline didn't come as a surprise; the P-I has been in bad shape for almost as long as I can remember. Still, the news hit a lot closer to home than the other laundry list of closures. The orange P-I boxes were the representation of the paper business to me. As a kid, I recall asking my mom why there were two newspapers in one city (if there's one set of facts then there's one set of facts, right? Why don't they just put all the facts in one paper?) This, for me, was a lot of my initial understanding of the paper biz.

In addition to the closure/cuts/buyouts articles of late, there have been quite a few interesting analysis-based ones, as well. Particularly interesting was The Atlantic's "End Times". The article examines the potential that newspapers could fold (at least in their traditional "daily print" sense) much earlier than everyone has been estimating. Michael Hirschorn writes:

"But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business—like, this May?"

Hirschorn cites the paper's significant debt, existing cut-backs and the current state of the economy to back the supposition. He acknowledges the impressive implication of the end of Times - including the ritual of Sunday morning tangible-paper over coffee, but also the role of newspapers as a watchdog for politics and society overall. "Internet purists may maintain that the Web will throw up a new pro-am class of citizen journalists to fill the void, but for now, at least, there’s no online substitute for institutions that can marshal years of well-developed sourcing and reporting experience—not to mention the resources to, say, send journalists leapfrogging between Mumbai and Islamabad to decode the complexities of the India-Pakistan conflict," he writes. Still, the article maintains some semblance of optimism. These cuts and the creation of a web-only Times could mean focusing on the quality. Sure, the T magazine and wedding sections might disappear, but the paper could focus on their best writers and creating the best, most-focused product:

"Journalistic outlets will discover that the Web allows (okay, forces) them to concentrate on developing expertise in a narrower set of issues and interests, while helping journalists from other places and publications find new audiences."

Still, what the article does not address, is what is going to happen to the small, community newspapers. When I think about the news (read: corruption) goldmine that is San Benito County, the prospect of no one covering that once the Free Lance inevitably folds is devastating - not only to my "journalists are an important part of a community" sensibilities, but to the community and its' tax dollars.

Monday's Fresh Air also focused on the future of print media. One interview was with Leonard Downie Jr., the former executive editor of the Washington Post and the other was with John Yemma, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, about their move to web-only content. (Thanks to Megan for pointing these interviews out to me.) I found myself frantically typing up notes as I listened to these two editors talk (embarrassingly, I'm not joking).

For me, the most interesting part of Downie's interview was when Terry Gross asked him about how he talks to journalist-hopefuls. Now that he's retired from the Washington Post, Downie plans to teach journalism. I have often wondered how my Santa Clara journalism professors encourage students, with the paper business looking more dire, even, than when I graduated. To the best of my quick-transcribe ability, here is how he responded:

This profession is a calling and it is so very important to the American people...and it’s not going to go away, it’s going to take different forms.. The work is very long, you have to be very dedicated to it, but it’s very rewarding and it’s worth sticking it out and joining this great adventure in figuring out how we’re going to present news in the future.

India

Last week India, the little girl I babysit, told me - with the sincerity that only a 3-year-old can muster:

"Alice. We just have to keep finding ourselves over and over again."

Grant you, India was talking about our hour (and climbing) long game of Hide-N-Seek. But sometimes her wisdom can be baffling.

Culture Binge

I had a truly incredible past weekend full of museums and museums. The city of New York is full of exciting activities if you just look for them. Saturday, after cooking dinner with some friends, we headed over to the Brooklyn Museum for First Saturday (technically "Target's First Saturday. Gotta have a sponsor, right?) The museum was open and free until 11pm with music, ballroom dancing, DJs and wine. There was an incredible turnout and it was a good chance to finally check out my local museum. There's a permanent feminist art collection which I thought had some especially interesting pieces. The picture is taken looking in on a DJ'd dance party at the museum. Sunday, I went to the Met for the second time. The museum is so large that I managed to spend a good couple of hours exploring without going into any of the exhibits for a second time. Overall, a great (and free!) weekend.

A New Year

It's been a while since my last post, which I apologize for. The holidays brought an abundance of egg nog, credit card debt and - in Washington this year - snow. But what they did not bring was time and especially not time for writing. But that's just me making excuses.

The New Year (yes, I'm capitalizing it), as per usual, has left me questioning where I am, and what I should be moving toward. This time last year I was laid off from my first "real job" and made the decision to move across the country to what I had deemed the exact opposite of San Juan Bautista. Replace feral chickens with high-strung New Yorkers, sub mission-style architecture with skyscrapers and brownstones...then see what happens. The results have been somewhat mixed. Especially because I'm not doing what I came here to do: write. But I don't think my time here has been a wash. And I'm saying that now in spite of the fact that my apartment is currently without running water for the fifth time in my 3 months living there. Ah well.

While I don't love my current job, by any means, I do think it has been a good experience. Now, I can cite real office experience when applying to editorial assistant positions. I spent New Year's Eve at my restaurant monitoring the inflation of 5,000 silver and black balloons - and don't think that didn't go on the top of my resume. But seriously. I've been applying to more jobs recently and have broadened my search to even positions vaguely related to writing (if it requires crafting carefully worded emails, I'm there). New York Magazine had a feature chronicling "My Laid-Off Life" for several New Yorkers (out of the 33,000 who have been laid off since August.) The article is a nice reminder for anyone who needs it (don't we all?) of how grateful we should feel to have jobs in the current economy. And I say this knowing full-well that my position is somewhat superfluous at my restaurant and risks being eliminated if the covers remain low. Who knows where I'll be in 2010 - what coast, what profession, what coffee shop - but I'm excited to see what happens in the next year.