Comments on: Is journalist burnout on the rise?

By: Yovanna

Yovanna — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:30:11 +0000

A word about online. For anyone entering newspaper journalism, be aware of the enormous movement to online journalism. Our company (An NYT paper) is pushing for online first …that means stories break online rather than the paper. With our small staff, we’re expected to run a fast moving up to the minute news site while cranking out a paper. What does that mean? Loads of extra hours (but we’re not allowed to work overtime …so you have to take time off in lieu of it…even though you can’t really do that because it cuts into the time you have left for writing stories.) There’s no hiring of people to help….just using interns…when we have them. And no real pay raises to help with morale. All of us in the newsroom are being trained to work video cameras, video edit, post videos and photo galleries to the Web, post stories to the web, etc… in addition to our newspaper duties. It’s an insane work load.

By: Yovanna

Yovanna — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:24:44 +0000

Oh my gosh!!! I’ve found a forum for what I’m feeling! I’ve been a reporter for a weekly paper for the past eight years and I’m so burned out I’m starring blankly at my screen right now as I’m forcing myself to crank out calendars and briefs and stories. AAAAYAAAAHAHAHHHHHHH. I would say to anyone considering a career in the newspaper field to STOP…turnaround and run far far from it. After eight years with the same paper I only barely make $30k a year in the Bay Area…which is nowhere near enough to live on (thankfully I’m married and have a husband who earns more than twice what I do). It’s a sucky industry that’s profit rather than people driven. The higher-ups don’t give a crap about their reporters but bend over backwards for the sales department….folks who make twice what I do (no offense to sales folks…but I don’t think it’s fair). Anywho…I’m dissallusioned (can’t spell I’m so annoyed) and burned out and frustrated too because I can’t find any other jobs in my area. I want out, but there’s nothing to go to. PR agencies here don’t want journalists…go figure?! Who better to know how to get a company publicity than a former journalist right? I’m about ready to work for Starbucks as a barista…if only they paid more. *sigh* *sob*

By: Newspapers suck

Newspapers suck — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:47:54 +0000

You’ve picked up on it — people like you have to quit. Walk away, get out before you’re consumed with bitterness. Or decide this truly what fulfills your professional aspirations.
My belief is that one’s first responsibility is to secure a decent life for oneself (and family), obtain value for a degree, and not to fight this losing battle with a bunch of idiots who don’t care. Or, obtain for yourself cutting-edge skills and re-enter the journalism jobs market. They will pay for people with skills in online media. Maybe. Soon those skills will be widely spread through the market and then we’ll be right back where we started.
I was hired by top 20 paper right out of school, had a good salary, benefits and even obtained a master’s while working on the company dime. Ultimately the work was just so pointless, the people in charge such idiots, with no incentives to innovate, and the opportunities to “commit journalism” too few and far between.
Screw it — get a “real job,” work hard, make money. Don’t continue to make yourself the butt of this newspaper joke.

By: melting

melting — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:09:00 +0000

Fresh out of school, I have obtained a job at a daily.
I can truly say that I am very disillusioned.

Why didn’t they tell me it would be like this when I was in J-school?
I am only weeks into the job and I am already working late and doing work from home - topping 10 hours a day usually. I do some work on the weekends as well.

I had no idea how much a journalist should make, mostly because they didn’t teach me that in J-school either, so now I’m certain I’m underpaid and overworked.
After my probation, that is, if I don’t get fired or quit by then, my salary will be about 27K a year.

Weeks in and I already feel over-worked. Weeks in and I am seriously considering quitting and going into technical writing or getting a job at the grocery store.
I’d rather have someone pushing me to put eggs in a separate bag than to get four photos, file two stories and do five briefs in a day. Okay, I don’t really want to work at a grocery store, but I do want a chance to do good work. Whatever happened to quality over quantity?

Oh, that’s right. It’s all because he can hire people like me who will destroy them selves to earn a living in an industry that keeps fighting to earn higher profits every year in an industry that is crumbling under the crushing blows of higher, more efficient forms of communication.
I am the poster-child for cheap, new, expendable labour.

By: Douglas Perret Starr

Douglas Perret Starr — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:53:01 +0000

I was an Associated Press newsman for 13 years, covering government, politics, and desegregation (mainly) in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. My work day was from early to late, many times 14, 16 hours and multiple cups of coffee. Situation beyond my control forced me to leave. I still miss it.

By: editrrr

editrrr — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:26:38 +0000

Hello and kudos to all commenters for their solid points. I’m a lifelong news brat, son of a reporter-turned-editor-turned-owner/publisher who was studying my Dad’s API material when I was 16. After 20 years in the biz, I couldn’t brook the feeling that I was pouring my soul into the downside of the bell curve of the profession I love. It took those last four years of extreme discomfort and sense of impending doom before I quit the relationship cold turkey; I’d seen too much talent leave, and what remained was a collage of personality disorders of varying degrees (social isolation, rocky or zero relationships, learned helplessness). Senior management? Sad but true to say, they protected their jobs and their favorite employees and “reimagined” the newsroom with a U desk and cheaper labor. Print and online innovations my colleagues and I had suggested for years gradually found their way into being a) without acknowledgement of our initiative and b) without the finesse and passion of well-thought-out ideas, but rather as rushed-out and reactionary stopgap measures. Since I turned away from the career I loved in late 2005, newspapers (as we all know) have taken turns that are simply appalling (INVESTORS own the Strib and the Inky!). And to this day, I see hideously insulting ads like this one … 10 jobs for the price of one (http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=876814). The moment may truly be passed where journalists can argue profession status and keep getting lumped in with low-wage tradespeople. I’m truly hoping Murdoch’s WSJ and Zell’s Tribune can bring some sense back into the equation, Would I go back? When papers go back to being P.M.s! Now, I work for a wonderfully savvy, humane publisher and live the life of the “normal” people I once (somewhat) playfully mocked. It’s brain drain like this that’s going to doom our national dialogue … not that the bulk of the population notices or cares enough to demand better.

By: Fiona Lowther

Fiona Lowther — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:09:20 +0000

Remaining in today’s journalism “business” (it’s not a news business) is like staying with an abusive spouse — one remembers the early days of one’s love of the job/marriage, and keeps thinking, hoping and praying that it’ll get better.

But it’s like the greeeting card that says, “Cheer up; things could be worse.” And inside the card, it says, “So I cheered up — and things got worse.”

The reporters of the Golden Age of Journalism were Liberal Arts alumni (there weren’t even any J schools in the good Old Days); and they had something horribly lacking in 98% of today’s J School graduate: curiosity.

They can’t spell and don’t know — or care about — grammar; they don’t know history, geography, basic math, of who their federal or state representative is. And what’s worse, they don’t care. All they care about is getting their byline on page one, and their paycheck at the end of the week.

And don’t even get me started on the top brass; they’re running the newspapers, all right - right into the ground.