Should I become a journalist?

[Athena]

I haven't posted on the QLC site for a long time. Right now I'm kind of freaking out because I'm about to leave a miserable yet good-paying job to go to journalism school. I've thought that I want to be a reporter for years, but I don't know if it will be how I think it will be like.
I just wonder if I'm crazy to go to school and have to pay tuition and expenses in order to enter the field of journalism.....a low -paying, highly competitive and stressful field. Something in me thinks I might love the work, though, because I am absorbed in the news and I'm a curious person.
My current job sucks more than you can imagine. I work for a Federal agency, and my job is basically to wade through insane bureaucracy. There's an ugly, unfriendly atmosphere, and the management really degrades the employees. I could go to another Federal job that would be an improvement, and keep my current rate of pay. OR, I could take a risk and jump into a field that I think I might really love.
I just don't know......I look at all the things my current salary allows me to have, and it will be so hard to give those things up in order to live on an entry-level journalist's pay. Who knows if I'll even be able to get a job as a journalist, because the job market is so bad right now, and it's an extremely competitive field just to get into, regardless of the job market.
I would love to hear you guys' thoughts.

[Phoenix]

Being an alumn of the school you're about to enter into :) I'll throw in my 2 cents. Are you going for Newspapers or Broadcast News? I don't know a whole lot about the Newspaper side of it. I don't want to scare you off, but I'll tell you what I know and what I've heard.

The most important thing that the school can give you is some connections for internships and maybe some industry contacts. Otherwise, you may not be able to break into the industry on your own. Most internships require that you get college credit. So...if you're not in college, there goes that avenue, right?

The one thing that the journalism field wants is experience. You WILL have to work your way through the ranks in low paying jobs. For TV, small market reporters can fulfill more than one role (ex: Sports Director & Sports Reporter). Some of these positions do start around $15K and can go to the low $20s. That's one reason why I never got into it. You have to have a lot of dedication and really want to do it.

Some of the girls who did internships and had some on air spots in small markets noted that their station wanted them to get right up in the face of vicitims of accident scenes, etc. That also is not for me. But it depends on what you can handle. Also - the news is not an industry where you have holidays off. It's a 24/7 operation. You may be putting in long hours.

Best thing you can do is internships and start in a small market. That's where you'll get your experience (and make your mistakes/learn from them).

The worse thing that you can do is try. You have some job experience built up behind you (about 3-4 years worth) and you can always try to get a job in something else to pay your bills if you have to. What's the alternative? Well, you could stay at this job and have the nice pay...but you'll continue to be miserable. I'm in the same boat. :) Stay or go? And what career do I want to pursue?

I'll be in touch w/ you soon, if you have some time to get together. Things have just been incredibly busy over the past few months. As always, feel free to give me a call or an email if you want to chat.

[shimmer728]

I'm a reporter at a mid-size daily in central PA. I have to second what Phoenix said--experience is everything. Having past internship experience and published clips is probably at least as important--if not more so--than having a degree in journalism.

I'm now at my second reporting job out of college (I graduated two years ago), but I started out at a tiny daily paper. That's a great way to get a lot of hands-on experience, because at a small paper, you end up doing a little bit of everything, from writing to copy editing to photography. I also wrote about a variety of different topics, and this helped me to become a versatile reporter.

If you want to break into the journalism field now, as someone working in a completely different career, the best thing you can do is contact some small, community papers in your area and see if they are open to freelancers. Smaller newspapers are more willing to take the chance on a new writer and to give you some small assignments to cover--though they probably wouldn't pay you for it, at least not at first. But that's OK. You would be able to start collecting clips of your published articles, which you will then be able to show to future employers.

One more thing--the pay does suck. I started out making a salary of 18K a year, and now I make 22K. It's arguably the lowest-paying professional career out there, but I love it. No two days are ever the same, so if you're someone who thrives on change, journalism is probably a good match for you.

Good luck and PM me if you have any questions.

[wordsmith]

Hi, athena...I got your PM and wrote you back.

I work for a family of small weekly newspapers, and am an editor but really do pretty much everything but sell advertising. Both of the other posters made a lot of good points, so I'll comment on those...

You WILL have to work your way through the ranks in low paying jobs. For TV, small market reporters can fulfill more than one role (ex: Sports Director & Sports Reporter). Some of these positions do start around $15K and can go to the low $20s. That's one reason why I never got into it. You have to have a lot of dedication and really want to do it.

In my experience, this is basically the same as in print journalism. I fulfill many roles (was hired on as general assignment reporter and editor, in a year had assumed editorial duties on top of those, and because of the size of the paper, have learned pretty much everything else as well). The pay is also this low, after three years, am still in the low twenties. It's worth it if you enjoy the work, but if you hated the work, you'd get really resentful of the low pay. I sometimes get really resentful of the low pay, myself, because the work demands huge amounts of time, and I get to thinking that I should probably be a lot better compensated for basically sacrificing a having a life for work in many cases. It can definitely be a grind, but as shimmer said, it's very interesting, diverse, varied work, which makes it a reasonable tradeoff to me most of the time.

Some of the girls who did internships and had some on air spots in small markets noted that their station wanted them to get right up in the face of vicitims of accident scenes, etc. That also is not for me. But it depends on what you can handle.

Again, true of print journalism. Due to its size and location in a small town, my paper is somewhat conservative (YES, the press isn't always liberal...though I am, hah). So we don't run gory pics of fatal accidents and the like...try to maintain a modicum of respect in tragic situations. Which makes us somewhat less "hard hitting" than larger papers, but whatever. Still, you will have to strong-arm your way into getting some of the stuff you need, and it's worth noting that if you have a very passive personality, the whole hard-nosed reporter persona may be a challenge to cultivate. Not that it can't be done, I was rather shy and timid when I started, and got over it really quickly when it left me empty-handed. I'm far from being as hard as nails, no-nonsense, but if I were, that would definitely be an asset as a reporter.

Also - the news is not an industry where you have holidays off. It's a 24/7 operation. You may be putting in long hours.

Count on it. Says the girl who is working today, just as she has all of Labor Day weekend. I would venture to say that I probably won't be able to stay in this field if I end up having a family. It's really more demanding of your time than any field I know of, except maybe other "on-call" people, like doctors and firefighters and EMTs, and even they have days they're not on shift.

start in a small market. That's where you'll get your experience (and make your mistakes/learn from them).

Very, very true. Not only is the experience you'll get tremendously varied in a small market, the stakes are a lot lower if you screw up (i.e. your mistake is on page 15 of a 4400-circulation small-town weekly, not on page one of a large daily). It's good training ground.

experience is everything. Having past internship experience and published clips is probably at least as important--if not more so--than having a degree in journalism.

This is important. I actually got my job with neither a journalism degree nor intership experience or published clips, but I wouldn't recommend going that route...I lucked out. It was a combination of being at the cusp of the economy going completely to hell, so the market wasn't as flooded with potential applicants, and the fact that the paper was in a pinch and would have probably hired any warm body. But there are a lot fewer jobs, these days than 3 years ago, as I've noted from industry trade publications that used to be full of industry classifieds. My brother is having a really hard time breaking in right now, and he has the same credentials as I was hired with. He's freelancing and moonlighting on a college newspaper staff right now (he's 25 and has been done with school for 2 years), just to get clips.

In my pm, I noted you should write me if you wanna know more...so feel free.

[shimmer728]

Originally posted by wordsmith


Count on it. Says the girl who is working today, just as she has all of Labor Day weekend. I would venture to say that I probably won't be able to stay in this field if I end up having a family. It's really more demanding of your time than any field I know of, except maybe other "on-call" people, like doctors and firefighters and EMTs, and even they have days they're not on shift.




I was thinking more about this thread, and as far as working irregular hours goes, I think it can also depend largely on where you work. At my last paper, I worked a LOT of nights and weekends (every third weekend, in fact). Now that I'm at a larger paper, we have more reporters in the night/weekend on-call rotation, so I end up working a weekend once every three months or so.

Aside from the nights where I'm covering school board or municipal meetings that fall in my coverage area, I'm also required to work a certain number of on-call night shifts in the office. That just means I'm on hand in case anything huge breaks, such as a shooting or a fatal fire. I'm on call tonight, in fact.

All in all, I work mostly during the day (my extremely flexible boss allows me to set my own hours), but it also depends on what's going on, too. If there's a series of heated school board meetings one month, I'll be working a lot of nights. More than anything, you're going to have to be willing to be flexible if you want to be a reporter.

[pisces2473]

Originally posted by shimmer728
That just means I'm on hand in case anything huge breaks, such as a shooting or a fatal fire. I'm on call tonight, in fact.
And how often does this happen in good ol' Bedford County? :razz:

[wordsmith]

Wow, shimmer. I have MAYBE every third weekend OFF...but not for the past two months, where I've worked straight through every weekend. But there is no rotation. I'm basically it for all nights/weekends. My sports writer doesn't do shit, and my social editor lives out of town, so she never does weekends. That pretty much makes up the editorial staff.

Everyone does say that the bigger you go, the less you have to do, though.

[shimmer728]

Yep, since there's more resources at a larger paper, the reporters aren't spread as thin, so I can concentrate on writing and reporting, instead of having to also worry about taking pictures, typing up birth announcments, etc.

And as far as shootings in Bedford County--never happens, though there was an attempted stabbing several weeks back. Cow tipping is about as badass as we get; I'm the most hard-core thing in B.C., and I'm sitting here with pink butterfly barrettes in my hair.

But in Altoona, where my paper is based, you'll have some crazy shit going on sometimes.

[wordsmith]

True. And we all laugh, "Ha, ha, shootings, Bedford County, etc." But in all fairness, I've seen some stuff just as nasty as if I lived somewhere more populated. A year ago, a girl I went to high school with was beaten to death in her apartment by an assailant she had dated briefly, while her toddler slept in the next room. Just a few weeks ago, there was a murder-suicide in a town so small it's not even incorporated. My ex-boyfriend's relatives were shot to death at their dinner table by a self-styled town bully, who also turned the gun on a 21-year old deputy sheriff, in a town of about 700 people. About a month ago, a man was hit by a train right outside my building, and his body was essentially thrown underneath my kitchen windows. Bad things happen everywhere.

It never fails to stun me, actually, the degree of insane shit that does go down rurally...it's more than you'd think, guys, in part BECAUSE it's a less policed region. There are more violent crimes, abductions, and hardcore shit than you'd ever suspect. Drug trafficking is absolutely insane out here, because rural police forces certainly don't have the resources to effectively combat it, and it's blatantly obvious. Meth labs? I swear to God, one town that I cover is pretty much nothing BUT.

[shimmer728]

Yeah, drug abuse is a huge problem here, too, and among very young teens. A lot of people say it's because there's nothing for them to do. Sad.

[ChicagoAnxiety]

I am having a QLC now ... I am trying to decide if I should go into broadcast journalism. I guess I'd apply to Medill, which has a great graduate program, to get my foot in the door. I just turned 25 and I'm freaking out ... I got into Penn's MBA program, and I don't know if I would be happy miserably sitting a desk for the rest of my life crunching numbers. I also feel like the time is narrowing to enter a career like broadcast, I could still have a few jobs in my 20s now, but I am terrrified of getting 'too old' to go into a career or progress to high level in it.

I started considering this career after a few miserable and boring jobs that were mostly clerical. Somehow, I wasted all this time (4 yrs) since graduating and I didn't fully think through the ramifications of waiting. Finally, I quit my job and applied to some MBA graduate programs. But I don't know what my passion is ... I hate to have selected a career just for the money. Anyone else ever feel this way? :sad:

[RockTheGlobe]

I'm an editor/reporter for a trade newspaper, and stuff tends not to happen on the weekends for me because, well, people leave their places of work on Friday and don't return until Monday. So I'm lucky in that I don't really have to worry about being on call on weekends or anything.

However, I will second everything else said here: Long hours, no pay, metric assloads of stress. But there's a nice rush that comes from slamming out a news story while on deadline or getting a huge news story confirmed. It's even cooler when stuff you write gets picked up by other news services. (And yes, I'm still pissed that none of the major newswires picked up my story when Al Franken officially announced for the first time that he was running for the Senate in 2008!) I suppose it's just a matter of personal fulfillment vs. driving a Lexus.

I think it's also a matter of maintaining that gentle balance of realizing that while you do have 10,000 deadlines and you are running a lot to get stuff done, it's not emergency-room surgery -- the world won't end and no one will die if I take a moment to just take a deep breath and try to relax. But again, part of that ability for me may come with working for a trade newspaper, not a "real" newspaper.

[wordsmith]

I just went to press, staying late for municipal and county elections (and got to witness my dad's victory, whoo-hoo!).

I find that the pressure is more than you'd think for community journalism, because in small, tight-knit communities, you don't have ANY anonymity. Everyone knows you, and if you eff something up, you've got your phone ringing off the hook with people telling you about it, plus, when you see them at your next assignments, as you always do, when you're in the grocery store, when you're getting gas, when you're going to the dentist...you DON'T hear the end of it.

[pisces2473]

Yay Jessie's dad!!!! Go Mr. Wordsmith!

[wordsmith]

Hah! He is something of a smithy, at that. The original wordsmith, one might say! :D

[shimmer728]

I just went to press, staying late for municipal and county elections (and got to witness my dad's victory, whoo-hoo!).

I find that the pressure is more than you'd think for community journalism, because in small, tight-knit communities, you don't have ANY anonymity. Everyone knows you, and if you eff something up, you've got your phone ringing off the hook with people telling you about it, plus, when you see them at your next assignments, as you always do, when you're in the grocery store, when you're getting gas, when you're going to the dentist...you DON'T hear the end of it.

Ditto everything she said. I spent a year and a half at a similar small community newspaper. It's exactly like that. Now I cover the same region as a bureau reporter for a different paper, and it's STILL exactly like that. ;) In some ways, though, it's kind of cool. It's nice to know that everyone's reading my stuff.

Wordsmith....your elections are awfully early in the year, aren't they? Our primary isn't for another month. Preparing for it is always a ton of work, though.

[wordsmith]

General county-wide elections here are usually held in April. They're exclusively municipal offices like mayor, city councils, county boards, county positions, boards of education, and local referenda. For these elections, there are a few seats that are on a rotation where they expire in the fall, so those elections are held concurrent with the November state and national elections. But mostly, they're held in the spring every two years.

I agree that at least it IS apparent that people are reading your stuff when you hear about it!