I love the work that I do and the people I work with.
I hate the economics of this industry and the way our work is valued at a level that constantly tests the amount of shit we're willing to put up with just to keep doing it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/10/10/washington-post-staff-buyouts/
I try not to complain about my job because let's be honest, I'm wildly lucky to have it. Tons of jobs suck in tons of different ways and I chose this one because the great aspects outweigh the sucky ones, for me.
But what gets me is, what if you *didn't* have to be wildly lucky to make a living in journalism? What if you just had to be good at it, care, work hard, and write stories people found worthwhile?
Sounds like a fairy tale, but that's how it was before local newspapers collapsed.
@willoremus I hear you but the Post got too big during the Trump Bump. My friends there saw this coming two years ago. Not that that makes it easier on anyone.
@brianvastag This isn't really about the Post, at least to me. This is my fifth full-time job in journalism and every one of them has been losing money and making cuts for most of the time I was there. Two of them no longer exist. The real tragedy isn't in national news but local.
@brianvastag @willoremus it's really sad and also bad for society for journalism to be so undervalued. I live near the biggest city in Alabama and the local paper closed a few years ago so there's no reporting on the city council, school board meetings, etc. Now there's only a crappy website for state news. I do subscribe to the WaPo and love it, they do great work.
@willoremus I feel this way about higher ed. such a mess has been made.
@karengregory @willoremus
I think about this, and writing, teaching, maybe local journalism…
The three career paths, I am possibly suitable for — that have devolved during my adult lifetime to ever lower pay and job-security
It’s remarkable
I guess we could learn to code, just in time for the IT folks training their AI replacements to join us
@AccordionBruce @willoremus yeah, the race to the bottom here is really stupid.
@willoremus I feel like this would still be possible if there were outlets that focused on specific subjects instead of trying to cover politics and food and celebrities and sports all in one place.
@willoremus @BramMeehan our local public radio affiliate is taking over the local news role. #WHRV has an actual news room with reporters from the Pilot and other organizations. Virginia Mercury is doing state reporting in the web space.
@willoremus Armed with a newspaper degree, I chose *not* to go into journalism 40 years ago because you already had to be pretty lucky – at least to stay in one place and choose where you lived.
@willoremus @jeffcarlson Oof. I just renewed my WaPo subscription today, too.