I may just be the luckiest person alive. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the closure of the Seattle P-I and how sad it made me, how it had a special place in my heart, and how depressing the journalism industry is.
Well, I work there now.
It all happened so fast. Two weeks after I wrote that blog entry, the P-I’s executive producer (yeah, that’s the new name for editor-in-chief) asked me to come in for an interview. I had written her an e-mail a few weeks before, curious if there were any opportunities for full-time or freelance. I was exceptionally surprised to actually hear back from her with positive news.
She contacted me on a Tuesday. I went in for my interview Wednesday. And they offered me the job Thursday.
Huh? What had just happened? I had been sitting around home, freelancing and whatnot, for five months. Companies were taking weeks — months — to get back to me about possible jobs. And my luck turned around just like that? In three days?
Well, I accepted the job. It is very exciting to be a part of this experiment. I feel that journalists across the country are keeping an eye on the online-only P-I, to see if it works and is economically viable. We’re the Guinea pigs. But I like that — we’re traversing uncharted ground.
My job is half online producer, half reporter (or, as my official title says, “news gatherer”). I actually haven’t started the producing side — that starts today, Easter. For reporting, I’ll mostly be covering education — both higher ed and K-12 — and a bit of e-retail (or e-tail), such as Amazon.com. I work Sunday through Thursday.
I’ll keep you guys posted as I settle in to this exciting new job. I’ve been there four days, so far, and it is quite busy.
Crazy things can happen.
I’ve been avoiding this topic on my blog, partly because I’ve been too lazy to write about it and partly because I’ve been trying to ignore it. But, obviously, the time has come. It’s time to post a tribute to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
This morning I spent an hour and a half reading the closure coverage in the P-I. Sipping my coffee, it was a ritual I’ve repeated hundreds and hundreds of times. Only this time it was my last. Tomorrow morning, the paper at the doorstep will be The Seattle Times. I’m not exactly happy about that — clearly I’d rather the P-I keep publishing in print.
But I must admit, I am excited to see what happens with the P-I’s transition to online-only. SeattlePI.com will be the nation’s first major experiment in whether a traditional newspaper can cut ties with dead trees and survive on the Web. Everyone in the industry is watching.
Pardon the upcoming romantic memoir.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was the newspaper I grew up reading. Like so many other people in so many other cities with so many other papers, the P-I was my conduit into the journalism world. I cut my teeth by reading the comics — called, in the P-I, “Coffee Break” — and Mariners coverage in the mid-’90s fooled me into actually reading the newspaper.
But before I even cared about the newspaper’s content, the Seattle P-I had cemented a place in my heart with — what else? — its big, revolving, neon globe. Way, way back in the day, my dad had an apartment in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. From his balcony you could watch the P-I globe spin. My dad would look out the window and tell me, quoting the globe, “It’s in the P-I.” Yes, there was so much wonder in that big ball of glowing metal.
It was the hometown newspaper. The Seattle P-I, for as long as I’ve been alive, was the underdog. The Seattle Times was the big, mean Doberman. The P-I always seemed closer to the hearts of Seattleites; it had a better finger on the city’s pulse.
I’ve often wondered if my early experiences with the P-I steered my future toward journalism. The allure of newspapers brought me into the Daily Evergreen newsroom at WSU, and though it took a semester for me to find my reporting legs, I ended up falling for journalism. After a year of working for the Evergreen, taking on more and more important stories, I applied for an internship at the Seattle P-I. And got it.
There I was, just a year into my journalism career, working at the newspaper I grew up admiring. The internship did not disappoint — I took what I learned there, and my stronger passion for journalism, back to the Evergreen and ended up as editor-in-chief. That, in turn, landed me my job at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. And I credit the P-I for all of it.
That’s why today’s closure of the P-I — at least as Seattle has known it for 146 years — hit me hard. It’s not like it was a surprise, since Hearst put the paper up for sale two months ago. And it wasn’t the first major newspaper to die this year, after the closure of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver last month. But the fact that it happened to the P-I — my newspaper — gives it a more personal sting.
I am sad for the 100-plus journalists who lost their jobs today. I know many of them, and many of them were mentors who helped me become a better journalist. I am more sad for Seattle, which has now lost its heart, and a voice. And I am devastated for the state of American journalism, both for its dwindling effectiveness and its incapacity to adapt to the digital age.
For most Americans, the demise of the P-I is yet another drop in the bucket. Many people are saddened at the loss of another important institution. Many people are disaffected, happy to see the Big Bad Media fall apart and excited for the future of online news.
I feel discouraged, only able to watch from the sidelines and so far unable to get another job in journalism. A significant piece of my life dissolved today. However close to home this downward journalism spiral has been, the P-I’s closure brings it closer.
But, as I mentioned above, I am still excited to see what happens. I’m rooting for the success of the online-only P-I. It would give struggling journalists like me, and so many people I know and care about, some much-needed hope in these dismal times.
So, rest in peace, P-I print. And welcome to the new world, P-I online. Godspeed.
ARLINGTON, Va. — My feet really started to hurt Wednesday. It’s amazing how all this walking and standing around — regardless of the shoes you’re wearing — screws up your feet. But I toughed it out.
My agenda for Wednesday was as follows:
- National Archives
- Newseum
- National Portrait Gallery (with Lisa)
I got to the Archives a day early — on Thursday they put the Emancipation Proclamation on display in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. But all the regular good stuff was there: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Newseum was the only museum for which I paid an admittance fee. And not a small one — $20. But it really was a great museum. There were tons of interesting things for a journalism nerd for me, and plenty of stuff for the average person. Walking through there, it seemed to me that part of Newseum’s mission is to instill back into people the value of the First Amendment and the press, something people are starting to forget.
Also what impressed me was that many of their exhibits were extremely up-to-date — the convergence exhibit, for example, talked about the coverage of Flight 1549 (the one that crashed into the Hudson a few weeks ago). Any museum, I suppose, has to keep rotating its collection to make it fresh, but Newseum really needs to keep on top of things, and it seems to do that very well.
Newseum also had some cool artifacts, like a big chunk of the Berlin Wall and part of the antenna from the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
The main reason Lisa and I went to the National Portrait Gallery was to see the original Obama Hope collage, which was recently installed. It was way cooler than you’d even think! I can’t even describe it.
Anyway, my pictures.
Anyone who follows BoingBoing has probably already seen this, but I had to share it. It’s a 1981 report from a San Francisco TV station about newspapers starting to go online.
Filed under: News Industry
I was perusing Barnes & Noble today and came across this in the Barack Obama section. It’s the New York Times’ Nov. 5 issue, packaged in plastic and on sale for $9.95. Too bad newspapers aren’t worth that much every day.
The other day I wrote about how I felt ambivalent about The Spokesman-Review’s finally-launched new website. Well, today I am comfortable saying that I am impressed.
The Spokesman’s effort in reporting and presenting this week’s snow storm is commendable. With 25 percent fewer newsroom employees than last year, the Spokesman folks regularly updated thier written stories, took 40-plus photos, shot a video (that was Colin), recorded audio interviews and posted PDFs.
And all of it is easily accessible on the Spokesman’s new website.
That’s a link to Thursday’s story. Today’s story doesn’t have video but does have PDFs. Doesn’t look like too many people have caught on yet to the ability to comment — though a few have on SportsLink. The majority seemed hesitant about having to get used to a new website, and gone is the old backdoor through which people could read an entire news story, without being a subscriber, if they were linked to it from SportsLink.
Give ‘em time. For big stories like the snow storm, the new multimedia-friendly web design is just great.
Looks like The Spokesman-Review’s new website is finally up and running. I questioned whether this day would ever actually come.
Unfortunately, when I opened up SpokesmanReview.com and saw the refer to Spokesman.com this morning, I became instantly agitated. Why, I’m not sure. I feel a little left out, yes, but more ambivalent. I think because I waited so long for this while I was there — my excitement waning each time the launch was postponed. Now I’m gone, along with most of the other journalists doing video, and there’s not really anything newfangled to post on this newfangled site.
Nice to see, however, that the Spokesman’s flag is at the top, instead of plain text. And it looks like most of the advertising spaces are filled. Also, I’m glad Colin Mulvany has been able to put together a few videos.
But welcome to the 21st century, Spokesman-Review. Your website now looks like every other newspaper’s, except for the cutting-edge navigation system conveniently located near the top of the page.
I know a lot of hard work went into the new website, and I know the people who did it. And I thoroughly commend them; it was a frustrating ride for even me, way on the outside of the process. The new website looks and functions great — it really does — but it’s not really anything new. Which, ya know, at this point is just fine.
Now, Spokesmen and Spokeswomen, take this new site and run with it. Seize the opportunity and make some great journalism. There may not be much time left to do so. (Boy, that sounded cynical.)
This week, as you may have noticed, I did a small overhaul of nickeaton.net and made it into more of a portfolio site. This blog is hidden from the front page, but I’ll still be writing.
I have gone on a tiring search through the Internets and the networking chain to find prospective jobs. At least ones I find somewhat interesting. So far, I’ve written down 33 openings, and I’ve actually already applied to 11 of them.
Now, not all of them are journalism related. Most of them are, but a few aren’t. Don’t freak, I’m not TRYING to get out of journalism, but I will consider jobs that aren’t at a newspaper but have some journalistic qualities.
Filed under: Adventure, Challenge, Events, Job Search, Journalism, News Industry, Sea Change
Well hey everybody. It’s been a month since I last posted. Part of that is because I’ve been busy at work, and part of it is because I’ve been lazy at blogging. Really lazy.
Obviously my big news is that I am on a list of 25-27 employees expected to be laid off by Oct. 24. But I’ll get to that in a bit.
The past month started out with some real promise. Steve Smith, former editor-in-chief of The Spokesman-Review, asked Brian Immel and me to kick off a big project. We were charged with taking the popular SportsLink blog and spinning it off into its own website, with the goal of making it profitable. That was going to be our job — I’d no longer be in the sports department.
The project got going slowly because Brian was busy working on the Spokesman’s yet-to-be-launched new website. So I continued my sports multimedia producer job. This included another new project, The Mike & Greg Show — a weekly video with two high-school sports reporters in which they make their game picks for the upcoming weekend. So far, we’ve done four episodes (1, 2, 3, 4).
Last Monday, Brian and I finally started having some good conversations on what we wanted to do with SportsLink. We wanted text-message updates, better play for videos, customizable home pages — we were even toying with the idea of making it a social networking site. (I know, it’s a dreaded term. There’s just no better one.)
Then came Wednesday, and everything came to a halt.
Layoffs. For me, out of the blue. I expected to get at least a little warning that layoffs might be coming. It was quite sudden — a morning e-mail announcing an all-staff meeting, rumors throughout the day, then the gauntlet came down.
Twenty-one union-covered newsroom employees were on the layoff list. Plus four to six managers. All said, 25 to 27 people gone from the newsroom. That’s about one-quarter of the staff. It’s devastating. Amid the turmoil, Steve also resigned. He had for months told people there wouldn’t be more layoffs under his watch. I’m glad he followed through.
The layoffs, as governed by an agreement between management and the union, must be done by inverse seniority. The majority of us on the list are 20-something journalists from all departments. Three of us are from sports. Wednesday night, a group of us gathered at Lisa’s and my place for some commiseration.
The next day, assistant managing editor Carla Savalli announced her resignation. And the exodus had started.
People have two weeks to submit voluntary resignations, which would help save the jobs of some of the people on the layoff list. I’m not holding out too much hope. And that gets me to, well, me.
When the news was announced, I didn’t know how to take it. I knew my name would be on that list; I’m the second-least-senior member of the sports staff. After Steve’s meeting, I immediately ducked out of the newsroom and headed home.
But now it’s sinking in. For the past few days, I’ve been working on getting my stuff together to send out job applications. Lisa graciously redesigned my résumé for me, I uploaded a few of my videos to Vimeo and I gathered together a bunch of print clips for my portfolio.
Really, I’ve started to see this as an exciting challenge, a chance to go somewhere else without feeling bad about leaving the Spokesman. I’m looking not just near my hometown Seattle, but elsewhere in the country. I’m not limiting myself to just print or just video, I’m broadening my scope. And, yes, that means broadening my scope past newspapers — though that’s where the majority of my searching has taken me.
I will soon make a new page for this website to function as a sort of video portfolio. And I may start putting up some print clips. But this means I may hide the blog for a little bit, to keep it out of the eyes of potential employers. I don’t think there’s anything that could hurt my chances here, but it’s not worth the risk. If I hide the blog, I’ll be sure to tell you all how to access it.
In the meantime, thanks to those of you who have called or texted me to check in. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Seriously, this is what the newspaper industry needs to see. Lisa breaks down the content workflow of print journalism beautifully in on her blog. It’s simple, and it’s how newspapers, in this tumultuous time, need to start thinking.
