Dead Paper Walking

Some of the Post-Intelligencer's most painful days are ahead, but they at least have a shot to go out with a bang ...

Hang it up, Hearst

A practitioner of new journalism provides a no-hankies account of how journalism is changing, even if we have to live without The P-I ...

Newspapers: To be or not to be?

I am dedicating this week's blog posting to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, my hometown newspaper, which is threatened with closure as I write this blog. Well, to be honest, Port Townsend is technically my hometown, and its paper is The Leader. But the Seattle P-I was the paper my family read on Sundays and our link to the nearest metropolis. Although I now work in public radio, my inroad to journalism was newspapers -- and the P-I played a major role in shaping my world view. 

Founded in 1863, The P-I is essential to the fabric of Seattle. If you've lived there, when you think of the P-I, you can't help but think of the giant revolving globe, atop the shiny P-I building, sandwiched between Elliott Avenue and the waterfront. The globe is a landmark and touchstone. The 18.5 ton revolving sculpture with the slogan, 'It's in the P-I' across the equator came to symbolize a connection to the greater world for me and I'm sure for other Seattleites. Now that connection, as I have always known it, is threatened. The P-I is up for sale and the Hearst Corporation says they'll shutter the paper if a buyer is not found in the next few weeks.

My father was a working-class guy. He didn't graduate from high school and he wasn't a big reader. But everyday after long hours of work at the local naval base, he would come home, brew cup of Red Rose tea and read the paper. On Sundays this was an all-morning affair. There was always a newspaper to be found. And when our minds were full of the day's stories the newsprint made good fire starter for the only source of heat in our rural island home, a wood stove. 

That fire starter could soon be a thing of the past, but I hope the P-I won't There is a chance that the paper could go completely online and abandon its print edition. I know that whatever happens with the P-I, it will not be easy, and it could get messy -- especially for the nearly 200 employees of the newspaper. But perhaps the P-I will be one of the first newspapers to abandon their print edition and forge onto the new media frontier?

It's not just my sentimentality that makes me pine for some version of the P-I to stick around. As I paid my dues in newsrooms throughout Seattle, pulling stories for rewrites at KUOW, KPLU, NWCN and at KING5 TV, I quickly realized the paper was a cornerstone on which the city's newscasts were built. Whether or not the P-I can transform itself is yet to be seen. And the big question is, if it's not in the P-I ... then were will it be?

Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting

My First Steps ...

This week I took my first steps toward becoming a freelancer by joining AIR, The Association of Independents in Radio. AIR is basically a cooperative for freelance radio producers. Currently they have about 550 members, which they provide with resources such as a listserv for networking, a database of fellowships and grants, and a pitch page, which lists all the major contacts at outlets for freelance radio stories. with the recent layoffs at NPR and nowhere for recent graduates pursuing a career in public radio to go -- my guess is their membership will be growing. 

Now I'm thinking about what's next. I'm looking into grants and fellowships to support my reporting after I graduate. One place I will be applying for funding is The Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting. They provide travel grants to freelance journalists pursuing 'under covered' international stories, that traditional news organizations are increasingly less likely to undertake. I'm sure they're getting a lot more knocks on their door these days as well.

My main concern in becoming a freelance reporter is finding a balance between keeping myself financed and actually taking the time to do quality reporting. Basically I will have to run my own business, which means lots of little administrative tasks and constant application for grants and fellowships. It will mean lots of multitasking and adaptability. The thought of becoming a full-time freelance reporter seems daunting, but it also seems like an adventure. 

During our last COMM 599 class we chatted with Seymour Hersh and David Obst. Hearing from these two about their adventures in journalism made me feel exited about striking out on my own and doing things in a non-traditional way. David's story about rushing to make the application deadline for the Pulitzer made an impression on me. No matter how much I try to plan ahead it seems I'm always running against the clock. And somehow I feel like I must not be doing something right if I'm working up to the last minute. It's nice to know that Pulitzer prize winners so the same thing! But maybe it's the clock that pushes us. Maybe we need that 'tick-tock' to guide us to the next stage -- to divide up a daunting task into small steps.

 

Breaking into Virtual Journalism

I am one of those people who actually began typing up stories on a typewriter. By college I was using the first computers to write stories. But we still used wax, rollers and X-acto knives to put it all together for the press. Since then I've been on a whirlwind journey that has led me on a technological adventure from newspapers, to television and eventually to public radio. As soon as I learned one program, along came another one to master. 

Today, I'm about ready to launch from graduate school into an industry that is in the middle of the biggest transformation since the invention of the printing press. So how do I break into this virtual newsroom? And what will my career look like once I get there? That's what I hope to explore in my blog.

When I came to the Annenberg School of Journalism I hoped for a job at NPR and I aspired to eventually become a foreign correspondent. Public radio seemed to offer the one solid business model amidst a crumbling industry. But then the recession hit. And over the holidays NPR announced major layoffs. They cut 85 jobs. When you consider that NPR only employed just over 850 people that number hurts. My dream of getting a 'real' job in public radio died.

However, the changes in journalism may offer new opportunities for freelancers and entrepreneurs. But can I really make a living? My problem seems further compounded by the area in which I'd like to work, foreign reporting. As the news industry has conglomerated, they've whittled their foreign bureaus down to nothing, relying on parachute journalists to get in and get out with the story. That has resulted in lots of bad journalism and in a skewed view of the broader world for the American public. But just this month Globalpost appeared. There is hope!

As I enter my final semester at Annenberg, I am starting to think differently about what my career will actually look like. It seems likely that instead of landing my dream job, I will be creating it, or at least cobbling it together. I am not sure what my new career will look like, but I know it is somewhere out here in the virtual world. A place where I hope I will have more power to tell the important stories and to bring them to a wider audience. And hopefully I'll be able to make the rent as well.