Begin the begin: An open message to displaced journalists | Ink By the Byte

“Some very talented people at each newsroom were asked to stay and continue their contributions to the news, sports, features and photo coverage we provide. Also, some very talented people at each newsroom learned that there wasn’t enough room in a merged company for every employee.”

– Greg Harton, “Change, already a familiar fact of NW Arkansas, comes to newspapers” Nov. 1, 2009

We need you and we can’t lose you, displaced journalists and writers.

I hope that readers of Ozarks Unbound will allow me a moment of personal indulgence.

Turned loose upon the sea of fate by the recent newspaper merger a month ago are a number of writers, photographers, columnists and editors – news gathers and news sense-makers of every stripe. You are talented people who spent your professional career documenting life, too often without a sense of how to make it pay.

It’s a calling, a profession, a commitment to the truth and public service, more than it is a business model.

You have a meager shack to refuge in with Ozarks Unbound, if you are so inclined. I welcome any thoughtful voice here and if you want a home here, I’m welcome to have you. I’ll publish your writing readily and see you as a stake-holder in what we create here. I hope someday to be able to pay with more than magic beans.

Further, if you need help growing your own online site to contribute to community life, I want to offer free help. I’ll help anyone who contacts me in setting up a blog.

Online writing can be as easy as typing and pushing the Publish button, or it can be as complicated as you wish to make it.

I’ll add this caveat: It’s hard to make an online news site pay – even enough money for a journalist. That’s the experiment I’m living with even now.

Wade Kwon

Adjusting to life post-print is not easy. It’s bumpy and full of trial and error, but it’s also incredibly exciting. Let me share with you an interview I did with Wade Kwon.

I met Wade, a blogger and journalist with years in print media when I was at WordCamp Birmingham in September. He led a discussion on how to bring journalistic ethics into blogging. It was a great discussion.

Wade spent nearly a decade at the Birmingham Post-Herald and two and a half years at Southern Living magazine. After being laid off, he’s forged an identity for himself online that continues to uphold journalistic principles on his own sites, WadeKwon.com and Wade On Birmingham. He also founded the Birmingham Blogging Academy.

I interviewed him (Right click to download the mp3) at the camp about what he thought journalists should be doing now with the industry in such upheaval. He also spoke about what role community journalists are playing in the new media ecosystem.

I think his insights into post-newspaper journalism are more relevant here in Northwest Arkansas now than they were even when I recorded this interview. (Skip to 12:20 to hear him address lost journalism jobs directly.)

Hope you enjoy the interview.

I also hope to hear from you either here in the comments or you can e-mail me at cspencer@ozarksunbound.com

Ink By the Byte is an occasional media criticism column.

“Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel” – a newspaper adage

Christopher Spencer

Christopher Spencer, 36, is the publisher and owner of Ozarks Unbound and the food news site, The Fayetteville Food File. He is the chair of the Fayetteville Creative Economy Action Group and the social media chair of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He's also the founder of WordCamp Fayetteville. You can always contact him at cspencer@ozarksunbound.com

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3 Comments

• Kirby Sanders says:

  December 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm

  Good luck to you and my fellow unemployed professionals.

  After a 30-year career in the “news-biz”, I received an inquiry from the Fayetteville Free Weekly (owned by Stephens Media / Mourning News) a while back regarding publication of an online essay I had written.

  When I suggested that I would love to let them pay me for work, they promptly discontinued the correspondence.

  This is the ongoing truth of the Stephens – Hussman marriage made in hell.

  Kick ass where you can. The corporates don’t care.

  -kirby-
• Christopher Spencer says:

  December 4, 2009 at 3:55 pm

  Kirby, that’s an issue that I struggle with as well.

  I’ve published a single ad on this site, so revenue is almost non-existent. I’ve not been able to pay any of the contributers yet as a result.

  It doesn’t feel right and I hope to change it as soon as I can, but it’s the best I can do for now.

  As a writer myself, and someone who thinks effective communication and accurate investigation is a valuable skill, I hate that entry-level writing is often done on a volunteer basis.

  So, I think unless you’re getting exposure that really helps you career-wise – which is my hope for all the writers here right now – then you should be paid fairly for your work.

  It doesn’t have to be extravagant pay, but something that says I value your skills and your time.

  Anyway, thanks for contributing a comment.

Trackbacks

1. Next phase: a conversation between former print journalists « Birmingham Blogging Academy - 11 Dec 2009