Calling all journalists --- desperate for advice

[Anonymous]

Any former journalists that successfully changed careers? If so, how did you do it? If you have a thriving journalism career, what's your secret sauce?

DW is chronically underemployed and doing work that she hates. Her love is journalism, but she's struggling to find a full-time job in the field. She's done freelance work for major organizations (e.g., Yahoo, NBC) and her experience crosses radio, TV, print, and new media. She's well educated.

Yet, no one will hire her. We're both completely baffled, she's feeling defeated, and it hurts me to see her struggle. I just don't know how to help her. We've bought books, reworked the resume several times, sought mentors, joined professional organizations...everything our society says we should do, we've done. I sometimes wonder how she's presenting herself in interviews. We've talked about it, and she says she does "reasonably well", but I don't really know what that means. I can't help if I'm not physically present to see her in action. DW is starting to believe that a career in journalism isn't meant to be, but is having a tough time figuring out the alternative.

Our next step is career coaching, but that costs $$ we really don't have.

I'm desperate for any advice/words of wisdom to pass on to DW. I want to help her and it's been 8 long years of this...

[Anonymous]

Journalists, in the "pure" sense of the word, are a dying breed. Newsrooms are downsizing, profits are gone, staff are being let go left and right, freelancers are relied on more and more...this shouldn't be a surprise.
It doesn't mean she's doing a bad job in interviews. It could just mean this field is unforgiving because there isn't enough opportunity to enter a full time job.
Is she open to using her reporting skills to work for a publication that isn't an independent news org? Like AARP has its own magazine and even TV show... most associations have internal publications and some are quite good... Writing/editing positions abound everywhere and journalistic skills are extremely valuable.

[Anonymous]

My nonprofit has hired several former journalists for both public relations and writing positions. Many organizations are trying to maintain blogs and need excellent writers who can churn out copy every day. GL!

[Anonymous]

I am a newspaper reporter and I agree it's not a great time for journalism, especially newspapers.

Having said that, this sentence really jumped out at me "her experience crosses radio, TV, print, and new media."

Pretty much everyone I know in the newspaper world has only newspaper experience. Radio, TV and print are really, really different and I'm not sure how the skills in one translate to the other. I've been a reporter for years but I would be lost in a TV or radio news org.

Maybe someone else can speak to TV and radio.

Is she a writer? Perhaps she could start by picking one medium and sticking with it for a while, accruing clips or whatever the equivalent is in TV and radio.

I agree with going in house and working for an org. or non-profit.

[Anonymous]

How about this job:

https://jobs.american.edu/JobPosting.aspx?JPID=2932

[Anonymous]

Some basic questions (forgive me if this is redundant to your wife's search.)

1) Does she want to work in print, TV or radio? she needs to pick one. There's not much crossover unless you have been a print reporter and want to be a producer.
2) What real experience does she have? I the print world (which, indeed is dying) employers want to see lots of clips. Generally reporters start out in smaller, regional papers and then move to bigger markets. If she wants to be in DC she should forget the big papers and focus on small newspapers or trade publications. Then work her way up.
3) How old is she? If she's older than 30 without much experience, that may be the thing in her way. Most reporters by 30 have a few jobs under their belt.
4) Has she visited mediabistro.com, and journalism jobs? Those are great sites.
5) Like all jobs, its about networking. How is she doing on that front?
6) can you describe what experience she has had in more detail?

[Anonymous]

I have a friend with a master's degree in journalism who has been searching for a job as a reporter for three years! She has worked part time for several trade journals, and she freelances for a blog, but she cannot land a job.

Journalism is a dying field, OP. Finding a job as a reporter for CNN or NPR or CBS or even a local newspaper is unlikely. There are very few of those jobs, and loads of journalists with fabulous experience who have been laid off by major news organizations during the past decade.

If your DW does not have full time experience at a major news organization, it's unlikely she will get a job at any of them.

There are plenty of writer/editor jobs at non-profits. Everyone has a blog and web presence, so she should focus her skills in that direction. These are not traditional journalism jobs, but they do use many of the same skills.

Trade journals abound, but these are more like p.r., not traditional journalism. It's tough to be underemployed, and very demoralizing not to be able to find a job in a field that appeals to you. But your DW has to be realistic. Journalism is disappearing, reshaping itself into new forms. She has to reshape herself, and then she may land a job.

[Anonymous]

OP, what does your wife do now for work?

[Anonymous]

OP here. To answer PP questions:

DW ultimately wants to work in TV. Her resume tape is outdated, and she needs to create a new one. She has a ton of clips that she needs to organize into a professional portfolio. She's in her early 30's. She's really good at networking and her efforts have paid off in several freelance opportunities. That said, she's had a hard time meeting others in the industry willing to extend a hand since we moved to DC from our west coast hometown four years ago. She does retail work currently.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks for the responses so far. Since I don't come from this world (I'm in the food industry) I don't have much insight or perspective. I'm going to show this to DW.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP - Both Bloomberg and AP have TV operations now. I get the sense that it's easier to break in there than, say, at a big cable network. She might start working those angles.

[Anonymous]

This place is a local cable station and often hires people with limited experience. It can be a spring board to a lot of great places in TV. It even feeds reporters into sister station WJLA. http://www.wjla.com/employment/digital_reporter-_newschannel_8/index.html

[Anonymous]

I disagree with those posters claiming experience rarely crosses over. One of my siblings has worked their entire career for a newspaper, and in the last 10 years, most staff have crosstrained for the web, video, and blog reporting now incorporated within this big, daily paper. People who have been cut are those who refused to learn new skills.

[Anonymous]

While this is not likely what she really wants, a good stepping stone might be an association or trade group publication. Focus on a topic/industry she is interested in. This will give her experience, expertise is a certain field and bylines. Dc is packed with associations. Look at think tanks and special organizations like the Center for Program Integrity.

[Anonymous]

OP, can your DW apply for something like that:
http://opower.com/careers/arlington-va/general-administrative/special-assistant-to-the-president

Job duties include "Assisting with preparation of high-value speeches, op-eds, and presentations", and they want a candidate to be "an exceptional writer and communicator".