Let go at 52: The Sequel

Second time around is no easier

I heard a joke some time ago, and at this moment, after learning a new life lesson Tuesday, it reminds me that I really, really wish I had two friends named Marge and Tina.

Life lessons can be good; some are hard. Tuesday’s was especially hard: Getting let go a second time is no easier than the first time, and it actually might be worse.

Aside from wanting to cry myself, my inner humorist desperately wanted to have two equally heartbroken friends nearby, if only so I could say, “Don’t cry for me, Marge and Tina.”

If you’re not familiar with Evita, you won’t get the joke, but it’s a pretty fair groaner.

License fails to address issue

Part 2: Misdirected anger

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When journalists start talking about licensing and credentials, at the surface, the discussion focuses on preserving and enforcing professional standards, such as those espoused in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The thinking is that a formal rite of passage of some kind will ensure that those standards will be held firmly and thereby raise the quality of our craft.

Licensing would kill journalism

Part I: Government can’t oversee the watchdog

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The words shocked and alarmed are too strong to describe my reaction to a discussion thread begun among the Society of Professional Journalists group on the professional networking site, LinkedIn. But certainly I was annoyed and more than a little concerned that, once again, someone within the profession was advocating that journalists be licensed.

The story interview that … wasn’t

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A friend had asked if I would mind being interviewed by a reporter who was trying to put together a story about people who are unemployed or underemployed.

I have filled slots in both categories, of course. I was laid off nine months ago, although in June I left the unemployment rolls after I accumulated quite a handful of part-time/freelance positions. I’m a part-time reporter for a small news website in my hometown, and I’m a freelance copy editor for two different Patch.com regions west of Chicago. Finally, I’m doing some consulting work focused on press releases and basic social media marketing.

9/11, JFK: Etched in memory

A U.S. flag flies over New York Harbor.
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It’s difficult to write about journalism or adventures in under-employment this weekend, as the nation turns its eyes and collective memory to the 10^th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

Many if not most Americans will spend today remembering where they were, what they were doing, when the attacks began.

Will Daily Herald paywall work?

Expect other Chicago-area newspapers to follow suit

 

The Daily Herald in Arlington Heights is poised to launch its paywall on Wednesday, for the first time requiring online users to pay $20 a month for access to its website by nonsubscribers. Print subscribers would pay $1 a week if they so choose.