Then and now: Peaks and valleys on a journalist's career roller coaster

Over the past 18 months or so, I have found that working through an extended season of un/underemployment can be a roller-coaster ride.

There are flat stretches when not little more happens than the passage of time. There are hills — solid job leads for which I must slow down and carefully consider my steps. Hopes rise with an initial email contact, then soar with a phone screening and the prospect of a face-to-face interview.

Until now, there has been a thundering, rapid descent into blackness — perhaps with the realization, a week or so later, that

More stress in store for Sun-Times?

Growth plan to strain overworked newsrooms

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I read with a fair amount of skepticism Lynne Marek’s story in Crain’s Chicago Business about Michael Ferro’s plans to make the Sun-Times and its ragtag fleet of daily and weekly suburban papers the nation’s top local newspaper.

Pay wall avalanche gains steam

As expected, the avalanche of newspapers planning to launch pay walls grew substantially in the past week with announcements by the Los Angeles Times and Gannett that they would seek a fee from users of their websites. I believe readers in the Midwest and across the nation should expect to see more of the same for some time yet.

I’ll be curious to see how long the pay walls last.

Settling in after you’ve been axed

Some of the first steps you need to take

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I have been told there are some people who have greeted the news that that were being laid off with great joy. I was not one of them, although in time I would come to realize it is both a blessing and a curse.

My layoff came on a Thursday — I worked Tuesdays through Saturdays, so it was my “hump day,” meaning I was over the week’s hump and it was downhill from there. Of course, that was more profoundly true that week.

Without getting maudlin, that day just 23 days before Christmas 2010 was a roller coaster ride all of its own, starting with the walk to Human Resources, calling my wife afterward, packing my desk and then saying goodbye.

Elgin layoffs a tough story to write

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You cannot cover the evolution of a city budget with a $13 million hole in it and not expect to write about the consequences down the road.

I was born and raised in Elgin, Ill., and when I left for my first newspaper job in Rawlins, Wyo., in late 1983, I vowed I would return only as a visitor. That changed in 1994 — some would call it fate, I would call it God’s will — when I applied for a position with The Courier-News. There is much more to that story, but I will save it for another time.

WIA opportunity knocks

Program to pay for retraining as Web master

It’s been more than nine months in the making, apparently delayed largely — in recent months anyway — by the state of Illinois’ interminable bureaucracy. But this week, the paperwork went through and I now am preparing to begin training for something that may or may not expand the possibility of continuing my career as a journalist. But ultimately I hope it will serve to open doors.

The dawn of the dread

Is sale hope, doom for Sun-Times Media?

The last time my former employer was sold, it was cause for hope, even as it rankled the rank-and-file union members. They were the ones who bowed to James Tyree’s pressure to make a number of key contract concessions to ensure Tyree’s investment group would close on the purchase of the former Sun-Times News Group.

I was wrong

They say it takes a big man to admit a mistake, but over the course of my life and my career, I’ve never felt particularly big when owning up to an error. Certainly I’ve felt responsible enough to do so, and a heartfelt apology is a good thing. But it does little to erase the mistake.

Owning up to a mistake is a necessary step, particularly when the error reflects badly on someone. It should be part of a process not only of acknowledging the wrong, but in establishing or re-establishing those steps needed to ensure it is not repeated, toward restoring credibility.

Sun-Times Media spills more blood

Tally hits 16

This will be a short post.

Crain's reported earlier this week that Sun-Times Media had laid off three more employees in Chicago. I learned that same day another employee had been let go in Tinley Park.

Today, the Aurora office was hit, another friend who had been a loyal, hardworking employee for years was let go. I have no idea yet if there were others.

Update: I just learned there were two people let go in Aurora today, My sympathies to both of you. 

Update 2, 4:53 p.m.: The swathe grows. I just got word at least one sports reporter and four designers were among the casualties, bringing to six the number of people let go this afternoon. All are editorial employees.

Update, 9:49 p.m.: I have not been able to confirm the comment added to this post that four people, including two copy editors, were let go in Joliet. If I can verify this, I will post another update.

Update, 12:16 a.m. Dec. 9: I have it from a reliable source that the bottom line was five people, not six who were cut in Aurora on Thursday. I spent a chunk of my afternoon and later this evening trying to track down the sixth name to no avail. I finally ran into a source who had the information. Five people's lives were shattered in Aurora on Thursday, not six. Nonetheless, people were hurt.

Update, 9:47 p.m. Dec. 9: It seems that in all, Sun-Times Media this week laid off at least 16 staffers, including:

• Chicago Sun-Times: three (reported Monday by Crain's), and a photographer was cut in Tinley Park;
• Aurora: five people — a copy editor, a sports writer, three  designers;
• Joliet: two copy editors, two advertising;
• Less specific: There were sports positions cut in Waukegan, Pioneer Press and one in Tinley Park. I am still trying to pin down numbers on these, but it would be at least three people.

Pain, potential and paywall at Sun-Times Media

Several developments this week were mixed signals for me about my former employer, Sun-Times Media.

The first was that the company had cut three more employees in the Chicago office, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business story posted Monday, Dec. 5. My count stands at four — Tinley Park lost one person as well.

1 year later, ready to work

Today is the day: One year ago today, on Dec. 2, 2010, Sun-Times Media said goodbye to just one more in a long string of employees the company laid off over the past four years in an effort to stave off its own extinction.

Only time will tell if the company’s strategy ultimately will succeed. I doubt it, but I would certainly be glad to be wrong — I have friends there still.

2011's been a turkey, but ...

Still thankful, despite job status

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A year ago, I was thanking God that I had escaped yet another brutal round of layoffs as Sun-Times Media continued the draconian downsizing which I ultimately believe will prove fatal — if not to the entire company, then at least to its neglected suburban holdings.

Is this Sun-Times' final year?

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Early last week, I heard of two more former Sun-Times Media colleagues losing their jobs. A third contacted me about it on Saturday.

Yes, we’re into the year’s fourth quarter — cuts always seem to happen toward the end of one quarter or the beginning of the next. I’m not saying that is really true, but in the round after round of layoffs that company saw over the past 10 years, one of the common threads of comments was, “I knew this was going to happen —

Down but not out

When I was laid off in December, I was devastated — I felt a combination of hurt and betrayal that a company I had worked for loyally for 16 years had dropped me, with little more than a short “thanks but we don’t need you anymore” and a couple of boxes into which I could unceremoniously cast my belongings.

The loss of daily contact with my friends and colleagues — who for five days a week had been my social circle — hurt like hell as well. But the greatest pain was the sense that I had failed my wife, my kids, myself, and a career I’ve loved since I began a little more than 27 years ago.

Open letter to President Obama

And to all other state and national elected officials

Howdy all,

That’s probably not the proper address to those who lead these United States, but believe me when I say I mean no disrespect by it.

If you’re wondering why, exactly, I am writing this, it’s essentially because I am a guy who just got let go from one job I’d had for just a couple of months, and had my hours cut by three-fifths on another. I was just getting to the point where I could afford to pay the mortgage again when those cuts came along. I was laid off the first time last December.

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.

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.

Vision of future newsroom bleak

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Imagine a newsroom, my friend said, where there are just a few editors, and maybe just a reporter and a photographer — you know, just in case something happens.

Feeling squirrelly after attack

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I’d known from the start of the week that Wednesday was going to be a challenge. I was not particularly dreading it — in fact, I was looking forward to seeing how well I would handle it.

 

But some things you just don’t see coming.

Good news amid Sun-Times’ bad

New opportunities, more Sun-Times layoffs

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As much as everyone’s complained about all the thunderstorms this summer, I’ve enjoyed them — the sound of rain and thunder, the brilliant flash of lightning. It helps me sleep better.

But professionally speaking, I’ve been going through a dry spell of late, even though there have been some good things mixed in with that.