Styling and profiling my berry cobbler

This is my berry cobbler, featured in a photoshoot for Suffolk Living Magazine:

 Photo by R.E. Spears III, Suffolk News-Herald

Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Fruit Cobbler
Adapted from Sally Smith, Suffolk gardener

For the batter:
1 cup self rising flour (I used White Lily)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 stick margarine or butter, melted

For the filling:
4 cups of berries (I used blueberries and blackberries)

3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 8 X 8 inch pan and set aside.
• To make prepared fruit:  Mix 3/4 cup sugar with 3 tablespoons cornstarch.  Place 4 cups berries in a pan and add sugar/cornstarch mixture.  Add cinnamon and nutmeg to the mix.  Cook together, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken.  Set aside to cool slightly.  Add vanilla before placing over flour mixture.
  In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar and milk, stir until all the lumps are gone.  Pour batter into greased baking dish.
• Spoon fruit or berry mixture over flour/sugar/milk and then drizzle with melted margarine.
• Place casserole dish on a baking sheet with aluminum foil to collect any spills.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

One of the best things about this whole thing was flexing my food-styling skills. How do you think I did?

NaBloPoMo: Navigating the waters of uncertainty

I've been neglecting my blog lately. This isn't an apology; it's more of a fact. I needed a break from writing, and I'm sure you needed a break from reading.

As you know, I've been desperately searching for a job. Any job would do, but I believed my heart was telling me to stay in journalism, if I could. And somehow I found myself being wooed by an actual newspaper. And here I am, working in the field I've always wanted to work in.

Well, that's not exactly true. While I have been on the path to journalism since my junior year of high school, it was not my first love. When I was a child I wanted to work with animals. Like most children I changed my mind about my future profession several times, but it always involved animals. From a horse trainer to a veterinarian, there was always a clear focus on animals in my daydreams. And I still would drop everything if someone told me I could make a living caring for animals without having to go to school or get specialized training. In fact it was the heavy emphasis on math and chemistry in all courses of study at veterinarian schools that eventually kept me from fulfilling that childhood dream. A fleeting obsession in the 10th grade led me to explore the idea of forensic science, but again the math and chemistry requirements were just too much.

There was a turning point at the end of my junior year that led me to where I am today. As I was registering for my electives I was given a chance work for a semester under a professional. I agonized over the choice between a vet's assistant and a reporter position at the local newspaper. As fate would have it, I ended up choosing the newspaper and that was it: I had the bug.

And since then I've never wavered. Newspapers held me under their sway through college and my first real job.

And now here I am, working at my second job in newspapers. I'm living the "dream." Except it doesn't feel like that anymore.

My excuse for ignoring this blog for so long was that all my creative energies had to be directed towards the job search. But a month after landing a job in newspapers (the only one in my group of displaced journalists to do so), I still haven't really returned here to celebrate.

To be honest, the dream I've pursued for 7 years is fizzling for me. Now I no longer obsessively read newspapers, I don't love working at one and I can't even remember why I loved newspapers so much to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I still respect the media. When I reach my first permanent home, I will likely have a subscription to the local newspaper. I don't hate my job, either. I more or less just subsist there. I go to work and I come home. I break that up with trips to the dog park with Miyagi and yoga sessions, but I largely stick to that routine. And I cannot say that I am happy. Or I could, but I'd be lying.

It's truly disconcerting to be so lost. Despite all of the instability and fluidity that has marked my life, I have never felt this unsure about where I am going. It's worse because I feel as though I am regressing. All my friends spent college with no idea where they were headed, while I had it all but intricately mapped out. Now that most of them are finally finding their way, I am suddenly losing mine. And it is actually a scary way to live.

Quick update on life

I'm sorry for the long absence, guys. What can I say? Sometimes life just gets away from you. So here is what has changed so far:

~ I am gainfully employed again. I now work part time as a page designer for both the Suffolk News-Herald and the Tidewater News. Part time is great because it gives me a chance to get back into the flow of working. Part time is bad because it is obviously less money.

~We set a date for our wedding and then promptly had the date taken away from us. We are in a holding pattern now which is giving me all kinds of stressed feelings. Hopefully I will eventually get over them and there will be a wedding in the near future.

~I have not cooked a meal in a very long time, which is unfortunate since it was such a great stress relieving activity.

This weekend the fiance and I are dog-sitting the fiance's family dog, Dylan. He's a sweet and mischievous 16-year-old English Setter. It's been lovely to get a chance to teach Miyagi how to be with another dog without having to play with them. He needs this lesson because he has a habit of getting into sometimes painful trouble when he won't leave a dog who doesn't want to play alone. They are currently cuddling together on the couch. It was another feat altogether to get him to realize that the couch was not his, a distinction necessary when teaching him to leave Dylan alone when he wanted to sleep on the couch.

Miyagi and Dylan nap together on the couch

Dispatches from the job search: Networking

The following is from a new blog I've created to record and cope with the trials and tribulations of my job search. Follow it here.

I wanted to get this topic out of the way because I've always found it to be sort of a confusing subject. And yet the No. 1 thing you're told as you begin any job search is network, network, network.
Here's the main principle: Introduce yourself to as many people as possible. It's so simple it almost makes you feel silly, right? I've never been big on networking. A lot of searching for a job, as Joe Grimm (recruiter extraordinaire and one of Poynter.org's job experts) explains it, is selling yourself to possible employers. That's not really my style. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves. But here's where that philosophy doesn't hold water in a job search: Potential employers have never seen you in action and they can only base their decisions on what they've heard about you, whether their source is you or one of your references. And that's where networking comes in.
Back in the day networking required putting a lot of miles on your car and shaking a lot of hands.
Now, like almost anything else out there, the process has gone high tech. But in the end, you're still doing the same thing. Your connection to your boss connects you to everyone else they've worked with, which connects you to everyone those people have worked with and so on. And this doesn't even need to be just with your boss. Say you volunteer at an animal shelter (guilty). The volunteer coordinator might be able connect you to someone else in your field.
The most exciting and well-known tool for networking is LinkedIn. Think Facebook for professionals. It's a place where your profile includes your recent employment and your qualifications rather than your favorite movies or those embarrassing photos from that one party. You know the one I'm talking about.
Thursday morning, the day after I learned I was joining the ever growing ranks of the unemployed, I logged onto my little-used account with LinkedIn and "connected" with every person I could find at my company. By that afternoon I had received four recommendations (these are posted on your profile, which can then be viewed by your connections and anyone else you allow to see your profile). Recommendations can also be read by the connections your boss or coworkers have, thereby exposing you to professionals you have never even met. Essentially this is almost effortless networking.
It's actually kind of exciting when you get right down to it. So there you have it: A quick and simple way to network. Of course that's only the beginning, but at least it is a beginning. And every job search has to start somewhere.

Want to join my network on LinkedIn? Click here to see my public profile, or click on the LinkedIn badge on the right side of this page.

I will post the first few posts from "Dispatches" here, and then I will discontinue. I'll continue to do my normal posting here. Please follow both, if that's what interests you.

~Beth

Dispatches from the job search: On cookies and (un)employment

The following is from a new blog I've created to record and cope with the trials and tribulations of my job search. Follow it here.

I was in the 11th grade when I took an advanced writing class at my high school. By then I knew I was going to be a wordsmith, I just hadn't quite figured out where to apply my talents. It was in that class that I was introduced to the field of journalism. My senior year I was accepted into a mentorship with the local newspaper. From day 1, when I was assigned my very first story as a reporter, I was hooked.
When I graduated from college - armed with a journalism degree, a year of experience as the editor in chief of the school paper and an undying passion for the art - I took my first job as a copy editor at a hyperlocal newspaper. Unfortunately that was also the year the newspaper business began a nosedive that ended with a phone call and the giant cookie you see above.
Alright, the path to that cookie wasn't nearly direct as I make it sound. I enjoyed almost two years of wonderful people willing to teach me the ropes. I grew to enjoy designing pages and eventually became a little obsessed with the online medium that all newspapers are moving into. And I will be forever grateful to those who took me under their wing and fought to keep me around. But, alas, I couldn't stay there forever. It seems a twist of fate has finally bulldozed me a new path.
On Wednesday morning - St. Patrick's Day - I received the summons to the HR office that all of us were dreading since the announcement came that layoffs were imminent. I was among those who were being laid off. It was the third round of layoffs that I had experienced since joining the paper, and I suppose my luck had finally run out.
I'm not embarrassed to say that I went to a bar that night. Of course, so did the rest of the nation. It was St. Paddy's Day, after all.
My fiance made me promise that I would not attempt to do anything for a few days. Take a break; that was his advice. But I'm not much of a take-a-break kind of person. I did start my job the day after I accepted my diploma, instead of taking a week off like everyone said I should have.
So, after celebrating that I was one quarter Irish (and mourning my career), I made the giant cookie you see above. And then I ate it. With ice cream and peanut butter. Because I could. And then I fell into a coma.
I woke up this morning, less than 24 hours into my newly unemployed condition, and I was already bored.
And this is where this blog comes in. You see, I love writing. I realized about half way through my enormous cookie that I would not be able to survive a job search on writing cover letters alone. I also realized that many of you might be in the same boat as I am and could use my failures as lessons on how not to go about recovering from being laid off. And eventually, you could learn from my successes on how to find a job. At the very least you can laugh at me as I struggle to network, apply and interview my way into the next step in my life.
Won't you join me?

I will post the first few posts from "Dispatches" here, and then I will discontinue. I'll continue to do my normal posting here. Please follow both, if that's what interests you.

~Beth

A change is gonna come...

Dear readers, I'm afraid that I sit on a precipice. Yesterday our editor told us that due to outsourcing, copy editors and designers would soon be obsolete at my paper. Those are the two areas I focus on right now (while I build my online skills on the side), so this means I can almost feel the hairs of the scope settling over me as the powers-that-be prepare to lay off 10-15 of us copy editors and designers. We won't know until at least next week, and likely more than three weeks, whether we still have a place here at my shrinking paper. It's just another blow to the newspaper industry and to those of us who attempted to embark on a career in a field that is apparently dying.
My company has gone through 3 sets of lay offs in the less than two years I've been working here. This will be the first time I've actually feared for my job. And the future is hanging heavily over my head.
I do have enough saved up to cover necessities if I were be laid off (call it my 3-month emergency fund that I've steadily grown to cover 5 months because I am so loathe to spend money). But I have virtually no job prospects, at least not in the state where I hope to eventually attend graduate school. I certainly couldn't afford a dog if I were to be laid off, and the fiance and I have been seriously talking about adopting one in the next few months. And, as the fiance said, the wedding is not a necessity at this point.
So, my dear readers, it seems my steady little world has been largely upended. Not only do I not know if I will have a job in three weeks, I also don't know if I will be married in 2010. Right now the plan is to find a venue with openings, but we won't consider offering a down payment or signing a contract until April, when all of this will hopefully be resolved.

Directions

I've been thinking a lot lately. About my wedding and my relationships with my friends, and yes, even about how hilarious the new Big Bang Theory is. But what is ALWAYS in the back of my mind, simmering back there with the money issues and how much I want a dog, is what I want to do with my life. Every once in a while, it boils over and floods my brain with such extreme worry that it borders on anxiety, my shoulders tense up without me realizing it and suddenly I can't sleep at night, whether I'm being kept up by my thoughts or having vivid, distracting and disturbing dreams.
That's how my week has been.
It's not that I hate my job. If I get right down to it, I am thankful for my job. My schedule is such that I never rush to work. I work during the hours that I am naturally most awake and I get to flex creative muscles by designing pages and writing headlines. And I get paid and have benefits. I think I'd be in worse shape if I didn't have these factors in my favor.
But I still feel lost. I'm not doing what I always thought I'd be doing (writing) and I just feel like something is missing. I don't dislike my coworkers, but I'm not friends with any of them. And, I suppose, I don't feel like what I'm doing makes any meaningful difference.
All this comes together to make me consider abandoning journalism for a different field. I discovered a Web site where you can search for openings at nonprofits, and many of these organizations need people with my set of skills to come and widen their exposure to the public. I am beginning to feel that old excitement, of contemplating the possibility of changing my life for the better. I spend 8 hours a day at the workplace, I need to justify those hours doing something that I believe in. It's sad, but I have finally admitted to myself that I just don't believe in journalism anymore.

A rant on journalism

Apparently journalists on both sides of the new media/old media line are supposed to be duking it out on a virtual battlefield as they fight for supremacy. What? Why can't we be friends (sing it with me). If you're still interested in my views on journalism, head over to my journalism blog, Between picas and html for a lovely rant on the so-called war between journalists. I'm thinking we need to raise a white flag or we're journalism as a whole is doomed.

A mandate for journalists

If you're still interested in some of my observations on journalism, go to http://beckelizabeth.wordpress.com/ to read a piece designed to get journalists to take responsibility for newspapers apparent death and for the resurrection of the industry.

I'll be back...I swear

I've been missing. I know. In fact, I'm not really sure what I've been doing with myself. Between launching a redesign, taking over some new responsbilities and training for them at work and trying not to get sick, my schedule has been less than ideal. And I've been quite tired.

Anyway, I will be returning for regularily scheduled posts. Though I have still been reading my blogs. Most recent interesting one?

The blogger on 'Recovering Journalist' writes, "Newspapers are dead. The future is now. Let's start finding the best ways to serve the audience that's clamoring for something that puts the 'new' back into news."

Well said.

Taming the beast...

Let's face it, news in its current state is kind of a beast. With so many people reporting their own versions of a story, and so many stories existing from small-town America to sprawling investigations into international topics, its hard to keep up with the news.
But one site attempts to tame the beast and deliver a daily dose of news in the form a sleek pussycat that is easily manageable.
It's called the Daily Beast. The site is a news aggregate that, according to their site, is: "a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of that interests the editors. The Daily Beast is the omnivorous friend who hears about the best stuff and forwards it to you with a twist. It allows you to lead the conversation, rather than simply follow it."

The site's best feature is it's Cheat Sheet, which offers "Must reads from all over." This the feature that makes it a news aggregate.
But they go further, working to connect big stories together through a feature called the Big Fat Story. Offering a version of the brainstorming cloud, the site connects the most important little stories that fill out a specific topic. The cloud is displayed as representative images connected with lines. The topics are changed whenever a big development or two happens in the story.
Craig Stolz over at Web 2.0h...Really? has a great comparison between Daily Beast and Huffington Post (another news aggregate). As he says (among other observations):

"DB (The Daily Beast) views the world with a cocked eyebrow. HuffPo is
wide-eyed. Skeptics are more interesting to spend time with than
believers."

The Daily Beast is a really smart example of online journalism and is quite enjoyable to explore.

Back in the education saddle again...

Alright, so everyone knows that I hate not being in school. It's a part of my identity as this post explains. So I started scoping out the online classes offered on Poynter.org's NewsU and through MediaBistro. And I finally applied and was accepted into an online course from MediaBistro. The course is called "Reinventing Print Content for the Web." The title is self-explanatory and falls very easily into my goals for this site. Anyway, because the course involves a live Tuesday night chat, I thought I'd change my Wednesday posts to observations from the course for the next few weeks. Enjoy or ignore. It's up to you!

There's a very specific hierarchy in any newspaper. Essentially it's this: The publisher is boss. If he or she doesn't like it, then it changes. For a while now, we've also been relying on this power to get journalism out of this mess. This obviously hasn't amounted to much.

It's time to admit that the responsibility of saving the media really lies in every journalists' hands. Gina Chen at Save the Media blog has a post entreating journalists to step up to the plate. Most of us have been fully happy with waiting until our company gets around to asking us if we want to learn anything new. But a large problem seems to be that companies aren't there yet. They don't have the funds to train all employees, nor the psychic powers to know which ones are willing to train for new media jobs. To solve these problems, Chen points out steps that every journalist can take to help save the media:

• Educate yourself: Only you have the power to jump-start your training in online journalism. It can be a simple as playing around with your newspaper's video camera (with permission of course) to starting your own blog, just to get a feel for the medium.


• Reach out to others: There's likely to be someone at your paper with the knowledge to give you some unofficial training. It's all about experiencing something new so you can be that much more prepared to blow your editors away with an innovative suggestion.


• Read, read, read: There are hundreds of blogs out there with wonderful tips on journalism and even more on the basics of navigating the online world. See my blogroll for some of my favorites. You can use those to find others and so on.

As Chen writes at the end of her post: "Be part of the solution."

New media

I've always been enamored with print journalism (as a previous post attests). The smell of the ink right off the press, the crinkle of newsprint, the inherent trust that I have for the printed word...It all brings me back to my roots. But print is heading out of style, mostly because of the price of upkeep. And what is replacing it? Online journalism, at its finest. What started as a bunch of uploaded articles from the print version, has turned into a dynamic feed of news that offers almost immediate updates and brand new ways of looking at news. From New York Times' dynamic feature on Election Day that showed how the audience was feeling about the election in real time to the Salt Lake Tribune's effort to put news on the map for readers, journalism is evolving at a rapid pace. And in fact, many traditional print journalists are, understandably, jumping ship to online.
The one thing that must be said is that we still need journalism. That much is obvious. But the creators of the new world of online journalism need to tread carefully. We can't fully abandon the principle of print just because we are working in a new medium.
According to Virginia Heffernan, writing her column The Medium in the Dec. 5 issue of the NY Times' Sunday Magazine:

"The third argument says we have to change. We have to develop content that metamorphoses in sync with new ways of experiencing it, disseminating it and monetizing it. This argument concedes that it’s not possible to translate or extend traditional analog content like news reports and soap operas into pixels without fundamentally changing them. So we have to invent new forms. All of the fascinating, particular, sometimes beautiful and already quaint ways of organizing words and images that evolved in the previous centuries — music reviews, fashion spreads, page-one news reports, action movies, late-night talk shows — are designed for a world that no longer exists. They fail to address existing desires, while conscientiously responding to desires people no longer have."

Her argument revolves around the assumption that readers don't want to see the features of a newspaper placed directly online. This argument is fundamentally true. But what we do need is to figure out how to translate the principles of newspapers to online media.
A new study sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Associated Press Managing Editors explores the so-called "online credibility gap" and what readers want from their online news. The report discovered many things, but one thing that is surprising is that many of the people surveyed said that online journalism benefits from the principles of print journalism. According to the report:

"Both the public and editors thought all the basics such as 'verifying information,'
'getting the facts right,' 'correcting mistakes,' and both journalists and users 'taking
responsibility for accuracy' should be practiced to support good journalism online."

Journalists should take note and realize that we can't abandon print journalism principles just because we've gone online. While we can stretch our creative processes and come up with some great ways to present the news, we will never have to worry about not being needed or wanted by the public. Offering accurate, unbiased news will always be considered important.

All that being said, I am now trying to decide whether to continue to pursue a print-heavy career, or to completely immerse myself in online journalism. I'm beginning to lean towards online just because of all the new and creative potential it offers for bringing the news to readers.

The plans

This is basically an update to this post, which was my original introductory post. Quite a few things have chanced since 2007, including my plans for this blog.
A few things you should know:

• I graduated from college in May 2008, where I was the Editor in Chief of the school's weekly newspaper.
• Since then I've been working as a copy editor at the Daily Press, a community-minded paper covering Hampton Roads, Virgina
• I've also segued into page design and uploading stories/pictures to our Web site.

So with all that said, my purpose is to chronicle a young journalist's beginning in an industry that is quickly evolving. Through the journey I'll share my reflections on the medium and my experiences learning the new tools that journalists will need to survive. I'll begin by updating three times a week (MWF). Monday and Wednesday will always be about journalism and my quest to find my place in it, while Friday will be a grab-bag day. Friday's will include random finds on the net, reviews of books I'm reading, an exploration of a really neat article I've read or some photos I've taken recently.

So, welcome to the new Search for Truth.

I'm back...Cue the resolutions

Whew! Why that was a lovely break. Why did I need one? Well I was getting really obsessed with feeling the need to blog about every little thing that I see on the nets and feeling guilty when I do no have the time or energy to do so. I also needed time to remake this blog into what I want it to be: A voice on journalism and a young journalist's place in it.

I am sorry if I scared anyone with my last post. I'm never leaving journalism! I'm just unsure what my specific path in said career will be. I am currently enjoying my growing responsibilities at the Daily Press. I have quickly learned that being tasked with one specific job throughout the night makes for a very boring eight (or nine or 10) hours. But when I have many jobs (editing, designing, etc.) the night seems to fly and I am able to just enjoy working, instead of thinking about all the things that are worrying me.

So, I'm sure you're waiting eagerly for my conclusion. Well, to be honest I have finally made peace with the fact that I will not know where my path lies until I trip over it (Literally. I'm quite clumsy, you know). I can only try to prepare as best as I can. With that in mind, I am working on a few things:

• Online Journalism: For Christmas I was given Adobe CS3 Design Suite and a couple of manuals for learning the programs within this package. I am working to become a pro at Dreamweaver CS3 and have a good handle on HTML and CSS so that I can then market those talents. In a side note, The Missing Manual series is really good. It manages to be succinct yet in depth, as well as serious yet, at times, amusing.
  My goal? To build an online resume of my work that I could then use in my job search as well as an example of my expertise.


• Design: My version of CS3 includes InDesign. While this is the best program (in my opinion) for design, the industry is definitely using a few other programs. I have a version of Quark (basically the off-brand version of InDesign) that I hope to begin learning on soon. The Tribune company uses CCI (basically a publishing/linking system) that has its own program called LayoutChamp. My job has been letting me get more and more experience with this program and I can pretty much do everything necessary to function as a full-time page designer elsewhere.
  My goal? To begin building up my design clips so that I will be able to prove that I am qualified for such a position.


• Teaching: The first step before I can become a professor is to get into and complete graduate school. Preferably I'd like to get all the way up to a Ph.D. in one fell swoop, but I know that may not be possible. So, right now I am trying to come up with alternative education routes that will take me closer to becoming a professor. My goal? Retake my GRE. I know I said I never wanted to take it again after I took it once and got a great score. But I barely studied for the first try and I'm curious to see how much my scores will improve if I actually buckled down to study. I'd also like to decide on a grad school now so I can plan my job search around places near the schools I'm interested in.


• Photograpy: I'd like to return to my roots and get back into photography. I have so much around me to be inspired by. It's time I gave myself a chance to receive that inspiration. I'm also looking at building my skill in Photoshop so I can also edit my digital photos and eventually market those skills.

So I guess we can look at this list as a list of journalism-related resolutions. Good luck to me! And stay tuned for how I will soon be organizing this blog better and getting it in shape to be a good example of my work.

My break...

Sorry I forgot to tell everyone, but I am taking a break from the blog until after the new year. In fact, I won't be posting again until Jan. 5. I need a chance to recenter myself and refocus on what I want to do with journalism - online? reporting? designing? editing? teaching? Stay tuned for the conclusion!

Why we need the press...

I admit. I may be a little biased here. But maybe its not so much bias as truth. And while I would hope you would take my word for it, I don't expect you to. Instead I ask that you just consider a few words about why you should care about newspapers from a free newspaper in New York City called AM New York. Some parts that stuck out to me:

"What this means is fewer voices, fewer opinions presented in fewer ways, all of which has a tremendous impact on the public discourse in a very dangerous way," said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause.
“How do they do investigative journalism and keep politicians and businesses honest?” he said. “Blogs can fill in some of the vacuum but do they have the resources to risk lawsuits for taking on the powerful?”
As newspaper staffs shrink, so might the ranks of those who dedicate their careers to the profession.

All of these are perfect points that explain why I'm still in newspapers and why I want to fight so hard to save them, or at least the main idea behind them. We aim to share the news and safeguard the people. As long as I am doing that, I am quite happy in any medium. But sometimes its hard to beat the design found on paper (even glossy magazine paper)
Take a look at the AM New York's cover for the story discussed about at Mario Garcia's blog about newspaper design. I send you there not only because the head is so well done and shows how to use both color and words to make your point in design, but also that Mario is quite informed about all things designed. A good resource if it has any interest for you folks.

And, for a laugh (because one really can't be in the newspaper business without a sense of humor, morbid or otherwise), the blogger over at News after Newspapers has an interesting list of predictions for 2009. The most amusing:
"A major motion picture or HBO series featuring a journalism theme (perhaps a blogger involved in saving the world from nefarious schemes) will generate renewed interest in journalism as a career."
And hey, this could mean a revival for journalism.

Sticking up for the bossman...

Okay, okay. All traditional journalists have a thing or two to say about Sam Zell (CEO of the Tribune Co., the parent company of The Daily Press, where I work). Most hate him and the rest can just barely stand him. I think he came at an inopportune time to do something the business needed: shake it out of its self-induced fog of contentment. Unfortunately, it was too little too late to save us the easy way. So this means that we have to save ourselves the hard way, which is exactly what Chapter 11 is. A way to save ourselves from debtors so we can have time to do a drastic reorganization, the same reorganization we've been needing.
As a sort of nontraditional employee here (I'm new to the newspaper business and in fact have no real stake in the Daily Press other than a biweekly paycheck that isn't worth that much) its odd that I suddenly have such strong opinions about Zell and his top minion (Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams). Even odder is that my instinct is to finally stick up for them. Timing seems to put Zell solely to blame for the apparent collapse of a respected media giant. But in truth, he was given the mess we're in now. It may be his drastic cuts and quick decision to try to sell-off such superfluous holdings as Careerbuilder and the Chicago Cubs (why a newspaper would need a baseball team is something I have not been able to understand) that are keeping us from actually having to go bankrupt.
So that said, all of those commenting on the situation are really not helping by attacking Zell and gleefully cackling about the downfall of his plan. All that does is make it harder for those of us actually affected by the company's failures to buckle-down and try to remake journalism.

For other comments on the Tribune check out Buzz Machine, Newspaper Deathwatch, Recovering Journalist, and Web 2.0h really?. These are all blogs and offer a range of comments about Zell's affect on the Tribune and the news industry. My favorite is the old rebuttal from Jeff Jarvis on the Buzz Machine which says that Zell can't be blamed for something that is the result of "decades of egotistical and willfully ignorant neglect by the owners, managers — and staff — at" newspapers.

on the job search..

Let's just say that in the current condition that journalism is in, it is always better to be perpetually looking for jobs. Especially when your company is set on putting a smiley-face on the numbers while it secretly considers how best to stave off bankruptcy. Oh Tribune, why are you so grim...and so unwilling to give your "valued" employees a heads-up?

And so I scan: job banks, classifieds, journalismjobs.com, even media bistro's job bank (which holds relatively few newspaper jobs). Sadly it seems that these companies need a great deal of help, considering the sorry state of their ads. Case in point (errors idenified by italics):

DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR
The ideal candidate will have Web content experience, including the development of podcasts and/or videocasts. This person will be expected to rap up projects quickly and should be proficient in all aspects of Web technology. This person should also have excellent document management and organizational skills. Video experience is a plus, as is an interest in the manufacturing industry. A Bachelor's degree in Journalism or Communications, or equivalent work expeirnce is required.
This position is responsbile for developing new eMedia projects, including e-newsletters, videocasts, web forums and other Internet realted programs. This position is also responsbile for editing content for style, grammar and spelling.

I'm gonna go with "help needed immediately". I am torn between wanting to work for them because they are so obviously in desperate need for editing assistance and not wanting to work for a company that has such a lack of editors that they couldn't take two minutes to scan their ad to correct such egregious errors. I mean really...it took me less than a minute to find these.