Life after TV news
The downsizing of television newsrooms has left a lot of people looking for work, many of them wondering what else they might be qualified to do. Teaching and PR may be obvious options, but they’re not the only ones. While TV stations may be retrenching, there are plenty of other outlets for video that need the skills journalists bring to the table.
In Wichita, Kansas, former TV reporter Lauragail Locke is producing news shows for the city cable channel “that take government TV well beyond the community calendars and unblinking meeting coverage of the past,” according to the Wichita Eagle.
Former Minneapolis photojournalist Matt Knisely is now director of communications for Lawton First Assembly, a large Oklahoma church, where he produces videos and oversees media strategy. “I thought it was going to be easier [than TV] because of the brutal schedules,” he says. Not so. “I’m putting in more hours now for the church than I did at Fox.”
Knisely also freelances, producing video for other non-profits like the Red Cross. The transition to non-profit work hasn’t been entirely smooth. Distrust of the news media affected the way he was perceived. “It’s like I came from the pit of Hell,” Knisely says. But his skills are appreciated. “I’m a storyteller. I can help an organization tell their story. I can apply my knowledge. It’s a perfect match.”
Veteran TV reporter John Sharify says he had to learn new skills when he became general manager of Seattle Community College TV after leaving the KOMO newsroom in 2007. “I’m using a different part of my brain,” he says. “It’s exhilarating.”
At the same time, he says, he draws on his background as a reporter every day to bring in revenue from clients. “So much of what I do is framing things like a story, laying it out in a way that is clear and enticing.” And he says it’s in journalists’ DNA to produce quality work on deadline, which his new bosses appreciate. “Juggling 19 different things without breaking a sweat is not a big deal.”
Sharify says he’s never regretted his decision to leave the newsroom, but when a local station asked if he’d come back to do a few stories a month it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. He plans to keep his full time job at SCCTV while reporting part time for KING-TV starting in September.
Knisely won’t rule out getting back in the business. Leaving TV news was “a shock to the system,” he says. “I miss the highs. I don’t miss the lows.” And on the personal side, the benefits are great. “My kids come every day to eat lunch with me,” Knisely says. “You couldn’t do that in TV.”
We need more information. What are the salaries like? Do they have a contract with their employer for several, hopefully, years. Is there medical and how good and/or expensive is it? Do they have retirement plans? For all the problems, past, present, and future with tv news, people worked at tv stations for years, even decades. Now, that’s it’s falling apart, we have to judge whether the alternatives are not only emotionally and professionally fulfilling, but will they also put milk in the fridge and pay the mortgage.
Deb: Here’s what this former major-market TV/newspaper journalist is doing — the story of the covert destruction of democracy and the rule of law in America…
…the story that mainstream media cannot or will not do.
Money is unimportant now. Getting the story out is.
But I could use some company.
Take a look at the lead article, and others on my site:
http://www.nowpublic.com/scrivener
I was just laid off last week after nearly 14 years of covering news in Idaho. It was a major shock. I am so excited to see what the future holds, and what jobs could be out there for my skills. I loved being a reporter and it was so much of who I am. The local paper quoted me in an article of my layoff as saying that I can now pick up my daughter after school– something i’ve never been able to do before. The last few days of doing that have been wonderful. I missed alot.
Big changes, but also I know I can do this.
I am sad to see that with the closing of the bureau that I was the chief over, that news in one city and area won’t get covered as much. You work so hard to gain a foothold in a community and then in one budget swipe– gone. It’s tough out there, and I didn’t know it would hit Idaho. Nine laid off at our station.
Thanks for the ideas. Glad a friend sent me the link.
Fortunately, the explosion of cable TV stations as well as the other “venues” offered above, plus county and city TV operations and elsewhere, give room for those with the most name recognition a place to continue in the field. I sense that those who are lesser known are left to forage for work elsewhere. In the case of most who find something, though, their forte in their vacated broadcast job is vastly different than their new job, i.e. just because one is a good reporter does not mean that they’re a capable manager. They’re two different skillsets that most people don’t have. It’s akin to the most capable technical worker being promoted to manager and failing miserably, as they don’t know how to communicate with and put themselves in the shoes of the people they supervise. A clue as to if they possess both talents is whether, as a “manager,” they share credit with their staff, or whether their statements make it sound as if they’re accomplishing everything by themselves.