Out of Print

It was 2:30 p.m. Time to get a new profession.

I said goodbye to my editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune and thanked him for having me as a summer intern. I was about to leave after my last day reporting for the paper’s Metro desk. It was an eye-opening 10 weeks; I learned how to make my writing short and clear; I became less sloppy about crucial details like a person’s age or an event’s location and incurred my first correction; I also met some great people both in and out of the newsroom who are working on inspiring projects.

But all that my editor and the other reporters around the newsroom wanted to know was what my new career choice would be. You know, because there’s no way I could ever go back to journalism after this summer.

“Time to find a new job, right?” “Get out while can.” Reporters halfway between sarcasm and sadness, some of whom I had never even met, passed by my desk in the wake of the paper’s most recent buyout announcement to personally warn me. The industry is dying. “I’m going to go down with the Titanic. I even have the sheet music for it.”

During my two months at the paper, San Diego’s largest daily and one of the last privately-owned newspapers in the country, a lot of what I saw disheartened me: I watched the paper go up for sale. I could literally see the investment banker meeting with the editor-in-chief through her office door minutes before the paper announced it would begin to “explore strategic options.”
I also watched dozens of reporters and editors whisper over who would stay and who go shortly after, when the newspaper announced its third round of buyout offers in two years. This time they wanted to cut at least 30 more people from an already dwindling news staff. The man I shared a desk with, who’s been covering legal affairs for the U-T for years, told me he was staying, but, “I don’t even know what’s going to be left of the paper after this.”

The public editor who interviewed me last December and coordinated my internship told me today that she would be accepting the buyout and heading back into the job market. She isn’t optimistic. I tried to sound cheery as I said goodbye. After all, I’m excited to learn about new business models for journalism, like the nonprofit Pro Publica that’s doing investigative reporting.

But I’ve wanted to get into newspapers since the first time I saw my byline in print. I dressed up as Nelly Bly for my 6th grade biography fair! And I think it might be too late for me to get out—Yes, I’ve spent enough time in the asylum to become as crazy as the inmates. I might just break out into a line or two of “My Heart Will Go On.”


Cheap shot at McCain of the day: How can he say the fundamentals of the economy are strong when fewer and fewer Americans can rely on the security of their jobs?


UPDATE: my former editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted me on his blog. Click the link for his take on the buyouts.