I couldn't resist volunteering to take Scott Reinardy's survey -- part of the KU j-school assistant professor's plan to study how laid-off journalists are transitioning into new life. If you're one of those, as I am, and you'd like to participate, e-mail him. He replies quickly.
The survey's fairly quick to complete, and it's confidential. Good questions but not much opportunity to add comment. Probably just as well. Gut-spilling invites babbling. The questions make you want to spill your guts. I got the sense that I was back in a newsroom, talking with a colleague who cared about what was going on inside of me. I miss that camaraderie.
Honestly, I was skeptical about whether I'd be of any value. I'm not part of the "lost generation" of mid-career journalists who've been axed. I'm part of some sort of "lost" category, but I don't know what that is. I'm "late-career" after spending 43 years in and around newspapering, and I know the foolish stereotyping associated with that.
And I've experienced what it's like to send out 40 or 50 resumes without so much as a "thanks for applying." So I was prepared for the same reaction from Reinardy. But Reinardy welcomed my participation.
"I'm not sure there is an ideal candidate for this study," he replied in an e-mail. "With all those who have been cut loose, I don't think there's an ideal demographic. ... I'd love to get a couple of hundred respondents but so far I'm about 180 short of that. If you know of others who might be interested, please direct them this way."
I was comfortable in contacting Reinardy. He knows what journalists are up against, and he knows the craft. He's a former sportswriter and has written books about essentials in sports reporting and such, but he also cares about journalists, which is why he conducts studies like the one above. Newsweek blurbed about one of his studies that dug into burnout among sportswriters.
I hope Reinardy gets the response he'd like. Results may or may not raise any eyebrows, but they'll be interesting, particularly views about how management handled the layoffs. I was treated well, but I've heard about Cretan treatment elsewhere, lending credibility to the idea of "news department manager" as an oxymoron.
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