Tips for Keeping your Media Job ?

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Think your job is safe in Broadcast or Newspaper?  Hopefully it is. But just in case you want to be pro-active in order to increase your chances of avoiding a layoff…..read this……

After 32 years in the biz, sport writer Paul Oberjuerge got whacked from the San Berdardino Sun. Unfortunately, this is an all to common occurrence. Not just in Newspaper, but in Broadcast too.  Paul drew up a list of  “Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job.”  Some of it is politically incorrect. Some might make you cringe. Yet, it’s worth a read.

Alot of this stuff applies to those in TV and Radio as well.  Note that “embrace the Web” is Number One. Here’s a few from the list:

Ten Tips for Staying Employed:

1. Embrace the web. It’s going to be extra work, and you’re going to be on your own 24-hour news/opinion cycle. But that’s how it is; you can rest up when you’re dead. Management is keenly aware of the foot-draggers on this front. Don’t wait to be ordered to “serve other platforms” of the paper. Volunteer. Blog. Post photos. Consider video. Offer podcasts. Do web-only quick-and-dirty news stories. You’re a multi-media machine now!

4. Stop whining. Journalism is a business notorious for its contrary and crabby people, for second-guessers and “that’s not how we’ve done it before” grousers. Five years ago you might have been overlooked as the Charming Curmudgeon. Now, you’re the Negative Nellie. When the call comes down to trash another 10 percent of the newsroom, don’t be the relentless kvetcher who immediately pops into the editor’s mind. Oh, and remember, “second-guessing” now consists of anything other than instant acceptance.

 Read all 10 here.

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