It was the 1970s. When I was trying to hold on in the dying game of college teaching in the humanities, every new announcement about positions being abolished was a stab in the heart. In those days, my fellow humanities doctoral students and I would spiral into high agita, which, of course, was only relieved by going to the pub and getting drunk. No surprise, many of us wound up in 12-step programs.
Likely the same sort of emotional devastation is occurring in journalism circles. Today, the media, including Reuters, are reporting that Robert Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of the publishing arm of News Corp, announced relentless cost-cutting. That will be necessary, explains Thomas, now that part of News Corp has split off from the lucrative entertainment segment. Think Fox News.
Relentless cutting probably means continuous ones. No job will be considered safe. I remember when my dream was to have a writing job, any kind on any terms and conditions, on THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. The tone was so sophisticated. The digging so brave. The end product so intelligent. Now, I am grateful that I gave all those notions up about 18 months ago. I switched back to primarily focusing on ghostwriting and speechwriting. This month, and it isn't over, I made more than I had any other month in my working career.
If any journalist wants a 15-minute pro bono consultation about testing out the executive communications waters, I'm happy to help. Please just contact me at mgenova981@aol.com. No, no one should give up journalism. I still keep active in getting published under my own byline. But we all have to grow up about how much emotional turmoil we can process.
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