Laid Off? 10 Tips For Suddenly Unemployed Journalists

According to the excellent (if depressing) PaperCuts newspaper layoffs tracker, more than 20,000 jobs have been cut from American newspapers since the beginning of 2008—more than 3,500 in the past two months. That quickening trend is going to continue as the industry's spiral worsens and more newsrooms are cut back and/or papers close.

The newspaper crisis really hits home, of course, when it's your job that's cut. There are waves of guilt, shame, anger, depression and fear that come fast and furious. Questions abound. What do I tell my family? How will I pay my bills? How will I find a new job in this economy? Was it something that I did, or didn't do? You'll go through all of this and more when you're laid off.

I've been laid off and I've had to lay people off, and it's an understatement to say that it's not easy for anyone. But there are some things you can and should do to get a grip on the situation and position yourself to move on to the next phase of your life. 

Here are 10 tips for suddenly unemployed journalists. Nothing can immediately take away the pain and anxiety that you're feeling, but hopefully these will help you understand that your situation is not unique and that you'll be able to get through this. And maybe it will get you thinking about next steps.

1. Don't freak out–This is hard to hear. "I just lost my job, for chrissakes!" Yes, you did. But don't beat yourself up about it. Given the state of the news business these days, a layoff is hardly your fault–it's a failure by your ex-employer. Don't succumb to depression or go into a funk. Get to work immediately getting your act together and finding a new job. And you're going to quickly find out that you're hardly alone—and I don't just mean those 20,000 other newspaper jobs lost since the beginning of last year. Many friends will come forward to tell you that they've been laid off or fired during their careers. They've just never told you until now. It's an unfortunate part of life, and they went through it and survived. So have millions of others. So will you. 
2. Get your finances in order—Hopefully, you saw the industry faltering and began putting money away for this rainy day. Even if you didn't, look hard at ways to conserve money and get by with less. Sorry, you might have to give up that daily Starbucks for a while, and cut way down on going out. And it's time to finally learn Quicken and how it can help you manage your finances. Take care of yourself, too: Spend some time at the gym.
3. Apply for unemployment—Your employer paid into the unemployment pool, and now it's time for you to take advantage of it. It's no shame, it's not welfare–it's there precisely for this reason. Start collecting it–it's a small but essential flow of cash that can run for several months.
4. Network like crazy—Get in touch with everybody you know who might be able to help you. Ask them to refer you to others they know. Then do it again, and again. If you're a good reporter, you know the drill–it's very similar to working a beat—persistence and repetition pay off. You've got to regularly let people know that you're available. Out of sight, out of mind is a real problem when you're in the job market, and you never know when you'll contact somebody who just happened to be looking for somebody with your skills. If you don't do it, it won't happen for you. Plus, it's an excuse to get out of the house for to get together with other people.
5. Get on Facebook and LinkedIn—These are the modern forms of networking. If you're not already on these essential social networks, register for accounts (it takes seconds), start "friending" people and learn how to use them to connect with others. Again, that old colleague you hadn't thought about in years until you reconnected on Facebook could have a job lead for you. In addition, familiarity with Facebook is a good way to start understanding some of the leading edge principles in new media. It also can be lots of fun.
6. Expand your new media horizons—And not just Facebook. Spend some time getting to know and using things like Twitter, Flickr and all those other strange names you've heard about but never really paid attention to. Getting up to speed on these will greatly enhance your knowledge of new media, and that's going to be essential to keeping your journalism career going. Your print skills will only take you so far. You can no longer pay lip service to new media–dive in. And no, you don't need to learn HTML or any computer languages. Really. It's not that scary. But it doesn't hurt to take some classes at a local community college or even the Apple Store to learn about things like Photoshop, video production or, yes, HTML. Don't be intimidated. Getting comfortable with those things—and it's easier than you think—will enhance your skills and make you much more marketable. (Gina Chen's blog is a good resource for helping journalists understand the new media world.)
7. Start a blog—If you're not blogging already, start, immediately. Again, it's really easy and gets you into the new media milieu. If nothing else, it's a good way to keep your writing chops sharp. You can blog about just about anything, but here's a thought: Why not be really entrepreneurial and start a blog about your old beat, or about some niche topic that you think is undercovered. Keep at it, and over time, you may find your blog becoming a key to your next job.
8. Look beyond journalism for your next job—Journalists have investigative, organization, storytelling, writing and editing skills that are taken for granted in newsrooms but are seen as rare and valuable in other fields. Broaden your range of possibilities by thinking about a new career outside of journalism. I wrote about that at length a while back in a post called Life After Journalism. Check that out for ideas.
9. Don't be afraid to ask for help—Misplaced pride can hurt you. Please don't be embarrassed by what happened to you. Don't let your self-confidence crumble (though it's easy to understand why it would be shaken). People want to help; reach out whenever you can and ask them for help. It's not a sign of weakness. And by the way: These are the times when you really find out who your friends are. You'll treasure them forever for what they do for you.  
10. Take a deep breath—Again, don't freak out. You're going to get through this. If you can hack it financially, take some time for yourself before plunging into finding a new job. You've been through one of life's most traumatic experiences (no doubt on the stressful heels of months or years of uncertainty and fear in your newsroom). It's going to take you some time to emotionally recover, in ways you won't grasp for years. If you can get away and take some time off to decompress, do it. It will really help your mental health and ability to move forward. And you may never get a chance again to take a mid-career break like this, for yourself or to spend time with your family.

Good luck. 

Comments

[Tex]

Great list, but I'd add one side note about Tip #4: Birds of a feather flock together, and many journalists will find that big chunks of their network are occupied by other journalists... who are themselves un(der)employed and/or seeking new jobs. It can quickly become an echo chamber of "everyone's looking / nobody's hiring."

So allow me to suggest Tip #4A: Get some new friends. As in, go out of your way to meet new people who have nothing to do with The Business. One good place to start is your college alumni group.

You already have some interests in common, but your fellow alums are probably diversified among local businesses. And who knows, some of those outfits might need people with journo job skills.

[Mark Potts]

Thanks, Tex. Very good point, especially in smaller markets. That's also why I recommended looking at other fields, outside journalism, where journalism skills might have value. There's a link to that post, Life After Journalism, in Point #8 and in the "Laid Off?" sidebar in the upper right column of the page.

[Andrew]

Great post -- a few thoughts of my own:

1) About staying in touch — online sites like LinkedIn are great, but I’ve also found that unemployment social networks (Free Agents - http://www.freeagentnet.com is one) are a great way to keep your pulse on what other people are doing in the job search world. Its nice to know where people are finding success, and also good to network with people that don’t have jobs. At the very least, its a good place to go with any general questions you have about the process or when you need encouragement.

2) Regarding your severance and termination agreements - they will want you to sign an agreement that states what you can and can’t do with regards to competitors, old customers, etc before you can begin getting your severance. READ THIS CLOSELY, especially if you are planning on finding a new job in the same field. Might even be worthwhile to have a lawyer check it out, especially if you have a decent amount of severance riding on it.

[Recession Proof with Homemaker Barbi]

Great tips. We have a recession proofing series in progress at my site and our last article was about recession proofing your job. These are great specifics for writers, and I'll be linking to your article in our series. Thank you!

Danelle Ice / Homemaker Barbi

[Ann Brenoff]

I wrote the Los Angeles' Times Hot Property column (nationally syndicated) and worked there for the past 18 years. I joined the ranks of the unemployed in the latest round of 70 newsroom cuts.

My husband and I started up our own company, running after-school and summer enrichment programs -- and we are HIRING laid off journalists to run newspaper clubs in schools and other classes.

I'd be happy to talk to any unemployed print journalist anywhere. Currently we are only registered in California, but are adding New York, Conn., New Jersey and Texas to our business shortly.

You can reach me at [email protected].

Stay strong.

Ann Brenoff

[editorial wife]

I just wanted to thank you for posting this. After reading tons of web pages from people actually happy about journalism layoffs (reveling in it), it was nice to find something helpful. My husband is going through a rough time at the Times Union in Albany, NY. They are expected to send layoff notices next week. He's been in the business over 25 years and knows nothing else...and has never gone through anything like this. He is our family's only source of income...but, even more then the money, I am afraid of how depressed he will be if he's laid off. I will email your tips to him at work - maybe he and the other 240+ employees waiting for "the call" will find it helpful, too.

[Tanya English]

I just wanted to suggest that an AWESOME career choice for journalists who may want to retrain is realtime court reporting and realtime captioning. It's been a great career for me, and we are looking for qualified people with great vocabularies, grammar skills, and the discipline to work at home. Here's a link to a video that shows a very good program that's online and has reasonable tuition. Check it out. http://www.realtimetranscription.com/showcase/btc/index.php#

[David Nickell]

Unfortunately, I caught this article rather late. Like almost two and a half years late. But, hey, it's not like layoffs have subsided.

I was laid off from the Miami Herald in the spring of 2009. I know the tips you suggested first-hand.

Sadly, several will just not work. Telling someone to buck up or not get depressed is an exercise in futility. The key is to have your cry and get over it, to replace inaction and self-pity with action and pride. Give yourself a week to wallow in depression. Hell, two weeks. But put a deadline on it.

What worked for me can't work for the majority. I was lucky enough to be near retirement age when the ax fell. So when unemployment compensation ran out, I applied for my newspaper pension and took an early retirement from Social Security.

The severance and unemployment comp kept me going for about two years.

During that time I tried most of the suggested tips, from networking to attempting to transfer my skills to a different field, including porno (as an editor, not as a performer). Nothing worked.

Fortunately, I only needed enough income to supplement my pension and my Social Security. So I forgot about journalism and after learning that even retail clerk jobs were at a premium, I started investigating what jobs might be recession-proof.

I took the training and became a security guard. I went from $27 an hour to $9 an hour. But so what? That $27-an-hour job would never come back around. I didn't need an illusionary job. I needed a real one.

I stuck out the security guard job for eight months. As bad as it was -- every bit as dreadful as you might imagine -- it got me out of the house. It got me to prepare healthy lunches for myself. It brought me into contact with people. It brought some sunshine into my life -- literally, not figuratively.

It enabled me to pay bills and to keep a roof over my head. Most important of all, it was so damn boring that it woke me up to what I ought to be doing.

I'm now starting a blog and finishing two books. If I can't make money with any of that, then I've got the uniform to fall back on.

And I think that's the key to survival. Try your best, by all means, to put your skills to good use, but if you don't find any takers, take a dose of reality. Devise a worst-case scenario -- or several of them -- that is your fall-back plan.

If you have to take a menial job, try to keep your energy level high enough to write in your spare time, if a writer is what you are. Blog, write books, anything that restores your sense of self-worth.

And get over the idea, the one I clung to during my whole career in journalism, that you are what you do. No, you're not. That's an identity defined by the people who just slit your throat. Be who you are on your own terms, not theirs.

And give yourself a treat every time you reach a milestone or achieve a major accomplishment. You will have earned it and you deserve it.