Well, there's always public relations. I mean that. Especially for a nonprofit one can believe in. After 25 years in newspapers, mostly in copy editing, I switched to PR for a nonprofit social service agency that helps poor people (including the working poor) pay child care costs and utility bills, administers Head Start, and does a whole bunch of useful things. <p>I took a pay cut, but three years later I make about the same money I made before. The retirement benefits aren't as good, but the health insurance is better. They count vacation time and sick leave together as paid-time-off and they don't quibble if you call in to say you need to stay home with a sick kid. <p>I work a day shift, no weekends. No more working holidays (including Good Friday, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and the day after Thanksgiving.) No more planning family vacations around elections and major projects. <p>I just came back from a photo op I set up in which a volunteer group of knitters distributed warm hats and teddy bears to our Head Start kids, which should get decent play tonight on TV and tomorrow in my old newspaper. It's not editing Ernie Pyle's dispatches from the front, but it's honorable. <p>Now social service people are different than newspeople, I agree. A lot of the reason I read this Web site is because I miss the conversations on the copy desk. But I'm still doing layout and copyediting and pagination -- only on newsletters and press releases instead of newsprint -- and coming up with story ideas. I'm also learning new stuff about grant writing and program planning. All in all, it's a wonderful experience. <p>So think about it. Any newspaper person brings to the table more than just technical skills -- we also bring knowledge of how the media works, that those in other fields don't necessarily have. Really simple stuff, like who to call to pitch a story to (and how to do it). It's knowledge the social service world appreciates.
|