Subscribe Today

Parting Thoughts RSS

Fri, 29 Aug 2008

The AJC's Michelle Hiskey

Leaving a job, leaving a family
By Michelle Hiskey
Posted at 08:00 AM Comments (3)

Today, August 29, is my final day at the only full-time job I have ever known: writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I’m forty-five. I started here twenty-two years ago, half my lifetime. It’s an uncommon crossroads—federal labor statistics show that a person sticks with a job for about four years.

Newspaper work, though, means far more than a paycheck,... Read More

Wed, 20 Aug 2008

Parting Thoughts: Chris Ison

A note to editors: talk journalism, and win back the newsroom
By Chris Ison
Posted at 11:43 AM Comments (6)

It was one of the first management meetings in my career as an assistant managing editor, and our boss was talking about “aligning our values.” I was resisting drinking the management Kool-Aid, and I peeked around the room to see how the more experienced editors were taking in the message.

They looked pretty serious, so I refrained from the... Read More

Thu, 14 Aug 2008

Parting Thoughts: Clarissa Aljentera

'There's a goodness in newsrooms, in journalists'
By Clarissa Aljentera
Posted at 12:12 PM Comments (2)

In my idealistic mind, good journalism could save the world. As a high school senior, I believed that journalists were the best storytellers. I still do. We can turn a magnifying glass to governments and schools. We can turn it on our neighbors and ourselves. Our words can sting, and soothe.

And in these difficult economic times it hurts to... Read More

Tue, 5 Aug 2008

Parting Thoughts: Tracy Fox

‘I decided to become a nurse’
By Tracy Gordon Fox
Posted at 02:33 PM Comments (1)

I remember the exact moment it struck me. I was lying on a couch bed in Connecticut Children's Hospital next to my teenage daughter who had pancreatitis, a painful, but treatable inflammation of the pancreas. The intravenous machine steadily dripped pain medication and fluids into her veins. A medical helicopter hovered over Hartford Hospital across the street, where a trauma... Read More

Mon, 4 Aug 2008

Parting Thoughts: Winston Wood

News remains vital, but there’s better money in panhandling
By Winston Wood
Posted at 12:22 PM Comments (8)

For several years as an editor at The Wall Street Journal I was invited by my college alumni association to speak about journalism to undergrads at the group's annual Career Night. This involved a panel discussion with three or four others in the field talking about what we did, how we did it and—of primary interest to the audience—how we... Read More

Fri, 1 Aug 2008

Parting Thoughts: Richard Kipling

Experience matters; we’re about to learn just how much
By Richard Kipling
Posted at 12:03 PM Comments (2)

In September of 1991, in the depths of the Bush-the-Father recession, I penned a piece for CJR. Headlined "A Lost Generation," it bemoaned the loss of young talent graduating from journalism schools with no job prospects. I was a hiring editor at the Los Angeles Times, and only a year or so before the economy tanked I had helped bring... Read More

Thu, 31 Jul 2008

Parting Thoughts: John Flowers

Whither the money men?
By John Flowers
Posted at 11:42 AM Comments (1)

Redefining policy—as one is wont to do when suffering an existential crisis—starts with asking the right questions. An alcoholic, for instance, who asks himself, “Does alcohol have a problem with me?” probably isn't going to get the help he needs. Ditto journalists.

We've been asking ourselves the wrong question about the future of our industry for years now. It's... Read More

Wed, 30 Jul 2008

Parting Thoughts: Rick Vernaci

Newspapers are reliable, and that means something
By Rick Vernaci
Posted at 11:35 AM Comments (3)

I left journalism a dozen years ago, well before The Plague struck.

It had been twenty mostly happy years since the first day I walked into a newspaper office in Texas and was surprised to find that it smelled like ink; that every desk in the small, dark newsroom had an oil can filled with rubber cement; that the... Read More

Tue, 29 Jul 2008

Parting Thoughts: Todd Engdahl

Sorry to be blunt, but get over it
By Todd Engdahl
Posted at 12:04 PM Comments (2)

I thought hard before sitting down to tap this out, because I didn’t want to seem insensitive about changes that have so severely disrupted the careers, finances, and self-esteem of so many.

But, after years of reading Romenesko, countless other blogs, and endless articles on high-minded media Web sites, I’ve heard enough complaining, enough nostalgia for a golden age... Read More

Mon, 28 Jul 2008

Parting Thoughts: John Biemer

‘You only live twice’
By John Biemer
Posted at 11:35 AM Comments (1)

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be applying to medical school in 2008, I would’ve said you’re nuts.

By then, I had worked as a journalist for a decade. I had interviewed presidential candidates campaigning through Iowa, Kosovar Albanians in a refugee camp in the Balkans, and survivors of a deadly tornado hours after it... Read More

Desk Archives

All CJR Posts

Current Cover

Sept / Oct 08

Table of Contents Browse Back Issues Subscribe Attitude Adjustment Blind Spot More...

The Associated Press. Miami, Florida. Photo by Sean Hemmerle. More...

Top Stories
  • Parting Thoughts: An Invitation

    Give us your thoughts on journalism’s state and its future

  • Opening Bell: Oil Slicks

    As prices soar, U.S. looks for scapegoats; UBS ready to roll over; Jimmy Cayne, pariah; Rachael Ray, jihadi; etc.

  • Mort Rosenblum on Dispatches

    New quarterly bucks industry trend, exudes smart idealism

  • Cut the Dividends!

    Newspaper companies fork over hundreds of millions a year—and for what?

  • Opening Bell: The Hours

    Americans are working fewer, but not by choice; cuts on Wall Street; jobless ranks swell; etc.

  • Wiring Journalism 2.0

    Brad Stenger on the intersection of the press and computer science

  • Opening Bell

    In CJR's a.m. guide to the business press: Grim tidings on housing; WP says a veto threatened on bailouts; 50 bank failures? etc. etc.

  • The Opening Bell

    Pause in the panic; the Times on useless insurance; more bad news for a fallen titan, etc.

Recent Comments