As Byron Beck reports today on his blog, three Willamette Week staffers are moving along from the paper. There’s been some significant staff changes at our rival paper recently (Recap! News editor Hank Stern left for a PR job at the county, Oregonian reporter Brent Walth took his place, and WW news reporter Beth Slovic joined the O), but this is significant because Culture Editor Kelly Clarke, Copy Editor Kat Merck, and reporter James Pitkin are all leaving without other jobs lined up.

I haven’t talked with any of the three, but I think it’s worth noting as a sad sign of the times. Hopefully, they’ll all wind up with new jobs in journalism, but, actually, I wish them the best in finding jobs that make them happy. And those jobs most likely don’t involve newspapers. There have been a couple depressing studies about journalism burnout, but the one I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is a January 2011 study that found 74.5 percent of journalists 34 and younger either said they planned to leave newspaper journalism or said they “didn’t know” whether they would stick with the industry. The most at-risk to burnout are young copy editors or page designers working at small newspapers.

My 25th birthday is next week, which means I’ve been reporting professionally for newspapers off-and-on for six years (!!) and understand exactly what these studies mean when they talk about burnout. Getting paid two, three, or four times more to use my same skills for a PR company holds a certain allure (for example, the allure of a mini-pony, which I could purchase for my yacht, which I could also purchase) but just up-and-quitting the grind seems even nicer. In some ways, it’s like this for any job. But in many ways, it’s not. Because whenever I start to question my life as a reporter, there’s a dozen hounding stories about the death of journalism to back up the belief that I’m crazy for sticking with it. Whenever I talk to students who are thinking about trying to become reporters, it becomes a pep talk encouraging them to go for it if it’s what they really love to do. Because they should! Because the world always needs more good reporters. And because it’s an interesting job that provides an excuse to be endlessly curious. But on the other hand, off-putting to work in an industry where every discussion of the industry feels either gloomy or frantic.

For the foreseeable future, I’m definitely sticking with it. But if you’ve ever worked in media or have thoughts on burnout, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

21 replies on “Three Staffers Leave Willamette Week”

  1. First, I hadn’t realized Hank Stern had left the WW. He is great, and I’ll miss bugging him.

    I wonder if there are any studies comparing relative burnout across industries, job titles, and conditions. For example, which has higher burnout: working in media or working in the nonprofit industry? Stock brokering, or waiting tables in fine dining?

  2. Sarah,

    I’ll definitely be interested in what others have to say, too. I am pursuing a long time interest in journalism–particularly, political journalism–after having been a musician and a political activist for many years. I am currently taking every news, freelance, and magazine writing class that P.S.U. has.

    I cling to the idea that print journalism will survive in some form. Either it survives for the 50+ crowd (who aren’t dropping dead anytime soon, folks), or because we’ll all realize that the magnetism and radio/micro waves involved in staring at the computer all day are killing us; or at least, we really don’t enjoy getting dry eyes and stiff necks, after all.

    I cling to the idea that there will still be some sifting out of what we really want and value in our news reading medium that does not guarantee the triumph of online news and Craig’s List. Someone has to report and write it, and they have to eat. Well.

    Ironic anecdote: The Portland State writing department offered a summer course “The Future of the Periodical,” to begin this past June. It was cancelled. Only 2 students signed up.
    BUT WAIT: Caveat: for some reason, the class was not adequately advertised; it did not appear in the printed Summer Bulletin. The class may be back next year, and I’m keeping an eye out.

    So, in general, and in the example above, “The future of the periodical is PENDING.”

  3. Message to kids – if you want to be a talking head – go for it.

    If you end up in any other niche, reporting, editing, photogs … you will soon rue being trapped in the nightmare of 24/7-365 hours
    forget about seeing your family
    constant noise
    steady yelling of demands and criticism from your coworkers, bosses and customers
    All of this for near minimum wage pay!

  4. You’re only 25? That explains your tendency to jump to conclusions rather than question the reality presented by the other dominant papers in this market. A recommendation: if you’re interested in becoming a truly journalist, rather than just an aggregator of information, question everything that comes out of the mouth or pen of each of your colleagues. You might learn something interesting, or at least avoid embarrassing mistakes.

  6. It’s funny to me when some blowhard tries to bestow their “sagacious wisdom” on the “inept youngster” but doesn’t even have the competence to notice their own typos.

  8. I have quite a few things I could say about this, as it’s something I’ve been wrestling with: whether to continue full-time editing, working on things I really care about, with meager income and really long hours, or move over to freelancing, with less job security and having to work on things that I don’t care about at all, but higher pay and some spare time for a change. I’m sticking with the former, but I don’t have an answer yet to the burnout problem.
    But I won’t type out a lengthy comment about this, partly because a comment thread just doesn’t seem like the best forum for a discussion about this, especially after the last two posts — one from someone who apparently never has anything to offer but glib negativity usually based on a ridiculous oversimplification of any issue, and another from some craven, condescending ass who uses a bit of personal information that a journalist mentions about herself to tear into her and try to make her feel terrible about her work and abilities on the basis of some vague, conceited lecture. I can only assume that if she’s been at this 6 years she has the self-assurance not to be bothered in the least by such things.
    And I hope that every good journalist feels they’re really contributing to something important and gets the support and satisfaction they need to ward off burnout. I know that for copy editors and page designers anyway, it’s often far too much of a thankless grind.

  10. Print journalism will survive in some form or another, but it’ll be produced exclusively by people who–at least during the given period in their life–can survive off of sub-poverty level wages.

    So go for it, true believers in the all might power of Journalism. You’re like our modern day monks. Instead of paying you, the Mercury should just give you a wooden bowl that you can carry from house to house begging for food.

    If you started journalisming when you were 19, how many packets of ramen do you think you’ll have eaten when you finally retire penniless at the age of 85?

  11. I started as a journalist and didn’t last because I felt the feedback loop was imbalanced…so I found jobs that gave me an immediate connection to the people I was trying to reach. Between Theatre, education, and a spattering of lousy jobs that brought debt and a sense of loser-ness, I’m sad I didn’t stick with journalism sometimes- it was hard, frustrating and made me wish I had more time to read good journalism…but I liked connecting readers to stories about their world.

  12. I too often thought about quitting “The Grind,” but I’m glad I stuck it out to reach the highest level of journalism available to me.

  14. I know a (former) photojournalist who said that EVERY pj with whom they worked is now a wedding photographer. That’s tragic, in a sense, and yet I think that for any given moment, there are now probably more “breaking news” photos taken and distributed than ever before. That’s rough for the photographers but, all in all, a net gain. True, this gain isn’t realized in the same way with journalism (where storytelling skill, bias, insider knowledge, etc. all come to bear upon the value of a journalistic piece) but there, too, the internet and some innovative media groups are still coming up with ideas. And also, I take some amount of solace in results and trends such as The Economist recently observed in a special feature on the state of reporting and news in the world: http://www.economist.com/node/18904136

    Still, sorry to hear about the tough times at the WW.

  15. Wait–smart, ambitious, suffering from possible burn-out and not even 25 yet, Mirk? You got some nerve upsetting the Portlandia worldview of this town.

  21. Pitkin? Thank GOD. That guy was a terrible reporter, researcher and writer.

    Now if the odious wannabe Ruth Brown would only follow suit..

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