I have volunteered to leave the Birmingham Post after 21 years
I have just volunteered to leave a newspaper I love and a job about which I am passionate.
Last week Trinity Mirror, the company that owns the Birmingham Post, announced 41 journalists in the Midlands are to lose their jobs by the end of the year. I am offering to leave as part of the cull.
Why?
I want to leave so I can become a writer who is as competent in the digital arena as I currently am in print.
I am in a more fortunate position than many of my colleagues in that I have worked for BPM Media, as it is now known, for 21 years and so my pay-off is relatively comfortable. I can buy myself the time to learn.
My plan is to spend the first few months of next year getting to know how websites are made. I want to learn HTML code. I want to understand FTP, SEO and WBMP format. I want to get canny with the back end of the internet so I can be more effective in the way I use it up front.
I love the internet for its scope, its flexibility, its speed, its diversity and its potential to create community. I'm excited by the way, in theory at least, it makes it possible for anyone to tell his or her story. I came into journalism because I believe in story-telling. The world wide web has made this possible in ways that were unimaginable just 20 years ago. This is a good thing.
Sadly, it is also bringing about the crisis in the media industries which I and my colleagues are finding so painful at the moment. I have no idea what form the media of the future will take. I don't know if Murdoch will prove that readers are happy to pay for newspapers online and thereby rescue not only the Times but the whole newspaper industry.
I can't tell if the Guardian's response of inviting readers to subscribe to a newspaper-based club will turn out to be the business model that rescues all print from terminal decline. I have a sneaky feeling that Clay Shirky might be right when he says saving newspapers is not the answer and the whole edifice needs to come tumbling down before the new journalism - whatever it is - can emerge.
But I have a hunch that whatever form the media of the future is going to take, whether it will be niche and hyperlocal or multi-tasking in multi-media conglomerates, the people who are going to be really useful are those who combine traditional story-telling skills with both a social and technical understanding of the web.
I want to be one of those people. I'm fortunate in having the opportunity to become one. With moist eyes and tender feelings for the team to which I have belonged for almost all my adult life, I have handed in my form....
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Good luck Jo
On one hand it is such a shame the paper is losing someone as good as you because of idiotic cost cutting and shortsighted profit drives.
But on the other hand the freedom you will feel, not to mention the health benefits, of stepping out of a dying newsroom to do your own thing will be amazing.
I think your plan to embrace the digital word is a great one.
Jo,
Although we have only ever met twice, in my 10+ years since being back in Birmingham, I have always enjoyed reading your features, and the meetings we have had were very informative and professional.
I feel confident that your chosen path will bring you every success, and that we will be hearing and reading a lot more to come from you in the long-term future.
My heart goes out to all at the Post. It makes everything even more relevant, significant and real when you know some of the people being affected.
May the force (2.0) be with you ;-)
Sincere best wishes,
Paul Hadley
Thanks Paul and Panda. Your encouragements at a time of change mean a lot. My hope is that the future will be even more fruitful and creative. Here's to it!
You won't be surprised to know that I think your taking a sensible path forward. If in doubt though choose storytelling and writing as your real niche - backed up by understanding the web and being able to make decent use of it.
Thanks Nick, of course you're right. I'm not a geek, I never could be. I'm a writer. But I want to be a writer who is effective in a digital arena. Here I come...
Jo,
I am confident that - whatever new skills you acquire - you will be refreshed simply by leaving ... especially with sufficient money to enable you to relax and recharge.
Having last seen the Post newsroom in its dog days, just before the move to FortD, it was dispiriting and disheartening to see what year after year of under-investment and relentless downsizing had done to the place, and the people.
Having to take an interviewee to Starbucks because there was, by then, not even a quiet space to sit and talk summed up Trinity Mirror's 'churn, churn' churn' malaise.
All the very best.
Ian
Thanks Ian. I am indeed looking forward to a couple of months of being able to catch my breath - as much from having a child as from working for BPM Media. But I shall have to start earning in earnest at some point. I remember interviewing in Starbucks. Wasn't the music terrible? It was really got in the way when someone was trying to tell me something very sad or serious.
Good luck Jo; I'm sure you'll enjoy your new journey as much and I and your many other friends will enjoy watching your undoubted progress.
All the best Jo. As Nick said, you will find a niche and if its story telling, the internet is best place to start as i know only too well!
I shall bottle all these good wishes so I can have a slurp of them during those times when I'm lost, bereft and the cheques aren't coming in. Thanks Andy and Donato.