Can I please be Matt Bai?

August 12, 2008 2:32 PM

What route would I take if I decided I wanted to become a journalist at 30?

I've been working in progressive politics for my entire adult life (since I had my first summer job in college). I've gotten a lot out of this career, but I'm not sure if it's the right thing for me anymore. Mainly, the frustrating thing for me is that I am both an extrovert who loves interacting with people AND an egghead who loves writing and doing more analytical work (research, determining patterns, figuring out what's really going on). In politics, it seems like you either work in the field doing voter contact (not at all analytical) or else you're stuck in an office, which can be more analytical but drives me crazy. I'm a textbook ENTP.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of a journalism career and super-jealous of journalists - it seems like it might be a good way to meld my extroversion with my analytical tendencies.

If I were to pursue this, how would I go about it? It seems like the most natural thing for me would be to try to work as a political journalist, but is that something I'd need to work up to? Should I just try to get a job with a "farm-team" paper and work my way up? Or should I try to get an political website to hire me as a blogger? Am I crazy to even consider this field, given the sad state of the industry right now and for the foreseeable future? What kind of salary could I expect to make starting out?

Some more things that might be good to know about me:

- I am a good writer (this post notwithstanding) and work very well under deadlines, but my only journalistic experience is a few freelance articles I wrote a few years back. I had thought of freelancing as a way to break in, but didn't really have the connections to make it "go."
- I currently work in political communications.
- My experience working in politics means that I have no problem working long hours for little pay, but I do have some pretty serious grad-school student loans to pay off, so eventually I would like to at least be middle-class.
- I don't have any dependents and I'm geographically flexible.
- I have a job until this election is over, and will probably be looking to start my next job, whatever it is, in January.

This is anonymized because, like everyone in politics, I'm paranoid about my web footprint, but here's the throwaway email: [e-mail].

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (15 answers total)

I think you should start looking for freelancing gigs -- if not to "break in" then at least to get some recent clips. Even a farm team paper is going to ask to see clips.
posted by meta_eli at 2:43 PM on August 12, 2008

Have you tried asking Matt Bai himself? He might answer with some advice, you never know.

I say go straight for it, FULL SPEED AHEAD. Rent some web space, pitch up a WordPress tent and start writing some articles.

Sell your stuff, move to a big city, make contacts like mad (you're so very lucky to have those extrovert strengths!), get a job at a respected newspaper/magazine, put in your time, and work your way to the top.

Work a part-time job on nights/weekends where you can write (gas station in quiet part of town or similar) to supplement your income if needed.

At least that's what I would do. I like to drive off the cliff, so to speak.
posted by Theloupgarou at 3:04 PM on August 12, 2008

I've answered sort of similar questions here, and here, and talked about the industry in general here and here.

Would be happy to answer whatever more I can if you Mefimail me. It's a great career. Good luck.
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 3:09 PM on August 12, 2008

I don't know if this is good advice, but I started by applying for an internship that I heard about on Craigslist.

Apart from that, I agree with the above posters. Start by publishing on the Web, offer your services as a freelancer to local papers or paying Web sites, and climb the ladder from there.
posted by lore at 3:13 PM on August 12, 2008

I went through a career change in my early thirties and, for a time, called myself a freelance writer. As well, I used to volunteer on progressive political campaigns, doing both voter ID, and conducting policy research. I have moved on to doing corporate communications for Tier-One companies, and script rewriting, and now I work in government.

I would say that entry-level journo salaries are extremely low, the competition is intense, your competition has a head-start, and that geography is incredibly important (LA, NY, Chicago, SF) because that's where the most work is. Since there is no barrier to entry to the trade of being a writer, the smaller the market is, the more your competition, plus there are fewer quality outlets to work at.

I think it's important to get paid (versus contributing articles for free), and paid well, for writing. You may wish to jump right in and avoid learning the trade, and start pitching stories, so you need to learn how to pitch (it's more important than actually knowing how to construct a story). You don't need connections - you need the email address of the right person, and a stellar pitch.

What is your value proposition? As I said, I used to work on campaigns, but I quickly got out of that gig because the wages were so low. Now that I'm in government I have very little interest in party politics - I am guided by personal values but am almost apolitical.

At the same time, through the course of my work, I encounter folks who are active in politics. They're generally earning far below their potential, and, while they have a good understanding of the political posture of a galaxy of politicians, I don't think they have any real insight about what makes a politician tick (but any government bureaucrat most certainly does). They're enamored with being part of the political process, but are being used by their masters to lick envelopes.

So, my question once again is, what is your value proposition? How are you going to compete against journalist peers who write convincingly about politics? What kind of insider knowledge can you *use* or leverage to get published and to earn, to compete and to win column space?
posted by KokuRyu at 5:42 PM on August 12, 2008

Freelance, freelance, freelance. If you can nail the query, you're halfway there.
posted by desuetude at 8:25 PM on August 12, 2008

I am sorry this is anonymous! I could give you some excellent entry level referrals for places that would look at a person with experience in other fields but who is interested in journalism. Hit me on mefimail and I will try to get back to you soon.
posted by parmanparman at 9:34 PM on August 12, 2008

Don't do it. The business is dying so fast there isn't time to recover from the hangover from the last layoff wake before there's another to go to. I hate to be a downer, but all it takes is reading Romenesko every morning to see the looming catastrophe. Just today I heard about a buddy in Florida who took a buyout and left a big time editing job to teach, with the accompanying giant pay cut, because he saw the writing on the wall.

Your best bet is start a political blog, slog at it unceasingly, become famous (at least in political circles) for scoops or trenchant insight and then maybe someone with some dough will hire you. But even then, the money blows compared to most other professions.

Also Matt's a good guy and will answer yr email, ideally with more encouragement than I have for you.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:26 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

As far as making a career, your best bet may be to look for freelance opportunities in trade mags first, especially anything that has to do with your political persuasion. I remember that a lot of places like the Michigan Land Use Initiative (to use one example) put out regular publications and generally need writers with a strong analytic bent.

But yeah, underpaid and over-worked is generally the way things go. I haven't seen any positions advertised recently that are even within a quintile of commiserate pay scales in any other industry.
posted by klangklangston at 3:41 PM on August 13, 2008

and klang wins Most Gorgeously Apt Typo of the Year
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:21 PM on August 13, 2008

Haha, yeah. Commensurate.
posted by klangklangston at 7:25 PM on August 13, 2008

I don't want to discourage you, but I keep hearing bad things about print journalism. One story I heard is that the San Francisco Chronicle cut half its journalists last year and recently cut half again. Some of these were well-established journalists that my organization had worked hard to build up a relationship with. In trying to verify this, what I could find were that they cut 25% of the newsroom staff in 2007 and cut another 125 in 2008. That second article has some pretty depressing quotes about the death of print journalism. (On the other hand, online journalism is certainly alive.)

ENTP, huh? I'm in a similar situation, but my work is even more in-office and long-range, and I've often looked at the communications desk as one that might be better for me. So, I'm surprised that, say, analyzing the day's polls and then communicating about them is not a good fit for you. Could you switch into more direct advocacy or policy development? Not organizing for a particular candidate -- more like, say, trying to [protect the forests]. You could analyze whether cap-and-trade or direct regulation would be better, then work with allies to build a coalition, and then work with friendly lawmakers to see how many votes they could get to pass various versions of the policies? Or you could work as a legislative aide, where every day you'll be fielding requests from lobbyists or constituents, and then will have to analyze those to determine what your boss's position should be?

As another person who works in advocacy, (and another ENTP), I wonder if you'd really want to make the switch, since I don't think I would. At first, I think it would be fun, but in the long run, I prefer being part of the insider team trying to make something happen rather than being more of a loner on the outside trying to objectively investigate and describe what is happening. (I'm oversimplifying here, I realize, but correct me if I'm wrong. I've never worked as a journalist.) Anyway, we could chat more about that if you wanted to.
posted by salvia at 10:50 AM on August 14, 2008

I'm a working journalist -- an editor who receives a lot of freelance pitches -- and I've got some suggestions.

One, don't focus on print journalism. Print, online -- the basics of good reporting and good writing are the same. Focus on learning the craft of reporting and writing.

Second, because there are more opportunities online than in print, you should know the basics of online journalism. Be comfortable with HTML. Have a blog. Comment on other people's blogs. Use Twitter and Flickr and whatever the next social media craze is, so you are familiar with how information is shared online, socially and otherwise, how the flow of comments and links works to creat social capital, how reputations matter, and so you are part of that world.

Third, the advice to freelance is good. However, before you can get freelance assignments you need to know how to pitch a story. Media Bistro occasionally offers classes on how to pitch -- take one.

Media Bistro and similar organizations can also be good ways to network with writers and editors, which will sometimes lead to assignments.

Fourth, take a journalism class, or several. I don't think you need to get a journalism degree, but taking some classes on reporting, magazine writing and such will be very helpful. Your local community college probably has some such classes, offered by working journalists. As a bonus, the teachers may be able to give you assignments, if you're a good student.

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have other questions.
posted by dylan20 at 4:13 PM on August 14, 2008

I'll bet Dylan knows quite a bit more than me regarding online opportunities, but frankly, I've found very, very few that pay as well as print. Perhaps this is because I confuse commensurate with commiserate.
posted by klangklangston at 4:56 PM on August 14, 2008

Depends on which outlets you're talking about. If you're lucky enough to get stories accepted by major national mags like Vanity Fair, you'll get much, much better pay from print. Wired.com, where I work, pays ok but not as well as our print magazine does. Blog pay is typically shitty -- if you write for the likes of Gawker Media or AOL you're likely to be getting $10-20 per post. Local newspapers and in most markets (non-big cities) and free weeklies in all markets pay slightly better than that, but not much -- $200-300 for a feature-length story is typical.

It's very, very hard to make a living as a freelance writer unless you have really good contacts at several publications -- ie editors who are willing to give you paying assignments. Typically the way people make those contacts is by working at those pubs for awhile.
posted by dylan20 at 11:45 AM on August 18, 2008