To us, the short-term uncertainty facing the economy was lesser than the long-term uncertainty facing our industry. Print was faltering because the folks formerly known as the audience wanted to be active, not passive. We worried that if we were passive, and not active, our careers might falter as well.

We wanted what we would later recognize as fundamental tenets of our newly chosen field: We wanted choice and control. Advanced degrees in interactive media, we were confident, offered us a level of choice and control that staying on our current tracks did not. Like we said, we leaped and didn’t look back. But we also could look ahead only so far. Without employers to return to after graduation, we did not know for sure what awaited us on the other side.

Well, now we finally know. This week we both started new full-time jobs. Steve is a community coordinator for The Baltimore Sun in Maryland. David is an online marketing specialist for The Arc in Washington, D.C. With the aforementioned short-term economic uncertainty stretching out a little longer than we — and millions of other job seekers — had hoped, we were fortunate to have found work of any kind. We are blessed to have found work in our field — work that we think will benefit this blog.

Dream job

by Steve Earley

It will take a lot more than yesterday's rainy commute to dampen my enthusiasm for my new job at my hometown newspaper. I grew up reading The Sun and long dreamed of working there. Helping steer its storied brand into a new journalistic era is a dream come true.

As one of three community coordinators on the newspaper's five-person community engagement team, I will represent The Sun online as well as offline and will support journalistic as well as promotional efforts. Maintaining social media accounts, networking with local bloggers, planning neighborhood events and managing digital projects are some of things I'll be doing as I start out. As my employer and industry evolve, so will I.

Tracking industry trends and testing emerging tools, part of the mission of this blog, is also part of my job description. This is among the many reasons I am confident that even though I have a lot less free time now, Journalism Lives will thrive, not suffer, as a result of my employment. I am already seeing that questions that come up here will lead me to answers at work, that questions that come up at work will lead me to answers here, and so forth.

I’ll share more about my work at The Sun in the weeks and months ahead. For now, however, I mostly want to thank the Journalism Lives community. By sharing your insights, you provided me with knowledge I applied during my interview. By sharing our content, you quickly built Journalism Lives into a brand I could trade on. Thank you again. Here’s to what’s next.

Content (and strategy) anyone?

by David A. Kennedy

I left journalism three years ago thinking I had left for good.

I wanted to go to grad school, study creative writing and pen a novel. It’s amazing what happens when you’re open to new possibilities. No matter which writing or English program I looked into, none of them felt right. It didn’t matter how passionate I was about writing, I just couldn’t convince myself that the path I thought I would embrace was the one for me.

I stopped fighting it, and a few days later I discovered Elon’s interactive media master's program. I stuck with storytelling, but added a new element and learned to tell stories in a much more multidimensional way. At my new job, with a national nonprofit that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, I manage the website, social media and other new media efforts. To sum it up: I’m thrilled. I’ve never worked for a nonprofit, but I’m excited to be working for such a good cause.

Is it journalism? No. Do I still get to tell stories? Absolutely. Does it change the way I blog here? Maybe. I’m not a journalist anymore. There’s no dancing around that. I’m a former journalist, joining a large cadre of folks who once lived for scoops, deadlines and the rush of getting it right and getting it first.

However, I’m a content guy, pure and simple. All I do all day is manage it and think of ways to create compelling kinds of it. I’ll bet my marketing approach (dirty word to some journalists, I know) on posts here may serve our readers well. Journalism will continue to evolve faster than ever, and it will need new ideas from all angles. That includes former journalists with a passion for news and information, and a hungry, intelligent audience ready to participate — just like you guys.

What's next?

We plan to keep on analyzing, strategizing, writing and posting right here. We hope you'll keep reading. In many ways, we strive to keep leaping and landing.

Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Jesse Gardner