We all have things hanging over our heads. In folklore, they were referred to as daggers and black clouds.
But they’re just pieces of unfinished business. Some remain there, dangling inches above us, for years. Some slip, leaving a place for another unresolved issue to slide in. I have a few clouds lingering over my head: finishing my master’s thesis (that one’s been there for years); taking my car in for an estimate (that one’s been there since I was rear-ended on I-77 a week ago); and hiring a reporting staff.
When I was transferred to SBN’s Akron office a year ago from the company’s corporate office in Cleveland, my first order of the day was to hire a reporting staff. I didn’t have any free-lance writers lined up, and the staff reporter who had been working here had just left to go to a small daily newspaper in Port Clinton.
I immediately placed ads on several Web sites for journalists, and in the communications section of a couple general job-search sites.
I received e-mailed resumes daily, though not many of the applicants were from the area. I interviewed the handful of local applicants, and some recent journalism school graduates who could afford to work for the budgeted salary.
While this was happening, I had a magazine to put out, and I found myself relying on a couple of highly experienced reporters who had become full-time free-lancers. Because of their skill level and qualifications, I simply couldn’t afford to pay them enough to work here full-time, so I considered our agreement a short-term contingency plan.
But as time passed, the arrangement went from acceptable to desirable. My search for full-time reporters started to take a back seat to my editing responsibilities, and even though I was lacking a staff, I was improving upon the quality of the product every month.
I found I had been caught in the home-based business trend, and I was either going to benefit from it or fall victim to it.
When it comes to employment trends, journalists have always been on the forefront. Most of us had flexible hours 10 years ago (how can you cover “news” if you have to work from 9 to 5?), and we were free-lancing decades before the term “home-based business” was coined.
Now that it’s becoming more acceptable to be self-employed, more journalists are gladly turning in their full-time status for the freedom of working for themselves. And as it becomes harder to find good writers and editors to work for average salaries, it becomes easier for free-lancers to make a good living.
I’ve found that for the same budget that had allowed the previous editor to hire two junior-level reporters, I am able to afford the services of four veteran reporters to contribute to the magazine every month. What’s more, they work at lightning speed, are professional and well connected. The nature of their jobs has transformed their work ethic to one that parallels that of an entrepreneur.
In return, I try to offer these writers some of the perks I would offer a full-time reporter — like business cards and access to company accounts — because their roles to me are just as valuable.
So I’m removing that cloud from above my head, and in the meantime, I have to remember to stop looking for traditional solutions to problems that arise in a highly evolving world.
Connie Swenson ([email protected]) is editor of SBN.
