The crappy economy has yet to affect my job. Thank goodness. I'm not saying it won't. Our General Manager announced last month he's leaving the station at the end of February. Tim Gilbert has been with the station for 10 years, and gets a lot of the credit for it going from a far number two station to a dominate number one. They announced his replacement on Monday, my day off, so who knows. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe everything will change. We'll have to see.
I am wondering how stable television news is as a lifelong career. I guess I'm just over analyzing or worrying too much, but it's definitely something to think about. Nearly every business is having issues these days, but the difference with news and the rest of the world is once you take something away, you don't always get it back. If salaries are reduced, staffs are reduced and cuts are made, it's not often, once things get better, that what was cut will be brought back. At least not right away.
Yesterday Gannett announced it's going to make some cuts on the TV side. They've already made cuts on the newspaper side. No big surprise. But Gannett owns well respected stations and it's not good when you see them breaking down those stations. They sent out a memo yesterday asking for buyouts from anyone who is older than 55 and has been with the company more than 10 years.
This includes stations like Denver's KUSA. They are one of the few stations left that does actual story telling. I log onto their website at least two or three times a week for inspiration. Same goes for KARE. Or WKYC, a station I grew up watching. If not enough people want to buyout their contracts by the end of the year, or the economy gets worse, they'll start making layoffs. What does that mean for veteran reporters and photographers who I look up to for good storytelling?
I'm not sure these types of conditions happen in other companies. Usually it's last in the door, first out the door. Not in TV news. It's who's making the most money, who is not an "asset" to the station that is put on the chopping block. It's the people who have made it through and given their holidays and family time and lives for the career that are pushed out the door when money is tight.
I don't know where I'm going next and luckily I have time to figure it out. Of course, with Greg in Louisville, it may be a place I'd like to go. I recently learned the salaries may not be worth it. Some of the stations are currently pay new reporters only a couple thousand dollars more than I make now. If things stay that way, it would not be worth my time to even think about trying to get a job at a TV station here.
It's scary. It's all very scary.
On a happier note - Greg and I got some time to celebrate his 26th birthday today. I baked him a chocolate fudge cake yesterday, which we enjoyed at midnight.
Of course the minute we finished eating, his Nextel went off. He was on call and got called out just minutes before we were going to open presents. 
Luckily it wasn't anything big and he wasn't called out for the rest of the night. This morning I made him breakfast in bed, which is becoming a birthday tradition and when he gets off work tonight we'll probably go out for a drink. Unfortunately he had to work today and I have to work tomorrow morning, so there isn't a lot of "partying" but I guess we're getting old, huh?
I am wondering how stable television news is as a lifelong career. I guess I'm just over analyzing or worrying too much, but it's definitely something to think about. Nearly every business is having issues these days, but the difference with news and the rest of the world is once you take something away, you don't always get it back. If salaries are reduced, staffs are reduced and cuts are made, it's not often, once things get better, that what was cut will be brought back. At least not right away.
Yesterday Gannett announced it's going to make some cuts on the TV side. They've already made cuts on the newspaper side. No big surprise. But Gannett owns well respected stations and it's not good when you see them breaking down those stations. They sent out a memo yesterday asking for buyouts from anyone who is older than 55 and has been with the company more than 10 years.
This includes stations like Denver's KUSA. They are one of the few stations left that does actual story telling. I log onto their website at least two or three times a week for inspiration. Same goes for KARE. Or WKYC, a station I grew up watching. If not enough people want to buyout their contracts by the end of the year, or the economy gets worse, they'll start making layoffs. What does that mean for veteran reporters and photographers who I look up to for good storytelling?
I'm not sure these types of conditions happen in other companies. Usually it's last in the door, first out the door. Not in TV news. It's who's making the most money, who is not an "asset" to the station that is put on the chopping block. It's the people who have made it through and given their holidays and family time and lives for the career that are pushed out the door when money is tight.
I don't know where I'm going next and luckily I have time to figure it out. Of course, with Greg in Louisville, it may be a place I'd like to go. I recently learned the salaries may not be worth it. Some of the stations are currently pay new reporters only a couple thousand dollars more than I make now. If things stay that way, it would not be worth my time to even think about trying to get a job at a TV station here.
It's scary. It's all very scary.
On a happier note - Greg and I got some time to celebrate his 26th birthday today. I baked him a chocolate fudge cake yesterday, which we enjoyed at midnight.
Of course the minute we finished eating, his Nextel went off. He was on call and got called out just minutes before we were going to open presents. Luckily it wasn't anything big and he wasn't called out for the rest of the night. This morning I made him breakfast in bed, which is becoming a birthday tradition and when he gets off work tonight we'll probably go out for a drink. Unfortunately he had to work today and I have to work tomorrow morning, so there isn't a lot of "partying" but I guess we're getting old, huh?
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