For Journalists, Some Tough Love

SAN DIEGO -- It's not exactly breaking news that these are tough times for the newspaper industry that I love.

So it might be a good time for those who still work in newspapers -- or used to -- to be dished some tough love.

At most U.S. dailies, circulation has been in sharp decline and newsroom staffs are practically skeletal.

It comes as no surprise that times are especially tough for nonwhite print journalists, at least the relatively few who remain in this business.

According to the annual diversity census of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), print journalism is bleeding people of color faster than it is losing journalists across the board. Total newsroom employment at daily newspapers declined by 2.4 percent in 2011. For minority journalists, the drop-off was 5.7 percent.

The survey counted 40,600 journalists at newspapers and newspaper-owned websites. Five thousand were journalists of color, or 12.3 percent. There were 1,886 African-Americans, 1,166 Asian-Americans, and just 132 Native Americans. There were also -- in a category that I'm intimately familiar with -- 1,650 Hispanic journalists.

This is becoming a small club. Minorities have spent the last five decades trying to get in the door. And yet, when layoffs hit, many of them are among the first to be shown it.

This was also no surprise. I've been writing for newspapers for 23 years -- as a freelancer, reporter, columnist and editorial board member -- and here is one thing I've learned: For folks who tell people what to do and what to think, those who run newspapers don't like it much when others force them to do the same. At a conference of editorial writers and editors, I remember hearing one of the editors brag about how his paper had hammered a local politician for not practicing affirmative action in hiring office staff, while oblivious to the fact that his newspaper's editorial board was guilty of the same sin.

We journalists of color may have believed that we had won the argument and convinced the higher-ups that newspapers needed to diversify their staffs. We were wrong. It seems to me that the first chance the managers got to return to their comfort zone by eliminating minorities, they took it.

As a result, you have all these talented middle-aged journalists floating around with stories left to write, and yet they're unsure of what the next chapter will be.

Here comes the love. There is no point in feeling sorry for yourself, or playing the victim, or launching a public relations campaign to get your job back. Get over it. And get on with life.

Take it from me. I don't work at a daily newspaper anymore, but I still write for newspapers -- through this column. I also write for magazines and websites.

When my position on an editorial board was eliminated and I was let go in 2010, I was tempted to toy with the same emotions that many of my colleagues did: anger, frustration, resentment, worry. But I didn't have time. I was juggling a handful of other jobs, and I had deadlines to meet.

Nearly two years later, I've never been busier, happier or more productive. Time that I used to spend on meetings and office politics I now dedicate to more writing. I've learned to be more creative and entrepreneurial in shaping and marketing my brand, and I'm doing more work on radio and television. I haven't reinvented myself, but I have redefined my opportunities. Along the way, I've learned the great truth that anyone who is laid off -- whether it's in journalism, or any other field -- should find comforting: Just because one employer doesn't want you does not mean another isn't ready to snap you up.

It's one of the things I've always liked about my generation of X'ers. We always knew we weren't going to live the professional lives that our grandfathers did, working 40 years for the same company in exchange for a gold watch. But nor are we like our dads, many of whom felt personally wounded when they were downsized in the economic downturn of the 1990s because they had been loyal to the company and naively expected the same in return. For X'ers, who grew up self-sufficient, life is about rolling with the punches and telling employers: "You want this? Fine. If not, move along and give someone else a chance."

Now get back to work. There are still stories to tell.

========

Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is ruben(at symbol)rubennavarrette.com