Ink-Stained Journalists Mourn for Newspapers

ABC News On Campus Reporter Matthew Nojiri blogs:

Illustrator Darren Sanefski picked up his newspaper’s comic section more than 30 years ago and dreamed that his artwork would someday appear on its pages.

When he was 13 years old, he started asking himself, “How can I work for a newspaper?”

And for the last 22 years, Sanefski has been living his dream, illustrating and designing pages for Syracuse’s only newspaper, The Post-Standard.  But last month, an honest evaluation of the newspaper industry forced Sanefski to make a tough decision.

Facing a June 15 deadline, Sanefski took a buyout from The Post-Standard and left a job he had coveted since his middle school days. 

“Step by step, I wanted to work for a newspaper,” Sanefski said.  “And that’s why this most recent chapter in my life is quite difficult. I didn’t really want to leave the newspaper, but I also felt that there were better opportunities for me elsewhere.”

The economic downturn has forced thousands of lifelong newspaper people like Sanefski to step away from careers they love and move on to the next chapter of their lives.

“I look at The Post-Standard every day, and I’m still going through this grieving process,” Sanefski said.  “Working at the newspaper is what identified me as a person for the last 22 years.”

The growth of the Internet and free advertising Web sites like Craigslist.com have decimated newspapers’ advertising revenue, forcing them to cut back on their two biggest expenses: people and newsprint.  Newspapers are getting smaller, with fewer pages and fewer people delivering content.

“Newspapers as we know them are a shell of their former selves,” said Steve Davis, the chair of the newspaper department at Syracuse University.  “It’s shocking how quickly it has happened in the last two years or so.  It’s like the baseball team that won the World Series and then all of a sudden they finish in last place.  You just say to yourself, ‘How did this happen?’’

In the last two years, overall advertising revenues for U.S. newspapers have dropped by more than $11 billion, or 23 percent, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. 

Evidence of newspaper’s financial turmoil appears throughout the country.  Some seven-day newspapers like the Detroit Free Press are scaling back publishing to just three or four times a week.  In March, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News ceased publication.  Last Thursday, The Ann Arbor News produced its last newspaper after 174 years in print.

The News Cycle, a blog that tracks media layoffs, reports 11,928 newspaper layoffs and buyouts this year.

At The Post-Standard, the decline in advertising has meant 10-day unpaid furloughs for all employees and a five- to 12- percent pay cut for the last six months of the year.

Management at the paper also offered a buyout of a year’s pay to all employees with more than seven years of experience.  Thirty-four people from the newsroom took the buyout.

Professor Davis said the bleak financial picture has forced journalists to look toward other careers. 

“People aren’t giving up on the dream of being a journalist,” Davis said.  “There’s just no choice.  You have to work.  You have to feed your family.”

Popular landing spots for journalists leaving newspapers include jobs in communications, public relations and consulting, Davis said. 

After nine years at The Post-Standard, Chris Iven said he took the buyout for financial reasons.  He said he’s weighing his options for the future.

“Journalism is not exactly known as a door-opening degree,” said Iven, the youth editor of the paper.

But Iven is optimistic about the days ahead.  He said he’s thinking about applying for public relations jobs and is also pondering starting his own business mentoring children with their writing.

Aaron Gifford is leaving the newspaper industry after 10 years as a reporter at The Post-Standard.  Like Iven and Sanefski, Gifford has been working at newspapers for nearly his entire adult life and said he only had positive memories of the experience.

“I made a good living at The Post-Standard during my 10 years there and spent my time doing something I love – writing,” Gifford said in an e-mail.
 
 Gifford said he’s applied for a few public relations jobs and is scheduled to take a civil service exam for a social service caseworker job.  He said he’s also interested in working as an insurance investigator.

 “I'm not sure what's ahead for me,” Gifford said.

For Sanefski, the graphic designer, leaving the newspaper meant leaving behind a job he loved and transitioning to his next career.  In addition to focusing on his freelance graphic design business, Sanefski said he’s going back to school to receive his master’s degree so he can become a full-time college professor.

“When you conquer your greatest fear, you make the greatest strides,” Sanefski said.  “And that’s why I left the newspaper.  Just because I’m grieving that loss, I’m also excited for my next chapter and going forward in other aspects of design.”