Tips for the transition from journalism: Advice from the front line

By Carl Hott

When I began my career in newspapers 30 years ago, it was an optimal time to be in the field. Newspapers were the dominant providers of well-informed journalism, and the internet hadn’t yet begun to upend the model that worked so well in the past.

Yet things change. In the same way that straight-to-plate desktop publishing supplanted hot metal typesetting, the internet established its dominance as a rapid and inexpensive channel of news access. Newspaper advertising took a nosedive in favor of focused internet advertising, and the effect has been swift and dramatic.

In the past 15 years alone, more than 2,000 newspapers have closed their doors for good. That’s roughly one quarter of communities without access to a local news outlet. To make matters worse, AI is beginning its slow and inevitable march to change not only the landscape of media, but a variety of other fields.

The good news is that there will always be a need for insightful, informative journalism and clean, modern graphic design. The bad news is that an increasing number of layoffs have made the field more competitive than ever before.

Emphasize your strengths

Does this mean you should abandon any hope for finding work in the field? Of course not. But in an increasingly splintered market, you need to play up your strengths, including finding a niche that best suits your talents. Here are a several critical suggestions on how to keep yourself in the running.

First, you need to take a critical look at your current skill set. Where do you stand out, and what transferable skills do you possess? Is it writing? Editing? Design? A bit of everything? Sometimes, it’s hard to be objective about your work. Take out a sheet of paper and make a list of all the skills you have and your proficiency at each (even small skills count). Refer to this list when writing your cover letter and use it to cite specific examples of how they helped your past employers. Showing your work to a trusted friend or professional in the field and getting an honest opinion is also a good starting point to take inventory on your current skills.

For inspiration, you can visit websites that align with the work you would like to do and see how your portfolio measures up. News designers can check out newspagedesigner.com (yes, it’s still around), while general graphic artists should visit portfolio.adobe.com and behance.net (among others).

Alternative, online careers

I was a member of the presentation desk at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Richmond, Virginia, for 12 years. I wrote stories and did videography for the publication on my own time. When layoffs hit, all six team members used different methods to find jobs based on their interest and skill sets.

Two of the six had superior skills in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, for which they were hired at a magazine and a national education website. Another used a connection from the paper to land a job as a writer for an international real estate website. Yet another ended up getting a position with the same company as a remote designer. (The last person switched careers entirely to become a police officer.)

If you’re looking to stay in the field, a specific skill set is essential, with one that favors online work particularly helpful in this diversified workplace. Even primarily print companies have an online presence now, and they welcome applicants with above-average skills in Illustrator and Photoshop. (A good knowledge of InDesign certainly doesn’t hurt, either.) Adobe offers several free online resources to better learn these programs if you have access to them at a local library or have older copies at home and don’t want to pay the monthly subscription fee. You can also shore up gaps in your skill set through free or low-cost online courses through places such as udemy.com or codecademy.com.

Customize and personalize

Once you have a clear idea of how you can best use your current skill set, as well as ways to improve it, it’s time to start applying. Hurling your resume at every job you may be qualified for is one way to increase your options - but it’s not necessarily the most effective one. Investing the time in a personalized cover letter for the jobs you want after researching the company online may yield better results. 

Be realistic about the pool of applicants for any given position, especially if you use well-known sites such as indeed.com. Large firms may use application systems that screen resumes for keywords, so even if you are the most desirable candidate, you may be screened out merely for simplicity’s sake. In addition, almost all of them require you to sign up for an account - a time-consuming process. This makes smaller area companies with good growth potential a promising option to explore.

It never hurts to test the waters for jobs in the gig economy, led by companies such as LinkedIn. Such jobs are often remote and offer the flexibility to work on your own schedule. But the competition can be brutal, and the employer has the luxury of slowly sifting through resumes for the ideal candidate.  

A career in words

If you’ve been out of work for a while, and you’d like to get a bit more writing experience, consider pitching an enterprise story to an area or a regional publication. What’s the homeless situation like in your community, for instance? How good is the city’s social safety net? Is there something that bugs you about how the city provides its services that you would like to explore? If features are more your style, you could offer to be a part-time theater or arts critic. Most publications have freelance budgets, so you would be paid - and sometimes such positions can lead to full-time work.

If you already have several years of writing or reporting experience and you can’t find a similar position, the public relations, marketing and grant writing fields offer heavy consideration to such candidates. A content manager position might be a good option if you’ve done work with email blasts and graphics. Businesses are always looking for people to represent them who can write clearly and well.

Design your future

Like reporting, graphic design is another field that’s grown intensely competitive in recent years. Easy access to templated programs such as Canva have made anyone with a monthly subscription and an internet connection into a graphic artist by default.

To stand out, it’s helpful to ask yourself: What type of graphic design would I most enjoy doing? If you like general graphic design, such as fliers, brochures and publications, study design that you admire, and see how you can provide your own spin on it. Then include it in your online portfolio. If you enjoy nonprofits, try reaching out to a few and see if they have any freelance work. A person in your local government office might like to give their newsletter chores to someone else on a part-time basis.

If graphic design jobs are scarce in your area, see if you can pair that skill with something else. A lot of places are seeking a jack- or jill-of-all-trades - writer, editor, marketer, designer. Do you have all those skills? Play them up in your cover letter.

Portfolios and perspectives

Because employers want to size you up quickly, a clean, easy-to-navigate online portfolio is essential. If you aren’t much of a web programmer, take advantage of several free website options, such as Weebly and Wix. Others, such as Squarespace, have lower-cost options as well.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask for the assistance of former colleagues. If you’re just starting out, cultivate relationships with people in the field who are willing to advocate for you through a college alumni association or other professional organization such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, or AIGA. If you have a few years of experience, you have a distinct advantage over those just starting to break in. You are a known quantity, and people you once knew who are now working elsewhere can be of great assistance to you.

Reach out to them and ask pointed questions: Do you like your job? Do you find the work fulfilling? Would you be willing to give me a recommendation if a position were to come open at your company? Assuming you were a good worker (and of course you were), people are usually more than willing to help a former colleague. In a competitive marketplace, recommendations are gold! Hiring managers don’t want to comb through hundreds of resumes. They want to settle quickly upon a person who’s proven to be reliable in the past. That almost always comes from a recommendation.

Success will come

Throwing your hat in the job market ring week after week, with little to no success, can be extremely disheartening. But the jobs are out there. Instead of waiting for them to find you, go find them. Set aside a certain time each week to find the positions that most appeal to you. Narrow your focus to the things you are best qualified for. Surround yourself with people who can keep you encouraged and find ways to motivate yourself to learn new skills. Acknowledge the small victories. And whatever you do, don’t give up.