Jeff Bercovici of Forbes has penned an encomium to journalism as being the best job ever.
Listen up, people, the man knows whereof he speaks.
Jeff is a reporter and columnist, so he comes closest to being what we mean when we say journalist, but there are a lot of other hands-on jobs in “journalism” that carry the same perks of variety, travel, learning, excitement, meeting interesting people, etc. You may never get rich, but you’ll never wake up on Monday morning thinking “another week of the same old same old.
I for one never studied Journalism, but, nevertheless, spent the sixties at CBS News, entering through the production portal (where my prior expertise lay), progressing from production supervisor to special events producer to news operations executive, over what turned out to be the most rewarding decade of a highly rewarding professional career. I left it only because ambition to move up the TV industry ladder eventually got the better of me.
Through daily exposure to the editorial side, and by osmosis, I gradually absorbed the ethos of news-gathering and distribution which, if it didn’t turn me into a capital-J journalist, it certainly made me into a newsman with all the curiosity and healthy skepticism that come with the job, and which remain with me nearly a half-century later. Bloggo, ergo sum.
The job market may be tough at the moment, and the print media fighting for its life, but I’d urge my contemporaries to encourage their grandkids who may be entering the job market -- if they have the inclination and talent –- to go for what may indeed be the best job ever.
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