Heidi Dietrich

In the past few years, myself and hundreds of other journalists in the Puget Sound area have left the newsroom behind. And oddly enough, we’re pretty happy with the life change.

Many of us did not choose this career shift, but instead were the victims of layoffs triggered by the nationwide implosion of the print news industry. I’d worked at the Puget Sound Business Journal for the past seven years when I found myself laid off from the paper last May. I didn’t expect it and had no immediate answer for what I wanted to do next.

Once I moved beyond the initial loss, however, I embraced the chance to try something new. The past year has been one of the most interesting, unstable, and enjoyable since I left journalism graduate school in 2002. I’m not sorry I’m no longer in the Puget Sound Business Journal newsroom.

By and large, the journalists I reached out to echo these sentiments. We don’t mourn the careers we left behind. We all miss elements of a newsroom – the sharp wit of colleagues, the excitement of covering a breaking story – but that doesn’t necessarily mean we want to go back.

Here are a handful of the people who are embracing life beyond a newspaper. Not all of the people listed below responded to my questions, but all left a newsroom in recent years, either by their own account or due to layoffs.

Dave Ammons

Dave Ammons: From Associated Press political reporter to communications director for the Office of Washington Secretary of State

Chris Barron: From The Kitsap Sun reporter and editor to Assessment Communications Manager at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia

Mark Matassa: From Crosscut editor to Communications Director for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

Paul Schmid

Paul Schmid: From Seattle Times news artist to children’s book illustrator

Candace Heckman: From Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter to Senior Editor at Nyhus Communications

Chad Lewis: From The Kitsap Sun reporter to spokesman for the Western Washington Department of Corrections

James Wallace

James Wallace: From Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor and reporter to editor of Boeing’s corporate magazine, Frontiers

Nathan Olson: From The News Tribune of Tacoma reporter to communications manager for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia

Mike Lewis: From Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist to owner of the Queen Anne bar The Streamline Tavern

From those who responded, here is a sampling of comments about how they are feeling about their new roles.

Are you happy with your new career?

Nathan Olson: I am very happy with my career. I spent about 16 months at the Department of Revenue after I left the TNT and did not take to that overly staid culture. OSPI is thankfully a lot more fast-paced and a lot less regimented. On a more personal note, working for education feels a tad more noble than explaining tax codes.

Chad Lewis: Oh, I absolutely love my current job! Everything about it. It’s challenging, fast paced, interesting. I’m out in the community, I’m working with journalists…

James Wallace: Even though I’m not a pilot, I made a great landing! …I now have an even better and more exciting and more challenging and more rewarding opportunity as editor of Boeing’s monthly magazine, Frontiers. I no longer write stories, but I get to use all my journalism training and experience as part of a great Boeing team producing a terrific magazine. I could not be happier.

Paul Schmid: Although I enjoyed newspaper work for many years, I love my new career. It is even more challenging and satisfying creatively than newspaper illustration was for me. I see it as a needed step up.

Chris Barron: I’m extremely happy with the career change. My family has a long history of civil service and I take working for the public very seriously…My biggest reward is helping solve issues that allow students to graduate. I honestly feel like I make a difference in our schools, and that’s a good feeling.

Dave Ammons: I love my new gig very much. It provides endless opportunity for creativity and for helping craft our message and our goals.  I use all of my old skills and I’m learning to “use new muscles.”

Do you miss anything about the newsroom?

Nathan Olson: The one thing I still miss about newspapers is the instant access to experts. If I was in a movie mood, I could talk to a Lifestyles person about something I just saw. If I was angry at the government I could talk to a political reporter.

Chad Lewis: I don’t miss journalism, though I do miss being surrounded by the people who work in journalism. Newsrooms are special places where you’re free – nay, encouraged – to challenge authority.

Paul Schmid: I miss the variety of challenges that newspaper work provided, I did everything from courtroom sketches of terrorists to cartoons to watercolor landscape painting for the travel page. Fun.

Chris Barron: …there are certainly days I do miss it, usually on election night or during a disaster or other big breaking news…I just think it’s too bad young journalists won’t see that side of newspapers, with the full, busy newsrooms scrambling for stories.

Dave Ammons: I haven’t looked backward, except on the occasion when a big story is breaking and I instinctively want to be in the fray, reporting and writing on deadline.

Would you ever go back to a newsroom?

Nathan Olson: I think I’d be saddened to enter a newsroom today because the image I have of it is from five years ago. And I know that that newsroom doesn’t really exist anymore: morale is horrible, and newsrooms are a shell of their former selves. So no, I wouldn’t go back.

Chad Lewis: No, because I would only be repeating myself. And now I feel like I’m participating in our society, not observing and documenting it. I don’t mean that as a slight to journalism, of course. It’s the difference between covering politics and participating in politics. Having done both, I enjoy participating more.

James Wallace: …no, I’d never return to journalism. Most journalists, even those working on metro papers, don’t make enough money. The corporate world pays better, including benefits. And as I get closer to the end of my career than the start, that’s important!
But at my age, it’s also having the challenge of taking a new career path. It’s like when I learned to downhill ski four years ago. Never had skis on before. Now I can’t get enough! I’d like to retire at Whistler! Besides, I’m having way too much fun doing this job to ever even consider going back.

Chris Barron: I would never say never, but I enjoy my current profession and want to stay in communications/media relations. Going back would be difficult.

Paul Schmid: I would not return to newspaper work. I needed to tackle bigger things than a local paper could provide. My work is on a national and even international stage now, and illustrating a 32 page book is a much more satisfyingly complex format to work with.

Do you still practice any form of journalism?

Nathan Olson: It depends on point-of-view. I think of writing press releases as a form of journalism. Even if they lack “objectivity,” my releases are trying to convey stories.

Chad Lewis: Every day. Yes, we are about to begin using Twitter, but more importantly I rely on the fundamental skills I gained from my journalism background…The only reason I have been as successful as I’ve been so far is because of what veteran reporters, editors and photographers taught me over the years.

Paul Schmid: I have a website and several blogs related to my kid’s books.

Chris Barron: I certainly write a lot at my current job, whether it’s press releases, talking points, papers, handouts, etc…I certainly have pictured myself being one of those old former sports writers who cover Friday night football when I’m retired in 30 years. I’d like to do that. I just hope that opportunity is still available.