4.4: Hashtag relatable - news freelancing
- Page ID
- 252397
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Becoming a freelance reporter and writer in my mid-60's for a weekly labor-oriented newspaper has given me an ideal way to keep my professional skills sharp during my retirement years.
I accepted a buyout from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a major metropolitan daily newspaper, at age 65 after more than 40 years of daily newsroom reporting and editing work.
Just weeks after taking the buyout I was fortunate to have friends in the industry hire me to teach a part-time media writing course at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. And I soon realized that if I wanted to be the best instructor I could be I needed to keep doing some of what I had always done as adult — get out in the world and continue to report and write.
Other industry friends welcomed me to submit articles to the Labor Tribune.
Admittedly taking a pro-union stance in my work for the weekly, I soon found the skills I had learned and refined at the Post-Dispatch still apply. I still try my best to ask tough questions, not settle for mundane answers, meet quick online deadlines, and get the good stuff in my leads. Plus the joy of being out in the field again energizes me in my college instructor role.
The small income from my freelance work is not what keeps me going. It’s the pride I feel when editors at the weekly express satisfaction and sometimes praise for what I contribute to the product.
And I am so glad that the reporter and writer in me never had to take a long pause from my work. Newspaper work, for all its long hours and frustrations, truly gets into the blood of those who are lucky enough to do it for a living.