Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Root Of Why Print Is Dying

The Plight of Print's Lucky Ones
"Basically," he goes—and Q was being totally serious when he said this—"I'm 31 and at a professional dead end. And so are most people in here."

And:
"I'll be 35. What the hell am I gonna do with the rest of my life?"

And, the root of it all, entitlement:
When I graduated from college several years ago, the boilerplate career arc in publishing went a little something like this: pay your dues as an editorial assistant for a couple years, biding your time until you either 1) got promoted and became an associate, or 2) jumped ship to a magazine (or newspaper, or book editing shop) where a better gig opened up. Hang in that new station for a couple years before rinsing and repeating, upwards and onwards. It was an arc that, if you played your cards right, culminated with a six-figure job you'd stick with for the rest of your professional career.

An article filled with self-pitying spoiled brats.

You deserve to lose it all.

Welcome to real life.

2 comments:

Dean said...

Unfortunately the failure of print publications takes down some great writers and editors as well as the whining brats.

Do online publications made it possible for writers to do the kind of work that has been done in print for a couple of centuries while earning a decent living? I don't think so, and it's not clear that will happen.

Mike Cane said...

>>>I don't think so, and it's not clear that will happen.

Welcome to the post-prosperity 21st century. *Anyone* making a stable living is up in the air now. Look around.