I have spoken to a few folks about this idea before, but it is really building to another level for me lately. This post by John Temple about what happens to all of the staff after the newspaper closes down, really strikes a cord with me.
We need to put together a job skills training corps for journalists who are laid off from news organizations. These our many of society's best and brightest, people who are intelligent, good communicators and care about the social fabric of our communities.
It just happens that we used to shelter many of them inside the monopoly-profit driven Newspapers and now that shelter is gone.
Where is the investment in our communities? We have to put these people back on a path to productive engagement and hopefully providing them with the digital skills to succeed too. Could this align with AmeriCorps? Media Literacy projects?
more to come...
"They're working in construction and in restaurants, at universities and ad agencies. Some are retired. Others are students. And a few are unemployed.
Fifty-two of the 146 respondents said they were no longer in journalism Of that group, 22, or 42 percent, said life was better. Of the people still working as journalists, 24 percent said the same thing.
(To learn more about the survey, please read the main story and a related article at The Atlantic. You can also read the stories of former Rocky staff still in journalism, and learn what happened to the paper's owner, too.) "
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/02/life-after-death-two-year...
http://www.johntemple.net/2011/02/rocky-mountain-news-journalists-two.html
