I'm fairly certain why it was me who was laid off at The City Star, and not the editor or page designer (who spent, I think, another month or two editing and designing regional and national wire content before the "neighborhood" newspaper at which I worked was swallowed up by its corporate parent company).
I was a pain in the ass. Strike that. I am a pain in the ass.
I pitched tough stories, I fought for them, and I fought to give them space and attention in the paper. If I was given an empty or bogus assignment -- like "updating" an Associated Press story, which meant nothing more than spending an hour on a street corner getting Man On The Street quotes, not at all why I chose this field instead of law school -- I pitched something else, even if it sounded tougher, and I didn't back down easy.
I went against the grain -- I shouldn't have been expected to, but I tried to beat the big boys with every story -- I tried to beat our parent company, I tried to beat the Chronicle. Hell, I once had a scoop nobody else had -- that Gavin Newsom's office was challenging the census, for the first time -- but let myself be put off it by his press handlers, only to have the AP go with it. So I tried -- and failed -- to beat them, too.
I wasn't quiet, I wasn't easy to work with, but I also didn't quit and wasn't at all satisfied with something easy, something mediocre, something just to fill the paper. And I didn't hide my disgust with people who did. In the end, being tough made me easier to justify getting rid of. So there's a warning for you, kids -- all that bright beacon of truth bull can get you kicked out of a newsroom.
I'm fairly certain that's why I was the company's lone layoff this year (they have since hired other folks, and, in all honesty, good for them for keeping people employed).
I thought about trying a different city or a different career. But all my sources were in town. I was plugged into San Francisco, not Boston, Oakland, or anywhere else. Lucky for me, by that point -- late March -- the SF Appeal was just starting up. They didn't have anyone to cover City Hall, I didn't have anything much to do -- so it worked out.
So now I was free to cover whatever I wanted, no more arguments or suggestions I "cover" a parade or a weekend festival. I kept doing City Hall stuff -- usually Board of Supervisors committees and hearings but also occasional doings by the Mayor, Muni board meetings and sometimes a Planning hearing -- because I felt like that's what mattered. That's all I ever wanted to do -- something that mattered. I'm happy that people agree with me, that they think it matters enough to give me some of their hard-earned money.
And actually, it's worked out better than I expected, better than I could have imagined. Within a month of starting at the Appeal, I was freelancing for the SF Weekly. They have more than 100,000 copies a week. So the layoff's been the best possible career move imaginable.
I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do this -- the only way I've been able to make rent every month as a freelancer and freebie e-reporter is with help from my unemployment. But I'll keep at it as long as I can.
