|
The Clark Kent image that adorns the CoachReporter page here–throwback perfect in fedora and trench coat–was a brilliant idea as an iconic avatar and clear statement of who I am. Softly, and with humor, it sends the right message about my role here: unabashedly idealistic, kind, helpful, (dorky at times, sure) but in nobody’s back pocket.
Since I filed my first story many, many years ago, I’ve taken my salary from a very limited collection of companies: newspaper companies (The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post) who owned and operated television stations, and massive media companies like News Corp that paid me as a television reporter at its New York City station, and later as a reporter at its newspaper across town.
Some companies treated their employees like family, others like assembly line workers, but all had one thing in common: they were media companies doing, for better or worse, something akin to “journalism.”
So I certainly took some time thinking about how it would feel–and how it would be perceived–to be a journalist paid not by a known media entity, but rather by a nonprofit foundation. As I said in the video interview posted with Andrea Lee’s Creating What Matters interview on the Community Supported Journalist job, it’s scary. It’s unknown. I owe it to myself–and to reporting–to get it right.
Rey Carr seemed to be channeling my own inner dialogue when he commented on the site: “Don’t wind up being a shill for the coaching industry like other organizations that only want to report the ‘good news’ and refuse to examine critically the sources, concepts and practices.”
I turned to trusted friends in journalism to talk about the risks and rewards of trying a new way of reporting and telling stories, and fearing for a time that I might lose my ironclad status as a “journalist.”
In return, I got some supportive and amazing words from Jane Kashlak, who left TV news a few years ago to join her husband in Cape May. She shared with me her own thinking about walking away from the known, and into the unknown. She kindly allowed me to reprint what she told me:
“You don’t lose it.
It doesn’t go away.
It is hardwired inside you.
You can’t leave it behind.
It will follow you.
And whether you want it to or not, it will shape what’s to come.
It might not be in the form you expect.
But one day, you’ll wake up and realize you never stopped being a journalist.
Not for a single second.
Best of luck on your path.”
Tweet This
Email to a friend
There are 7 Responses so far...
Mark, I am pretty sure you will ‘get it right’ and produce engaging pieces of journalism work that are of interest and benefit to the coaching ‘profession’.
I do not see your “risks …… of trying a new way of reporting and telling stories, and fearing for a time that I might lose my ironclad status as a ‚Äújournalist.” I see you as doing pioneering work. Pioneering work produces opportunities, am I right?.
In order to sustain and grow in our ever changing markets, there is a necessity to constantly engage in and come up with transformational business models for our businesses. The same goes with journalism.
The great thing about your work is that, now we have a new journalism model, and the coaching ‘profession’ is the first to experience this model at work. Isn’t that pioneering?
Keep it going and to your highest in your pioneering work.
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia.
Mark, I appreciated this rather more personal post very much.
It helps me understand, more intricately, the inner workings of ‘all this’ which is the goal Rey cited, wasn’t it? I understand more clearly about how to think about what’s going on. I can ask better, more evolved/intelligent questions. You’re not a gotcha reporter but you’ve given me an ‘aha’ moment, so thanks!
Plus, it makes me all the more eager to read your stories, knowing your no-one’s-back-pocket stance. Exciting. When??
It seems to me you’re in the sweet spot of a classic Venn diagram, with three overlapping circles of journalism, coaching and philanthropy. The combinations, with the inherent complexities, make this pretty juicy.
As for the Clark Kent of your avatar, I’ll add – trusted and relied upon, with a gleam in the eye everyone wonders about. Have fun!
Billy,
Thanks so much for your comment. Pioneering work produces opportunities absolutely, and I am thrilled to be stepping out of my comfort zone to be trying something new and bold and different. I can’t tell you what a thrill that is for me.
It’s also humbling and inspiring to have your support.
Mark
Andrea,
Love it! And thanks for catching the gleam in my eye… yep, I’m eager and having a great time. And I hope to keep everyone interested and informed as the months go by.
Mark
Mark,
I, for one, am glad that you haven’t been “bought.” I hope with all my heart that you write about all aspects of coaching, whether they make your readers feel joyful, inspired, squeamish, pained or anything in between! While I no longer think of myself as a “journalist,” per se, since I haven’t worked for a newspaper in more than 25 years, I felt a certain something spark inside me as I read your piece. Maybe it was the embers of my journalistic past:> Maybe that journalistic mindset IS, in fact, hardwired inside us. Whatever your experience, I look forward to hearing all about it.
Ellen
Hi Ellen,
I think it truly is hard-wired, whether there’s a reporter’s notebook sticking out of one’s back pocket or not. And as you said, those embers may settle to a soft glow, but it takes nothing more than the strong scent of a story to fire those suckers right back up into a blaze.
I’m having a great time, learning a lot, and getting leads on a LOT of interesting stories.
Mark
If you need any kind of (journalism) coaching…how to be a reporter with new media, how to look your best in front of a camera, how to write a blog and be effective, Mark Joyella is your man.