Another reason why BINJ can use your support during our big annual fundraiser
The life of a journalist working for an independent grassroots news outlet is very different from the life of a journalist in one of the swift-vanishing traditional news outlets—where (an ever-shrinking number of) staffers still enjoy half-decent salaries, less decent benefits, and some actual time off. Meanwhile, I sit here writing this missive while on “vacation.” Why the quotes around a term with commonly understood and generally pleasant connotations? Because in writing this and in producing HorizonMass’ biweekly edition as its top editor, I’m working.
Yet I’m on vacation, too. Giving myself somewhat more downtime than usual over a two-week period. Also, giving my brain a rest, the better to think of new ways to square the circle of funding a nonprofit news organization against all odds or to think of ideas for new investigative series or useful projects at which our many interns (14 in our fall cohort!) can try their hands or better ways to network with our colleagues around the state and the nation.
And, yes, journalism has always been one of those trades where the work kind of never stops. Journalists know (or should know) what we’re signing up for when we get into the profession. Even in the best of times–which these times are decidedly not. And, true, most journalists in this era are freelancers working yet another of the now-common “gig” jobs for low pay with no benefits, no job ladder, and few prospects of making ends meet without simultaneously working other gigs.
Nevertheless, it would be nice to have an actual vacation now and again. Making that happen will require raising more money for the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism than we’ve ever been able to raise before. Allowing us to hire more editorial and business staff, upping both our reporting and fundraising games while allowing us to hire some of the talented younger journalists that my current BINJ colleagues and I have the honor of helping train year after year.
So, please check out the formal fundraising letters we’ll be putting out weekly this November and December (subscribe to our updates here) … and donate whatever you can to keep BINJ on a positive growth track, producing journalism in the public interest for many years to come.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go finish this edition—then grab a beer with friends and try to remove those quote marks from my “vacation” for the weekend.
