I've been fired
It seems that, for the past three years, something catastrophically bad always happened in June.
In 2013, my student loan delinquencies came back to bite me in the rear, wiping out my reserves and forcing me to live paycheck-to-paycheck for months.
In 2014, I was diagnosed with Hodgekins Lymphoma.
And now, in 2015, I was fired from Pioneer Press. Well, "blacklisted" would technically be more accurate term (you can't fire someone who was never an employee), but since my work for Niles Herald-Spectator has been how I've earned the majority of my income, "fired" seems more appropriate.
It didn't exactly come out of the blue. To try to make a long story as short as possible, a few weeks ago, I misquoted a guy in one of my articles. He threatened to sue (I'm not sure if he ever actually sued, because no one would tell me). And somebody at the top started asking questions about my reliability, and whether I was worth keeping around. At first, I was asked not to cover political meetings (the article that started the whole thing was about a library board meeting, and, as randirogue colorfully put it, the attorneys wanted to cover their ass).
This afternoon, it was decided that I was too much of a liability.
I was never a proper, full-time writer at Pioneer Press. The industry term is a "stringer" - a freelancer that regularly works for a certain media outlet (but not necessarily one particularly media outlet). And it's been made pretty clear that nobody at Pioneer Press is going to accept any pitches from me. Whether that extends to other parts of Tribune Publishing is unclear, but honestly, I'm going to assume that it probably does. Which is a bit of a problem. As I mentioned before in my post about Wrapports' sale of its suburban newspapers to Tribune, the company effectively controls the majority of Chicagoland's freelance market.
I eventually repaid the delinquent student loans and got on a more solid financial footing. I beat cancer. Let's see if I can get past this, too.
For now... I'll have to see how much money I have once Tribune pays me for the work I have done, but right now, I have enough money in reserve to last me at least two months. I do have some work with the choir/educational center in Northbrook, so I'll still get some money. Not nearly enough to live on, but at least I'll have a bit of money coming in.
You are welcome to buy my photos, or drop a bit in the tip jar on the right side of this Livejournal. My resume and clippings can be found here. And, if anyone reading this has any leads as far as potential freelance work, or even full-time jobs, please feel free to drop me a line.
In 2013, my student loan delinquencies came back to bite me in the rear, wiping out my reserves and forcing me to live paycheck-to-paycheck for months.
In 2014, I was diagnosed with Hodgekins Lymphoma.
And now, in 2015, I was fired from Pioneer Press. Well, "blacklisted" would technically be more accurate term (you can't fire someone who was never an employee), but since my work for Niles Herald-Spectator has been how I've earned the majority of my income, "fired" seems more appropriate.
It didn't exactly come out of the blue. To try to make a long story as short as possible, a few weeks ago, I misquoted a guy in one of my articles. He threatened to sue (I'm not sure if he ever actually sued, because no one would tell me). And somebody at the top started asking questions about my reliability, and whether I was worth keeping around. At first, I was asked not to cover political meetings (the article that started the whole thing was about a library board meeting, and, as randirogue colorfully put it, the attorneys wanted to cover their ass).
This afternoon, it was decided that I was too much of a liability.
I was never a proper, full-time writer at Pioneer Press. The industry term is a "stringer" - a freelancer that regularly works for a certain media outlet (but not necessarily one particularly media outlet). And it's been made pretty clear that nobody at Pioneer Press is going to accept any pitches from me. Whether that extends to other parts of Tribune Publishing is unclear, but honestly, I'm going to assume that it probably does. Which is a bit of a problem. As I mentioned before in my post about Wrapports' sale of its suburban newspapers to Tribune, the company effectively controls the majority of Chicagoland's freelance market.
I eventually repaid the delinquent student loans and got on a more solid financial footing. I beat cancer. Let's see if I can get past this, too.
For now... I'll have to see how much money I have once Tribune pays me for the work I have done, but right now, I have enough money in reserve to last me at least two months. I do have some work with the choir/educational center in Northbrook, so I'll still get some money. Not nearly enough to live on, but at least I'll have a bit of money coming in.
You are welcome to buy my photos, or drop a bit in the tip jar on the right side of this Livejournal. My resume and clippings can be found here. And, if anyone reading this has any leads as far as potential freelance work, or even full-time jobs, please feel free to drop me a line.