Hello, me again!

After a rat quite literally scurried across my feet earlier this week, and I screamed loud enough to wake up every single rodent in Park Slope, I opened my laptop this evening fully prepared to do a deep dive into the history of rats in New York City. And it’s quite fascinating, really, with a 2014 study indicating that there are at least 2 million rats in this city — a quarter of the amount of people here! 

That’s not even counting the amount of rats that populated en masse during the pandemic…though upon further research, I also found out that many rats resorted to cannibalism at this time because all of the restaurants that closed down. 

Really fascinating stuff exists out there!

But anyway – suffice to say I chose not to go down this route tonight, and this is all a tease to get you to keep reading my blog to stay tuned for that history lesson. 

This week, I’m here to talk to you about something that has been weighing on me ever since I read the news earlier today: Gotham Gazette announced that it was temporarily pausing its operations, citing cost challenges in running a nonprofit newsroom. 

As a former college journalist, and as someone whose job it is to pester reporters to write stories about my clients all day long, this news hit me hard, and I can only imagine how other local journalists are feeling — especially the tenacious staff members at Gotham Gazette, who have done some kick-ass reporting over the years. 

Unfortunately, this kind of news has become all too familiar in newsrooms small and large, with 2023 having the highest number of job cuts in the media industry to date. Shows and outlets that were once booming with popularity are no longer — like WNYC’s “The Takeaway,” Buzzfeed News, Vice World News…shall I continue, or do you get the picture?

So of course, when I read this news, I immediately became anxious about this issue because my brain assumes the worst, and I imagined a scenario in which one day my clients will ask me why an important story wasn’t placed, or why no one is talking about their work, and I’ll just have to say to them, “sorry, there are no more media outlets known to mankind.” And then I’ll be out of work, like the tens of thousands of others in my position and in journalism, because what the heck do they need me for after that happens?

But hopefully that’s in many years to come, or like…a decade lol, according to some projections. It’s okay though, I have many other prospects and will somehow become rich and famous by then in some other way. Like through writing a blog…because people will totally pay attention to that…right…or singing opera…oh God my future looks grim. 

Seriously, on a deeper level, I just want to emphasize that journalists are some of the hardest-working people I have ever met, and perhaps the most conscientious of the bunch. They work around the clock. They are always asking questions. They care deeply about the world around them, enough to try and force other people to feel the same. They are chronic overthinkers – and boy do I love overthinkers! These people have to churn out story after story every week, and there is an insane amount of work that goes into a single story. And yet they have to suck it up and be happy with earning 35k a year, because guess what happens when you’re not!

And I think what it comes down to is that 1) people aren’t reading as much as they used to, instead resorting to bite-sized videos where it can easily be explained for their tiny little pea brain attention span (I’m talking to myself) and 2) people cannot comprehend how much effort gets put into writing, seeing it as some silly little hobby that people pursue in their free time. As is the way most art is viewed, explaining why arts and cultural employment continues to decline, and fewer and fewer people major in liberal arts-related fields. 

Ah, doesn’t this all sound so promising?!

In the time since beginning this entry, I realized all along that I’ve overlooked a perfect job for me in my future. Move over Kathleen Corradi, there’s a new rat czar in town!