Be Better Than the Industry

Jeff Pearlman has a point; Don't accept media defeatism

I endorse my own tweet.

Writer Jeff Pearlman is romantic about the industry in a way that I am not. He writes and says a lot that I disagree with. I relate to this intensely, though:

You just have to find a million different ways to stay relevant. Stay on top of things, have a million different tentacles everywhere. I left Sports Illustrated in 2003 and honest to God, one of the reasons I did — besides wanting to write books and being tired of sports — is I just didn’t love the direction of where things were going. You just have to stay a little bit ahead. I know it sucks. It’s hard. It’s brutal. I apologize, but that’s my best advice.

There was an element of media people getting angry over this because, especially in the social media era, there’s a childish conflation of precautionary advice as validation of the conditions that require precaution. Normally I’d make this sort of musings-laden industry post free, but as an object lesson, I’m paywalling to demonstrate that it’s possible to make a living doing this. It’s not easy, but it can be done. So yes, after the paywall I’ll talk shit about some journalists, hopefully in a fair way, and reveal why some adopt a mentality that might be understandable but ultimately not helpful.