[Journalists] Getting Hired

[Bernadetta Pracon]

Katie,
I don't think I have a viable solution for you, but I too am a blind 
journalist, and I find myself in a similar position. I graduated two 
years ago and have been pondering how to present my strengths to 
potential employers in a favorable way as well. I think  some of it has 
to do with how you market yourself. Although you are correct in your 
speculation that, given today's economical status, most newspapers and 
magazines would rather hire one person who is capable of executing 
multiple tasks. Gone are the good old days when newspapers sought out 
dedicated journalists and photographers separately. Now, your camera 
crew is your FlipCam and digital recorder, and your photo editor is Photoshop.
I have one suggestion that may or may not work for you. Why not do the 
freelance thing for a while; Pitch and query away till you build up a 
decent portfolio, and take a percentage of your earnings to pay a 
photographer and an editor to help you submit your fully formatted 
story  with accompanying photos. I know, it's a tedious idea. Why would 
you want to pay someone to do work for you when you probably won't get 
paid very much for producing the article in the first place.
Yet an increasing number of people, blind and sighted alike are turning 
to freelancing as an acceptable job solution. That's true for companies 
and papers as well as those of us who are looking to be employed. It's 
quite logical actually, from the business standpoint. If a business can 
hire a freelancer, they don't have to pay a full time worker for full 
time services if there isn't enough work for that. Also, an employer 
doesn't have to provide a freelancer benefits such as health insurance, 
paid vacation, personal days, etc. They save on those expenses bigtime. 
Why not start out as a freelancer  and establish connections with 
useful people, build up an impressive portfolio and then think about 
getting hired full time. Many people these days are hired as a result 
of networking anyway. That's true for any profession. Also, while you 
were probably very involved in your school's paper and you've written 
various articles, etc., if an employer is going to consider hiring you 
full time, he wants to see that you have real work experience. Being 
involved in a student newspaper is great; I'm not knocking that because 
I was heavily involved in my college's paper as well, but unless you've 
completed some seriously impressive internships, your work written at 
school won't be much of a wow factor, unfortunately.
I'm a freelancer right now, and it's going well so far. I actually like 
it and might stick to this type of work instead of trying to become 
employed full time. You can really find enough work to sustain yourself 
financially, although admittedly it's hard to break into at first. I 
can tell you more about my experience if you're interested; Feel free 
to write me off list. Even if you aren't interested in working 
freelance, you're welcome to keep in touch via email. I'm always 
looking to network with other journalists, especially ones that may be 
going through  similar issues that I am experiencing.

All Best,

Bernadetta P