Patty Doherty, whose husband is a culinary-institute trained chef, recently opened a restaurant in Jupiter’s Abacoa called Cooks. She promises free coffee and WiFi to SPJ / Journalists in Transition members on the first Wednesday of every month, from 9:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. We’re welcome to come and work on stories, set up interviews/meetings, or just talk, and squat in the place until the dinner prep starts. If we get hungry, they’ve promised to whip up something that unemployed writers could afford.

From Patty: “You never know, maybe they’d like to learn to cook? Or bartend? Or any number of different tasks a restaurant must perform…”

Cooks is at 1209 Main Street #101 in Abacoa Jupiter, Florida.
To find it: Take I-95 to Donald Ross Road, head east. At the first entrance into Abacoa, turn left and follow the signs for the town center. Cooks is on Main Street, facing Scripps and the FAU dorms, about half way down. Kitchen: 561.429.8020

The project is still in the initial development phase, and we invite everyone interested in making the project a reality to attend the first meeting. Here are the details:

DATE: Sunday, March 29th
TIME: 11 AM
LOCATION: Panera Bread, 2101 N Federal Hwy #114, Pompano Beach, FL 33062

Please note:

Jill Barton, formerly of the AP, is about to graduate from law school and has agreed to help manage the incorporation/legal needs for us. That will be the main topic of discussion, along with a brainstorming session on what role we can and should play to be most useful to journalists in transition.

If you can’t make it March 29, don’t worry. The next meeting will be Sunday, April 19, same time, same place.

Please think about what areas you would be most interested in working on:

I. Incorporation/Legal/Mission/Charter/Ethics/financial/taxes (Jill Barton)
II. Fundraising and other event planning (Progressive dinners, volleyball tournaments, auctions, pot-luck socials, journalist-band concerts? What about seminars? What you need to know about being self-employed, how to set up and run a web site, freelancing 101, managing your finances after a layoff, etc….)
III. Establishing a volunteer network for transportation/babysitting/computer help, etc. Web site set-up, communications.
IV. Corporate giving and collaborations (hitting up the news companies and foundations, partnering with other news-oriented non-profits)
V. Guidelines for financial assistance and targeted fundraising (How do we go about meeting needs while being fair, minimizing bureaucracy at the same time?)

Thanks for supporting this idea. None of us have to face this transition alone.

“One of the signature emotions of this particular recession, besides the populist rage that boiled over this week, is a bit of survivor’s guilt. After all, if you still have the same job or salary that you had a year ago, you’re among the lucky ones…”

The news this week has been grim. Again.The Rocky Mountain News is no more, and I suspect that won’t be the last paper to fold in the coming months.

Here’s what I know you don’t want to hear: Many of you probably won’t land back on your feet as a working journalist at an American newspaper.

So we’re going to reprise our free training, that we offered to laid-off Gannett folks in December and January, and open it up to all the journalists who lost their jobs in Colorado, in Seattle and elsewhere. About half of what my company (Webbmedia Group) does is training. We train reporters, editors, producers, developers, teachers…hell, we even train lots of trainers…on how to adapt technology for journalism. (The other half is strategic planning and innovation. Like, which content management system should you use and how can you best implement it to accommodate mobile, the geospatial web, etc?)

So, to the recently laid-off journalists, here’s something to help: We’re going to offer an updated version of our free training session on what to do next. It will focus on emerging technology and post-mainstream journalism careers. We’ll show you some new tech trends, explain how you can combine them with what you already know, and then show you how to apply your skillset to either land a new gig or even start your own site. As before, this won’t be an hour of learning code – it’ll be instruction on how to think and understand differently.

Again, these sessions are free. You’ll also get access to tipsheets and other information. Criteria are below:

WHO: We’d prefer that you’re a newspaper refugee, but we won’t turn away working journalists or anyone working in communications. Sorry – this time, we will not take technologists, consultants, academics or students. We’re going to check, so don’t try to pull a fast one on us.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 25th at 3pm Eastern Time. The training session will last 75 minutes.

HOW/ WHERE: We’ll give registrants a call-in number and passcode ahead of the session. You’ll need a computer (one that’s online, of course) and a phone line to call into. After the session, we’ll give you access to tipsheets and other information to help you continue learning on your own.

HOW TO REGISTER: Send an email message with your full name, your email address and where you’re currently (or were recently) employed. Also tell us what kind of job you had (multimedia producer, city hall reporter for the paper, etc). For those of you who have previously participated in one of our training sessions, you’ll already know that we never do the same thing twice and that all of our sessions are completely personalized. To the extent we can, we’re going to try and do the same thing this time around – so share whatever information you’d like. The more we get, the more meaningful we can make the information for you. DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS MARCH 20th. NO EXCEPTIONS.

I’d like to cap the session at 200 people total, so this will be first-come, first-served. While I’d prefer that you didn’t participate in one of the previous sessions, this one will be different, so it’s okay for you to register again.

Amy L. Webb
mydigimedia.com

We at SPJ want to say how sorry we are to all of you who lost your jobs recently and in past months.

We are starting a support group for displaced (laid off-bought out) journalists, and possibly an email listserve. Somewhere we can all share information about job leads, freelancing, health insurance, financial tips, and yes, feelings. We may have guest experts stop by, such as financial planner Laura Walsh. That’s up to you.

We will start the first group at Starbuck’s at 3305 Sheridan St., Hollywood, on Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. (Please note: The date has changed to Wednesday.)

We’ve just added a second group in Miami-Dade. It will meet Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the back room at John Martin’s Restaurant, 253 Miracle Mile, Miami.

If this is something you would be interested in, please respond to me at jkay50@hotmail.com.

Julie Kay
SPJ South Florida
Chapter President

If you play the audio, you’ll be listening to moderator Julie Kay and the following panelists:

Laura Walsh, a Weston financial planner whose practice includes numerous local journalists;

Roberto Santiago, a former Miami Herald reporter who recently became director of communications and strategic marketing for The Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale;

Bill Amlong, a Fort Lauderdale employment attorney who has sued local newspapers on behalf of reporters and former investigative reporter for The Miami Herald;

Bill Hirschman, a theater critic and arts reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and freelancer at-large for several publications; and,

Michael Koretzky, a former Sun-Sentinel reporter and current managing editor of Jazziz and journalism teacher at Florida Atlantic University.

Video of the “Paper Cuts” program will soon be available on bocaraton.com. We’ll post the direct link to the video as soon as we get it.

The South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will hold an important, free panel discussion on Thursday, August 7, to address the crippling affects of layoffs to our industry.

We will address various topics including freelancing, employment law, financial planning and life after journalism.

Our panelists include:

Laura Walsh, a Weston financial planner whose practice includes numerous local journalists, will address the fundamentals of managing your money during a crisis.

Roberto Santiago, a former Miami Herald reporter who recently became director of communications and strategic marketing for the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, will discuss making the transition out of journalism

Bill Amlong, a Fort Lauderdale employment attorney who has sued local newspapers on behalf of reporters and former investigative reporter for The Miami Herald, will address employment law issues.

Bill Hirschman, a theater critic and arts reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and freelancer at-large for several publications, will talk about his experience taking a buyout from the Sun-Sentinel last year

Michael Koretzky, a former Sun-Sentinel reporter and current managing editor of Jazziz and journalism teacher at Florida Atlantic University, will give tips on how to find a new job after the layoff – both from personal experience and from running a job website, Southfloridamediajobs.com, as well as several popular job fairs for SPJ.

Please join us on at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 7th at ArtServe, 1350 East Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale. Refreshments will be provided.

For more information please call Julie Kay at 954-303-3384

The South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will hold an important, free panel discussion on Thursday, August 7, to address the crippling affects of layoffs to our industry.

We will address various topics including freelancing, employment law, financial planning and life after journalism.

Our panelists include:

Laura Walsh, a Weston financial planner whose practice includes numerous local journalists, will address the fundamentals of managing your money during a crisis.

Roberto Santiago, a former Miami Herald reporter who recently became director of communications and strategic marketing for the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, will discuss making the transition out of journalism

Bill Amlong, a Fort Lauderdale employment attorney who has sued local newspapers on behalf of reporters and former investigative reporter for The Miami Herald, will address employment law issues.

Bill Hirschman, a theater critic and arts reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and freelancer at-large for several publications, will talk about his experience taking a buyout from the Sun-Sentinel last year

Michael Koretzky, a former Sun-Sentinel reporter and current managing editor of Jazziz and journalism teacher at Florida Atlantic University, will give tips on how to find a new job after the layoff – both from personal experience and from running a job website, Southfloridamediajobs.com, as well as several popular job fairs for SPJ.

Please join us on at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 7th at ArtServe, 1350 East Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale. Refreshments will be provided.

For more information please call Julie Kay at 954-303-3384

Miami Herald to reduce its staff by 25o