Q. I was recently offered my first journalism job at a weekly. My ultimate goal is to work for a daily. Is it difficult to move from a weekly to a daily? I was planning on working at the weekly for a
year-and-a-half to two years and then applying to a daily. I want to know if this is a smart thing to do. So far, daily newspapers have told me I need experience. I would think working at a weekly would provide me with this experience.
Thank you,
ConcernedA. In a perfect world, you would just start working for dailies now. Of course, the world is not perfect, and your choice is to start with a weekly today or wait an undetermined amount of time until you can start with a daily.
How long will that be? No one knows.
If you commit to working for a weekly, you really ought to give it a solid year, just to be reasonable to the people there.
If you have been searching for a while and are about out of time or patience, you might gladly take the job and get started.
However, if this is a relatively fresh job search and you can hold out for a few more months, you might take this offer as a positive sign but keep looking. The pay difference and the speed with which you will get to dailies could make a wait worthwhile.
Coming Thursday: Are there seasonal fluctuations in the year that make one time of year best for job searching?
A weekly is the perfect place to learn several critical...
