The story below is from our July/August 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
At a time when journalists are needed more than ever, some of the best in the Roanoke Valley—and elsewhere—are bailing out for other jobs.
Award-winning Roanoke Times editorial page editor Dwayne Yancey put it this way:
“I’ve been at The Roanoke Times since 1982. In that time, I’ve seen lots of people come and go – some to other journalism jobs, some to non-journalism jobs. I’m not sure the reasons for leaving journalism have changed over time. It usually goes like this:
“Journalism can be very stressful with lots of long hours and odd hours and at some point, some people get tired of that and want something more regular.
“Public relations jobs have always paid more than journalism jobs.
“A third and fourth reason for people to leave the profession: they’re either forced out as jobs are eliminated or they see what’s happened to others and want to be pro-active rather than re-active.”
Whatever the reasons, journalists nationally and locally are leaving their chosen field at a time when that field is under intense attack. Journalists are even being characterized as “an enemy of the people.”
“Local journalism is going extinct across America,” wrote Politico recently. Journalism “is toast,” said Warren Buffett, whose BH Media owns The Roanoke Times and other Virginia newspapers.
Pew Research says the number of employees in newspaper newsrooms dropped from 71,000 in 2008 to 39,000 by 2017. Newspaper ad revenue “was nearly a third of what it was the decade before, falling to 18 billion from $49 billion,” wrote Politico recently, calling the newspaper business “a shadow of the behemoth it once was.”
TV has a different story, though mid-market journalists continue to look for other work. The Local Television Digital News Association reports TV “is excelling in the digital age. … revenue is increasing, defying expectations set by newspapers. Furthermore, employment is stable. Viewership numbers are declining, albeit slowly.” But reporters are leaving in droves, to be replaced by the next generation.
Washington & Lee University associate journalism professor Doug Cumming, a former newspaper reporter, has trained reporters who have worked in the Roanoke Valley. He received a jolt in his thinking of late: “Last year’s sophomore class, when it was time to declare a major, opted for ‘strategic communication’ in our department at almost three times the rate of those that picked ‘journalism’ … after years of being close to a balance between the two. That has stunned us here in this department, where the faculty of eight can claim almost 200 years of collective experience, and a few top awards at big-name papers … But alas, it’s what they seem to want now—or maybe it’s their parents’ ill-informed ideas of the future of those two fields [journalism and public relations] for an elite W&L graduate.”
Bill Kovarik, a Radford University journalism professor and former newspaper reporter, backs up Cumming’s observations: “We have roughly the same number of students in communication overall but fewer in journalism. Students are worried about jobs and they get a lot of social pressure. Radford has cut back on the frequency of journalism classes, with advanced classes being taught every other semester now.”
Kovarik sees some light ahead: “RU journalism is in the process of re-imagining the curriculum and having a new emphasis on media services to bring back financial stability to community papers. New technology has undercut advertising revenue, but at the same time, new technology opens lots of avenues for public service.”
The Roanoke Valley is a mid-sized market for all its news gathering agencies: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet. As such, pay levels are relatively low, according to journalists who work here, and the temptation to leave journalism is high, especially for PR jobs with large corporations. Virginia Tech has about 100 people in communications, according to Virginia Tech communications executive Eric Earnhart, considerably more than The Roanoke Times, which has become a dependable source for Tech employees, as have local TV stations.
We undertook to identify many of the journalists who’ve moved on and to chat with a few. Here is what they have to say:
Zeke Barlow is a former Roanoke Times reporter (called by columnist Dan Casey “hands-down my favorite reporter at TRT. He was always curious, intrepid as hell, always landed the story and never filed his ego with it”) who is now in public information at Virginia Tech.
He says his move to Tech “was a natural transition for me. I wanted to tell good stories. I still do that.” He believes “public relations and journalism [professionals] are cut from the same cloth. … I didn’t want to go to just any corporation. Virginia Tech has a great story to tell.”
Even with the move, “journalism is who I am,” he says.
Carole Tarrant was editor of The Roanoke Times when it was bought by BH Media. She is now Coordinator of Development at Virginia Western Community College. She and publisher Debbie Meade were replaced in the ownership change. It was, she says, “a bad breakup of a relationship.” She “felt like I had done what I should have done and I tried to do my best,” working “so hard for so long.” She was hurt, disillusioned and disappointed because “the new company didn’t appreciate what I had done.”
Tarrant was “so in love with journalism” and believed she could get a high-ranking job elsewhere, “but in a blink [being replaced] could happen again.” She believes newspapers were “very late understanding the change” that was happening around them. “We were spending money for custom fonts for a re-design” rather than for reporters. “It is infuriating to think about it.”
Her new job is completely different, raising money for scholarships. She says, “I give away money,” and smiles. She also gets “to see the inner-workings” of an organization by “people who want to keep their names out of the paper.”
She remains a fan—and subscriber—to The Times and doesn’t “want to leave a bleak impression” about the future of newspapers. “Most who leave want it to survive.”
Eric Earnhart is a former WDBJ7 reporter and weekend anchor, now working at Tech, writing speeches for President Tim Sands, among other duties. He also worked at Carilion in PR.
Tech, he says, doesn’t “operate a ‘newsroom’ as such, rather these professionals are distributed among our nine colleges and other unit affiliations … Those colleges and units have an audience that includes 30,000 current students, 10,000 employees, 250,000 alumni, countless prospective students and potential employees, and the broader general public both nationally and internationally.”
His decision to leave TV news “was totally family,” he says. “I was working nights; my daughter had just started elementary school and I didn’t get to see her. I couldn’t feel good about that and I wanted an 8 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule.” And there was this: “Staying in journalism [in Roanoke] did not offer opportunities to move up,” since there are few anchor jobs.
Justin McLeod was a WDBJ7 reporter and Danville bureau chief for 12 years, leaving to join the Roanoke City Schools in public information. He basically burned out on the news, seeing “so much misery day after day,” especially during the “two months straight” of coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.
“I was 35 at the time [he left] and looking down the road, I didn’t know if I could see myself doing that for another 15 years. I wanted to switch while I was still young.”
The Roanoke school position was just the fix. “I was extremely lucky,” he says. “I had covered education, so this was a natural fit. I don’t know if I would like PR in, say, the medical field.” Many of his skills transferred directly and “I don’t have to knock on doors after a tragedy, but a lot of what I used to do, I do now.”
His decision was a good one, he says. “I have yet to meet anybody who regretted leaving journalism.”
Connie Stevens is probably best-remembered as news director at WVTF-Public Radio, but she was also a co-anchor at WDBJ7. She was with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and is now United Way communications director. She left journalism when she learned her daughter had diabetes and “I felt responsible and burned out. … People thought I was crazy to leave.” She had helped direct WVTF to a state public radio powerhouse.
She was “ready for something new” and the new job energized her. “I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to get to work.” She looks at her job “as a beat: … I feel like I’m still reporting. Journalism is a perfect job to set you up for other jobs. … My job is to get the jargon out, to relate what we do in human terms.”
She doesn’t see “a mass exodus from radio,” she says. “A lot of young people want to stay at the station. When I started this was a market people flew in to, got a good tape and flew out. When I came [to Roanoke], I had a six month lease.”
Mike Stevens was sports director at WDBJ7 for 23 years, hired in 1985 with exactly no experience, then joined the City of Salem as its information director. He is in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
He left TV, he says, because “station management took a serious turn for the worse and many of the core values that made WDBJ the market leader on the outside and a true family on the inside were rapidly diminishing. Viewers couldn’t tell what was happening watching the newscasts, but inside of the building, the lives and careers of some very good longtime employees were being completely disrupted by people who had no allegiance to the area.”
The Salem position, he says, has him doing “a lot of the same things, but I no longer wear make-up.” His relationships with Salem institutions and people over the years “made me feel welcome and afforded me enough time to get acclimated. Because our office handles all communications for the city and the school division, including fire and police, the pace is often just as hectic as writing or producing content on broadcast deadlines. So, in my case, government work is not slow.”
He still shoots video, takes photos, writes stories daily and has “constant contact with the public.”
Leaving journalism, he says, was difficult but “while some may not want to openly admit it, most left WDBJ, WSLS or the Roanoke Times for the same reasons that I did. When you have been trained to perform at a high level each day and take pride in your work, it is tough to compromise. I see TV reporters every day who are running around producing content to simply fill a time slot. When they leave the newsroom, it seems as though no one is asking them to investigate this or that, but rather to get three stories and fill a certain amount of time or space. … I think the demands to produce more and more content for social media and websites, before the paper comes out or the newscast begins, has been a real factor.”
Ultimately, “I have come to realize that it was just time for a change, and I am at peace with it.”
Becky Freemal was a decorated news anchor at WFXR in Roanoke for nine years and in journalism 24 years. As of June, she is the new Director of Communication and Marketing at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. She was at Roanoke’s smallest TV news organization and notes that “there are a lot of one-man bands out there.”
The storytelling “is 110 percent of what is attractive [to her] now,” she says. “My current job is the perfect fit. I am able to incorporate a multitude of skills from my past life. I use the same strategic approach to data analytics, building an integrated communication and marketing plan, and utilizing storytelling skills to flesh out research topics. The stories that come from that process help build collaborations between researchers, scholars, and help build new corporate partnerships for Virginia Tech … Relationship building is key to this job, as it was to being a successful journalist.”
It’s all very simple: “I’ve always been a person who has to love what I do. It energizes me each day. I had that energy as a journalist, and I’ve been lucky to find that same excitement in my new career at Virginia Tech.”
Erin Brookshier was a WSLS reporter/anchor and is now a teacher at Northside and Glenvar High Schools. TV news, she says, “was what I always wanted to do. It was a dream job and I enjoyed my time there.” But, she got married “and I was ready for a more stable life.” Low pay “played a role, as well.”
Would she go back, given the opportunity? “I love teaching so much,” she says, “that I don’t think I’d ever go back.”
Susan Bahorich was an immensely popular WDBJ7 reporter/anchor for 10 years, but left for a station in Richmond, then a job at Sentara Medical in Woodbridge in communications. Her intensely personal battle with ovarian cancer was shared publicly, but once the cancer was clear “I realized I needed a change. At that point, I didn’t know what it was. She quickly took a job at NBC12 in Richmond, but ultimately wound up as the communications/brand advisor for Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
“I’m really enjoying myself,” she says. “I’ve found the skills which were so vital in television reporting—time management, constantly meeting deadlines, talking to people/asking the right questions and writing—translate to this world, as well. I worked weekends for 10 years. Now, I’m pretty much Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.
“As a journalist, I interviewed everyone from celebrities, would-be presidential candidates and state leadership to convicted murderers. Once you do that, you can talk to anyone. My skills as a journalist translate to most every area of my life.”
Ultimately, she says, “It’s a dangerous time to be a journalist. … Throughout the country reporters are required to do more and more with less and less resources. That’s sad to me. It affects the reporter, the quality of the story she is telling and in turn, the folks at home.”
Michael Stowe is the former managing editor of The Roanoke Times and is now media relations director Virginia Tech. He left The Roanoke Times after 23 years in journalism “because I was ready for a new challenge and chapter in my career. I also wanted to stay in Southwest Virginia, particularly in Blacksburg, where I have lived with my family since 2000.
“Virginia Tech was a natural fit for my experience and interests. Like many people, I got into journalism to make a positive impact and solve important problems, and because I liked to write and tell stories. I knew if I was going to leave journalism it would be to work somewhere else with a strong mission of community service and problem solving.”
Tech provided that. “I get to work with a talented team of passionate and dedicated colleagues – quite similar to a newsroom. I still start my day with a daily news meeting and I spend the bulk of my time connecting journalists—local, regional, national and international—with Virginia Tech researchers and faculty experts. In short, we still get to tell stories that make a difference.”
Chuck Lionberger has been a WSLS editor, producer and News Operations Manager, Media General Interactive Media Site Production Coordinator and he has been with VDOT public information and Roanoke County Schools. He calls his move into public information “coming to the light side.”
He worked his way up from the bottom of the TV news business to a position of considerable authority and “with 9/11, I realized the importance” of news, but in 2007 he left the news business and when he joined the school system “it felt like coming home.”
He was at Virginia Tech during the mass shooting and while watching the influx of national and international journalists, “I saw a loss for journalism. The locals were there to tell a story, but the nationals came in with guns blazing and I started equating a news conference with a feeding frenzy.”
In his view, journalism has become a “churn and burn industry with so much to do. There comes a point when you need a steady 9 to 5 job, allowing for family, increasing pay. If reporters are a dime a dozen, it’s because that’s how they’re paid. One of the reasons I left [journalism] is that it was not the same journalism as when I started. Time had created something different.”
Karen McNew was a WSLS news anchor, reporter and director before moving to Carilion Public Information. An Emmy-winning journalist, McNew saw four news directors and five general managers in her time at Channel 10. “It was always changing,” she says.
To “tell a good story” was always the goal, she says, “and at the end of the day, I felt good about what I had done. In the course of her 15 years at WSLS, she “covered every shift” and health coverage “became my favorite part.” That background helped her segue into the Carilion job, where she uses the same skills she developed in TV news to produce videos, among other things, in a setting “that gives me time to plan. I’m doing the same things with the same results” in an organization with nearly 50 PR employees.
“I don’t miss [journalism],” she says. “Everything has its time and I still get to do everything I love the most.”
John Carlin has been WSLS anchor, Access public relations VP, opened his own PR company The Carlin Agency and then gone back to WSLS. That’s a full circle for one of the most popular anchors in Roanoke TV history. His first gig at WSLS lasted 21 years and there was a gasp when he left for a PR job. But he didn’t do that for a long time, easing his way back into news with “John Carlin’s Virginia” on Fox and then settling back into an anchor chair eventually. “I never really left,” he says, even though “I never intended to come back.”
It was in his blood. “I had never done anything else when Access came to me with an offer of becoming a senior VP. You gotta try it when something like that is offered.” A year later “I was right back involved. I never realized how much I missed it until I took a look at what was important without it. That crystallized when the opportunity to come back to WSLS became available.”
Television news, he says, “is a very stressful business. Anchoring is not so stressful in itself, but the business is.” That stress has intensified “because we’re under more scrutiny … Now, we are everywhere all the time. The pressure is more public. We used to be the people who put others under the microscope. Now we are under the microscope.”
His news day includes half-hour shows at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m. In the future, there’s only going to be more, he says. And that can’t be good for the industry.
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