Last week, Food52 co-founder Amanda Hesser wrote a blog post about the future of food journalism. And everyone flipped out. New York Times Atlanta bureau chief Kim Severson tweeted “Today’s Buzzkill Award goes to . . . @amandahesser, who argues that food writing as a career is dead” and CHOW’s John Birdsall called Hesser the “Internet’s Debbie Downer on Tuesday.”
Honestly, I don’t get what everyone is so upset about. For starters, no one gets into food writing for the money. On my first day of Journalism 111 my professor warned us that, if we ever wanted a six-figure salary, we should drop the class and transfer to the business school. Seriously. Secondly, Hesser never says that food writing is dead. Just that it’s changed from the days of expense accounts and travel budgets. Maybe it’s the naïve optimist in me but….so? I think this is one of the more exciting times to be a journalist precisely because everything is so different.
My dad and I have had many a heated debate conversation about digital journalism. He always argues that there will never be a Bob Woodward of the Internet. To that, I say the Huffington Post’s senior military correspondent David Wood just won a Pulitzer. As PaidContent’s Staci Kramer wrote, it’s the work, not the medium, that’s the message.
So do as Hesser says and diversify your talents. Blogging about working at Stone Barns and freelancing on the side might not be what you had in mind when you decided to become a food writer but journalism is changing and so too should your career path. Keep calm and write on, fellow writers. Write on.
P.S. It just occurred to me that, perhaps if I had submitted this blog post instead of my personal essay, I might have actually gotten in to Columbia. Oh well, Hesser says to skip journalism school anyway. Happy Friday, everyone!
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