Enough about you, let's talk about me

Some of you may be noticing that I seem to be doing a lot more posting these days and that you're learning more than you ever wanted to know about the minutiae of my life and then, again maybe not. But just so you know this is all a part of a concerted effort on my part to create a brand, as such concepts are called in corporatese.

I am a journalist and, as has been widely disseminated, newspapers are imploding. The fact that they aren't the cash cows the moguls had come to expect, as they cleaned up in advertising revenue and posted massive profit margins, has caused considerable angst and upheaval in the industry. Ultimately, I believe this is for the best. Newspapers will get smaller and, with any luck, rededicate themselves to the actual gathering and disbursing of information. And the Sam Zells of the world will be vomited out to take their retched brand of capitalism to some other industry.

Most newspapers have forgotten that the whole point of the enterprise is to be the watchdog of our society. We try to tell the stories that provide insight and understanding of the increasingly baffling world. Most journalists I know are truly dedicated to free speech and the fourth estate. The whole "media bias" and "media conspiracy" things are just laughable for most day-to-day journalists.

While I'm not so naive to believe that deals are brokered behind closed doors -- I remember the very first job I had at a newspaper when a reporter had some water treatment leads that would expose some questionable practices, he was explicitly told to back off because the water district superintendent was a friend of the publisher -- overall journalists live for the stories they tell, trying to be as fair and honest in that telling as they can possibly be. As with all endeavors, there are those who do a better job than others. There are those who have more scruples than others.

But in this new wild and woolly age, one thing seems clear, each of us is in it for ourselves and that means that in addition to gathering facts and chasing down leads, we need to be promoting ourselves and our work. Up to now, I've never been very good at self-promotion, but now I'm giving it a whirl.

My goal is to try to create a reputation for being able to write good, well-written, fair and accurate stories. I'm not terribly picky about the focus of the stories, just as long as they're good and compelling. If I can write about my favorite topics, one of which is food, or do some good by bringing attention to an issue that needs support, such as the stand-down for homeless veterans, which I recently wrote about, then so much the better.

To build this reputation, I feel it's important to do what I love to do, which is write, and to take advantage of the new world of social media, which is heavily dependent on the written word.

So when you see my big blueberry face, yet again, in your news stream prattling on about some meal or some cute thing the dogs did, try not to roll your eyes, and resist the temptation to hide me from your feed. And if you have any ideas for good stories, I'd love to hear them.

So now do you get the photo I used with this entry, throw me a bone? Get it? Cause I want people to give me writing jobs? Get it?)