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Scott Martelle and Brett Levy are the former Los Angeles Times journalists running The Journalism Shop, the new co-op in which they and a selected group of other ex-LAT staffers are offering their services as writers, reporters, editors, designers, consultants and public relations advisers. I told you about their launch a couple of weeks ago, and today they are featured in a Q&A at Poynter Online. Levy says it's been hard to get the attention of potential employers, and Martelle says there are some lessons learned:
Veteran journalists need to realize that the environment in which we built our careers will not return, and we have to focus as individuals on finding roles in this quickly shifting, unscripted play. We have to realize that no institution -- or deep-pockets philanthropist -- is going to come along and save us. We need to get entrepreneurial if we want to stay in journalism, and if we want to be part of figuring out whatever the new journalism might be. That takes a lot of risky, hard work.
The founding group put up $50 each, Martelle says, and there are no plans to expand: "For now we're keeping it to former LA Times people, for marketing reasons...we're wary of diluting the key selling point -- our LA Times experience."