DailyFinance http://www.dailyfinance.com DailyFinance http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.dailyfinance.com/media/feedlogo.gif DailyFinance http://www.dailyfinance.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/White Collar Reset: Kidney for sale? Dozens of readers willing to give it a gohttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/19/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale-dozens-of-readers-willing-t/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/19/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale-dozens-of-readers-willing-t/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/19/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale-dozens-of-readers-willing-t/#commentsFiled under:

I recently wrote about my latest plan for averting financial disaster by selling one of the two vital organs currently processing urine and regulating electrolytes and homeostatic function on each side of my abdomen. After all, in these times, we all need to find ways to cut back. Of course, I wasn't entirely serious about the idea, although by the end of my conversation with Dr. Sally Satel, herself the recipient of a donated kidney and a leading expert on the flaws in the country's organ donor system, I was definitely giving the idea more thought. Satel and I surmised from several recent news events that many more white-collar unemployed might be feeling the same way, if they hadn't hocked a kidney already.

Well, we're no longer surmising. Despite the five-year prison sentence that such a transaction could carry should the authorities catch wind of it, more than two dozen readers wrote in brazenly offering a spare kidney for sale. Prices ranged from $250,000 down to one offer of "$65,000.00 cash! plus all expenses -- I'd hop on the table so fast."

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Kidney for sale? Dozens of readers willing to give it a go

White Collar Reset: Kidney for sale? Dozens of readers willing to give it a go originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>aolin focusInFocuskidneykidneydiseaseunemploymentMark CohenThu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Kidney for sale?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/14/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/14/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/14/white-collar-reset-kidney-for-sale/#commentsFiled under: ,

In my last installment, I entertained the notion of opening a medical marijuana store in the New York City suburb my wife and I call home. This week, while we wait for the New Jersey legislature to finalize the legality of that option and as I begin year two in what is now semi-officially the direst U.S. job market since the Great Depression, I'd like to move on to the next previously taboo plan for recapitalizing our household.

I'm considering selling one of my kidneys.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Kidney for sale?

White Collar Reset: Kidney for sale? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>arlen specterArlenSpecterhome equityHomeEquityin focusInFocuskidneykidney diseasekidney transplantsKidneyDiseaseKidneyTransplantsmarijuanamedical marijuanaMedicalMarijuanaorgan donorsorgan tradeOrganDonorsOrganTradeSally SatelSallySatelsurrogateunemploymentMark CohenSat, 14 Nov 2009 15:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: In the weeds, with any luckhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/26/white-collar-reset-in-the-weeds-with-any-luck/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/26/white-collar-reset-in-the-weeds-with-any-luck/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/26/white-collar-reset-in-the-weeds-with-any-luck/#commentsFiled under: ,

For months now my job coach has been encouraging me to redirect my search from the sclerotic fields of publishing and media to a "growth" industry. I think I've finally found it.

Actually, it was my mother-in-law who came up with the idea. Last week she was talking to her daughter on the phone and, as she's wont to do, asked, "So, has your husband found a job yet?" When my wife emitted her usual "Noooo," her mother responded with uncharacteristic cheerfulness, "Then I've got the perfect job for him. And he can make $20 million a year."

"What is it, drug dealing?"

"Well, yeah."

Continue reading White Collar Reset: In the weeds, with any luck

White Collar Reset: In the weeds, with any luck originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>californiain focusInFocusjon corzineJonCorzinemedical marijuanaMedicalMarijuananew jerseyNewJerseyobamathe grateful deadTheGratefulDeadunemploymentweedsMark CohenMon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Into the frying panhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/14/white-collar-reset-into-the-frying-pan/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/14/white-collar-reset-into-the-frying-pan/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/14/white-collar-reset-into-the-frying-pan/#commentsFiled under: ,

You know things are bad in advertising when the out-of-work creative directors are thinking about switching careers into magazines.

At first, I thought it was a joke, but then the creative director in question assured me that, no, it was one of the options he'd seriously considered as he cast around for what to do next, now that the field he's spent the last 23 years ascending has essentially disappeared out from under him. "I figured, What do I do? I write. I come up with creative ways of communicating ideas. What about magazines?"

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Into the frying pan

White Collar Reset: Into the frying pan originally appeared on DailyFinance on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>advertisingin focusInFocusmagazinesunemploymentwhite collar resetWhiteCollarResetMark CohenWed, 14 Oct 2009 10:30:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Jobs in Oklahoma?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/05/white-collar-reset-oklahoma-okay-despite-recession/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/05/white-collar-reset-oklahoma-okay-despite-recession/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/05/white-collar-reset-oklahoma-okay-despite-recession/#commentsFiled under: , ,

If you need a job, you could do far worse than look in Oklahoma. At a time when the national employment picture remains stubbornly bleak, the state where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains has become a hotbed for wind power, compressed natural gas, health care and all sorts of other growth industries in the sweet spot of the federal stimulus package.

Although the state unemployment rate has doubled in the past year, it still stands at just 6.8 percent, tied for eighth lowest in the nation. The capital, Oklahoma City, a bustling burg of 550,000 with a new NBA franchise and tour boats circling downtown on the new "canal" (actually, it's more of a moat), was recently ranked by the Brookings Institute as the second-most recession-proof city in America, after San Antonio.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Jobs in Oklahoma?

White Collar Reset: Jobs in Oklahoma? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>aerospacecngdust bowlDustBowlhealth careHealthCaremagazinemarriottoklahomaoklahoma cityOklahomaCityrecessionsolar powerSolarPowerstimulusunemploymentwind powerWindPowerMark CohenMon, 05 Oct 2009 10:20:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: The toys for very rich boys club gets a new spinhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/25/white-collar-reset-the-toys-for-very-rich-boys-club-gets-a-new/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/25/white-collar-reset-the-toys-for-very-rich-boys-club-gets-a-new/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/25/white-collar-reset-the-toys-for-very-rich-boys-club-gets-a-new/#commentsFiled under:

If ever a business should be suffering right now, it's Classic Car Club Manhattan. It's one of those concepts that only could have been dreamed up during the vroom-vroom years of the past decade.

For an annual fee of $10,000 to $20,000 or more, bond traders, real estate developers, the occasional celebrity and other big shots in the most car-unfriendly city in America get to drive 47 of the world's most insanely fast and ridiculously expensive automobiles whenever and wherever they want. One weekend it could be tooling down to the Jersey shore in a reproduction 1965 Shelby Cobra, the next, rumbling out to Montauk in a $235,000 Ferrari F430. Because you never know when 490 base horsepower will come in handy in the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Long Island Expressway.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: The toys for very rich boys club gets a new spin

White Collar Reset: The toys for very rich boys club gets a new spin originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bailoutcitigroupclassic carsClassicCarsferrarifinancial sectorFinancialSectorgreat recessionGreatRecessionin focusInFocusluxury carLuxuryCarporscheshelby cobraShelbyCobraMark CohenFri, 25 Sep 2009 12:40:00 ESTOne Year Later: White collar resethttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/17/one-year-later-white-collar-reset/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/17/one-year-later-white-collar-reset/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/17/one-year-later-white-collar-reset/#commentsFiled under: ,

Amid all the Financial Crisis anniversary coverage, many of us will be trying to recall what we were doing this time last year on the week the world broke. I remember exactly what I was doing. I was talking my wife into booking a vacation to California.

When we'd first come up with the idea, the timing had seemed perfect. She'd never been west of the Mississippi and we hadn't taken a real vacation in three years. Besides, I had to go for work anyway -- to help organize a wine-and-private-jets festival my magazine was hosting the weekend before in Napa Valley, and to supervise our Christmas "Gift Guide" photo shoot featuring such stocking stuffers as a $100,000 motorcycle and a private submarine in the shape of a dolphin. "I don't know, maybe we shouldn't go," she said over the phone. "If one or both of us loses our jobs, we'll wish we still had the money."

Continue reading One Year Later: White collar reset

One Year Later: White collar reset originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>barney frankBarneyFrankfinancial crisisFinancialCrisisin focusInFocusmagazinesnancy pelosiNancyPelosione year laterOneYearLaterMark CohenThu, 17 Sep 2009 09:20:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Why aren't we talking about tax credits for new jobs?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/03/white-collar-reset-why-arent-we-talking-about-tax-credits-for/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/03/white-collar-reset-why-arent-we-talking-about-tax-credits-for/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/03/white-collar-reset-why-arent-we-talking-about-tax-credits-for/#commentsFiled under: ,

I'm getting the impression that America would prefer that the 14.5 million of us who are unemployed would just disappear. Most people from the Fed on down apparently have decided that nothing much can be done to improve the unemployment picture in the foreseeable future, so why depress everyone further by spending too much time talking, blogging or commenting on camera about it?

Oh sure, every month when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issues the latest update of its grim count (as it will tomorrow), my fellow jobless and I rise to the top of the news cycle for 24 hours or so, but then pretty quickly it's back to the screaming over health care, happy buyers cashing in their incentives on new cars and first homes and the latest fashion faux paw of Bo the Obama family puppy.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Why aren't we talking about tax credits for new jobs?

White Collar Reset: Why aren't we talking about tax credits for new jobs? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bo obamaBoObamain focusInFocustax creditsTaxCreditsthe sixth senseTheSixthSenseunemploymentMark CohenThu, 03 Sep 2009 16:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Going to markethttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/24/white-collar-reset-going-to-market/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/24/white-collar-reset-going-to-market/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/24/white-collar-reset-going-to-market/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Investors who are furiously trying to divine the future of the economy in the stock and bond markets, the commodities market, the jobs market, the housing and commercial real estate markets may want to read the cabbage leaves in another market: the Rowayton Farmers' Market.

I first got tipped off to its import by a friend who lives in this impossibly cute former fishing village in the heart of southwestern Connecticut's "Gold Coast." Located just 45 miles north of Wall Street, Rowayton has been hit hard by the financial crisis (though perhaps not as hard as neighboring Darien). All along the wooded lanes and footpaths that wind toward the commuter rail station, For Sale and For Rent signs loom in front of new $2 million cedar-shingled mansions. Nowadays, passengers have little trouble finding a seat on the 6:15 A.M. into Grand Central; on the other hand, snagging a choice table in front of the deli down by the docks can require some serious maneuvering with out-of-work i-bankers and ad execs. Unless it's Friday, when everyone just heads to the newly re-branded, repositioned and reinvigorated farmers' market.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Going to market

White Collar Reset: Going to market originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>Adidi SweeneyAdidiSweeneyConnecticutfarmers marketFarmersMarketGreen marketsGreenMarketsin focusInFocusMaggie TrujilloMaggieTrujilloPatrick SweeneyPatrickSweeneyRecessionRegina MatsonReginaMatsonRowaytonMark CohenMon, 24 Aug 2009 14:45:00 EST White Collar Reset: We're not in Kansas anymorehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/18/white-collar-reset-we-re-not-in-kansas-anymore/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/18/white-collar-reset-we-re-not-in-kansas-anymore/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/18/white-collar-reset-we-re-not-in-kansas-anymore/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Last week, I dug out the phone numbers for some old contacts at Cessna, the large Wichita-based private airplane and jet manufacturer. Since Private Air, the magazine I edited, folded six months ago, I hadn't had much occasion to call out to Wichita. I was curious to hear how the people I knew at the Textron (TXT) subsidiary were faring during what has shaped up as the worst downturn in the general aviation industry in 30 years. It didn't long to get my answer.

"You have reached a number that is disconnected ..."

".... If you feel you have reached this number in error, please redial .... "

".... or that is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached ...."

"... please redial the number and try the call again."

Continue reading White Collar Reset: We're not in Kansas anymore

White Collar Reset: We're not in Kansas anymore originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bailoutcessnageneral aviationGeneralAviationoprahprivate jetPrivateJettextronMark CohenTue, 18 Aug 2009 11:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: A crazy idea ... or is it?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/11/white-collar-reset-a-crazy-idea-or-is-it/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/11/white-collar-reset-a-crazy-idea-or-is-it/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/11/white-collar-reset-a-crazy-idea-or-is-it/#commentsFiled under: ,

So I've had a few days to digest the latest job-loss data. Parsed one way and the numbers actually don't seem all that bad. An official rate of 9.4 percent, a .1 improvement over the month before, this could almost be the start of something, no? Of course, then you gnaw into the next couple of data points, and include those who can only find part-time work or have grown too depressed to keep looking, pushing the figure up to 16.3 percent. Or notice how a record 5 million of us have now been out of work six months or longer. And you realize what a fright show we're still dealing with here.

That's why I recently came up with a solution to my own pixel of the unemployment picture that I don't think any other jobless 47-year-old suburban New Jersey magazine editor with two mortgages has considered before: I'm weighing an offer to go to work for a new media start-up. As an unpaid intern.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: A crazy idea ... or is it?

White Collar Reset: A crazy idea ... or is it? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>dan gilbertDanGilbertin focusInFocusinternshiplebron jameslebronjamesmagazinesminority reportMinorityReportstylecaster.comtom cruiseTomCruiseunemploymentMark CohenTue, 11 Aug 2009 13:30:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Only a testhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/27/white-collar-reset-only-a-test/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/27/white-collar-reset-only-a-test/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/27/white-collar-reset-only-a-test/#commentsFiled under: ,

Bloomberg L.P. may be the last bastion of actual, paying journalism jobs in America. At a time of near-universal layoffs and hiring freezes, when even Conde Nast is bringing in consultants to slash payroll, the $25 billion financial news and information juggernaut employs more than 2,200 reporters and editors, hundreds of them in midtown Manhattan just a 30-minute train ride from my house. Every week the company's website advertises dozens of new postings, and not just he phantom kind populating Monster or Media Bistro.

And I had a connection. A former employee had a former boss who had an opening on his team for an editor, and he invited me in for an interview. We hit it off, and I must have done a passable job glossing over the gulf between my extensive general-interest magazine and minimal online financial editing experience because he agreed on the spot to sponsor me for the vacancy, cutting through the usual red tape. After six months spent holed up in my den in suburban New Jersey with little to show for it, this was the break I was looking for. There was only one thing standing between me and a return to financial solvency: the standard Bloomberg writing and editing test.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Only a test

White Collar Reset: Only a test originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>in focusInFocusunemploymentwhite collarWhiteCollarMark CohenMon, 27 Jul 2009 13:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Miles O'Brien, space cowboyhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/15/white-collar-reset-miles-obrien-space-cowboy-run-on-wed-by/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/15/white-collar-reset-miles-obrien-space-cowboy-run-on-wed-by/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/15/white-collar-reset-miles-obrien-space-cowboy-run-on-wed-by/#commentsFiled under: ,

Miles O'Brien was having a bad day. On Monday, the laid-off CNN correspondent and former host of the network's morning show found himself in the anchor chair for the live broadcast of the space shuttle launch over on SpaceFlightNow.com, which wouldn't have been a problem necessarily, except that this was the fifth attempt by the aging spacecraft to get airborne and each time it was costing O'Brien more money. The launch, originally scheduled for June 13, had been postponed ("scrubbed" in space lingo) twice due to mechanical difficulties and then twice more last weekend by thunderstorms. Six hours before each new scheduled launch time, O'Brien and co-anchor David Waters and their production team would reconvene in their makeshift outdoor booth at the Kennedy Space Center and start their count-down show . . . and go another $4,000 to $5,000 into the hole because the sponsors they'd lined up had only staked them to enough of a budget for one broadcast, not five.

Now two more storm cells were approaching, one about 20 miles to the north of the launch pad and another about 10 miles to the south. O'Brien held the weather monitor (actually his laptop, logged onto the National Weather Service's website) on his knee, trying to hold it at such an angle that the show's lone cameraman could zoom in on what O'Brien was pointing at without the view being obscured by sun's glare bouncing off the screen. "Arggh . . . and we just went red. I'm getting word we just went red again," he informed his viewers, using the space jargon for another-five-grand-down-the-tubes.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Miles O'Brien, space cowboy

White Collar Reset: Miles O'Brien, space cowboy originally appeared on DailyFinance on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>cnnmediamiles obrienMilesObrienmoonnasaspace shuttleSpaceShuttleMark CohenWed, 15 Jul 2009 12:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: Oh to be young againhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/13/white-collar-reset-oh-to-be-young-again/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/13/white-collar-reset-oh-to-be-young-again/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/13/white-collar-reset-oh-to-be-young-again/#commentsFiled under: ,

I will say this about the recession: At least it has a sense of humor.

As I mentioned last week, I've taken on some freelance writing assignments to help pay the bills while I continue to try to excavate a second career from beneath the pile-up of 6.5 percent of people over the age of 45 who've lost their jobs in recent months. So wouldn't you know, my very first assignment out of the box was about a society of 200 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs under the age of 30.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: Oh to be young again

White Collar Reset: Oh to be young again originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>magazinesonline videoOnlineVideosummit seriesSummitSeriesunemploymentMark CohenMon, 13 Jul 2009 12:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: You know it's bad when even the robots are out of workhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/07/white-collar-reset-you-know-its-bad-when-even-the-robots-are-o/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/07/white-collar-reset-you-know-its-bad-when-even-the-robots-are-o/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/07/white-collar-reset-you-know-its-bad-when-even-the-robots-are-o/#commentsFiled under: ,

To stem the tide of red ink around our household while I keep looking for a job, I recently picked up some magazine writing assignments, and one of them took me to Detroit, which is perhaps the one town, outside Port Au Prince, that could make me feel flush these days. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment in the greater Detroit metropolitan area reached a staggering 14.9 percent in May. Almost everyone you meet is out of work or has someone in the household who is.

Save for maybe health care and fast food, no sector of the Detroit economy has been spared. Driving in from the airport, you cruise down broad boulevards past gracious brick four- and five-bedroom homes, and every other one is boarded up with weeds sprouting from the front walk. The scene reminds me of New Orleans after Katrina, although I'm not sure that in terms of future prospects and the prevailing sense of doom that hangs over the place, Detroit doesn't have it worse.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: You know it's bad when even the robots are out of work

White Collar Reset: You know it's bad when even the robots are out of work originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>autoworkersbattlestar galacticaBattlestarGalacticabig 3 automakersBig3Automakerscylonsdetroitin focusInFocusrobotrobotsunemploymentMark CohenTue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: What's next for What'sNext.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/26/white-collar-reset-whats-next-for-whatsnext-com/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/26/white-collar-reset-whats-next-for-whatsnext-com/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/26/white-collar-reset-whats-next-for-whatsnext-com/#commentsFiled under: , ,

I first learned about What's Next? in 2006 when it offered me what I thought at the time would be my next job. I was working as an editor at a national men's magazine and, having survived several regime changes that had put all but a handful of my peers out on the street, I liked the symmetry of joining a magazine devoted to helping people like me figure out their second acts. What's Next asked me to just hold off giving notice until it finalized the contract with the major media company that had agreed to pony up the $4 million (on top of the $750,000 it had already raised) that would bankroll the venture. "Don't worry, it's just a formality," they said.

When the deal fell apart, I was disappointed, but not as disappointed as the three veteran former publishing industry executives who had devoted the previous 24 months of their life to getting the project off the ground. One of whom, it turned out, was my neighbor.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: What's next for What'sNext.com

White Collar Reset: What's next for What'sNext.com originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>career changeCareerChangemagazinemediateach for americaTeachForAmericaunemploymentMark CohenFri, 26 Jun 2009 14:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: The literary road not takenhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/23/white-collar-reset-the-literary-road-not-taken/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/23/white-collar-reset-the-literary-road-not-taken/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/23/white-collar-reset-the-literary-road-not-taken/#commentsFiled under: ,

The year was 1992, the Internet was just emerging from the cloistered servers of academia into the world wide web, and I made what now seems a fateful decision to accept a $2,500 salary hike and switch from writing full-time to being an editor for Baltimore magazine. That summer, a talented young staffer for The Washingtonian named Hampton Sides made the opposite decision, quitting to become a freelance writer. In one of the first stories I ever assigned, I had him spend a weekend reporting on a summer-share house of oversexed yuppies in Dewey Beach, Delaware. The piece was so bawdy, our publisher almost had it killed, and Hampton and I struck up a working friendship.

He soon moved west and settled in Santa Fe, eventually becoming one of the most successful literary nonfiction authors of our generation. His Ghost Soldiers, about the rescue of the Bataan Death March survivors, sold more than 1 million copies and was made into a movie starring James Franco. Blood and Thunder, about Kit Carson and the conquest of the American West, was named one of the top 10 books of the year by Time. Now he's working on a book about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the manhunt for James Earl Ray that is also the basis for an upcoming documentary on PBS's The American Experience.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: The literary road not taken

White Collar Reset: The literary road not taken originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>Mark CohenTue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: The two-minute pitchhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/16/white-collar-reset-the-two-minute-pitch/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/16/white-collar-reset-the-two-minute-pitch/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/16/white-collar-reset-the-two-minute-pitch/#commentsFiled under: ,

So it's come to this. Eight months into my job search, eight months of clinging to my old magazine journalism career like an alcoholic clutching his last Scotch, I arrive at the weekly Penn Station Meeting of The Five O'Clock Club seeking absolution and a new life. The Club, one of the country's largest executive and professional job coaching firms (in addition to three physical branches in New York City, it holds eight teleconference branches in the Eastern and Central time zones each week), reports that of the 17,000 people it's helped over the past decade, 58 percent change careers. Given the woeful state of my former industry, the statistic provides a kind of anxious hope on the same week the stock market has shrugged off news that continuing jobless claims have now reached the highest level since the statistic was first recorded, in 1967.

The meeting is held every Wednesday evening in a large fifth-floor conference room directly across Seventh Avenue from the station. The crowd of fifty includes a handful of men in their twenties, a smattering of African-American, Asian and Hispanic women, and a lot of white, middle-aged males, the 21st century's answer to The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit. Looking around the room, I count 13 (sorry, make that 14) bald or balding heads. The smell of Old Spice and stale coffee fills the air.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: The two-minute pitch

White Collar Reset: The two-minute pitch originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>in focusInFocusunemploymentwhite collar resetWhiteCollarResetMark CohenTue, 16 Jun 2009 11:30:00 ESTWhite Collar Reset: A magazine editor loses his livelihoodhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/12/white-collar-reset-a-magazine-editor-loses-his-livelihood/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/12/white-collar-reset-a-magazine-editor-loses-his-livelihood/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/06/12/white-collar-reset-a-magazine-editor-loses-his-livelihood/#commentsFiled under: ,

Reading about the salary-cut standoff at The Boston Globe this week made me nostalgic for a time, way back at the beginning of the recession, when I, too, had a salary worth fighting over. The Newspaper Guild rejected a proposal by the parent New York Times Company (NYT) that would have effectively cut wages by about 10 percent, a move that caused management to unilaterally impose a 23 percent cut. One reporter who said she had voted for the original plan, commented, "I can't afford to gamble with a fourth of my pay. How am I going to pay my mortgage?" To which my reaction was: Just wait.

It was just about eight months ago that the parent company of the magazine where I was the editor-in-chief cut my salary by 50 percent. As with the Globe, the across-the-board measure was part of a desperate, last-ditch effort to stanch the flow of red ink, although in our case it was said to be "temporary," which proved to be true in a sense. Three months later, the company declared bankruptcy, and I officially joined the thousands of magazine journalists now out of work in New York City.

Continue reading White Collar Reset: A magazine editor loses his livelihood

White Collar Reset: A magazine editor loses his livelihood originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>AOLboston globeBostonGlobeeditormagazinesthe new york timesTheNewYorkTimestime-warnerunemploymentMark CohenFri, 12 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST